Date: 2007-05-19
From: Damascus, Va

To: Beartree Campground(11.6 out of Damascus)
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: scattered clouds

WOW, trail days rocks! If you are a hiker you must go. I will go every year for now on. To tell the story will be difficult. It starts out with "Tamborine" & Shannon waking me up at 5:15am behind the Ymca. Now before there are any misconceptions: both women are married; so, no stories here. When we got to the car, I met "Tootsie Roll". Yes, she is a woman of color and when she was asked her trail name, she said, ""Tootsie Roll" with a shake of her hips. She was great fun the whole time. We joked around alot. No romance story here, either. We were quickly on our way down I 64 to Damascus, Va for trail days. I ate a few things and soon after were drinking Crown Royal(with Shannon) with Corona chasers. Her and I finished the bottle by the time we got there. When we got to Damascus, we drove right thru town to the campground. It was 11.6 miles out of town. We got to the campground on May 18th at 9:30am. I was impressed with these woman. They know how to camp. It was not 30 minutes and we had the whole site set up. And being that we had partied for awhile, we took a nap, until around 2 or 3 pm. When we woke; we were joined by 5 more girls from Washington, DC. We got to celebrating again and I did not even make it to Damascus on the 18th. I was going around saying that I am going to get a T-Shirt that says, "I went to Trail Days and never went to Damascus"! I had so much fun eating; building up the fire; partying; gathering wood; telling stories; giving psychology lessons; etc. The girls even gathered a bunch of wood. Even the Washington, DC socialite: Antoinette. It was so much fun entertaining this many ladies; cant say the same for them, though. I was wondering where all of my Thru-hiker buddies were when I needed them. Eventually, I fell asleep by the fire; burning up a tarp that I was laying on. The next morning was much of the same. Tamborine had not missed a thing in preparing for this trip. I must have ate about a dozen eggs and a pound of bacon. After we ate, we finally got to Damascus around noon on the 19th. The girls dropped me off at the laundramat. As soon as my clothes were clean; I had to go line up for the hiker parade. While lining up; I saw all kinds of people I knew from several decades back. Although, not all of them remember me. Of course, I was looking for "Mr Happy" & "Mo Lassus; The Jersey Diamond". When the parade took off: I was right behind the Grand Marshall who was dressed in some type of eclectic Santa costume. The reason that I was so far up front was that the hikers line up from earliest thru hikers to latest. There were only about 4 pre-1990; then me. I was between them and the 1994 crew. I stayed up front for sometime and then started heading back towards the 2007 group which must have had 500 representatives. On the way back: I met "FAL and Hercules". I later met "Santa's Helper" and from no were came "Snack Break". We gave each other a spontaneous hug. Man, she looks good in jeans! We talked a bit and she said "Mo" was back at "tent city"(the place where the hikers tent). Her and I talked for a bit and while dodging dozens of water baloons; I saw "my boy" Mr Happy. It was so great to see him. It was funny because he is bigger than I am now. When we started; he was a skinny kid and I was a big dude. He and I walked back into town after the parade and met up with the girls. Tamborine was dragging and we went back to the campground and "Mr Happy" got the fire going while I prepared the pork tenderloin, T-bone steaks, corn on the cobb, roasted carrots, roasted squash, shrimp kabobs, and more. "Tootsie Roll" said that I was smiling the whole time and looked very Happy. "Mr Happy" took his shirt off to adjust the grill and drew(see next days journal)