Date: 2018-02-28
From: Blairsville, GA

To: Blairsville, GA
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: clear sky

Whenyou are hiking the AT it doesn¢t take long to figure out that you will behiking in rain, and rain just makes everything harder to do. It also doesn¢ttake long to figure out that the best day for rain is a Zero Day. Mainlybecause you want to be hiking on the sunny days. Well, today was our first ZeroDay and it rained hard last night, most of the day, and is raining really hard thisevening. While we didn¢t exactly dance in the wet stuff, we were certainlysatisfied with our decision to take our Zero a couple of days earlier thanoriginally planned.As Which Way mentioned in the last post, we got most of our townchores knocked out yesterday afternoon/evening. That left today for, uh, restand relaxation. For us that means eating, entertainment, and stretching. As it turns out, Blairsville fit the bill just fine for two of the three. Although we were awake before daylight, we took our sweet timegetting out of bed and getting ready for the day. The Seasons Inn sits on thetown square and on the other side of the square, maybe 200 meters away, sits a hole-in-the-wallrestaurant. Fittingly, the name of the establishment is, you guessed it, ¢Holein the Wall.¢ So, we sauntered over to the other side of the square, in therain (happily), and enjoyed a great breakfast. Our server, Katie, and the restof the staff were super friendly, a common character trait for the town-folkhere in Blairsville. After breakfast we walked a little further down theroad to Zaxby¢s, where Which Way scored a Coke Zero fitting of a ZERO. Itell you she can sniff out a Coke Zero from 25 miles away (or whatever therange of her Coke Zero app is). Back at the Season¢s Inn, we had some time to kill beforeentertainment, so we did some stretching. I mentioned in a previous post that agal named Stretch (a.k.a. Natalie) turned us on to some good stretches to do onthe trail. We came across Stretch and her husband, Preacher (a.k.a Justin), ata hut (i.e. shelter) while backpacking in the Shenandoah National Park lastFall. Stretch and Preacher were SOBOs (Southbound AT Thru Hikers), who were alittle over halfway from Maine to Georgia. Stretch was feeling a bitunder the weather, so we offered to take them back to our place in DC for someR&R. We headed north from the hut the next morning, after providing thecool couple our contact info. That was the last we expected to hear from them.The next day, as we were headed home, I got a phone signal about the time wewere exiting the park and one of the messages that populated my phone was fromPreacher. He indicated that Stretch¢s condition had worsened, they had caught aride to a clinic in Front Royal, and would take us up on our offer. Well, aftera couple of nights of rest, medication, and some of Which Way¢s good cooking,we returned the sweet couple to the trail. But, not before Stretch, true to hername, demonstrated some good stretches for us. She also promised to add herroutine to her trail blog. She kept her promise and they finished theircommitment to thru-hike the AT, summiting Springer Mtn just beforeThanksgiving. Not the end of the story. Preacher and Stretch relocated in theLittle Rock area post-hike. Well, our son and his wife live in LittleRock. We encouraged them to get together and they now worship at the sameChurch and are good friends. I tried unsuccessfully to post Stretches blogpost to the Articles section of this TJ¢i.o. (Idiot Operator) I¢m sure. Anyway,if you care to check out Stretch¢s stretches and/or learn more of this couple¢samazing story go to https://happytrailsandwanderlust.wordpress.com.Stretching complete, we were all set for entertainment, in theform of...a movie! What can I say? We just don¢t sit still for very long. TheBlairsville Theater is a couple of miles out of town, down a two-lane highway,and it was still raining, so we called Donald¢s Shuttle Service again. Donaldand Mary gladly came to pick us up and delivered us to the theater for a smallfee of $10, or whatever we could swing. We love this couple as they are totallychill. Donald works in the word ¢dude¢ several times in each sentence, as Marydrives and nods her head north and south. We had a good laugh at the theater. Before it started, Iapproached a couple who appeared to be around our age and ask if they justhappened to be going back to town after the movie if they would be so kind asto give us a lift. Although I love hanging with Donald and Mary and know theywould gladly take us back for free, we had already spent $40 on shuttle ridesand we want to stick to a budget. Anyway, the couple seemed a little taken backwhen I asked for a ride. I explained to them we were hiking the AT,blah-blah-blah. It seemed like they wanted to help out (as is the Blairsvilleway), but were cautiously considering my request. The man, Mike, wisely checkedout my story by asking questions like ¢where did you begin your hike?¢ and ¢wheredid you stay last night¢¦come off the trail?¢. Feeling that I had passed theMike test, but not wanting to press for an immediate answer (something Ilearned in an ¢Art and Skills of Negotiations¢ class), I said, ¢No problemeither way (dude), just enjoy the movie (dude), and (dude) if you¢re up for it(dude) just let us know afterwards (dude)." As I started back to my seat,feeling that the deal was almost sealed, I turned back to the well-kept coupleand said, ¢We had a shower this morning (dude).¢ With that, BJ, Mike¢s bride,laughed out loud, and Mike said that they would see us in the lobby (dude). Iknew right then that we were ¢getting to yes!¢After the movie, Which Way and I lingered a bit, as to give Mikeand BJ a chance to bolt before the ink on the quasi-deal had dried. But, theywere waiting for us in the lobby and gladly gave us a ride to town. Althoughnot cut from the same cloth as Donald and Mary, Mike and BJ were a lovelycouple and we chatted it up on the short ride back to town. I wish we wouldhave had more time to get to know them, but such is the AT. As we wereabout to exit the vehicle, BJ asked if we had a blog or something where theycould follow our journey. I handed them one of our trail cards with the websiteto our TJ and we said so long, for now.BTW...I sent Donald a text letting him know we had found a rideback, knowing that he would in some way be proud of me and wanting to keep thedoor open for a ride in the morning. His response, ¢Not a problem. Of courseyou can call us for a ride. Glad you are safe. Hope you had fun. Have a greatnight. Be peaceful!¢ I guess he doesn¢t ¢dude¢ while texting.After the movie, we packed our gear then went to a Cubanrestaurant that Donald had recommended. Once again, he was right on,dude! Back in our motel room we did some more stretching (thanksStretch) and repacked (something us beginning thru-hikers like to do). All in all, our first town experience was fantastic and weofficially certify Blairsville as a ¢hiker friendly town.¢ Nonetheless, we areready to get back on the trail. Tomorrow should be a challenging day¢mostmiles, greatest total ascent, and 1-2¢ of cold RAIN. Keep us in your prayers. - NextStepElevation Data:Ascent ~ 0Descent - 0Grade - 0Weather:Day - 50 / RainNight - 40 / RainOver the Horizon: GA/NC BorderTJ Admin Note: It was difficult uploading photos with our TJ entries while on the trail, so updated the entries with a pic. Also, we are limited to one pic per post, but additional photos can be viewed by navigating to the ¢photos¢ section. Warning: I posted a pic of the bruise on my leg sustained from when I torqued it on Day 2, so if you do not like looking at that kind of thing... Finally, we really appreciate everyone offering words of support and encouragement on our guest book. I try to respond to your comments, but am unable to reply directly from the TJ page. However, I receive an email notification and reply that way. Unfortunately, if the signee does not leave a valid email address, I can not respond.