Date: 2013-03-29
From: Laughing Heart Hostel

To: Johnson City, TN residence
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: clear sky

(In which I head up to my first dance weekend on the Trail)I sleep well without freezing weather or noisy shelter neighbors, and I get up early to continue writing. I decide to check out the nearby Smoky Mountain Diner for breakfast. First I walk across town to the laundromat to put in my wash. For the wandering about town, I have fashioned a daypack / camera sling out of my lens bag and the piece of parachute cord that is my camera strap. The lens bag hangs over my shoulder and my camera remains at my side. I use my backpack's rain cover as the bag for my laundry. After laundry is started I head back across town to the diner. Here I find Chickadee and Roosta at the unofficial hiker table. Many folks were there before I arrived, and while I wait for my breakfast skillet they get back to town. I heard Chickadee had injured her ankles on the long day into town, and thought she was going home to recover. Instead she is staying in town for a few days, and her father had merely visited yesterday. After they leave I get my impressive breakfast and start working on it. Pappy and AJ show up while I am eating and get their own table. It seems uncommon for the older folks to hang closely around the younger folks, with Grrrr being the exception I have seen so far. The age groups interact just fine, but when there is the option to separate when in town they seem to usually make that choice. Dahigh, now going by Crush, joins me. His trail name changed on a long day in the Smokies. Someone asked him how far was going, and he said he was simply going to crush miles.I blame last night's potluck dinner and major carb-loading for my inability to finish breakfast, though it is a nice thought that I ate all I could and there was still some left. I pay for my meal and then move on over to the laundromat to move my clothes to the dryer. All the dryers are full so I linger for a while. AJ and Pappy pass through to deal with their laundry. A bit later I meet Ambassador for the first time. Ambassador is the third DSLR-carrying thru-hiker I have encountered, carrying a D7000 and 18-105mm lens. He is one of a group of three folks I recently heard about that are doing documentary along the Trail. We chat about cameras and our hiking experiences thus far while waiting for laundry.Somewhat later, I meet the other two in that party. I rather bluntly ask if they are the two doing documentary when I spot a couple tripods lashed to their packs. Lil' Engine and Timber are recently married and are planning to thru-hike with a heavy focus on storytelling. I am very interested in all such journalistic hikes, as folks in the same general group as me can wind up with completely different experiences by passing through an area just a day or even a few hours before or after I am there. I collect their website - www.hitchedhike.com - before moving on to further tasks for the day.I had planned to hike the six miles from Hot Springs to where the AT crosses Routes 25/70 again, but think it is too late to do that now. I have coordinated with someone who will pick me up at 1630 for the Appalachian Spring dance weekend up in Elk Park, and I don't want to risk getting back to town late. I bring my laundry back up to the hostel and get packed before I set off in search of ice cream. I run into the documentary folks again in the Dollar General, and then find Slapp and company. I don't find pints of ice cream, nor do I find the appetite to tackle a half gallon. The Hillbilly Market has cheap pints, so I secure cookies and cream ice cream there.I return to the hostel to eat my ice cream. Biscuits 'n Gravy, Robbie, and Kenzie are there. I learn that Robbie now goes by Chinstrap on account of his hat. Kenzie goes by 12-Ounce on account of repeatedly saying "12-ounce pizza" instead of "12-inch pizza." I feel a little bad eating a pint of ice cream when they don't have any ice cream. Maybe they already had ice cream, and there will be times that others have ice cream but I have none. They decide to put on a movie, and while they figure that out I go outside to interact with the folks there Slapp and some others from his group are hanging around with the other hostel caretaker, Chuck. Chuck is an '07 hiker, so named for his likeness to Chuck Norris. In telling Chuck about my exploits thus far, he gives me a new term to describe myself with - thorough-hiker. Not only am I trying to walk the AT from Springer to Katahdin, but I am also making plenty of trips to whatever is near the Trail. I like this term.Heading to Appalachian SpringI return inside to see what is happening. The folks in here have resolved to watch The Way, a 2012 film set on the Camino de Santiago trail in northern Spain. I hang out in here half watching the film and half working on writing and enjoying access to the internet. My ride to Elk Park shows up right on time, and I load my pack into the back of her old Jeep. We depart northbound for Elk Park, talking about dancing and hiking for a good portion of the way. In about 90 minutes we reach the dance venue - the historic Cranberry High School.This is Warren Doyle's dance event. I met him first a couple weeks before I left for Atlanta. He has plenty of experience both on the Appalachian Trail and in the contra dance community - he has thru-hiked the Appalachian Trail at least 16 times, and is a dance caller up and down the east coast. When we met at a dance weekend in New York, I was in the process of mapping all the dances near the Trail. He updated me on many dances that escaped my notice, and confirmed that some I could find no online presence for no longer existed. We catch up briefly here, but I don't have to add too much as he has been checking my writing on trailjournals. He mentions that rough winters on the AT like this winter seem to come along once every four years.Dance weekends are great fun for drawing skilled dancers from farther flung places than local dances. This weekend doesn't bring in anybody too far away, at least as far as the folks I get a chance to interact with. There are some folks that attend the dances I have passed, though not too many of those as I have only gone to three contra dances before this one. There are some folks that are local to dances I may attend further up the Trail, and I make it a point to exchange contact information with these folks before I leave. Dancing starts at 2000 tonight, and it is refreshing but also very tiring. I am used to going to sleep when it gets dark, so dancing until late at night is a struggle.I get ready to go to sleep at 2230, well before the dancing ends. My hammock is pitched between the best pair of trees outside, but it is not an ideal setup. One of the folks I knew before this dance mentions that they are staying with someone who has four guest bedrooms. They suggest I could stay there too, and this is confirmed with their host, Brad. I change my plan and stay to the end of the dance, packing up most things but leave my hammock set up. It should be fine here, tucked away out of sight from most except the present dancers. I pile into a car with the four other folks spending the night here - Rob, Kristin, Karin, and Jen.We arrive at the house near Johnson City, TN, and get situated here. I take the futon, the first visible bed, so I can get unpacked and go to sleep immediately. It has been over two hours since I took a PM aspirin in preparation for sleeping in my hammock, and I am ready to go right to sleep.Peace,