Date: 2019-06-21
From: Glasgow

To: Glasgow/Lynchburg 
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: light rain

I slept in this morning because I knew I was meeting Salamander and it would be another zero. Stargazer was going to slackpack or zero as well, so we chatted for a bit. We discussed the sections she¢s hiked and she told me about the whites and the rocks and scrambling there. She¢s done quite a bit of hiking through some difficult sections! Another inspiring woman  on my journey out here. And speaking of, I am giving women another chance haha. I really enjoy Salamander and I think we¢d make a great team. I¢m definitely still a bit bitter about what happened with Hot Sauce and the general competitive, judgement feeling I get with women out here, but Salamander is just lovely. She¢s hilarious and sweet and my age, so we enjoy a lot of the same things. I can¢t predict how the rest of the trail will go, but I¢m opening my mind again to this partnership and friendship, as pained as I am from the past one I had on trail.The Champ walked to Dollar General and the General Store with me to get some breakfast. The General Store was definitely pricier and honestly that¢s hard for me, because I want to support the small business, but my pocket book is already screaming at me. I ended up getting food from Dollar General. I¢m sorry small business! They had some cute quote plaques, the kind that people have in their homes that say ¢live love laugh¢. Yes I¢m one of ¢those people¢. A cheesy quote fart. No I don¢t have them all over my room (anymore) haha. I actually can¢t peel the ¢live love laugh¢ off the wall of my room without the paint coming off, so live love laugh gosh people! The three best things! Haha. There¢s one about dancing in the rain and storms or something, but after the AT, no dancing in the rain thank you very much. Look at my little idealist slowly turning into a realist-self. It has been funny for me to see that change in myself. Sometimes ya can¢t just LIVE LOVE LAUGH. Lol.I did like the quotes, but it¢s a little hard to put a big plaque on the back of my pack, so I¢m sorry again to the small business. The Champ and I walked around, spotting a lovely empty box of condoms on the ground near Dollar General. The beauty of the trail right here! We took pictures with the dinosaur. Such a weird and interesting thing to have in this tiny town. We went back to the hostel and hung around while I waited for Salamander. The Champ was waiting on a box so he had to stay the day too. Salamander texted that she was at Scottie¢s, so I packed up all my stuff and walked to Scottie¢s to meet her. The Champ came along. When we got there, she was at a table with a girl named George (like Nancy Drew¢s best friend!) and a guy named Rukus. He is a hoot. Rukus has a tattoo on his chest that says ¢bring the mother fucking Rukus¢. I don¢t know how much I need to say about him more than that lol, you really get the picture from that alone. But he has been through quite a lot and ¢died¢ on the table several times and had testicular cancer and has one ball, which he seems somewhat proud of? I¢m pretty sure everyone on the trail knows Rukus has one ball. Random person: ¢oh Rukus, the guy with one ball?¢ Lol. He¢s definitely been through it all, but is now living life to the fullest I guess? There were a bunch of other hikers in the room and we all chatted a bit. I thought I was hungry enough for two things, but I¢m always too ambitious with how much I order. Also I¢m not Italian, but it really bugs me when people bake pasta and don¢t brown the top! Like ugh! You need to brown the top! Lasagna, baked ziti, etc. is not good if there¢s no bubbly crispy cheese on top! I like my texture peeps. I need some crisp on top of all that mush. And this place had almost no brown on top of my baked ziti. I wished I had a blow torch and could just brown the top myself lol. I¢m sorry if I¢m offending Italians! Just my personal preferences! The pizza was also not browned, just white melty cheese. What pizza is not browned on top? That¢s an atrocity lol. I couldn¢t finish either one, so I just got them boxed, even though I doubted I¢d eat them later. Salamander¢s friend showed up, Nancy. She¢s lovely. She brought along two friends from Brazil that she had met when she was down there. It was their first time in the states, which was so exciting! She spoke Portuguese with them. We all hopped in the car and headed to Nancy¢s home in Lynchburg. Her boyfriend Will was there when we got back and he¢s awesome too! Salamander and I put our stuff in our room and hung out for a bit. Nancy and Will made a delicious dinner of roasted chicken, veggies, and salad. It was all fresh food from the market nearby and for dessert we enjoyed some fresh watermelon!!We sat outside and could hear the neighbors¢ kids playing nearby, and it truly felt like a classic summer night. I am missing those nights. Back home we¢d grill out meat and corn and sit outside, listening to the crickets and drinking wine and enjoying the night. I¢m not a huge fan of summer itself, because it¢s always too hot. The heat has been hard for me on trail, and even though the cold can be hard too, I prefer the cold over the heat any day. My family went to the beach every summer and as much as I enjoyed the beauty of it, it was always just way too hot sitting in the sand for hours baking away. I¢m more of a fan of the cool lake vacation, which we did do a few times to see my cousins in Maine. I opted for that over the beach, but we definitely had that attachment to the beach, so that usually won for vacation. Everything has its ups and downs right! Definitely don¢t like the heat, but still miss those summer nights. We all headed in for the night and Salamander and I debated what we¢d do the next day. We had several options. Will¢s family had a lake house nearby that they were going to the next day. So we could go back to the trail before they left for that, or go back to the trail the next day and come to the lake. Decisions decisions! Let¢s rest on it! Little Debbie