Date: 2006-05-21
From: Damascus, Va. (Trail Days)

To: Team Steve's House (Pa.)
Miles today: 0.0

9:47 a.m. In the car on the way back from Trail Days. Today is our third zero day in a row. I'm kind of sick of them and kind of not. Trail Days was fun, and I'm really happy I went, but I felt somehow "off" for parts of the weekend, and I want normal life back (normal trail life, not normal life like before). I want Team Steve to be back up where we are instead of back at the 501 shelter, 60 or 70 miles back. I want Lockjaw to be with us instead of at home at his sister's graduation, getting behind. I don't want the boredom of PA or the rocks. It's pretty exciting that we'll be knocking down states like crazy though. One thing that scares me, however, is the fact that we now need to average about 19 miles a day with no zeros for the rest of the trip in order to finish "on time." That number is looming over me, and while the guys talk about how easy it is and how they could easily do 25 every day, I'm feeling a little mentally worn out. I'm still having the time of my life, though, don't get me wrong. On Friday we got to Damascus at about 3:30 p.m. We parked the car and then walked a long way to Tent City, the area where the hikers all camp. The ground was swampy even though it was a nice day. I set up the bigger tent my parents send me for this weekend. We cooked dinner on a small grill we brought, and mingled with hikers we knew, had heard of, or knew nothing about. We saw Thumper, which was great. He's a good guy, and it makes me sad that I probably won't see him again except maybe at Trail Days next year or if I go to SC sometime to visit Lockjaw (Thumper's a South Carolinian too). We also saw Feather, Firefly, Treefingers, Rambleon, Little Brother, Casino, Christmas and Chief, and Tofurky and Stewball. Then it poured all night. Really hard. Fortunately (sarcasm) Lockjaw left our tent door open, and even in such a way to kind of funnel water in (accidentally, of course; some beer was involved). So I woke up in standing water in the tent. All our stuff was wet, and it continued to be overcast most of yesterday, so our stuff didn't really get to dry. Saturday (yesterday) morning, I woke up relatively early because of all the water. Sunshine and Sunshine's dad (who came down from NJ for Trail Days) and I went to the Dairy King for breakfast. Then we went back and I worked on sorting the dry-ish stuff from the sopping stuff in our tent. Lockjaw packed his stuff (because he was getting picked up by his dad in town at 11 a.m. to go home) and then we all went from Tent City to downtown Damascus to check out the goings on. There were gear vendors, carnival food stands, and random crafts and stuff. Most of the day was spent wandering around, getting free stuff or buying stuff or looking at stuff or people. I got new shoes at the outfitters. At 2:00 was the hiker parade. We marched behind the 2006 banner, and it was pretty cool. The townspeople of Damascus lined the street, and it was just a big water fight between them and us. I got a little wet, but not too bad. I got hit by a couple of water balloons that just hit me and bounced off. Phew. I was actually on Sunshine's shoulders and thought I'd get drenched, but people didn't target me as much as I expected. Last night we went to the "useless gear contest," which was a hilarious unofficial event. I sat by a bonfire for a while, and then called it an early night. Last night, from the sounds of it, was an even bigger party than Friday. Yelling, screaming, laughing, shouting, drums, music, singing. And all this in the swamp of Tent City. Last night, though, I was dry and had a whole double tent to myself and except for having to go out in the mud twice to take a pee, I slept well.