5/15/99 Uncle Jonny's Nolichucky Hostel   Miles Today : 0 Miles from Springer : 337.7

Today was a lounging day here at Uncle Jonny's. Basically, I hung out with Drive-By and ate food all day. I do want to say a few words about Erwin, the town. Its not a rich town or anything, but by far it's the nicest place on the AT up to this point. EVERYONE in the town has a heart 20 times too large and I see now why Jonny and others got trapped here.

The hostel, while right on the trail, is no where near anything else. Its 2+ miles to the Pizza Plus, 4+ to the center of town and 8+ to the supermarkets and fast food. I have not had to walk more than a half a mile before someone has given me a ride. If hitchhiking from the hostel, I barely take 10 steps, literally, before someone picks me up. All different people, willing to give hikers a hand and usually go out of their way for you to drop you off right where you want to go.

This morning Drive-By and I headed to town to get some work done on his boots and for breakfast. Two feet onto the bridge that crosses the river next to the hostel, we get a ride from a local guy running a raft tour this morning. He gives us a ride AND a donut ( Krispy Kremes, locally famous ). Score. Then, as we are walking to the cobbler, a woman in a purple car pulls over, tells us that the store has moved, shows us where the new store is, but tells us that John is never on time. So, she offers to drive us to Hardy's for breakfast, 4 miles away. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?!

But no, its not over yet. She tells us that she has to run some errands and that if we can eat in 45 minutes that she will give us a ride back to the to the cobblers. I AM NOT MAKING THIS UP! She showed up in the parking lot 40 minutes later!

So after the visit at the cobbler and another snack, we catch a ride back with a WWII vet, who tells us how he flew torpedo planes in the war and about the time he got shot down and spent THREE DAYS floating in the ocean waiting to be rescued. All this and IT NOT EVEN NOON YET.

The rest of the day was pretty uneventful. Drive-By and I hung out on the river where I soaked my ankle for a few hours. We also went to the movie theatre in town to watch Matrix; good flick. And then, as if the day wasn't good enough, hitchhiking carelessly to and from town, lying down by the river under the hot sun, eating until I thought I would burst, seeing a great movie, the day ended on the sweetest note possible. Well almost, my girlfriend is still many miles away and I didn't get to see her tonight. But as we were hitchhiking back to the hostel we got picked up by a guy in a Jeep Wrangler. Up, a genuine 1994 Wrangler with the doors off, whoo-hoo!

Tomorrow, I am going to attempt 15 miles on my bad ankle with a full pack and see what happens. Hopefully nothing. After a great day today, I am again optimistic about tomorrow.

-Chomp

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