Woke up this morning and was the first out of camp. Of course, since I was the only one in my camp, that was to be expected. Around 7 or so, I guess. When I made it to the next shelter everyone there was just packing up. I stopped to make a hot breakfast (knorr ricesides). It was freezing this morning. Literally. I am so sick of cold and snow. Just going to rain tomorrow. Yay. I ate breakfast with Joules and Canary, and I then spent most of the day walking with one or the other of them, or both. Good company. Canary sings, thus the name.
We stopped for lunch at this grassy (and more importantly, sunny) spot where the AT intersected an old road bed. There were several people there already, including Funsize, Pintsize, the nameless one (I'm not putting real names here, and this guy doesn't have a trail name yet), the Michiganers (Wiffle and Tuesday) and a guy named Routestep who I hadn't met previously. Also some firefighter from Florida doing a section hike the other way. Walk Worthy came up as we were eating. He told me about a hostel 17 miles from Hot Springs, where I'd be able to watch the UK game tomorrow night. First I'd heard of that hostel. Really don't want to stay in a hostel tomorrow but if I get to watch UK.... Maybe. Probably. The Michiganers got up to head on down the trail (this couple is freakishly fast, we call them the insanely fast couple) and Funsize asks them if they're thru-hikers. They replied yes, so she said "The AT is over here." They were taking the wrong path. Pretty funny, cause no one else even realized.
Made it to town about 4, and we're staying at the Laughing Heart hostel. Good place. Run by Chuck Norris. I like it a lot, as a hostel might be my favorite one yet. Walked a hair under 15 miles today, and still got my laundry and resupply done. Talked with Routestep while doing laundry. Apparently only myself, Survivorman, and Funsize understand where his name came from. It's a military term.
Hot Springs is great. They had a community pot luck today to which all hikers were welcome. For free. Food was great. Most of the hikers were there, One Day was there, and so was Pretzel and Carnie Hands (who hates that I call her that), and most of the hikers I've met over the last week or two. After eating there, I met up with Walk Worthy and Routestep at the tavern, which was supposed to have this great burger. It was pretty good, but no Red Robin. The strawberry cheesecake we split was really good, though. Pretty much my day. The big downer for the day was the Dollar General Store didn't carry summer sausage. I made do. Falling asleep as I'm writing this, so good night.
Hope you get a chance to watch the game. Love, Aunt Marty
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