Date: 2009-05-05
From: Hot Springs, NC

To: Hot Springs
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: light rain

Elmer Hall's Sunnybank Inn is a unique place(legendary to AT hikers)because it in a large Victorian house and it serves vegitarian breakfast/dinner meals to guests. I slept very well last night on the porch. The fresh air was very invigorating.   This mornings Ashville paper says we are in for more storms. "Hurray!" he said sarcastically. It also described the damage caused by the storm we were in (down trees and powerlines, etc.) Mexico is trying to return to normalcy while the swine flu epidemic may turn into a pandemic. Molly is retuning to MX on Sunday. "Yeah," he said even more sarcastically.   There are some truly unique characters I've met on the A.T. Recom, of course, is one of them. He has been a great new friend and has made this adventure more enjoyable. Not sure how I would have faired if he had not been here.    Karama was a big part of the first 2 weeks. It was one of the worst days of hiking when we left Fontana w/o him.   Bluto is very personalble-very bright-very clear in his intentions-and hard living (which may be why he's on injured reserse right now.)      Voodoo (Amy) from MI is remarkable. When I first saw her (first day on the trail) I didn't think she'd make it to the first shelter because she already had blisters and was visibly in pain. But she has persevered and by all reports is right behind us. Chef from Nova Scotia is another remarkable young lady. Like Voodoo she tends to hike alone. I think that takes great courage.   Willow is another young lady hiking by herself and this is remarkable, she did a thru hike in 1997.    Forrest has been hiking with Willow and he is a 32 year old that just up and quit his job to make a second attempt at a thru hike. He has a great speaking voice and does great imitations and accents. I told him he should do voice overs on Radio or TV. Chicago Bear is an interesting (strange is another way of putting it) older hiker. So far he has been the most ill prepared hiker I've ran into. No jacket, no cook stove, no water treatment. One night he actually collected water from run off of the shelter roof. Recom boiled the water for him, but still. Larry (we tried to trail name him Pork Chop but he didn't like it) is about my age. I have enjoyed his company and his epic 22 miler into Standing Bear Farm inspired me to do my 18.8 miler yesterday.      Toubob, of course, has been a special part of this adventure. He has been at almost every stop we've made, although we have not hiked a single mile with him. He was a Peace Corp man in Mali- West Africa, is well spoken, and will in all likelihood start extending his miles to the point where we will never catch up.      Bubbles and Birdie (married) and Dan and Whitney (?) are 2 couples that have been fun to be around. I think it would be great to have a bed buddy out here. A few times when it was cold I reached over to cuddle with MK but she wasn't there. (She always is in my dreams tho)    Etai (No Tie) is an Israeli fish market worker. Queen Becky, the mother of 4 boys, hiking by herself, hiking her own hike, and showing up to cheer us up at the funniest times and places. We wonder how much of the trail she has actually hiked, but hey- hike your own hike. Scree Freak- a young Englishman carrying a 70# pack (he can only weigh 145 himself)Mouse House- the older gentleman we met when we stopped for a break weeks ago. He pulled his boot off and dumped a dead mouse out he had picked up at the shelter. Funny funny funny stuff.