Date: 2018-04-04
From: Bobblets Gap Shelter

To: Highway 43
Miles today: 3.2

The temperature remained in the mid 40s or so. I had my best night of sleep yet. It rained off and on overnight, and when daylight came, it was still raining. I stayed in my tent and dozed off and on until around 830 or nine. I got up, made some coffee, and Buckey joined me for breakfast. All the other hikers were already gone. We weren¢t concerned with leaving early, as we only had a 3.1 mile hike to Highway 43. There, my friend would pick us both up at five in the afternoon. Buckey was going to be staying in Daleville at the Howard Johnson¢s again, and I was going to stay at his home in Roanoke. Both of us will be taking a 0 mile day on Thursday, hitting the trail again on Friday.  While I was preparing breakfast, Buckey was taking all of her gear out of her tent and putting it in the shelter.  I was kind of walking around and eating my oatmeal. I noticed a dry spot in the leaves where her tent was. I thought, wow, she¢s really packing her stuff up fast she¢s already got her tent packed . I asked her, ¢you¢ve already packed up your tent¢? She said ¢no, it¢s still there¢.  I went around the corner, and saw the dry spot but no tent! ¢No it¢s not I said¢!  She came running around the corner and we both looked at an empty spot  where her tent used to be. The wind was so hard, it had picked up her tent like a Walmart plastic bag and tossed it out into the woods. We went and retrieved it and dumped all the leaves out of it so she could pack it away.  I left the trail at about noon, with Buckey just a few minutes ahead of me. The day was cool to start, And change very quickly. The winds started roaring through add an estimated 40 mph. The sun came out, and the temperature dropped throughout the day. We crisscrossed the Blue Ridge Parkway again today, and when we got out onto the highway, to the overlooks, the wind was blowing at Gail force. It was so hard, it would actually blow me off the trail, and push my  poles sideways so that I could not stick them in the ground. Once I started heading down hill toward the highway, I was protected from the wind, and it warmed up nicely and was a beautiful afternoon.  I arrived at the Highway at 2 o¢clock, with three hours to kill. I took out my miniature iPad, and watched some Olympics videos. Buckey showed up about an hour and a half later, she had gotten lost for a short while. We sat on the side of the trail, about 50 yards from the highway. I didn¢t want to sit on the side of the highway, as I thought people would stop and want to give me a ride. Roanoke is about 25 to 30 miles away, and I didn¢t think anyone would want to bring me all the way into the city. I texted my friend, and he told me he would text me when he left work to pick us up.  At about 5 o¢clock, I saw of car which looked just like mine, even had the trailer hitch and the wiring harness hanging below it! It¢s sped right by us. I mentioned to Buckey,¢hey I think that¢s my car¢! I texted  my friend, and sure enough, he had just passed by us. About five minutes later he was coming back in the other direction and stopped and picked us up. We dropped Buckey off at the Howard Johnson¢s, and I came to his house, for a good nights sleep and some good food!