Date: 2009-06-08
From: Elmer's, Hot Springs, NC

To: Zero in Hot Springs, NC
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: broken clouds

Since breakfast is served at 8:30 I figured I might as well get up and be going a bit before being woken by the breakfast bell and stumble down to breakfast. Plus I took the time to check out the hillbilly market to make sure they did not have something more than the dollar general. They did not really and everything was a bit more expensive than dollar general. Then I get back and wait for breakfast chatting very lightly. Elmer's breakfast was eggs, biscuits, gravy, grits, cantaloupe, home made granola for cereal w/ raisins, coffee, tea, a small glass of home made apple juice, apple butter, blueberry jam, butter readily available, and honey. I was the last one eating but I think I got smaller first portions of things maybe that could be one reason why. Then I start the laundry and go to look around the outfitter. I bought 3 flavors of cliff builder bars to give them all a try because they were 40 cents more for double the protein and more potassium and sodium if I am remembering right and I heard from wobbler that they are easier to eat for him than normal cliff bars. I am trying maple nut cliff bars and got my new favorite as of last resupply, chocolate almond fudge. and a sure one, chocolate peanut butter. They cost over 11 dollars and I could get a box of 6 pop tarts for 1 dollar at dollar general but cliff has a bit more protein and a lot more fiber and a hand full more vitamins. Other new foods: honey nut cheerios, soft taco tortilla to go with a big jar of peanut butter, zatarans complete rice meals with sausage & one w/ chicken.I get more laundry out of the washer and everything but the socks is covered in dirt and lint loosely on the surface. They don't smell amazingly clean, so I am a little flustered. I go back to Elmer's and think of rinsing most everything in the sink but then they would need more drying. I only decide to rinse the t-shirt cuz that is the worst. Then I just went in the backyard to shake everything out. Wobbler is back there hoping for work-for-stay to happen and planning his next leg on the trail. We talk while I shake all my clothes out. Then as I finish he gets up to look for something else to do and to check on work-for-stay. Elmer is there to ask him if he is ready to work; what luck for him. I go up to try and figure out how to pack my pack. Finally I get out of my room since it is like 11 now. It take me an hour to organize and pack all my stuff. The thru hiker lady (I should really get her name, 3rd time seeing her, she is an Asian women) is working around me dusting the room for work-for-stay. She is talking with me and happy to see my wound in its new state. She gives me a few tips. Like at 12 I finally get out of the room. As I go I bump into Elmer and I say I am heading toward the trail today. He asks for money, so I go across the street to the atm in the gas station and withdraw 20 dollar. I should have gotten 40 dollars since I determined he has the cheapest ice cream. I could get an ice cream cone for 1.09; what a great deal (blue bunny version of drumstick), and eat it on the way back to pay Elmer. Next I head for the library mainly to try and upload some photos from my camera. It does not go smoothly at all because I have like 700 photos. I tried to just download all in 1 shot to the computer but the computer was running out of memory at like 550. I tried again by just viewing the pictures instead of downloading. That worked. Then I made a new folder and dragged some of the best photos into it thinking it would be a good way to send a bunch at once onto the internet. I don't know how to upload photos to trailjournals or facebook. I never cared to try and learn and at a library, I didn't feel like digging in. I just went to aol email to attach them to send to dad and uncle scott to have them figure it out. The folder didn't attach. It just open for me to attach them singly. I put the list of pictures in, but the email cannot handle that much data. I remove some and resend. Still, more needed to be removed to send. I set up another email with more. Too many again, chop it down and then send. I talked to dad that night and he only got 1 of the picture emails full of most of the ones I didn't care for as much. I start typing some journal but then finally, after like an hour and half of free internet, some more people come needing the internet too. So I leave and go to Elmer's to take pictures of his house but no # of pictures can do it honor. It is just an experience. At Elmer's I fill my bottles and use the bathroom a final time. Then I go, planning on taking pictures of some of the guys that I think I might be hiking too different a hike from to see them again. I head up to a restaurant on the way out of town, but it is high priced and closed. So I go back to the diner and order a hotdog with chili and coleslaw. It is the most delicious mess of a meal I think I have had. I start typing on my pocketmail. Before I know it, it is dinner time and all the fellow thru hikers from the hostel come in. Oh, you are still here. I comment back in shame (not quite proper term). Still, I'm confident I can get out of town. I continue on and on. 2 of them who got there a bit earlier and relaxed with the new comers for a while, leave. I am like, yeah, I know but I am typing to knock this journal out. I really think I am almost done now and then I am out.Then another long 30 mins and it is 7:30pm now. The rest leave and I am a little shaken by the time now and less confident I will get out of town. So, quick thinking, I decide to order a flounder fillet sandwich for a dinner and to stay in town since my pack is bursting with food. Setting up a tent and repacking the pack in the morning would take too much time and be a hassle. I pay for dinner apologizing to the diner owner for spending so much time sitting and typing. I thank her for a free piece of cooked wrong peanut butter pie that came sometime during my typing; which was delicious. She commented that if there is no room at Elmer's, she has let thru hiker sleep on the back porch, if they were desperate. So, I go and ask Elmer but he said there is no room. I go and sit, cleaning out my boots, thinking what to do. 2 of the thru hikers are out messing with cell phones so I talk with them a bit and decide the diner is the best choice because I have to unpack less stuff to sleep there. I go over there. The owner sees me coming. She brings me through the locked front door to outside the employ door and says I can go get settled. I drop my pack on the back porch and reenter to ask about breakfast. It is at 6 am which is perfect for me. I looked at the menu a long while planning what to order in the morning. While I am looking at the menu, I'm given a left over slice of pizza. Then I pickup another left over slice that they were about to clear off the final table. Then I go to brush my teeth and make my "bed" on the back porch. I am so enthralled by this experience at the diner that I have call home to tell someone (dad). So I talk to him for over 30 mins on a cell phone with a dying beeping battery the whole time but it holds out somehow. Then I lay down and type more with a headlamp that is acting weak. I sleep well.