Date: 2007-05-19
From: Damascus, VA

To: Damasvus, VA
Miles today: 0.0

Trail Days; my second Zero day in Damascus. After breakfast I walked to MoJoe's and spent a little over an hour on their computer copying all my photos onto my thumb drive as a backup, and selecting photos to upload to my journal. Unfortunately, they have dial up internet access and it took nearly 20 minutes to upload a single photo to my journal, so I gave up onit and went in search of another computer. At he library they were limiting hikers to no more than a half hour each and the machine I was assigned to had no USB port so I did a few odds and ends on my journal and left.After doing my laundry it was time to get in line for free hotdogs at Sundog Outfitters and form up for the hikers parade. The parade started at 2.00 and I signed my name on the 2007 banner, along with many other thru-hikers.The town of Damascus put on quite a parade. Lead my a Sherriff's Dept honor guard and followed closely by a mounted horse patrol and several antique cars; the entire fire and police departments and all their equipment were also there. The local Food Lion supermarket had a unique vehicle in the parade. It was a large motorized shopping cart that stood about 10 feet tall and had room for about half a dozen riders plus the driver in the cart. There was also a parade queen and the local high school marching band.Following all this were the thru-hiker sections, each class of hikers behind their own year's banner. I joined the 2007 section which contained about 300 hikers. The parade route was about 1.5 miles long and made a square from Sundog outfitters to the full length of the main street, across the bridge and finishing at the town park. The tradition is for the entire route of the patade to be lined with spectators who throw water balloons at the hikers, and foe the hikers in the parade to throw balloons back and at the other hiker year sections. So the parade quickly degenerates into a several mile long running water fight. No one survives the parade dry, walkers or spectators.After the parade their was a hiker talent show in thw town park with some great prizes for the winners. Their were about a dozen contestants doing mostly musical routines that were quite entertaining. Of course their were also lots of vendors selling eats and drinks and t-shirts and other trail days trinkets. It was qyitte a show.At 5.00 PM I went back to The Place, loaded my pack and walked over to Tent City to the Osprey booth. It tuened out that all the folks working yhe booth were from their Cortez store and we knew a number of folks in common., icluding the guy at Backcountry Outfitters who fitted me for my pack. I had broughr my pck in to have them lookat the fit and see if they could adjust it a little better. Sam looked at my pack, measured my torso and decided I really should have a medium pack instead of the large I was carrying. So I loaded all my gear into the only remaining medium pack he had and checked the fit - much better, so he exchanged it for mine! He even molded the new hip belt for me! Sam was great to me and I really appreciated his service and individual attention and reaffirmed why I prefer to buy Osprey packs. Som i'm leaving Damascus with a brand new pack, but most importantly one that fits me a bit better.After dinner I hunted around town again for a computer terminal, without success. While walking down main I recognized Social and Dandylion, a husband and wife team of 2006 thru-hikers who I had followed on Trail Journals all last summer and fall. They were in town from Memphis, TN for Trail Days and a reunion of Team Late Start. I visited with them and three other members of the team for nearly an hour. It was great to meet the folks whose journal I had been reading every few days for half a year. They were very friendly and quick to share their experiences and advice as well as offer to help in any way if they could. They were genuine folks whose company I greatly enjoyed and whose encouragement I greatly appreciated and will treasure as I journey northward.What a neat town, and what a great festival!