Date: 2009-04-18
From: Hot Springs, NC

To: Hot Springs, NC
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: overcast clouds

Sorry that my journal entries are so late in getting to you. I have no cell or email service here in Hot Springs, so cannot get them to Mark to post. I will leave my phone on as I walk up the mountain tomorrow and hopefully they will get sent to him. I would also like to thank everybody who has emailed me. Contact from family and friends makes my day and helps me if I'm feeling a little blue. What a wonderful nights rest! Exactly what I needed. I have been going back and forth on whether to take a zero (hike no miles) today. I wanted to, but was thinking of not taking one to try to get ahead of the huge horde of hikers that are with me. I've been trying to do this for some time, but with no luck. I've decided to do what I think is best for me overall and take a zero. My body is not sore and I have no blisters, but it feels tired. My legs feel exhausted. My arms even feel tired as they have been working extra hard with my hiking poles in the mud. The hiking poles have saved me so many times from eating dirt it isn't even funny. I'm so glad that I have them. The balls of feet still hurt some and my right Achilles tendon, but I have no idea what to do for them. I feel pretty lucky in the aches and pains department compared to some of the other hikers. I went to the outfitters to mail a package home and I saw Iron Man. He told me that Infinity left the trail this morning for good. I thought he was joking as she was the last person I thought would leave. A friend of hers came in as a surprise last night and she decided to go home, because she is missing her family especially her grand kids too much. I could tell that Iron Man was really saddened from this news as was I. They have been hiking around each other from the beginning. From the short time I've known her, she seemed liked a great person and I would have liked to have gotten to know her better. The hikers are mostly young and it is nice to find older people that walk as many miles a day as I do to spend time with each night. Since Infinity left, Iron Man decided to hike out today. I hope I see him again down the trail. I will look for his entries in the shelter journals and hopefully catch-up to him sometime. I went to the spa today for the mineral water soak that the town is known for. Basically a hot tub filled from the hot springs found here. It felt so good especially on my feet. I let the jets beat on my feet for the whole hour. And my feet are clean! It is supposed to rain for the next couple of days, so that won't last. Ha. Whenever I come to town the balls of my feet swell. It is weird walking in the morning with fat feet. The swelling goes down once I get moving. They don't swell like that when I'm out on the trail. I stuff my hiking clothes in a stuff sack and put them at the bottom of my sleeping bag. This allows me to put on warm clothes in the morning and I tend to prop my smelly feet on them at night which probably keeps them from swelling. Maybe I should start propping them up in town as well. The rest of the day was spent being lazy in one of the hammocks here on the property. I answered emails, talked to people that walked by, wrote in my journal, talked to Mark the Fabulous and was just basically lazy. Great day!I will be heading out early tomorrow because as always the trail out of town is going up for a couple thousand feet. It is supposed to rain with thunderstorms starting in the late afternoon. The first shelter is eleven miles down the trail and I'd like to try to get a spot with the pending thunderstorms. I think it is a small shelter, but I'd at least like to be close if the storm is crazy. I really enjoyed my time in Hot Springs and at the Mountain Magnolia Inn. The people were awesome and made me feel welcome and at home. I do wish that I would have had cell and email service on my phone, but the inn had a courtesy phone that I used to call Mark. No phones or TVs in the rooms as this is a bed and breakfast. I didn't miss the TV at all. I did have a gas fireplace in my room which made it nice and cozy in the evenings. Well, time to hit the bed and enjoy another night not sleeping in a sleeping bag. Ha.