Date: 2010-04-19
From: DAMASCUS

To: DAMASCUS
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: overcast clouds

What a joke ... I need to fax a copy of a repair quote to the shop where I bought the camera, the nearest camera shop is in a town 20 minutes away but it closed down last year. The nearest after that is a $90 shuttle ride away. Then I wait 24/48 hours for a reply as whether the shop thinks it's economical to repair, if so then I wait a further few weeks for the replacement parts all the time having no camera.Or I could continue using the one with no screen guessing what I'm taking pictures of for another month! Not a good option. What I can do is run the risk that the camera is unrepairable (I would then get a cheque for the value) and in the mean time buy a new camera.. risky but it just happened!I am now the proud owner of an Olympus Stylus Tough 6020 !!! It is being shipped to The Barn Restaurant (ETA 6 days) - and will hopefully be waiting for me when I get there.So I will send my broken one home and deal with it from there, the warranty is good until 2012 so I should be able to work it out after getting off the trail. I have a while to think of convincing words as to why it is definitely unrepairable.General DeliveryThe package for Fontana Dam was forwarded to Erwin, the package for Erwin forwarded to Roan Mountain (along with the one that would come from Fontana), both were forwarded onto Damascus from Roan Mountain, and today I find out that the package for Damascus hasn't arrived (nor the two forwarded ones). I actually started laughing at the counter this morning when the man told me there was nothing there in my name.I have called all the post offices and cancelled the old forwarding giving them the same address of Pearisburg, VA. If any of the packages make it to the states in the next week they will go there, I'll be passing through that town in about 7+ days I should think. If they arn't in Pearisburg whne I am, I'll forward them to Unicef, I've had enough.DamascusDamascus is a lovely town, and according to the various guidebooks, the friendiest trail town there is. Within 5 minutes of arriving I sat down on a bench and was chatting to one of the locals who told me about the best place to grab a snack and the only place with internet access on a Sunday.One local, 'Tow' has a phone line on his front porch for hikers with free local/long distance calls and a donation box if you would like. He has a massive hiker box with all sorts of goodies and was more than welcome to share information and his advice on how I best sort out the camera mess. Nice guy.Damascus is host to 'Trail Days', a 3 day festival every year in May which celebrates the town as a the junction of the East-West cycle path, the Virginia Creeper Trail and the Appalachian Trail. Thousands of people attend and it's apparently very easy to get a hitch back to the town from all over the AT - I might come back, it depends how things are going and how I feel. The atmosphere sounds much like the TT festival at home from what people have been saying.I came out of Mojoe's yesterday to find RiverDog driving a local's truck into the parking lot and grabbed me to tell me about his time in town. Dot's Bar/Cafe kept us watered for about 3 hours whilst I heard the stories; RiverDog had met Mitch, a man who has a ranch up here and owns horses - they got talking the previous night and Mitch offered to take him riding the following day, when they drove into town they'd just got back from riding on the farm - what a fantastic story!I'll be getting rid of some packweight today, sending maps, winter clothing (hat/gloves etc, spare trousers) and other things that I just don't need/use. Talking about gear and weight was fun and interesting for a while, but now it's just a repetitive monotonous conversation. If someone asks me how much my stuff weighs my answer is 'too much' or 'as much as it needs to' and I leave it at that. We've started mocking the phrase ULTRA LIGHTWEIGHT - go and cut off your genetalia, you don't need that out here!