Date: 2010-05-17
From: Damascus

To: Atkins
Miles today: 2.7
Weather: light rain

We packed up our gear and made one last trip to SunDog for canister fuel. We also swung by MoJoe's for coffee and another round of their hiker breakfast, before returning to The Place and reuniting with Funky and Cosmic. As we were loading up the Forester, hiker "Sticker" walked passed and under his breath said "hi foulmounth" to Funky, earning him a deserved cussing out. He's one of the few people we've met who are just plain unpleasant. Everyone else has been awesome.Once again stuffed into the Forester, Beth on my lap again, we said goodbye to Damascus and rolled on to The Settlers Museum. We unloaded our gear here under their covered picnic area while Funky and Cosmic had a tearful farewell. Our two days of goofing off were over now and we had some miles to cover. If we could ever get moving!When Cosmic took off Funky brooded for awhile and smoked several cigarettes. Bear Blaze had received a very serious sunburn on her shoulders and back while in Damascus despite using sunscreen. Beth and Gonzo contemplated heavy backpacks, and we all just sort of sat around. Before long some thunder sounded and validated our laziness. Or at least inspired us to haul packs under the covered area and sit some more.After killing too much time we finally took off, crossing a field and leaving the settlers museum behind. It was very warm and humid, making for a sticky start to my final section of trail. We dropped through poison-ivy filled trail and across the Holson River to reach Atkins. Along the way we were caught by HD Mama, hiking back to meet her husband. We walked up to the gas station and waited outside while Bear looked for anything to help her painful sunburn.The short stay became long as we debated what to do the rest of the day. We had covered precious few miles and really needed to move but the weather was deteriorating fast. As we sat around and familiar pickup truck and camper pulled up. Some guys got out and offered us food. We had all purchased far too much stuff at Food City and politely declined. Then we noticed the monogram on the truck said "Enertia Trailfoods". Wait, we asked, is it Enertia food? Yes, they said! Well, in that case! They pulled out a huge tub of leftovers and told us all to take as much as we could carry! In the truck was the company owner and all his employees! Awesome! (Commercial word: buy Enertia. It's tasty and they're awesome.)After wasting a lot of time we opted to stay the night in the Relax Inn, right next door to the gas station. It's a very inviting place with its burned down restaurant still sitting in the parking lot. How could we pass that up? We booked a room, the manager giving us a slight break on the cost. Inside we found a dingy and run down room, but it was at least shelter. Beth and I claimed one bed, Bear and Funky the other, and poor Gonzo was stuck with the floor. Our worries about the weather were validated when it began to rain and the TV started airing flash-flood warnings. We spent the rest of the night sitting around, watching TV, cooking our free food on a free canister of fuel we found in the hiker box, and eating ice-cream cake.