Date: 2005-05-21
From: Campsite before Catawba, VA

To: Catawba Mountain Shelter
Miles today: 5.0
Weather: clear sky

Oh boy was it chilly when we woke this morning! We packed up pretty quickly, and had our last breakfast---maple sugar oatmeal. We continued to see the pink lady slippers all the way down the mountain on the easy stretch into Catawba. We arrived at the road and began our mile walk into town, when a lady stopped and offered us a ride. I didn't get her name, but she is a local girl scout leader. She has been with the scouts since the 1960s.She dropped us at the post office and we went in to pick up Bug's new shoes! Vasque sent Bug a new pair of shoes to replace the Rangers that have been giving his feet such a fit. They are the Vasque, low-top, Catalysts, and are what is known as an approach shoe. This means that they are heavier than a trail runner, but much lighter than a boot and have the comfort of a tennis shoe. He immediately changed into them, and we sent the Rangers back to Vasque.We left the PO and went to the general store across the street and bought enough food for the two days into Troutville as well as 2nd breakfast. The lady who runs the counter fixed us up with sausage & egg biscuits, and they were the best!!! The biscuits were fluffy and the eggs were cooked to perfection. She was kind enough to offer us her backyard to hang out in, until time for The Homeplace restaurant to open down the street.Bug and I spent the afternoon sunning on the grass with the Garland 5 and The Ramblers. Chuckles and Gotta Go showed up later in the afternoon. We tried to catch up on some correspondence and reply to some emails that we have recieved. We also washed out some of our nasty, sweaty socks at the outside spigot.3:30 finally arrived, and we packed up our things and headed down the street to The Homeplace for dinner. This is an old homestead that was built in the 1800s; it originally sat on 600 acres. It was purchased in 1981 by the current owners along with the dairy farm and about 150 acres. It was renovated and turned into this wonderful restaurant.As Bug and I arrived, we found out that there was a wedding in progress. We felt a little out of place since we were so stinky and grungy looking, and then here comes the bride down the walkway in her veil and dress.Everyone was so welcoming though, and we were seated quickly after arriving. This place was hopping, and we saw prom couples there as well as a family celebrating someone's birthday. People had driven from all over the region to eat here.When we were seated, the table was already set, with pitchers sitting on the table. The pitchers contained ice tea and the best fresh-squeezed lemonade I have ever tasted! Bug and I were served immediately with bowls of mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans, hot biscuits, corn, pinto beans, coleslaw, fried chicken, and roast beef. They continued to refill the bowls until we said stop. Then it was on to blackberry cobbler ala mode for dessert...again, continually until we said stop! All of this was just $12/person, and well worth it. We have eaten at many "home-cookin" type places along the way, but this was by far the best! It was the closest we have had out here to our mothers' cooking.Many people I have heard have been surprised to hear of our feasting opportunities when they thought we would be roughing it out here for 6 months. We do rough it out there, but we love to take ample advantage of town opportunities when we have the chance. We tend to come into a town about once every 4-6 days. The rest of the time we have a tendency to live on our choice of ramen, lipton, mac and cheese, or stuffing mixes. Lunches consist of tuna or salmon on tortillas, granola bars, or pb & j on tortillas. Breakfast is usually a granola bar, poptart, oatmeal, or oatmeal breakfast square. So you see? We can't help ourselves when we see a place that offers REAL food!After gorging ourselves at the AYCE, we managed to waddle out the door. We shouldered our packs, and headed back down the road. We stopped at the general store once more to take a pit stop before hitting the trail and to call mom and dad to try and figure up a rendevous point with my sister and brother-in-law.We managed to get back to the trailhead and hike 2 miles into Catawba Mountain Shelter. This is an area that gets extremely high use, since McAfee Knob is right here. It was pretty humorous to walk the 2 miles of trail from the road, because any time there was a steep rock face to be crossed, there was a bridge stretching across the area to smooth trail. Out on many less travelled areas of trail, it is everyday fair for us to cross steep terrain on our own footing. It just tickles me a bit, because we knew that this easy trail certainly wasn't put there for us.When we arrived at the shelter the Garland 5 was there setting up camp and Chuckles and Gotta Go were set up in the shelter. After debating a little, Bug and I decided to sleep in the shelter. The plan is to wake up at 4am tomorrow morning to see the sunrise at McAfee Knob.We are settled and have been having a great time getting to know Chuckles and Gotta Go better. Guess I had better sign off if there is any chance of catching the sunrise in the morning!