Date: 2013-04-19
From: No Business Shelter

To: Erwin,Tennessee
Miles today: 5.0

Day Forty Two - No Business Shelter to ErwinTown day! Hobo woke me up at 6:30 this morning and we were on the trail within the hour. Food is an amazing motivator. During the night I heard a tree fall in the woods, at first I thought might actually get to see a bear (my food bag was hung by my head outside of my hammock) but no such luck. It's another beautiful day here and the ups were not bad this morning, there were several hills that we didn't even stop for air! Either we are amazing or the thoughts of food and showers gave us superpowers. We arrived in Erwin around 10am and were met by Foodwalker the husband of Tracy McGee another thruhiker. He started out thru hiking with his wife but due to an injury on the trail now has to settle with supporting her hike and helping other hikers along the way any way he can.   He offered us a ride into town which meant two trips for him because only one of us could fit in the car at a time. Thank you Foodwalker! Hobo left first and I walked over to Uncle Johnny' hostel to talk to Backtrack and Ursula Major, as we were talking a white van pulled with hiking stickers all over it. I knew right away that it must be Miss Janet! Miss Janet is a trail legend! She has helped out hikers any way she can for years and I was excited to meet her (I have read about her for years). I asked her where the best place in town to stay was (with a dog) and she got on her phone and smoothed things over for us to stay at a hotel that normally doesn't allow pets. Thank you Miss Janet! She also offered to pick us up after doing laundry and drop us off at the hotel. When I arrived (with Melkie) at McDonalds where Foodwalker dropped us off, I found Hobo already enjoying the town delights. We quickly ordered the largest burgers on the menu (anyone who knows me knows that normally I hate McDonalds now life is all about the calories) and sat outside in the grass to enjoy. On Hobo's way back in to refill his pop he found Big Red and Yupper inside. I hope they are staying at the same hotel as us! Miss Janet showed up as promised and she is so sweet and down to earth. I am glad I had the chance to meet her and spend a little time with her. She offered to pick us back up and take us somewhere for dinner later and then we talked about slack packing tomorrow because there is a 90% chance of rain in the morning. While we were in her "Bounce Box" that's the trail name for her van Hobo discovered that he had left his wallet with all his money, ID and credit cards back at the laundromat. Miss Janet turned around and Foodwalker that had given us a ride this morning was at the laundromat and had found Hobo's wallet. Awesome! After Hobo did the money dance on video (I have to do a pole dance later because I left my poles at Uncle Johnny's Hostel earlier) we headed for the hotel to get clean! After cleaning up and knowing that we had dinner plans later we decided we were hungry and took a walk to the grocery store. We are definitely thruhikers, we need to eat every two hours now. Miss Janet arrived to take us to a Mexican restaurant along with a van full of hikers. Later she dropped another load of hikers off at the restaurant as well. It was like a big family. Turns out that almost everyone we ate with had been sick with the norovirus (it's been rampant in the shelters and hostels on the AT and I have been fortunate so far). After dinner Miss Janet returned us to our various hotels, she seriously helps hikers from sunup till way past sundown. She asked Hobo to be her wake up call and is picking us up at 7:30am to slack pack us twenty miles ahead. Thank you so much Miss Janet!Confessions of a thruhiker:Some men wear hiking skirts/kilts on the trail, one of the skirt wearers said "I love my kilt except for one thing. Every once in awhile I step over a stick and it springs back and hits me, after that I step gingerly over every stick for the next few hours."Trouble"Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around."Dr. Leo Buscaglia