Date: 2008-05-28
From: No Business Knob Shelter

To: Erwin, TN
Miles today: 6.3
Weather: moderate rain

Got up with Triforce at about 6:30. Cooked some oatmeal and then packed up. It rained most of the night, but luckily we stayed dry. Only one bad uphill this morning, which went up and down and never thought it would end. From the top, we were able to see the town, but the trail seemed to go downhill forever. There was a really good view of the train bridge that goes over the Nolichuky River, and a train happened to be going across. Made for some really good pictures. And the long descent continues.Triforce caught up with me just as we reached the bottom. We walked to Uncle Johnny's which is right across the street from the trail. We met Uncle Johnny and Red, the house mother, and Triforce, Mule, and I grabbed a cabin. It was a little bit more than staying in the bunkhouse, but having linens instead of sleeping in your sleeping bag is well worth it. Next came the usual first things we do when we get to town, laundry and showers. I guess people can always tell who the hikers are, since we sit around in towels because every other article of clothing is in the washing machine. Triforce told me a story about their laundry day at the NOC: they were sitting around on the porch in towels waiting for their laundry to finish. Ringold - who I think is around 40, has been in the Special Forces and now trains Special Forces- was also sitting with them. Needless to say, apparently Ringgold is pretty in shape, and as a group of girls from a church group walked by, Triforce felt very embarassed. Back to Uncle Johnny's. They had quite possibly the best showers so far. They were not kidding when they said they never run out of hot water. In the utility closet, we could see 5 industrial size water heaters. It was quite possibly the best shower I've ever taken. And it is definitely the nicest place I've stayed so far. While we were still waiting on laundry, we sat around in the cabin and watched 3 Ninjas. I don't think any of us had seen it since elementary school. At 12:30 we caught the lunch shuttle into town for an AYCE pizza buffet. I think we overwhelmed them because they could not keep the pizzas coming fast enough to keep up with us eating them. I picked up some Tall-Tall Boys of Miller Lite and went back to the hostel to lounge around and clean my filter and some other gear. By now the rest of the gang is all here. Since so many people want to go into town tonight to see Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Uncle Johnny decided to run a special shuttle into town just for that. Triforce and I went across town to get some McDonalds, and of course it started pouring. Luckily we were able to get a hitch to the movie theater to save us from the walk in the rain. However, Cornelius and Dr. Z had eaten somewhere else and hitched in with some crazy 9/11 conspiracy theorist who gave them a ton of pamphlets which we all got a good laugh from. All of us hikers took up an entire block of seats in the theater, and of course sang along with the Indiana Jones theme. You could also hear Conductor's perfectly time beer openings during the loud parts of the movie. I felt it was a pretty good, entertaining movie, but it will not go into my DVD case with the first three Indy movies. At the hostel, Jarrod (now Socrates-pronounced just like Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure) had done huge miles and made it into Erwin. We sat around the table and finished off the beer, then Triforce, Mule, and I went back to our cabin to watch Robin Hood Men in Tights. It's been really weird being able to watch movies, and even weirder to pay money and have food made for you. Much better than cooking on an alcohol stove.