Date: 2009-06-02
From: Jenkins Shelter

To: Bland, VA
Miles today: 12.7
Weather: clear sky

Last night, the bugs were absolutely brutal, flying into my ears at almost all hours. Again, I failed to get a good enough sleep, but I still woke up early and pushed out of camp around 8 am. I caught up to Raspberry and Raindance rather quickly and we hiked for a mile together. We descended to a forest service road and had to figure out in which direction the trail headed. We ended up walking along this VA 615 road for about .5 miles and talked all about life experiences and what they plan to do next. Raspberry plans on marrying her current boyfriend (the one bicycling from Chicago to South America and back again) and moving to a farm outside of Mexico City, where they will have three kids, named after all sorts of crazy things. She said that they want their kids' names to be non-traditional, just to mix it up a bit in life. Raindancer doesn't know what she will be doing next, but teaching English in Japan or South Korea is definitely an option. They both affirmed that they would not be going back into PeaceCorps any time soon. As we made a sharp turn to get back onto the trail, we saw some trail magic ahead! Yahoo! We had some delightfully cold Gatorade, which was perfect in the summer's heat. Earlier on in the morning, they asked me the random question of: "Tully, what would you rather be: a stream, a tree, or a rock". It was a bit random of a question, but I want along with it, "Why, of course, a stream!" Raindancer exclaimed, "Sweet, then we have just completed the group! Raspberry is a tree and I'm a rock!" So, while we were sipping on our Gatorades, we took some pictures, making crazy signs of our new trail spiritual connection: rock, tree, and stream. I jumped ahead and caught up to Segue, who told me that I was only about .5 miles away from the road that would take me into Bland. At this point, my leg was absolutely killing me again and entirely swollen. The swelling kept pushing itself into my kneecap, thereby making it almost impossible to walk. Knowing that freedom was right around the bend, I kept pushing on and arrived at the road, where I prepared myself for a hitch. Unfortunately, my Duke health insurance had just run out three days prior and I didn't renew any type of emergency insurance. From the initial research that I've done, I could always apply my COBRA health insurance as it is retroactive. I received a hitch by an Air Force retiree Don Thompson, who is a bit of a legend in the wee town of Bland. He immediately took me to Subway, where I woofed down one footlog sandwich and began icing my leg. I continued icing my leg for several hours, before I headed down to Dollar General to pick up an ace-bandage and a few other items that would aid my recovery. From there, I walked down to the library on the other side of town, where I remained for several hours writing emails and uploading some information. On the way back, I was walking and looking down at my phone at the same time and inadvertently walked directly into an overhanging sign, thereby cutting open the scalp of my head. Damn signs! It had been getting dark and, as I did not want to pay for a $70 hotel stay, I was looking for an area in town where I could 'stealth' camp. Walking up to Subway, I saw a sewer drain just over the hill and figured that I would be able to set up camp in this area. I went into the subway to woof down another footlong sub and stayed there until the store closed, icing my leg even more and taking into account, the RICE recovery method of Rest, Ice, Compress, Elevate. Let me just also demonstrate our horrible decisions while out on the AT. We only recognize them AFTER the fact. Heading up to Subway, I stopped at the Dollar General again as I wanted to eat an ice cream bar. The strawberry shortcake ones cost $1.25 each, or you can get a box of six for $3.50. I knew that I was hungry for about two of them, but with the cost analysis, another four of them would only cost $1.00 more, I decided on getting the entire box. This proved to be a rather bad choice, as I had to eat them all quite quickly - before they all melted. So, while sitting in the Subway restaurant, I devoured all six of them and THEN had my footlong sandwich. Gosh, thank goodness my metabolism is a racehorse! After chowing down on my footlong, I went and set up camp down in the sewer drain. It was a completely new experience for me - being homeless, that is, in an urban environment. It was very, very challenging to set up my tent as there were stones everywhere and my stakes kept hitting them as I tried to insert them into the ground. After nearly an hour and ripping away some smelly boxes with all sorts of bugs everywhere, I set up my tent in the most shoddy condition. It was entirely foul and I only stayed there because I didn't want to spend the $70 in a hotel. I suppose that there was some sense of pride in it as well, doing something out of the ordinary and doing it completely on my own. Throughout the night, I could hear small mice running around my tent and I could hear these small bugs crawling all over me, my sleeping bag, my backpack, and all of the belongings that were laid out underneath my tent.