Date: 2011-06-01
From: Bald Mountain Shelter

To: Erwin, TN Best Southern Motel
Miles today: 16.3
Weather: few clouds

Day 45This morning a guy named Warrant came to the shelter with a little beagle he had found on the trail. Now, I have mentioned hiker funk in the past. We all smell, but most of the time you can only smell yourself. BTW, I actually woke myself up last night when I turned to lay on my stomach and put my arms up to lay on. This stench that woke me out of a sound sleep was NOTHING compared to the eye watering funk-entity that was Warrant. He came and sat on the edge of the shelter about 2 feet from the left side. My stuff was about 2 feet from the right. The shelter was probably about 15 feet across. I swear to you my eyes started watering. I had to move my stuff OUT of the shelter in order to pack it up!Did I mention that the button to my pants came off in Hot Springs? The pants that have been being held up by a rope since about mile 100? Well the other day I broke the zipper. So, this morning I took some neon green paracord someone had left in the shelter and an awl and made a "lace" for my pants. I'm so fancy! There is a thread of green in the "belt" too, so I am all coordinated now We had a fairly uneventful hike out to Spivy Gap. When we got there we decided to hitch into town, but there wasn't a lot of traffic and we had no idea which way town was. A college kid named Caleb stopped and told us town was to the west (he was going east) and he said he would give us a ride. He had to take armloads of stuff and move it to the trunk in order to fit us, and we were still sitting on stuff. Eve sat on Turtle's lap in the front seat and I sat in the back amongst the beer bottles and cig packs with our packs. It was a harrowing ride into town!He dropped us off at McDonald's (OMG! A BigMac tastes so good out here!) I realized I am missing something in tomatoes, cuz not only have I craved things like spaghetti sauce and asked for tomatoes on my sandwiches, but yeah, when I filled the little cup with ketchup I found myself drinking it!Anyway, there wasn't any place in town that would take pets and Turtle really wanted to stay in town as opposed to the hostel. I will have to get to the hostel for my mail drop tomorrow, and Amy is sending a FedEx there Friday, so town tonight is ok. But we had to Kennel Eve. Turtle called the animal hospital from McD's and they kennelled, but closed at 6. It was now just after 5 and they were about 5 miles out of town. We started walking fast!OMG the heat! Warrant had said Erwin was hot! No wonder he smelled so badly! Turtle walked at his own fast pace with Eve while I tried to hitch and keep up behind. I saw a couple guys getting into their cars to go home after work and ran over to ask if either might be able to give us a ride to the animal hospital. One guys said yes; I threw my pack in the trunk, jumped into the back seat and we snagged Turtle and Eve about 1/5 mile up the road. Eve jumped into the back set, but wouldn't go past my feet on the floor. Turtles shoved his pack in past me in the back then got into the front, but couldn't put the seat back cuz Eve was laying there. That was interesting. bAt the kennel I asked if there was taxi svc in town, they said no but the hostel did shuttles and they called them for me. It would have cost $25 for a ride into town! There was another couple there and I looked at them and asked if they might be going into town. They said yes and they had a pickup so they could take us in. I rode in the back of a pickup for the first time in about 35 years! All in all a successful day! I'm a successful hitchhiker!