Date: 2009-05-18
From: Trail Days

To: Middle Creek Campground
Miles today: 0.0

What an amazing weekend and birthday, here's a summary:Friday: Hiked from Bobblets Gap shelter to Middle Creek Campground. Persistent arrived a while later and whisked us off to Damascus for Trail Days. The start to an incredible weekend.Saturday: We spent the morning visiting the medical tent for a free exam, both Rocket and I had our feet looked at. My foot problems are due to hiking 747 miles in "flimsy" shoes, it was time to retire them for a new and improved pair. Rocket unfortunately has a bone spur that will only go away post-trail, so since it is here for the long haul, we agreed it needed a name. Introducing to you for the first is Arnold Palmer, the annoying bone spur, Arnie for short. Oh, and it is Arnold Palmer for absolutely no good reason. So, off to the outfitter for a good shoe-fitting session with the professionals. I settled on a nice pair of Montrail Hardrocks, tomorrow will be the real test though. We walked in the hiker parade. It is tradition for current and passed thru hikers only to walk in the parade, and all the townspeople have the joy of soaking us with water balloons and guns. It was a blast, and we laughed our butts off. There were tons of us representing this years class of hiker trash, it was completely amazing. The parade was a lot of fun and we got pretty soaked. Afterwards was the hiker talent show, interesting to say the least.Sunday: Persistent picked us up from tent city and off we were for another fun-filled day with the ladies. We finally went to see a movie in the theater, Ghosts of Girlfriends Past, so cheesy but just what we needed on our day off, mindless humor. We stayed in the grandest of hotels on the way back that was fully equipped with a bizarre wax museum, odd combo. We looked like such hiker trash standing in the front lobby, well minus Persistent. When the hour struck midnight, the day of my birthday, the girls gave me the most beautiful necklace and earrings from Tiffany's, er, I mean from the grocery store in the toy isle. Amazing. Nothing like a fake ruby and diamond jewelry set.Monday: The day of my birth, and the best and most memorable, hands down. I wouldn't have changed a thing. Persistent dropped us back off at the campground where she picked us up from. We were so sad to see her leave and wish she could have hiked on with us, but I'm confident we'll see her again, on or off trail. I tried to convince her that her husband wouldn't be upset if she didn't return home and hiked to Maine with us, for some reason it didn't work, go figure. I thought we would be tenting at the campground but Grommet and Rocket surprised me with a cabin, another amazing gift. Later on I was presented with a Barbie birthday cake and some wine, the perfect end to a perfect weekend and birthday. Everything was so unexpected and so appreciated, they went out of their way to make the day special for me. I had such a nice relaxing weekend off the trail, it kind of makes it hard to get back into a routine.Hilights of the weekend: finally meeting and hanging out with Persistent, seeing Stride again, meeting Certain, Crawl, Lion King, Grommet's wonderful friends Sarah and James, eating several ice cream cones in a row, and seeing hiking friends we haven't seen in a while who are ahead or behind. All in all, a fantastic weekend. I look forward to Trail Days next year.