Date: 2005-04-10
From: Big Spring Shelter

To: campsite by stream
Miles today: 10.0

It's a beautiful day outside once again. The hike out of the shelter was very relaxing. Once again Kelly and I hung around for a while. Mr. Fusion hung out for a while too. Of course the two of them took off with me lagging behind. I was walking along and singing and came up to both of them. It was awesome finally running into people because that never happens to me. We walked together until the 100 mile mark. Kelly and I talked a little music theory with Mr. Fusion trapped between us. I love musicians! We thought there would be a sign saying "100 Miles" but when we reached Glassmine Gap at 101.5 we realized there wasn't. How sad. We all continued to hike together until Rock Gap (which we thought was actually Wallace Gap cause we're idiots). The town of Franklin was soon upon us. It was Sunday and Kelly had a maildrop there so he was in no rush to get into town. We hung out at the Gap and then parted ways -- Kelly to walk a side trail leading to the 2nd largest Yellow Poplar tree in the world and Mr. Fusion and I on our way to Hwy 64, aka. Winding Stair Gap. Almost four miles later well after Fusion shot ahead of me I descended upon this so-called Winding Stair Gap which had no winding stairs as far as I recollect. As I approached the end I notice a table with a beautiful layout of all sorts of food with a woman, a man, and Mr. Fusion sitting behind it. Trail Magic! Fred (Tracker) who is a section hiker and his wife Sharon came out to feed us hikers. Apparently Mr. Fusion had already recieved their magic days earlier. It was so awesome. They had soda and lemonade and doughnuts and pickles and sandwiches and rice krispie treats and brownies and chips. So much variety! I hung out there for a while and snacked with some other hikers from LA&TX. As if they weren't doing enough good, Sharon drove us into town. She dropped us off at the Three Eagle Outfitters so I could ressupply. Finally I could get a water treatment. I wanted Polar Pure which is I think what Restless at Neels Gap was talking about. It's good for like 2000 liters. The dude working had no idea what I was talking about, so I settled for Aqua Mir - good for like 30 liters. I also picked up some heavy duty hiking insoles. My heels have been tender and recently my big toes, too. S.W.I.F.T. was talking about people getting flat foot which made the paranoia set in. I get up to the register and... my card doesn't go through. Oh my goodness, I have no more money in my checking account! The sales dude lets me use the phone to call my dad. I felt bad because he wanted to chat but I was in the store so I couldn't. So my dad ends up purchasing them for me over the phone. I'm so lucky to have someone to bail me out. Well, they took our picture before we left like they do all thru-hikers, so now my sexy farmers tan is forever on their wall. Yes! So hot! Seriously though. I'd been making comments since Neels Gap about this "sunflower" person who'd kept hearing about but hadn't met yet. So it was funny when Mr. Fusion pointed out her picture. You go days of hearing about hikers and reading their registry entries and not having a clue what these people look like. After looking at her picture I was like "definitely don't know who she is". She looked older and serious. Odd. So the two of us left and headed accross the street for food. I thought Winn Dixie is supposed to be inexpensive! I wasn't quite sure how much money was on my card just that it didn't have $40. I picked and chose wisely including a 33 cent box of mac & cheese. I spent $8 while Mr. Fusion spent $26! Yah, I felt good about it. We hit up McDonald's in the shopping center before leaving town. Once again McDonald's fries did me good. We took up residence in a corner booth and spread all our groceries out. Time to downsize. This is a time when we get rid of boxes, combine bags, and basically throw out what we're not willing to carry. We were pretty much making a mess. Oh, and we stocked up on free stuff such as mayonaise, sugar, and of course napkins (aka toilet paper). After cleaning up our mess and somehow finding room in our packs for this new food Mr. Fusion got back on line and I watched a little girl sprinkle salt & pepper all over a table. It was so funny 'cause she'd freeze everytime a grown-up looked in her direction. Then I started picking up trash left on tables. I guess that "carry it out" mentality even if it's not yours carried into society. I was picking up other peoples trash just so there wouldn't be the ugly sight. Of course the luxery is a trash can next to me. Aahh... Mr. Fusion arrived back with two cheeseburgers for Kelly. How sweet! He told us he was going to camp about a half mile back from the gap and head into town first thing in the morning. That's so awesome of him (the burgers that is). Okay, anyway, we set off to find a ride. We had to completely leave town and get on 64 to hitch but finally got picked up by an older couple. When we arrived back where we left off, Fred and Sharon were still there feeding more hikers. I got to meet some new people and then we headed back up the hill to find Kelly. Oh yeah, we also got a bunch more food because our trial andgels were packing up to go hom. So we arrive at Kelly's pictched tent with two McDonald's cheeseburgers, a cold soda and a bunch of snacks. Since he pitched before the gap he missed out on the magic. He was very grateful and we hung out a bit before dark. Fusion and I left before the sun went down because we still had to find a campsite. We crossed the highway and grabbed our packs hidden in the trees. It got dark real fast but Mr. Fusion ended up finding a great spot about a mile up by a creek. How relaxing. Awesome day!