Date: 2018-04-17
From: Newfound Gap

To: Gatlinburg
Miles today: 0.0

The men's bathroom stayed pretty warm last night. The only problem is that we had a super snoreer in the group.  I probably fell asleep around 2 am. The lack of sleep hasn't been bothering me too much. Jeans and Slayer woke up and started making coffee for everyone. It was nice not to have to heat up water with our alcohol stoves. The rangers said the road is supposed to open around 10 am, but the time keeps changing. It's warming up though so it will definitely open. Patrick and I might stay in a hotel tonight in Gatlinburg for a warm night's stay. Fainting Goat told us a story about her fainting at a McDonald's when hiking the PCT. She hiked many miles without enough water. When she got up to order everything got blurry and hit the floor. The non hikers thought she was homeless and didn't help much. Only when the hikers found out she fainted they came to her rescue. Sheriff Woody got his name because he SOBOed the AT with a short stocky friend and Woody was tall and lanky.  Around 11 am the access road at newfound gap finally opened. We rushed out of the men's bathroom to catch a ride. The first Baptist Church shuttle was there dropping off hikers from Gatlinburg. All 10 of us crammed into the van. We were saved from the 18 hour ordeal in men's bathroom. The weather was sunny and clear. You could see the mountain ranges as we drove down the mountain. The first thing we did in Gatlinburg is drink at the Rocky mountain brewery. They had 10 5 oz pours for 11 bucks. Not a bad deal for all that beer. We hung out with Peabody and Flagstaff, two hikers that we met in the men's bathroom. We chowed down on hamburgers, quesadillas, salads, and french fries. Between the 4 of us we had 40 5 oz beers and no other room on the table. Anne and Wizard showed up a little later. We made reservations at the Quality Inn. It was definitely better than the budget inn in Hiawasee. Fainting Goat and Sheriff Woody had shown us a video of termites hatching in their room at the budget inn. The owner offered them a free night stay in their jacuzzi suite. However, during the night bed bugs bit them all over. Patrick and I didn't have that problem though. We we're lucky.We hung out at the Quality Inn doing luandry and picking up our resupply box. We headed back to the Rocky mountain brewery for trivia. Ann and Wizard killed it at trivia. We won second place and got $25 bucks off our tab! Our total bill came to 6 bucks. We then headed to Shamrocks a local dive bar that had karaoke. On they way we did a moonshine tasting. We had 13 small shots of moonshine for 5 bucks. At shamrocks, there only hikers and a few karaoke regulars. We shared a few pitchers. I got up and sung Tribute by Tenacious D. It's my default song. Booga bear sung a more obscure David Bowie song. Wizard and Anne headed out earlier since they were going to catch the 8:30 shuttle in the morning to clingmans dome. Booga bear and I went on the hunt for late night food. There wasn't anything open past midnight except one pizza place. We placed a delivery order for our motel.When the pizza arrived we saw that the delivery person was having an issue finding our apartment. We went down to meet her at the office. That's when the night clerk told us that a 900 lb bear that eats out of the garage at the Quality Inn. She said he also liked to hang out at the pool. She was irritated that the other clerks don't let the guests know about the bear. I'm sure that wouldn't be a selling point for the motel. Booga and I ate our pizza from the balcony waiting for the bear.   Unfortunately, he didn't show up. It would have been ridiculous to have our first bear sighting at the Quality Inn! Tonight we have a cozy bed. A lot better than the men's restroom.