Date: 2011-06-06
From: Harpers Ferry

To: Greenville sc via Washington
Miles today: 0.0

We left Harpers Ferry on 06/04/2011 after having dinner with Gypsygirl (our fellow Aussie) the previous night. We also caught up with Mayo again.The train for Washington was 2hrs late which is apparantly normal. We were pleasantly surprised with the amount of room on the Amtrac trains, twice as much leg room as an Airoplane.When we arrived at Washington DC we had to find somewhere to stay. We took down the number of an International Hostel and headed off to find a taxi. I was shocked and disconcerted to see so many dishevelled, and often elderly, homeless people just plonked against walls under the bridge. Scary, especially as Walkabout Roo just talks to all and sundry!!!! We got to the hostel, paid $120!!!!!!! for a night, went up to the room, straight back down and demanded a refund - it was gross!!!!!!We then walked all over looking for something better, one of the hotels was $350 for a night (think the price went up when they saw our hiking apparrel and dirty backpacks! haha). Back to the station where we had seen an advertisement for $70 motel rooms. Another taxi, rooms were $120 and the place was decrepit. More walking, more feeling disheartened and also the leg was in agony! Walkabout Roo saw a Comfort Inn sign, thankheavens, we know this chain of hotels/motels are always clean and nice. $120 including a full breakfast. They also booked us on a tour to see the washington memorials, capitol and the white house at 7pm. The tour was fantastic and the only way to see so much.The next day we slogged dozens of blocks to see the Smithsonian Museums. I was in lots of pain due not only to the leg, but I had on Teva sandles and after walking over 700miles with no blisters, the sidewalks of Washington gave me three new blisters - two of them underneath my feet,At the American Indian museum they demanded we completely empty our packs. I 'lost the plot' and left. What I should have done was painstakingly emptied it including my dirty sweaty socks and undies!So we went to the train station and spent 5hrs just waiting for the train. The people in the cities are definitely not the same friendly people of the trail and the track towns! I found it all too scary for comfort.Onto the train for the ten hour trip to Greenville. Again lots of excitement when two passengers (not together) had a screaming match when this accused this chic of beating her kids. We arrived in Greenville at 4.45am with no idea of what to do at that time of morning. We walked around and around and around until 6.30am when a shop opened for coffee. Walkabout Roo of course was 'g'daying' all the derelict and scruffy people he saw!After our coffee we again got lost, oh joy on the sore leg, sore back and now blistered feet! Finally a nice policeman called us a taxi which took us to the place we had booked over the internet. Asked for a non smoking room, but interestingly there are cigarette burns on the bathroom vanity, kitchenette and the blanket!!!! Some guy tried to sell Walkabout Roo some dope here. I am staying behind locked doors!!!!!.We had to buy a frypan as even though it has a kitchenette there are no pans, and we desperately wanted an aussie dinner. Tonight I cooked steak, mushrooms, baked beans, fried eggs and baked potatoes. Oh wow, it was yummy!Today, 6/5/11 we walked 2 miles to Walmart in 90deg heat, on the way back we bought a new laptop for under $300. Mine at home is really slow now and this was a good price, so I am sitting in the apartment catching up the journal.I know many of you are wondering why we didn't take Dan and Nannettes incredible off up to spend a week in their Condo in the Whites. It was just too much extra travel for us. It would have meant going even further north to Boston and then getting from there back to Atlanta. We have changed our airflights home at a cost of another $1000 - amazing how an airline can press a computer button, change a date and come up with such a fee isnt it. There was no extra cost in the flights, it was all charges!Whilst I am incredibly disappointed to have come off the trail, I am very proud of what we have done. Even though our injuries have put us off the track, we may have left early anyway, the rocks destroy Walkabout Roo, and the heat is not something we have enjoyed. We have thoroughly enjoyed the experiences on the trail, and the people we have met have been great. We are incredibly sad not to have been able to say goodbye to our friends, and in particular to Hopeful and Cog, they are the salt of the earth.To anyone reading our journal and wondering if they could do this walk, you will never know if you never try. We will start another dream to work towards, but at the moment we are focussed on getting home and getting our energy back and injuries healed.