Date: 2003-05-16
From: Damascus

To: Damascus 
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: light rain

Trail Days was in full gear! Part of Damascus was converted to a fairgrounds area with lots of vendors, equipment reps, food booths, and games. One booth was a ping pong toss to win a bunny. Some hikers played and won - we saw them wandering around clutching their bunnies. They joked about holding on to their next meal, but we heard they gave the rabbits to some local kids (42 the veggie really hopes that's true).Got to do a bit of shopping (usually there's no point because we have to carry everything with us and we don't want the extra weight). 42 bought a cotton town dress -- everything we wear on the trail is synthetic, so the cotton dress feels heavenly! And we send the dress to ourselves in what we call a "bounce box" so it's no extra weight in our packs. Moo found the perfect hiking wedding band (we left our real ones at home for safe keeping) -- it's a silver band with feet running across the middle of it. We took advantage of all the food vendors and ate curly fries and pizza and falafel while we listened to music, then we walked around. Although 42 was wearing her new town dress, she must have still looked like a hiker (must have been the bright red Waldies (shoes) she was wearing) because she was stopped by several non-hikers who were curious about 2 things in particular: 1) why are there so many male hikers wearing skirts? and 2) are those shoes (Waldies) comfortable? We attended a boot clinic where we learned that our feet take thousands of steps in a hostile environment. It was a bit over the top but got us to sign up for a more intense foot examination later in the weekend.   After hanging around the fairgrounds all day, we went to the Sidetrack Cafe to hear some music. 42 left Moo there and had a great conversation with Mom & Harvey. She then went back to Tent City, where she met up with a bunch of people (Pipes, Windtalker & crew) to watch the eclipse -- not just regular lunar eclipse but one during a full moon, very neat. Tent City was filled with tons of hikers basking in the moonlight, all looking up at the eclipse, a great sight. 42 broke out the cookie care packages she had received in the mail(thank you Ethan & Amy, Frankie & Jay!) and they were all gone in 5 minutes flat (when Moo got back later he was bummed because he only got to try a couple of cookies before they were all gone, but hey, you stay to listen to music & drink beer and blow off eclipse watching, you lose...it's a tough hiking world). While we were eclipse watching, all of a sudden 2 Speeds was running around tent city butt naked, saying "I thought it was watch-the-eclipse-naked night!" If it was, he was the only one doing it. Then Dimple Rock, Wrong Way & Foxie showed up, very excited about a "plan" they had -- a Moo-type of plan where we'd all get a suite at a nice hotel and enjoy the luxury for a bit. It sounded great, but believe it or not, we opted out because we wanted to experience Trail Days in the thick of things. Meanwhile, Moo was enjoying a concert by Loser at the Sidetrack Cafe. Sleepy Floyd showed up and whisked him back to Tent City. After stopping by where 42 was and realizing all the cookies were gone, they went over to the "Soft Porn Palace" where Farmer and Peanut were making and selling grilled cheese for $1.00 -- they were trying to raise money to get home (read: beer money for Trail Days). Moo then wandered over to a drum circle, then stumbled home to the tent.