Date: 2013-05-18
From: Damascus, VA

To: Damascus, VA
Miles today: 0.0

TRAIL DAYS: Lunch at the Mexican restaurant, in walks Jennifer Pfarr Davis (aka Odyssa). What she has done is extremely remarkable, I cant even imagine doing those kind of miles per day at that speed, day in day out. Amazing. Didnt get a chance to talk to her since her friends were all around the table and she had her baby in a bjorn and was eating lunch. Great story, what an accomplishment, cool to see her in person. Off to SunDog outfitter for the parade start. Lots of familiar faces, many more I dont know. What a scene. Crazy long beards, colored mohawks, tatoos, heavyset guy with AT symbol shaved into his thick back hair, super heroes, dudes dressed like women, dogs wearing converse allstars, not even halloween yet. Crowd builds as start time approaches, supposed to be grouped by thru hiker class year but grouping turns out more random. We get the call to move so off we go. Strider is there in front of me with his big super soaker, pumping air to build up pressure. Water guns are allowed and encouraged. Tradition calls for water fights between parading thru hikers vs parade watchers (and sometimes vs fellow thru hikers). Sky is overcast, temperature is mild, a bit humid too, so getting soaked wont be so uncomfortable, wont be so refreshing either. Balloons are banned, I learned in the past someone had an idea to throw a water balloon, harmless right? Not if its frozen. Not sure of the details like who threw it or who got hurt etc but since then, water canons is the way to go. Protip shot me in the back to get my attention. Dorothy is at the side of the road, will be watching not marching. Need to try to keep my phone dry as I dont have a cover anymore. Parents and kids on lawns fire back with their own water guns. Lots of laughs, all in good fun. As we approach the gas station, I stay on the left side of the pack to photo the spectators. As we get to the corner where the route turns left onto Laurel Ave, I step onto the sidewalk and turn around to video the oncoming hikers in the parade rounding the corner. I rejoin and head towards the bridge, Hawk is now a minute ahead. I am marching next to hiker with a pug on a leash. Really enjoying the atmosphere, the laughter, smiles, water shooting back and forth. Onto the bridge over the river, about halfway through I hear a commotion: yelling, cursing, chaos coming from behind me. I turn around quick and see people running left and right. Down the center of the road, a car is quickly barreling closer. Instinctively sprint to the right side of bridge hoping to get out of the way, feels like slow motion. Hear loud thump followed by another. Didnt see it but I know what just happened. Cries of "Stop!!! Stop!!!" Panic. Turn back around I see a guy has opened the front passenger side door and car is now still where I was marching. Everything happened so quickly. Hikers rush in, "Someone's underneath!" "Pick it up!" "Get her out!" and they do. Everyone is urged to get back, police arrive, instruct all to keep moving forward. Mood changed in an instant. I feel frozen, I stand there a bit looking on in disbelief. Breathe. regain some composure then move forward. Sno is walking next to me, comforting his wife who is in tears. Police on foot order everyone onto the sidewalk. Police on ATV's race back to clear the road, ambulance follows. I see Pundit on a storefront to the left, I go to him, he shakes his head, didnt say a word but knew he was thinking the same thing. We just stand, thankful we are OK but very concerned about those who were behind us. Are they OK?? How bad is it?? On the adjacent storefront I notice two hikers holding up and comforting Miss Janet who is still visibly shaken. I get a text from Hawk, reply back I'm Ok. Lets meet up at the Place porch. We nervously pace around there, I just feel sick to my stomach thinking about what just happend. Drink some water. We hear helicopters move across the sky, landing nearby to transport injured to hospital. Didnt feel comfortable figiting around there, suggested we go to the park. There we talked about what happened with one another, many hikers in the front of the parade were largely unaware of the details and severity and were asking alot of questions. At the pavillion, hiker talent show begins as scheduled. Nuke plays and sings funny tune he wrote about a special someone he met in Erwin TN, turned out to be about norovirus, my fav bluesy performance about stomach sickness, well done. Cat Lady sings one of her originals while playing ukelele, impressive voice skills, lyrics were dark subject matter, appreciated her artistry and ukelele talent, so jealous. Atlas recites one of his epic poems about the AT, I wonder if that is what he was working on back at Mountaineer falls. One guy plays violin, another does cool beatbox. Brian Titus, who we heard play under the tent yesterday as it rained went up to perform, opened with a dedication and well wishes to those injured earlier. Glad he acknowledged and addressed it in a thoughtful way as it was sure to be on everybody's mind. Did a sweet version of John Denver's Country Road. Big winner was Clever Girl who did a unique rendition of Katy Perry's Fireworks, really knows how to work the crowd and saves the best for last, biggest reaction of the night. Glad to be here to see and here my trailmates perform, feel alot better than I did earlier. Had dinner at one of the popular restaurants, shall remain nameless. They made their menu much smaller for Trail Days and jacked the prices way up too. Quality of the food seemed to take a hit also. Last week they were serving big burgers, for the festival they switched to the thin frozen fast food type burgers for higher price. Also, one person i was with ordered a philly cheesesteak, it was served without the cheese! When done eating we all looked at the bill and then each other, consensus was we should've went elsewhere to eat, festival food tents would've been a better option. Karaoke night at the Blue Blaze, really fun time, Cat Lady was up on stage singing when we came in, also saw Pundit, Earth Balance, Fire Hazard and my favorite was Hugs perform Baby Got Back.