Date: 2004-05-17
From: Glasgow

To: Trail Days, Hardcore
Miles today: 0.0

May 13-May 17:Trail Days was a very fun time. We left the interchange area at about 11:30. There was a crew of workers re-asphalting the parking lot of the hotel, and I was wearing my town dress. I made about 8 trips out to the car to load the trunk. Each time I bent over to put something in the trunk they all looked over. Oh well......The ride down was fun. Apple Pie was riding with us. When we made it to Damascus we stopped by the Sidetrack to meet up with everyone. We had happy reunions with Papa Smurf and Tailwind, Grass, Midus. We also saw Melissa (Marzipan) Harmony and Numbers. We ended up camping in "Tent City" on the edge of town. The whole place was very soggy and we set the tent up in the rain. After set-up we went to the grocery store. We cooked up the chicken vegetable stir fry--very delicious. We had a few beers up by the fire and danced around the drum circle. Camel called it the hippie dance. It was fun, however primal. I met Critter and hung out with him. Seems like a nice guy.Friday we walked down to the park with all the vendors. On the way we stopped by the ATM only to realize we had only $6.25 left. So we called Mom quick and got money transferred. We shoe/short shopped but were fruitless in our pursuit. We signed up for boot fitting on Saturday. We had another fun evening at the drum circle. I drank rum with Castro and again danced around the fire at the drum circle. On Saturday we got up and cooked breakfast for everyone. It was really fun. We made apple-cinnamon pancakes and sausage. We spent almost the entire day at boot camp. At 1 pm after having been at boot camp for 3 hours I told them I had to leave and get ready for the parade. So I hurried back to camp and grabbed my flower costume. Kara and Derek ran back to get her dress. We armed ourselves with waterguns and took to the streets of Damascus. The big foam leaves of my costume were great. They served as shields to deflect the water. The citizens of Damascus all took their turns attempting to hose us off, and we, of course, retaliated. A group of people behind us had a water balloon launcher sling shot and would send water balloons soaring 100+ yards ahead. It was fantastic. After the parade I returned to the boot fitters where I discovered that Josh Turner, whom we had met in Neels Gap in '02, was there. It was really cool to see him and chat. Jay spent at least another hour fitting my boots. He pushed out the pinky and pinched in the heel to mold to my foot. We cooked up hamburgers that night after a down pour. The drum circle was extra muddy but more people than ever were dancing around it. I went to bed early that night so I could be ready to go for hard core the next day.On Sunday morning we packed up, told Derek good-bye, and rode with Camel and Fitz back to Tenn. Over 40 hikers pitched in to build a new 1/2 mile section of trail. It was great. Seiko completely hooked us up and gave us our own room with a bathroom. Very nice. Fitz drove us to re-supply and have dinner at Arby's, mmmm... The next morning we continued working on the trail and finished by painting our own white blaze! Very rewarding experience. We met a lot of awesome people we would never have met on the trail. That night we enjoyed a delicious lasagna dinner at Kincora, courtesy of Baltimore Jack. I was so full. On Monday Bob drove us back to Glasgow while we were in a sugar-induced coma after eating too many Krispy Kremes.