Date: 2013-05-09
From: Hot Springs 

To: Hot Springs
Miles today: 0.0

It's early for me to write today's entry, only 2 pm, but I'm going to go ahead and write what I can while I have computer access in the Hot Springs library, because it's so much easier than writing tonight on my small phone keyboard.Hot Springs is such a neat little town. Very little, much smaller than I had pictured it, but so cute, and very hiker-friendly. We are staying at Elmer's Sunnybank Inn, a hostel I have always looked forward to after reading so much about it in other people's journals, it's a trail tradition. It's a gorgeous huge house right in town, dating from 1840, when the town was bustling with tourists coming to soak in the famous mineral hot springs. There are just rooms, and rooms, and rooms, in the house, built like a rabbit warren or a maze, one room opening into another and another. I couldn't begin to guess how many bedrooms there are. Nightingale and I are sharing a room. Downstairs there is a music room, and a tv room, and at least two dining rooms. There are reading nooks here and there. Every room is full of antiques and interesting AT memorabilia. It is a unique and fascinating place to be. Elmer makes gourmet meals, all vegetarian, that are available for an extra fee. I had looked forward to enjoying a meal there, but I'm actually a bit disenchanted with Elmer, and I think I'll eat at the Smokey Mountain Diner across the street, another AT tradition, and some great food. Elmer is a little....standoffish, not terribly friendly, and I get the distinct impression he either doesn't like women, doesn't like women hikers, or maybe just doesn't like me. He made a very pointed comment to another hiker with a glance in my direction about "real hikers" which led me to believe he doesn't consider me a real hiker, whatever that is, since I have hiked the same distance to get here as everyone else. And he wouldn't let Nightingale and me stay another night so we could slackpack a long section tomorrow. With half the beds empty! I don't get it. But his house is great, and I took pictures I will post.So again, what a difference 24 hours makes. Yesterday we had just the worst day, walking on that long horrible road from hell. (A local told us today, whose grandmother lives on that road, that we walked more like 17 miles!). Today, we took a zero day and did some planning for the next section, went to the outfitters and bought a couple of small items, ordered flowers for my mom for her 90th birthday and Mother's Day this weekend, ate at the Smokey Mountain Diner, and, best of all, visited the famous Hot Springs...hot springs. Nightingale and I got to spend over an hour soaking our tired bodies in the hot mineral water, and it felt great. Better than great. Then we stopped for an ice cream cone, and now we're going back to the hostel for either a nap or a movie. There is going to be live music at a cafe here in town tonight, we will go to that if we can stay up for it. I still have to reassess my food situation and count the days till we get to Erwin, TN, our next town stop, and buy enough food for that section. Tomorrow we are going to slackpack a 15 mile section north from Hot Springs, and come back here, but not to Elmer's. We will be staying at the Laughing Heart Hostel, where a bunk is only $17, and Chuck Norris, the owner, will presumably not question my credentials as a "real hiker". Sorry if I seem a bit touchy on this point. I guess I am. I just don't understand why someone whose business is dealing with the public, can't act personable and maybe, I don't know, smile occasionally? I took all your comments to heart, and am not going to go back and walk that section that I bypassed yesterday. I walked a harder walk than the section I missed, I don't want to pay $55 for a shuttle back there, and if it really bothers my conscience, I will come back and do it later, and maybe bring St. Mike to see Max Patch at the same time. Thanks for all your advice. I am not a purist, but I am closer to being a purist than to being a blue-blazer. I don't plan on making a habit of skipping sections! So I will go back and change yesterday's mileage from 0 to whatever the missing section would have been. Since I'm on a real keyboard, maybe now is a good chance to address a topic I've been thinking of lately. I have always heard that hiking the trail is more mental than physical. That's hard to fathom in the beginning, when everything seems so physically hard. And in the beginning, everything is new and kind of exciting, so it seems mentally easy. But now I can see the truth in that statement. The trail isn't truly physically overwhelming. It doesn't require any special skills to trudge up a mountain for anyone with an average state of health. The entire AT has been hiked by a 6 year old, by several 80 year olds, and by a blind man (Bill Irwin, whose book about his trek I want to read after the trail). Really, anyone can do it. Physically, it's hard, but not impossible. But mentally...ah, there's the challenge. Sure, anyone CAN hike for hours on end, but who wants to? What keeps someone going in the cold, the rain, the heat, the pain? I think most people (at least most sane people) would stop and say, "Why am I doing this to myself? I have a bed at home, and clean hot water at the turn of a tap, and a thermostat so I can control my climate." Why go on in spite of all the adversity? THAT'S the hard part. Not the hiking. The desire to do it, to accept the challenge, to prove something, but to prove it to myself, because this is too hard to do it for anyone else. Fortunately, I think I am tougher mentally than I am physically, so I can do this!