Date: 2014-04-23
From: Mile Marker 467.0

To: Damascus, Virginia/Hiker's Inn
Miles today: 0.6
Weather: clear sky

Got to town @ 730. Went to Wheel of Freedom, memorial to Damascus area residents who gave their lives serving our country. It was very nice w/ flags representing all branches & names of those recognized. I then went to the Town Library/Visitors Ctr which had an outside plug & charged my battery so I could call my former secretaries Jan and Susan & wish them a happy Administrative Assistant Day. These 2 were beyond valuable & were a pleasure to work with. I really miss those special people since I retired! After, I walked thru town and ran into RW & he was moving to the Hiker's Inn today due to a very bad time at Dave's. I then ate @ the Dairy King, a nice informal town diner with good food and nice people. Got to the Hiker's Inn run by Lee and Paul (2010 Thru Hiker) & can't say enough on how friendly & clean it is! After a shower & laundry it was off to the Blue Blaze Caf© where RW & I ran into DaVinci & had a nice lunch & great conversation. W/ an appetite temporarily satisfied it was off to the library to update my journal entries, write a few post cards & letters & then mail them. After hitting a few hiker stores to see what they had to offer & hanging out w/ RW & Plan B I went to the local grocery store to load up on veggies, cottage cheese and bananas for dinner. It was about a 2 mile walk out and back but that was ok. Hopefully my package with maps will be in tomorrow so I can head out on Friday a.m. I also had a great conversation with Trademark who is a young man staying here at the Hostel. He is entering Law School and is going through the trials and tribulations of navigating the perilous pit of how to pay for it. Its even more difficult for him as he is doing it from the trail by phone and email with his father who is doing some of the work for him. I hope I was able to offer him some insight that will let him worry less and focus more on his trip.I want to thank those who have contacted me about connecting with them while I'm on the trail. Its nice to have mini goals such as meeting friends as you move along the trail. So to Terry and Doug it looks like I will be in your area mid to late May, for Daniel it should be late May and Kristen probably late May or early June depending on how much time I take off along the way with people. I have also started to think about switching out my winter gear and getting some clothes that fit. My sleeping bag is currently rated for 20 degrees and I need one for 40 to 50. I also weighed myself today and I am at 163 now. I use a carabiner and 2 safety pins to hold up my pants and I need another pair of shorts for the warm weather that is starting. Other than that I am looking to get back on the trail as soon as possible and hope my package gets here by Friday a.m. because I want to get going then. If it doesn't I will see if the Postmaster will bump it up the trail to another Post Office so I can pick it up there. I have about another week worth of maps. Tonight I have to do my grocery shopping for the next 5 days. I am still looking at how to balance a need for calories, spread them across the need for protein, carbs and fat with of course the ultimate factor HOW MUCH DOES IT ALL WEIGH! Well I'm almost out of time on the Library Computer so I will sign off for now. Again thanks to everyone for your support and I would like to mention a special thank you to Kate Anderson who did the recent article in the Journal. I haven't been able to read it yet but many people have commented on how well written it was so thank you Kate. I will also be trying to load more pictures on my photo gallery.