Date: 2014-04-29
From: Budget Inn Hostel

To: Budget Inn
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: light rain

   We stayed up until after 3 last night talking out on the couch in the hostel. It was so relaxing listening to the rain and storm outside, though some of the thunder and cracking scared me from how loud they were. Sometime after midnight, I was making fun of Ben's feet and how no matter how much he washes them, they'll still be dirty so I said he could go outside in the rain to wash then. So he said, "Let's go now!" I said okay and we took our shoes off and ran outside into the torrential downpour, laughing hysterically. I looked toward the road and it was rushing with water so much that it looked like a river. I got slightly nervous since we were standing near a telephone pole but we were only out there for a couple minutes. It was random and a lot of fun. Also nice to just live in the moment.    We slept in a little and tried to decide if we wanted to just stay there another night or move over to get a room at the hotel. We didn't have to decide or get out until 11 but we figured it'd be nice to get a room to ourselves at the hotel. Just as we were packing up our stuff, I got a call from Paul saying he and Dan were heading into Franklin! I couldn't believe they had caught up. They were going to stay at the Budget Inn too so we decided to all split a room. It was definitely a great early birthday surprise. Paul showed up at the hostel door a few minutes later and it was so awesome to see him. We really thought we wouldn't catch up but he said a few days ago, Jim had to leave because his ankle was giving him problems. So now he's been hiking a little quicker. Sad to hear about Jim but happy for sure to see old friends. Also, it's crazy to think of people as "old friends" when we've only known each other for less than two weeks.    While waiting for our room to get cleaned, we walked down the street for breakfast. I didn't get anything but it was nice to catch up with each other and hear their stories about watching the storm from the shelter and how there were down trees all over the trail when they hiked out. Dan's trail name is Grizzly because he looks like Grizzly Adams and Paul is Doc but he definitely could've gotten a better one. I'm so used to calling them by their actual names though so I might stick to that. We exchanged numbers and took photos of each other. Then Paul grabbed my face and kissed me and said, "Happy birthday!" and we laughed since it's not my birthday yet so it didn't count. He wanted to flip a coin to see who gets to be in a bed with me but I said I think Ben gets dibs.    When we got back, we hung around and then did laundry. Ben and I ordered Dominos and walked to pick that up while the other two walked to the outfitters. My half had spinach, olives, mushrooms, jalape±os, green and banana peppers on a thin crust. It was so good. I never had the thin crust before but I liked it a lot and it's the only vegan one. I also was really stuffed after. I figured out how much food I needed to pick up still and then washed my socks in the sink because I forgot to put them in the wash. Then the shuttle came early at 3 instead of 4 so we hurried out for that. He took us to Three Eagles Outfitters which was a nice place to walk around. Then we went to Walmart. I organized my food after and everything fit well this time! We had the TV on for awhile which has felt odd already but we were watching the Weather Channel talking about how bad this storm has been. It started in Texas and there have been almost 100 tornadoes and a few deaths so far, lots of flooding. So crazy.    After all that, I just stared typing up more entries and then we decided to go out to eat at Motor City Grill. I got fries and a tasty veggie quesadilla minus the cheese and ate it all. I forgot to mention I finished my Doritos and ate a good amount of icing before that. But I weighed myself at Three Eagles and I still weigh the same so that's good! Paul covered dinner for all of us which was really nice of him. We took a longer route back and I was trying to get a photo of all of us while walking which was really amusing. I laughed a lot and Ben did at me, especially when I snorted.    We've just been relaxing since then. They all had a couple beers and smoked a little. Paul put on some music while Spiderman was silently on the TV. It's just been really enjoyable being around all of them again. Life is good.