Note: Make sure to look below for 25 or so new photographs.

Thursday, May 29

I hiked into Pearisburg with four guys from Pennsylvania, They are called Dirt, Pilot, Truckin' and Dirty Girl. Yep, that's a guy. They all wear hiking skirts. A trend of the AT this year is to give people who hike together "team" names. Two examples are Team Hot and Team Turtle. The PA boys should be Team Kilt or something.

View coming into Pearisburg


I am spending the next couple of days resting and waiting for Andrea in the Holiday Motor Lodge. I picked it because it is cheap and it has a pool. Lots of hikers are here. I can tell because of all the tents and sleeping bags drying on the railings. I plan on dangling my feet in the pool and drinking beer there. I see Rodeo and her recent hiking partner, Bojangles, already there. I'm off.



All's well.

Pearisburg, VA. Today - ? miles, Total - 624.0 miles.

Friday, May 30

Typical day off:

6:00 am - Even though I am indoors I still wake up with the sun.
6:30 am - Enjoy the luxury of a shower.
7:00 am - Eat the pear and honeybun I bought last night for breakfast.
7:30 am - Walk around the motel looking to see if anyone else is hungry.
8:00 am - Go to the coffee shop. Run into two other thru-hikers. Eat the sweetest, gooiest thing they have.
9:00 am - Walk to the laundromat. I could do a whole post on laundry. Maybe tomorrow.
10:45 am - Start walking to library to use their internet.
11:00 am - Forget the library, I see a Subway! Time for a $5 foot-long tuna with chips and a big coke.
12:00 - Finally make it to the library. Get on the computer, read a magazine, soak up the air conditioning.
3:00 pm - Go to the Post Office and pick up my mail drop. Bring it back to the motel room. Sort it and see what supplies I need from Food Lion.
4:00 pm - Go to Food Lion and resupply. Buy a chicken salad sandwich and a family-sized bay of Cheetos for dinner.
4:30 pm - Eat dinner and watch the weather channel.
5:30 pm - Group of thru-hikers are ordering pizza. Do I want in? Sure, I can eat.
6:30 pm - Sitting by the motel pool eating pizza and drinking beer.
6:45 pm - Out of beer! Argue bitterly over who has to walk to Food Lion. Everyone willing to pay, nobody wants to deliver. Team Kilt is close to a brawl.
6:50 pm - Romanian thru-hiker Stefan averts a crisis by showing up with more beer.
8:00 pm - Go up to room to finish my Cheetos. Forest Gump is on TV. Fall asleep before the end.

All's well.

Pearisburg, VA. Today - 0 miles, Total - 624.0 miles.

Saturday, May 31

Double zero day. My legs feel good. My feet don't have to go into hiking shoes today. As promised, here is a treatise on laundry at the AT.

Since we only carry a few light articles of clothing, two or three hikers can share one machine. Very economical. Unfortunately, we have to wear something while doing laundry so you sometimes see hikers sitting in the laundromat in their rain gear. Nice solution unless you are like me and don't carry rain pants. In a hostel you can sometimes get away with wearing just a towel but in a public laundromat, that doesn't go over well. I talked to a southbounder who had trouble with the Pennsylvania police for doing that. Sometimes, that one pair of shorts has to stay on you.

Dryers are the fun part. Since we have quick-dry stuff we only need a few minutes of dry time. When our washer is almost done, we watch for somebody leaving their dryer with a few minutes left on the timer. That's the jackpot.

Yesterday I did laundry with a retired psychologist turned thru-hiker named Doc. He wore rain pants only. I wore shorts and a raincoat. We had to pay for a dryer but it was worth it to have clean stuff to wear.

All's well.

Pearisburg, VA. Today - 0 miles, Total - 624.0 miles.

Sunday, June 1

Yep, another day in Pearisburg. One more day will earn me resident status. In my defense, it was a really fun day. I was lazy in the morning but things picked up at lunch time. I walked to the Dairy Queen and ran into Mas and Blazing Star, who had just hit town. Campfire and Samson were right behind them. We had a nice reunion over fried food and Blizzards.

Blazing Star had the best tale to tell. She was ahead of me going into Damascus for Trail Days. It turns out that she did a 33 mile day into Damascus for Trail Days then passed out cold the next day. She stood up and fell right over. The noise of her head hitting the floor brought people from outside the hostel to investigate. The incident earned her a zero day in the Abingdon Hospital. She's OK.

Jogle and Becca were about an hour behind the rest of the group. Andrea rolled into town at about the same time. Andrea was tired from the drive and was happy to take a zero day. I got to introduce her around and catch up with everybody.

For the Vegas Trailblazers who read this blog, Andrea is doing well and likes living in Germany. She plans on staying another year. Sorry I took your annual Andrea visit from you. I'm really not at all sorry.

Andrea says thru-hikers eat like wolves. Not just quantity but in technique. We put our heads down and eat quietly and quickly. I need to work on table manners when I finish.

All's well.

Pearisburg, VA. Today - 0 miles, Total - 624.0 miles.