Date: 2014-05-02
From: Roanoke part 2

To: Buchanan
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: few clouds

The Homestead, the Slack Pack and the Kindergarden CopWhen the rains finally ceased the party at Whiskey Ridge, hosted by the wonderful and welcoming Day family, was over. We sadly packed up our things with heavy hearts, feeling as though there would be nothing to look forward to at the end of the day... Until we realized that if we were willing to go 18 miles we could have dinner at the Home Place, a southern family style all you can eat restaurant in Catawba. "All You Can Eat" perks up any hiker's ears and we quickly decided that it was well worth the push. We told our plan to the Days and they offered to meet us close to the restaurant and have dinner with us. A few of Prom Queen's high school friends, too, wanted to catch up with her before she left town- so they decided to meet us there too. We suddenly had a party to be excited about. It was a beautiful day after the rain and everything was lush and green and in full bloom. Our route took us over Dragon's Tooth and down through rocky crags that required some light bouldering with packs on. I fell behind the group for the hike up, but the solitude after two days of constant company at Whiskey Ridge was a welcome change. We met up again close to the top and hiked down as a group. The Days met us at the next road crossing and we chucked our packs into the back of Mike's pickup, piled into Carolyn's suburban and got carted over to the restaurant. The place was packed. We ended up with a group of 12 and had to wait a half hour for a table, but boy was it worth it! We had constantly refilled plates of fried chicken, roast beef, BBQ, mashed potatoes, coleslaw, green beans, biscuits, applebutter, gravy, baked beans, and probably some other things that I'm forgetting. We washed the whole mess down with cherry cobbler and ice cream. I could hardly walk by the end. I think I ate an entire chicken on my own. The original plan was for us to continue on after dinner and hike 4 more miles to the next shelter. Ha! We were over ambitious. We ended up piling back into the Carolyn's suburban and heading back to Whiskey Ridge for another night of comfortable sleeping arrangements.We got dropped back at our road crossing the next morning to head towards McAfee's Knob. Carolyn took the day off from work and hiked the knob with us, as did Prom Queen's best friend, Desir©. It was a fun hike. The group was lively and full of energy... Especially because Desir© had agreed to drive our packs to Daleville, 24 miles north where we could pick them up that night! Slack packing rocks! I felt like I was going to float away. The hike up felt to easy that I practically skipped on a few sections as we went up. McAfee's Knob is one of the most photographed places in the AT. It is almost the 11th commandment that hikers get their picture taken right next to the ledge. I refrained from dangling my feet over the edge. The thought of doing so gave me the willies. After lots of pictures and a long snack break we gave hugs to Carolyn and Desere and said our thank you's and headed on north to pass the beauties of Tinker Cliffs (one of my favorite views in this trip so far) and Carven Cove, and head into Daleville. It was a long day even without packs and we were tired by the time we hit town. Prom Queen's dad lives in Daleville and he and Desir© met us close to the trail. We gathered our packs and went back to his house for showers and pizza! We'd made the 24 mile trek in less than 10 hours an we decided we should celebrate. We got dolled up in our finest/cleanest clothes and headed into Roanoke to go bar hopping. Now, we're a fine looking bunch at almost any given moment, between the greasy hair, dirty fingernails and weird sweat stains, but we're a particularly good looking group with Kilt-Boy (Wingin' It), See-Through-Backpack-Man (Geared Up), Mountain-Man-Beard (Kristo), Wears-Her-Puffy-Jacket-Socks-And-Tevas-Together (me) and Prom Queen... She actually looks normal. Yeah. We get lots of attention.We stayed out late and drank... A lot. And ended up crashing at Prom Queen's sister's house at 3 o'clock in the morning. I'll be honest. The evening is a little blurry to me. I know there was karaoke and an arm wrestling match, and somewhere at the end there was an almost bar fight... But the order and the causes of each event blend into the background of a truly enjoyable evening. I woke up the next morning with regret pounding a slow hammer across my cerebral cortex and the realization that I was supposed to hike that day. Prom Queen dropped us off back in the heart of Daleville and I shuffled off in a hangover haze to the post office to collect my bounce box and resupply. Prom Queen was going to stay an extra day in Daleville, so she went back to her dad's place and the boys moved in a stilted fashion towards the closest, greasiest fast food joint: Bojangles.They waved me off belligerently when I asked if they were going to hit the trail soon and I set off alone. It was hot. But the silver lining was I was sweating off the last of the Jameson more quickly. At the first shelter I found Dinosaur, a German girl I had met at Woods Hole Hostel, and we decided to hike together. She had just separated from her group too and we both needed a little incentive to get going in the heat. It was a pretty pleasant hike, all things considered. We didn't talk too much because between my hangover and Dino's accent conversation usually entailed my asking her to repeat herself. We made good time and hit the next shelter in time to catch Moxie on his way out. We exchanged hugs and I promised to meet him one shelter up for the night. In case I haven't told you about Moxie before I should mention that I love him. He's amongst the nicest individuals I will ever meet. He's 26, starting med school in Maine in the Fall and hikes with a small hiker guitar that he plays every night. He's sincere and kind and a sweetheart- the kind of fellow you wish had been your big brother, because he would probably have let you play with his Legos and shared his Cadbury Eggs... (Not a dig, Eric. You rock as a big brother too... Even if you hoarded both the Legos and the Cadbury eggs). But seriously. He's naturally generous and kind. He's going to make a terrific doctor. Once Moxie left I looked around at the other people congregated at the shelter and was greeted by a particular new face: someone I had wanted to meet for a while... Midnight Sparkle. Now I have been trailing this name in the shelter registers for weeks. It always reads the same thing: "...wait for it... Midnight Sparkle." Now with a name like that what would you expect?A woman right? Perhaps with an air of Vegas about her. Platinum blond hair? A bit of pizzazz?Nope. Totally a dude. An ex- military dude to boot. He's a character. But I suppose he'd have to be with a name like that. He and Dino were friends already and they quickly caught up after I shelved my surprise. He asked if he could join us and we headed out again. We had hardly gone 4 miles and were taking a short stop at an overlook on the Blue Ridge Parkway when a white pickup came flying towards us honking. As I peered in the front windows I saw Geared Up and Wingin' It scrunched in the cab waving at me furiously and Kristo grinning in the pickup bed. Kindergarden Cop, a friend of Geared Up's, that he'd met while hiking the PCT, lives right next to the trail and had set up his house as a temporary hiker hostel. They had driven the Parkway in hopes of finding me to invite me back. The boys hadn't even touched the trail all day. They had called from Daleville and gotten picked up about the point I was hitting my 12 mile mark. Twerps. I said yes to the offer without hesitation... And so did Dino and Sparkle and we all climbed into the back with our packs. We zipped off and almost immediately bumped into Moxie. With very little arm twisting he hopped in too.And so we all set off for another evening of pampering. He fed us the best darned ribs I have ever eaten, entertained us with stories from the PCT and his time as a cop with the LAPD, and overall just treated us like family. And that is the story of how I spent almost a week on the AT without staying in a hostel, shelter or tent. Seriously. 4 nights at Whiskey Ridge, a night at Prom Queen's sister's and a night at Kindergarden Cop's. 6 nights. I tell you, I'm living the rough life.