Date: 2005-04-19
From: pearisburg

To: War Spur Shelter
Miles today: 33.0
Weather: broken clouds

Hey hey..I'm in Pearisburg, Va.. which officially marks the end of "southwest Virginia" and the beginning of "central Virginia"..so.. woohoo! I pulled in yesterday afternoon after a great weekend at the cabin.. Thanks to the grandparents for a wonderful stay! A few highlights since Damascus, VA:Catching up to Chino and Diesel in Damascus.. Eating at "Dot's" with them and having some crazy lady ask Chino if he wanted "pills".. In response Chino said, "no, I don't know anything about that"..good times.Sleeping under the stars near Mt. Rogers with Webb and Mtn. Dewd of Team Dumber and naming all the cartoons we "used" to watch as kids.. to name a few: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Rocko's Modern Life, and Doug..Going through the Grayson Highlands and pushing..er nudging.. ponies out of my way.. Listening to Diesel talk about feeding the ponies apples.. then after leaving the highlands seeing a sign saying not to feed the ponies apples.. too funny.Walking 2.5 miles.. not 0.5 like Dennis (Mtn. Dewd's Dad) said to Mt. Rogers Campground where Mtn. Dewd and I waited for his folks to show up with the camper.. Got a shower.. a steak dinner.. with lots of salad.. potatoes.. Apple sauce.. good stuff.. in the morning got treated to an amazing breakfast.. thanks so much to the Smith family!Making it to Partnership shelter in the pouring rain after walking all day with Mtn. Dewd and Diesel.. Laid our stuff in the shelter and walked the 0.1 to the road where we stood in the rain for about 45 mins before catching a ride into Marion, VA.. Diesel bought a new pair of shoes from wal-mart which he is now wearing on the trail.. he tried to return his old boots which he had bought at a wal-mart before the trip.. with his Texan accent he said, "Ma-am.. I'd like to return these boots.. ya see, I've only had 'em for a month but they look like they've been 500 miles.." which of course they had been 500 miles.. but how would they know.. He was almost able to return them but after numerous phone calls decided he couldn't because he didn't have the receipt.. so, he's holding on to his receipt for the pair he's wearing now and hopes to return them near harper's ferry.. Staying in the shelter the next morning until noon was awesome.. we had decided we were only going to hike to Atkins which was 11 miles away so rather than jump up and hike in the cold rain we figured we'd wait until the "warmest" part of the day to do the 11 miles.. so, noon came and we donned our rain gear and flew up the trail.. 11 miles in 2 and a half hours.. the time flew as we played the "o" game the entire way.. In this game you have to name every word you can think of that ends in the sound "o".. needless to say several days later I'm still playing the game hiking, resting, eating, and sleeping..In atkins we stayed at a hotel .. I was in the room with team dumber.. a few doors down was chino, diesel, pj and scrubs.. It rained all day and into the night.. and we laughed because we were clean, and dry.. and had television.. great time!The past week or so has been a blast as the company I'm near on the trail has been very entertaining.. Yesterday, at the hostel here in Pearisburg I meant corduroy.. funny guy.. I've been near him on the trail since Erwin.. just haven't managed to run across him until now.. We're gonna go get a milk shake in a few then I'm headed up the trail again.. I'm getting picked up this weekend by sara in daleville.. which is where the trail cuts back across I-81 and heads for the blue ridge parkway.. the weekend after that I'll be in the Shenandoahs, and then a few days from then I'll be in northern Va and visiting "M & M and the 5 bambinos".. can't wait! The next few weeks here in Va are gonna be awesome.. I won't get a large amound of miles done.. but after harper's ferry I'm plannin' on flat out rollin'.. So, I'm off for now.. headed north.. I'll update this weekend from Richmond. Thanks again for all the guestbook entries!-Traction