Date: 2014-05-12
From: Waynesboro

To: That's right... I'm a Waynesboro Bum. 
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: few clouds

Well, If the Shoe Fits...My time in Waynesboro was both pleasant and unexpectedly lengthy. As I walked up the last five miles to the road crossing in Waynesboro I began to make lists of things that I needed to do in town and at the very top of the list was to buy new shoes. My Solomons had both popped gaping holes on the sides and the soles were beginning to pull away from the tops. I was disappointed. They had hardly lasted 400 miles!When the gracious Payne family picked Dinosaur and I up from the side of the road and offered us their home they also offered to run us around to resupply in town. We accepted gratefully and my requested first stop during our ensuing zero day was the local outfitters to try on some different kicks. Rockfish Gap Outfitters was sadly lacking in diversity (they didn't carry ANY trail runners) and the shoes that I tried were both uncomfortable and failed to offer the range of motion that my beaten-to-heck Solomons had provided. We called a couple of other stores in the area to see if I could find a wider selection, but it was Sunday and Mothers' Day to boot, and nothing was open. I gave up for the day and we continued running errands until mid afternoon. As a treat Helen, the matriarch of the tribe, took us to her alma mater, University of Virginia, to have a look around. It's a lovely campus and everything looked especially lush a beautiful- Spring had sprung just in time for all the graduation ceremonies. We tootled around the lawn and had a look at a special display that encased a section of the Berlin Wall. Dinosaur noted with a soft smile that it was great to see something in America that wasn't a mountain. The Paynes had company that evening and Dinosaur and I were welcomed into the festivities. We passed a pleasant evening with the family eating pot roast (well, Dino didn't eat that... So I are her portion with gusto. She nibbled on some vegan victuals instead.), talking and playing cards. I spent much I the evening writing post cards and on the phone with REI trying to work out a refund for my shoes. They were great about it and offered to either replace the shoes or refund me the money. I opted for the refund, thinking I would find some other shoes in town the next day and then hit the trail. The next morning the Paynes drove Dinosaur back to the trail and dropped me off in town so I could get to the post office to collect my bounce box and try and figure out my shoe problem. Dino and I had agreed to meet up down the trail in a day or so since she didn't have any more errands to do in town and I felt bad keeping her from moving on. When we hugged goodbye I felt sense of dread... I had had a blast hiking with her the previous week and trail farewells are unpredictable. You never know quite when you'll see people again, even when you make plans ahead of time. Sometimes you see the person the next day and sometimes you end up trailing one another for hundreds of miles. I hoped it would be the former rather than the latter. After I collected my bounce box I sat down with my map of the town and a yellow pages and started calling every shoe store and outfitter within a 50 mile radius to try and find a place that both sold trail runners and was close enough that I could either walk or find a shuttle. No luck. Places were either closed or didn't have what I needed.So I finally called REI back and reordered the same shoes I had just killed. They hadn't hurt my feet and were sufficient enough, despite their short lifespan, and I didn't know what else to do. I wast going to order anything else if I hadn't at least tried it on. They agreed to overnight it to me, so that meant I would need to find a new place to stay for the evening. While I was on the phone I bumped into Geared Up, Wingin' It and a group of guys that they'd been hiking with for he past week. They were getting ready to leave in order to Aqua Blaze (aka canoe) down the Shenandoah River, rather than hike through Shenandoah National Park. They invited me to join them, but understood when I explained my predicament. They hugged me goodbye and left me to figure out where to relocate myself. I ended up calling Stanimal's Hostel and getting picked up by Stanimal himself and brought back to his house/hostel. I was the only guest for the evening and had full run of the basement and sunroom that he converted into hiker quarters. I did almost nothing all afternoon and thoroughly enjoyed myself.My shoes didn't show up until mid afternoon on Tuesday, at which pout it was almost too late to hike out. Plus, Key Lime had contacted me and asked me to to wait for her. She wanted to Yellow Blaze to catch up with me. So I stayed another night at Stanimal's. Life was rough, I tell you.