Date: 2006-05-19
From: Fish Hatchery Road

To: Damascus VA
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: broken clouds

What an amazing day. We've been thinking about Trail Days (the hiker festival) and what to do about it since before the trip began. Since I am a control freak, things like hitch hiking 200 miles and worrying about getting back to the trail afterwards without wasting days of time made me not want to go. Coyotebec wore me down - plus, worry and control are things I am trying to work on during this trip. So, three days of therapy began early this morning. After a big breakfast at the B&B, we found out we would have to wait a while for a ride down to the interstate. Well - there goes getting there by 1 and enjoying the afternoon... (oops - stop that!). We finally arrived at I-81 and went right to work trying to hitch a ride at the gas station. Tink, Coyotebec and me - with a cardboard sign that read "Trail Days Damascus". Lots of people walked in and out of the station we were in front of - and some of them would even talk to us a little. Most looked a little frightened! Finally, we moved to the gas station on the east side of 81. It was cold and dreary and near noon, so we went inside and got something to eat. Our packs were piled up at the end of the table with our sign on top. We lingered over the food - not wanting to go back out and start trying to hitch again. A girl and a guy started talking to us about our trip, and Coyotebec asked if they were going south. They weren¢t, but another guy waiting for his food looked over and she asked him if he was going south. He said he was. Coyotebec asked if he could fit 3 of us and he said "maybe". We hung out waiting for him and before we knew it - we had a ride to the exact place that Pi would be driving through on his way to Damascus.The guy giving us a ride was named Johnny Dill. He is a long haul trucker that's driven all over the country. He has over 3 million miles as a professional driver. We got pretty excited when we figured out that we would be driving down in an 18 wheeler. None of us had been in one of these trucks before.Coyotebec and I rode on the sleeper bed in the back while Tink rode in the passenger seat. It was fun to see the road from a truckers point of view. Johnny seemed to enjoy showing us things about his truck and trucking in general. We stopped off for a bathroom break and Johnny bought us each an energy drink. We finally got to our exit and he brought us to the truck stop, then hung around with us just talking for an hour. Johnny is a really cool guy and a great dad. He told us about giving his 17 year old son a truck for his birthday last week. Johnny is a single Dad, and it was awesome to see how he fights for his kids and to raise his 2 boys up right - and to hear how they are responding to that as they grow. Honestly, Johnny made our day. He is hard working, funny and most of all - he's real.Pi arrived, and we had a fun reunion. Everyone on the trail misses Pi. Especially us. We drove into Damascus and headed over to Bunny's house. Bunny is a massage therapist that worked on Coyotebec when we passed through. She offered for us to camp in her yard. We gladly accepted - avoiding the noise and mess of the campground outside of town. Bunny lives in a beautiful Victorian house on a quiet street. We set up, and headed out to see the festival. Not much was going on, but we had fun looking around and meeting old friends like Lush, Gloworm and Sumo. We headed for the campground outside of town, and after a little while came across the Mountain Hardware booth. It looked closed, but we looked in and saw Dante - our rep! He invited us in and believe it or not, they were serving BOILED CRAWFISH! We hung out and ate and had a lot of fun.Like I said, this was a super great day. I have learned something about letting go and letting things happen. Maybe the looser we hold the strings, the better things can turn out for us.More tomorrow...