Date: 2005-10-05
To: Hampton, TN (Carver's Gap, TN on the trail)
Miles today: 0.0

Zero miles todayKincora HostelHampton, TnCarver's Gap, Tn on the trail I'm not walking today. I'm not walking tomorrow. I'm not walking the next day either. I'm not walking again until the 13th. That feels so strange, but I'm looking forward to the next week off trail and going to The Gathering. I got up about 6:30 and made my coffee and ate a fried pie for breakfast. Bob and Pat both had shuttles, so they left me all alone at Kincora. My job was to stay there and collect money from anyone who showed up. ;-)))No one showed up, so I quit my new job. Actually, I was waiting on Chief to show up and help me split the rest of the wood that Bob had out front. When Chief drove up, he had some trail magic for me!! That Chief is ok, no matter what I say about him. He brought me a can of chicken noodle soup. He remembered that I was sick last week and he was worried about me. He also brought a huge bag of popcorn, but I could tell that there was some popcorn already missing out of the bag. He brought me some fried pies and a squash proof container to carry them in and he brought me a new sleeping pad because he said mine was looking like a dog wouldn't even lay on it. That Chief is alright. Thanks Chief, but get your hand out of MY bag of popcorn. :-))) Bob and Slowpoke got back from the shuttle and we talked a while, but decided to get busy on the wood pile to get the work out of the way. Chief and I was splitting the wood and Bob and Slowpoke was stacking it. Whenever Chief had one that wouldn't split, he'd throw it over in my pile. That was ok with me, because when he wasn't looking, I'd throw it back in his pile. Ha!!! Finally I got Chief to hold the wedge while I split the wood. He's too much of an amateur to swing a mallot right. I was doing all the work and Chief was doing all the sweating. We got it all split and Bob and Slowpoke had it all stacked, so we went up on the porch and talked for a while before Bob went in to take care of something and Chief, Slowpoke and I went to Quarterback's...a new barbeque place in Hampton. Turns out it was very good. I had barbeque pork, fries and beans. We stopped by Brown's Market afterwards and I got some ice cream. We were talking to Sutton Brown and I told him I'd never been inside Braemer's Castle, so he sent his son over to let us in. When we got there, we saw Seiko around the side of the place. We talked to him a little and then he took us in and showed us his place first. We then went upstairs to look at the rest of the place. They really have it fixed up nice and it was very clean. We said goodbye to Seiko and then Chief took us past Kincora and showed me the area on the other side of the A.T. I had never been down that way before. It was pretty nice, but there were more buildings than I thought there would be. We came back and spent the rest of the evening sitting in the hostel talking about people who used to hike, but never get their feet dirty anymore when the phone rang and it was Jan Liteshoe. Talk about a coincidence!! :-))) Slowpoke had answered the phone and said some girl wanted to talk to either Chief or Stumpknocker. Ol' Chief almost broke the chair getting out of it so fast to see who the girl was. We both talked to Liteshoe for a while. She needs some assistance with this trail magic stuff. She said she was out in Grayson Highlands to bring me some trail magic (fried chicken and cokes), but she said I was through there the day before she left me the fried chicken sitting by a stile. Hummm, hey Jan, wouldn't it be better if you left the fried chicken in front of me on the trail and not where I've already been??? It was getting late and Chief was finally getting tired, so he let us go to bed at 11:30pm. Thanks Chief for coming out today...it was fun being ridiculed all day. :-)))