Date: 2014-05-24
From: Lambert's Meadow Campsite

To: Howard Johnson Express, Daleville, VA
Miles today: 9.1
Weather: few clouds

It was sooo hard to wake up early the this morning. I lingered in the tent until 8 a.m. when Squirrel voice from outside the tent noted she was ready to head out. Today we were all going into Daleville for the night! Ah, yes, a bed with real sheets, a hot shower, and town food! Ok, I'll get up for all that! Squirrel and Zima scurried off down the trail with great excitement about getting into town. They had shopping to do, new shoes and a new sleeping bag where needed.I hadn't seen our campsite in the light, so after climbing out of the tent, investigation of our surroundings showed this was a great place to camp. Ok, Squirrel! It was worth the extra hike in the dark, you were right! We all ate breakfast, resupplied water, did all the morning chores, and set out by 9:30 a.m. It was a nice hike with relatively little elevation changes and very few rocks. As is the occasional way of nature, about 2 hours into our 9 mile hike for the day, nature called and I had the privilege of having to find a spot along the trail to take care of business. Certainly no privy in sight and no hopes of getting into town in time.... I just hate when this happens!!! I did my normal walk as long as I can, then drop my pack fast on the side of the trail, run off into the brush with toilet paper in tow, and duck behind the biggest bush I can find. Only this year, I now had two dogs in tow behind me into the bush. Voi! Voi! So glad no one was around to see all the humor in this embarrassing plot!We finally stepped out of the woods sometime mid-afternoon, grabbing a cold Diet Pepsi from the first gas station I passed. Then we headed off to the Howard Johnson Express where we'd parked our mini-van. We all climbed in and based on a text message we'd gotten from Squirrel, we headed off to the mall to pick her and Zima up with their new shoes and sleeping bag. It was an extremely awkward feeling going from walking 1.5-2 miles per hour to driving with hiking boots on in what now seemed liked really fast traffic! Everyone slow down, ok? Oh yeah, left turn signal, left turn lane, wait for light. Oopppss, hit the brake way too hard, sorry guys.We checked into the Howard Johnson, cleaned up the hikers, rifled through mail drops, repacked backpacks and made a list of items we needed from the grocery store. Then we headed off to the grocery store, so many bright lights and noise . Leaving the pups at the motel, Squirrel and I headed to Pizza Hut and ordered enough food for 4 people, but were only able to eat enough for two. LOL. With the TV playing news and weather in the background and tick check complete, final backpack re-packing, journaling, phone calls, and WiFi activities consumed our time until lights out. Ah!!! Real sheets!Jack-Jack foot injury update. No matter how hard I tried, Jack-Jack would not let me put a boot or vet wrap on his wound. Based on it starting to look a bit pussy, I sent a text off to Sue K. asking her what she thought. I had purchased a new tube of Neosporin at the grocery store and we agreed I should just keep putting that on and keep it as clean as possible. He wasn't limping on it or licking it much at night so we were cleared to head out the next morning.