Date: 2010-06-11
From: Daleville

To: Dutch Haus
Miles today: 94.9

I have to upload more pictures. I know. I will once I am in Waynesboro. I promise. Also, I loved Moria's suggestion of an FAQ section. Please send me any questions you may have about the trail to the guestbook or to my email and I will answer them when I get to Harper's Ferry - the mental halfway point.I have had a wonderful time in Virginia for the past two weeks. All anyone ever says about Virginia is that it is flat. This is a lie. It is not flat. Yesterday I did about 6,000 feet of climbing, that is not flat. I have been pleasantly surprised at how beautiful Virginia is. There are so many different kinds of forests, rock formations, water sources, wildlife and people. I have also had a lot of firsts - my first trip to Roanoke, first nap on the trail, first stay at an RV campground, first jump into the James River, first super successful bear bag, etc. All of these things were thrilling, especially the Monday afternoon nap. It helped me realize that I need to enjoy my time out here and not rush through it. And let's be honest, who wouldn't love a two-hour nap Monday afternoons?In Daleville, a fellow thru-hiker, Wallflower, took myself and a few others to the Homeplace. If you are ever in Catawba, VA you must go there. Their fried chicken was out of this world. I can't even begin to describe it's deliciousness. They also served us pulled pork, roast beef, gravy, mashed potatoes, biscuits, apple butter, green beans, pinto beans, and baked apples. I had 2 servings of their peach cobbler with ice cream for dessert. Another exciting thing that evening was when we were at a bar in Roanoke and TransContinental ordered the entire bar a round to get on the Wall of Fame. He was unsuccessful but did sleep in a house with 27 chicks that night - baby chickens that is.Having only visited Northern Virginia and Richmond I was surprised to find out how "Southern" southern Virginia is. Two days ago I was at Jennings Creek, a lovely swimming hole and campground along the trail. We camped there with a few colorful locals. They reminded me of when I was 15 and in a poor black township in Cape Town where the kids my age asked me how many children I had and what their ages were. At the time I thought this was an absurd question and couldn't believe how drastically different their lives were from mine. When I met the locals at Jennings Creek they asked me the same exact thing thinking I would have a 13 and 15 year old. I told them I did not and they were shocked. They asked me two more times just to confirm that I was childless. Their shock was not entirely comforting when I told them I was about to turn thirty. I guess I am pretty rare where they grew up. After the child conversation ended one of the woman who was on her 12th bud light began to tell us about how her 5-year-old son was her savior because when she is too drunk to take care of her 2-year-old he does. The pride on her toothless face was priceless. I am getting to see an America I never even knew existed! The next night I had the most amazing trail magic from John Hasty. He made dinner for 7 of us at a shelter and it wasn't just any dinner it was breakfast for dinner. My favorite! He is a trail angel - someone who comes and helps hikers along the trail. He cooks dinner twice a week and I am so happy I didn't miss out on it. His pancakes were fluffy and delicious. He will be thru-hiking next year so I hope to return some of his kindness. After the trail magic came the Wildwood Campground which was my first RV camp experience. It was incredible. We had an awesome log cabin that cosily fit four of us and experienced trail magic again with a couple named Art and Kelly. They had the nicest camper I have ever seen and were so kind as to take us to Walmart for resupply. That is one of the greatest things you can do for a hiker because non-trail miles add up to the aches and pains in your body and feet. They even cooked our steaks on their charcoal grill and made us shrimp scampi! It is so delightful to see how generous people are. It reaffirms my faith in this country and helps me rediscover it too. I hope that makes sense. One of the funniest camping experiences happened the other day when five of us decided to camp next to a forest road. Two southern-thru-hiking-gentlemen, Chopstix and Rorschach, caught up with us to cook their dinner and move on. While we were eating dinner they told the tale of Virginia Hollows and how they are all crystal meth labs and that the place we were camping was exactly like the ones where they shoot hikers, which was why they did not camp with us. Obviously that made my mind run wild and in the midst of this fear two cars drove by and a phantom phone rang. This freaked all of us out and more stories of gun-toting rednecks were told. Once Chopstix and Rorschach had sufficiently frightened us all they left and screamed "F*** you Redneck" and walked away. Not two seconds after that the phantom phone began to ring and a car drove by. Shaking in my tent I was able to eventually fall asleep and happened to have a great one. I did wish bears and thunderstorms upon them when they left and they were met my 3 bears and had to stay up all night to protect their food. Karma got them.I had a wonderful hike yesterday with amazing views and am now at the Dutch Hause, a B&B in Montebello, VA that is absolutely gorgeous. I know it will break my mom's heart when I say this but the lady who runs this has the most active Hummingbird feeders I have ever seen. There were probably 20 hummingbirds fighting over the feeders this afternoon. It was incredible. The humming was so loud. In a few days I will be in the Shenandoah's and then onto Harper's Ferry, WV. For those DC folks maybe you will come out and visit? I will try to make it the 27th of June, I think that is the last weekend.