Day 13

Dad's Last 3 Miles down to town

Day 13- This is extraordinary

Last night was your average shelter night. Woke up to hammering rain on our tin roof. Still woke up dry as a bone thanks to our circa '38 shanty. 3.2 beautiful morning miles into town. Breakfast at the diner was good. Real good. I had a western omelet with apples + a pancake. Dad had eggs + pancakes. We walked across the road to Elmer's hostel and then it all changed. Wow. The house was built back in time and everything inside is ageless. All the cards, letters, nick-knacks, instruments, newspapers, furniture, dogs, people and sights and smells add up to everything and nothing. It all just fits. We check in and we know that this just feels like home. We have a quick tour by Nancy and she shows us our room. I can't wait to sleep in the bed. Gonna be sweet. We hit the showers immediately and I soaped over twice because the first time just didn't do enough. Been over a week. We did laundry in town and split some beer in the garden. We moved the party to the local watering hole and used some local IPA to wash down some great conversation. We returned to Elmer's to find the Hiking Poles (Polish couple) playing piano. The French couple departed just before. The Poles can play beautifully. Time for dinner: four courses straight from their organic garden in the back yard. Chris prepared miso tofu soup, amazing salad w/ home made dressing, vegetable enchilada and flan for dessert. Holy crap, I was about to split I tried to eat so much, it was delicious. Tea and hiking stories cap off the meal. Some real good laughs too. Now I'm sitting in the music room listening to Nancy and Dan (neighbor) play guitar and sing folk music. Dad's reading nearby and Sean (resident) will join in the music occasionally. Dog cruises in and out at will. I wish I could write this house's vibe down. It's intangible. It's too home, too strange, to different to describe. All I know is that I love it and I'm already planning my return. Tonight, I'll listen to their music and read. I'll also sit with way too much good food in my stomach. Tomorrow, we'll go check out Hot Springs' Hot Springs, square away my next few meals and drink a few more beers. We'll do dinner here again, I'm sure. Sunday I'll head out on the Trail again but for now, this is just great.

*Elmer's hostel in Hot Springs, NC is an AT institution. He's a hippie that's never quite given up the 60's and the house surely fits that creed. I am continually surprised by the sense of community found along the trail. As soon as we set foot in that house the staff greeted us like we were friends they hadn't seen in forever. I will post pictures soon, but right now I'm sitting in an airplane headed out to Alabama on a business trip and my pictures are at home. I'm flying over the trail at 30,000 feet as I write this, how crazy is that? What I didn't write about here is that we also did laundry this day and it feels SO GOOD to have dry, clean socks and underwear. To this day, I can't wait to find a reason to go back and have dinner with Elmer.

Here's a youtube video of the John Prine song that Nancy and Dan were playing for us:






Dan and Nancy Play