Date: 2010-01-23
To: Seeing the U.S.A. the AT way.
Miles today: 0.0

One of the charming aspects of hiking the Appalachian Trail are the numerous visits down Main Street America. Although the trail is 99% woods, mountains and wildlife, a stroll down such towns like Hot Springs, North Carolina always brings a smile to this hiker in a Mayberry RFD sort of way. Here the children call their parents Pa and Momma. They¢re more beer drinkers than wine and a visit to the Tractor Supply Store is one where everyone piles into the truck. You can walk the length of town in four minutes; they have no traffic light to slow you down.The people of these small towns embrace the commerce that comes with the hiker bubble of March into May ¢ We help them, they help us.The Post Office closes for lunch and the daily special down at the diner usually involves something with gravy ¢ That rich, white, pepper gravy ¢ Mmm!   (For the record, no one made better white gravy than my Dad). If you feel the need to catch-up with the goings-on in town, this is where you come for breakfast. Any newspaper, if there were one, would fail miserably to stay up with the current events.Woven into the texture of this town are the hikers, walking up and down doing the necessary chores, some in Crocs and pajama bottoms (me), others with loaded packs stuffed to the zippers with a resupply of food headed north, following little white rectangles two inches by six inches back out into the woods of the Appalachians.There¢s the town hot-rodder who guns his engine to get attention and a pair of ten year olds on stingrays sporting T-shirts with the numbers of their favorite NASCAR driver team.What goes on here goes on everywhere in America every day (taking us out of the picture). It¢s the backbone of this country, the small places that Interstates detour around so those in a hurry are not bothered. They don¢t make reality TV on such places, but occasionally Hollywood reminds all of us in a hurry that these places are real, they do exist¢¦ we grow envious of their speed. It¢s why I love the movie Doc Hollywood with Michael J. Fox ¢ nothing like a squash festival to make me widen my grin.For those of us traveling by foot, we adapt easily to the pace. The countless miles reintroduce us to patience, not to mention down home politeness. I feel the tug to say ¢Yes Mam¢ and ¢Appreciate it¢ with a touch of country in my voice. In turn, I too am treated with warmth and a generosity that comes to them naturally.   Most who hike the Appalachian Trail haven¢t any idea what awaits them, those who have survived the first 271 miles here to Hot Springs have fair chance to reach Damascus, Virginia.   These are small town milestones every bit as important as the thirteen Stateline¢s and in the process we get a glimpse at life the way Norman Rockwell so brilliantly painted it. Only we hikers don¢t stand outside looking at the painting, we get to step inside and live among the brushstrokes.(This story and drawing was from my ¢06 thru-hike and previously posted here at TJ and The Artful Hiker.com, it captures one of the main reasons why the AT makes such a deep impression on many of us.) Awes is waiting, see you soon.