Date: 2004-04-06
From: Cody Gap Campsite

To: Fontana Dam
Miles today: 10.2
Weather: few clouds

Boo Hoo! My beautiful new hamlet is a failure! The mayor tore down her house and moved away about 7:20 this morning and word is that after that all the other residents quickly left too, leaving Mouseville deserted. Oh well.Now I am sitting outside Fontana Dam Visitors Center. Or at least as close to it as the Department of Homeland Security will allow, which is across the parking lot in the meager shade of a thigh high wall. I got here about 1:30, after discovering that the Trail planners were determined to go over every possible hill between the high ridge and the dam, lest we feel cheated by walking on too much level ground. The profile had looked easy, but there is a nasty steep ridge. I am beginning to realize that no matter how flat the profile looks, on the Appalachian Trail there is always another mountain before you get to where you are going.When crossing Highway NC28 a mile and a half ago, a note had instructed anyone wishing to stay at the Hike Inn Motel to come here and call them on the pay phone. So I dutifully dig quarters out of my pack, leave it nervously at the designated distance and look for the phone. Hopefully no one will grab my pack while it is out of my sight. The phone is on the far side of the building. I put the quarters in and dial the number. A recorded voice tells me to first dial 1 or 0. I try again dialing 1 first. The voice tells me to first dial 1 or 0! I try it with 0 and get a recording saying welcome to Sprint Long Distance and to dial 0 to talk to an operator. He tells me to try it again without putting money in first. So I try again and am relieved to hear a recorded voice instruct me to put in 50 cents. I comply only to hear, you guessed it, the voice telling me to dial a 1 or 0 first!This is starting to be like a puzzle at beautiful Flood Control Dam #3 in the computer game Zork! Trying not to babble insanely, I try with 0 again to get an operator and explain that I have dialed every possible way without getting through and am stuck here at a pay phone in the middle of nowhere and could she PLEASE get me through? She offers to put through a collect call. I agree dubiously, not knowing if they will accept. Miraculously the Hike Inn does! Only to tell me that not only are there no rooms left, they can't find the bounce-box of supplies and equipment I sent them three weeks ago. Isn't civilization wonderful? Gnashing my teeth a little, I trudge back to my pack to get my calling card and try the Fontana Inn. After needing two tries to get the card to work, I realize the Inn has a 1-800 number and I didn't need the card. Hmmm, maybe I AM starting to babble insanely! Finally I get through and they say they DO have a room and a shuttle will be out to the dam in 50 minutes.Philosophically, I pull out my Pocketmail, settle down in the little patch of pack-approved shade, and catch up on my journal. Now the shuttle should be here in five minutes. Looking over at the locked up Visitors Center, I wonder if there is a little back room with 3 buttons like in Zork.... My attention is distracted by a bumblebee the size of a helicopter gunship hovering near my shoulder. After a few ranging passes, it makes a firing run towards my head! I jump up and scramble out of range. It follows as I dart here and there about the parking lot. Looking behind me I discover several flowering trees with squadrons of additional bees waiting in reserve. Well, it looks like I won't lack for something to do while awaiting the shuttle. Excuse me while I run for cover!