Date: 2008-05-22
From: Damascus

To: Up the Hill from Damascus
Miles today: 1.0
Weather: clear sky

The 'emergency room' was a strange place to sleep. It was in the basement of an old brick house. Kind of like the room a teenage boy would love to have to hide away from the family. It had funny acoustics too. We had piped in access to the conversation in one of the rooms upstairs. Luckily it was just two older ladies chatting. It could have been embarrassing. ;o) Still with all of that we were thrilled to have the place to stay.Breakfast was at 8:00, so we got up at 7, dressed, repacked and organized and took River for a walk. Turns out we were the only guests staying for breakfast so we had a nice chance to spend some time getting to know our host. She is a lovely Christian lady. Turns out she is a member of the First Baptist Church across the street that had impressed us so much during Trail Days. It was a pleasure getting to know her.After breakfast she asked if we had seen the music room. Owl's eyes lit up. She had one room with a piano, guitar, banjo...and yes, a fiddle. Owl had been missing her fiddle. Unfortunately as soon as she started tuning it the A string snapped. Oh well, she played the guitar and piano instead.Our host asked us if we would like a ride over to the grocery store and we jumped on the opportunity. I left Owl to watch Roo and to continue playing around with the instruments while I went to the store to stock up on more oatmeal and lunch foods.With groceries in hand and a quick trip over to the outfitters to pick up the supply box we had left with them during Trail Days, we were ready to repack our food. Food is by far our biggest organizational challenge. We took over the back yard of the B&B with all our junk. But we quickly got it managed and repacked and said our goodbyes.Before heading out of town we stopped at the library to check emails and such. That took almost an hour. By that time it was almost noon. We decided to grab a quick lunch and eat at the town park before heading up the hill out of town.We stopped at the Italian place. I got a sub and Owl got a salad because she wasn't really feeling hungry. I should have recognized that ominous sign.While we waited (and waited) for our order we met a group who were taking a 'how to hike the AT' course. One of the ladies was very interested in how Roo was doing. Apparently the guy teaching the course isn't big on trail dogs so she wasn't getting much help. We gave her a rundown on some of our experiences and gave her our journal link. (if you're checking in... Hi! it was nice to meet you)Food order finally ready, over to the park, everyone ate and prepped to get back on the trail...and it was only 1:00. Yeah! I think we are getting the knack of this.Then the bad news. We started up the trail in our usual order... Soaring soaring up the trail. Tigger moving steady and even. Roo frustrated because she wants to stay with Tigger but doesn't want me and Owl out of sight. Then me, moving slow but steady and Owl right behind me lost in the music of her headphones.I walked a short distance and glanced back and noticed Owl was dragging. Asking her what's up she said she thought she had ate too much. Hmmm.... not good.I could drag this out and take you through all of her misery for the next several hours, but trust me, you don't really want to know. Whether she got something bad in the salad or caught a stomach virus, she was pretty miserable.In the time she and I made it about a mile up the hill Tigger and Soaring had made it to the Virginia Tennessee line 3.8 miles up the hill. Luckily I did have a cell and was able to reach Tigger. She graciously walked back down the hill to help carry Owl¢s pack for her.Instead of walking all the way up we stopped at the first cleared campsite we came to, which wasn't far away. Our plan was to let Owl rest awhile. If she got to feeling better we would hike on up and meet the others. If not we would camp here and make a plan for morning.Meanwhile I started working on worse case options. How to get off the trail if we need to. First thought was grandparents. We're not too far from Kentucky here. Owl would love to have a day off with grandparents. I started making calls finding out our options if we need them. By the time we crawled into bed I didn't have a definite plan, but I had some ideas.We laid in the tent last night waiting for night fall. This is such a pretty place. It's a shame to feel so rotten. But here we are and as always God is taking great care of us. It'll all work out.Rabbit, Owl and RooJoshua 1:9