Day 27 – Welcome to Uncle Johnny’s House
I woke up this morning with a pretty stiff back, but other than that I slept pretty well. Quick rest from camp, since today I will be doing laundry, I am going to walk in my sleep/clean clothes. So no need to change. I quickly ate my last pie and continued on my way.
Nolichucky River by Erwin, Tennessee
This morning’s walk was short, just a little over 3 miles to Erwin, or at least to Uncle Johnny’s Lodge, where I’ll be staying tonight. Luckily, it’s practically on the road when you get to town. As for hiking, almost everything was down and most of it was pretty easy to walk. There were a couple of ups and downs at the beginning, but after that everything was steady. Before beginning the switchbacks to Erwin, I also enjoyed some nice views of the Nolichucky River. You can still see part of the bridge that was there before Hurricane Helene ripped it away.
On the other side is a section of the bridge that the trail passed over.
Around 9:30 am, I arrived at Uncle Johnny’s house and got a bunk bed and a shower. I hopped on the 11:00am bus into town, where I had lunch in Red Fork and worked on my food resupply at Food City. I wandered around the city for a few hours before returning to the hostel. Back at the hostel I got in line at the laundry room and while I waited, I worked on blog posts for a couple of hours. Once all that was complete, I ordered a large pizza from Domino’s and demolished it.
He had no chance…
That was pretty much the summary of the day. A lot of time is spent thinking about what to do tomorrow. I don’t want to take another ZERO, since I just took one in Hot Springs, but with my back bothering me and my cough lingering, rest is probably a good idea. Plus my shoes don’t arrive for 2 days. We’ll see, if I feel good in the morning, I’ll do a few more kilometers. But it seems that tomorrow I am heading towards an unplanned ZERO.
Day 28 – Reluctantly resting
ZERO unplanned day at Erwin due to my back and cough. I wasn’t planning on another ZERO until Damascus, VA, but my body had a different plan. While I could walk today, I can’t afford for my back or cough to get worse, as that could have more serious repercussions. So I chose a rest day in an effort to “listen to my body.” Plus, waiting until tomorrow to receive my new shoes in the mail is also a good excuse. I know, it’s a marathon, not a sprint, but I’m still upset.
View of the Nolichucky River from Uncle Johnny’s
Not much activity today outside of gluttony, but I’ll share it anyway. I hopped on the free 9am shuttle into town for breakfast, aiming to eat enough to be okay until the late afternoon (4pm) shuttle back into town for dinner. One of the most convenient options was Bojangles and I don’t think I’ve ever been to one. A quick look I saw they had cookies and that was enough for me. I am a fan of cookies. I bought a couple of breakfast cookies, chips, and iced coffee. Everything was pretty good! Since the bus back to the hostel wasn’t until 11am, I still had some time to burn. So I went to Walgreens to buy some cough supplies and then to the grocery store, Food City, to buy a pint of ice cream to eat at the shelter. That took about the time it took for the ferry to return and take me back to the hostel.
My digs over the last 2 nights.
The rest of the day passed quite calmly. I finished some small to-dos I had, got completely caught up in my blog posts, watched a movie, ate my ice cream, and checked my shoe tracking about 12 times. Before I knew it, it was time to head back to the city on the 4 pm bus. On the terrace of the hostel, before boarding the bus, the new group of hikers that arrived that day were sitting and some familiar faces appeared! Over the past week, I had gotten out of my family bubble of people for the most part, but there were some people here that I recognized and knew, which was exciting! A brief chat followed before boarding the ferry for dinner.
Walking through Drive-thru’s?
They dropped me off in town and decided I was going to try Pal’s, a local fast food chain. However, as I walked to the store, I realized there was only a self-service option. And from past experience, I knew that fast food restaurants don’t like people trying to go through the drive-thru to order food… Sure, that past experience might have been a Tex Mex restaurant chain that had a big ad campaign involving a Chihuahua in the late ’90s. And it may have been much later. Anyway, I was sure it wasn’t allowed. But I digress. So, I walked to Bojangles and ate there again. This time, fried chicken and their blueberry dessert cookies. Later, while waiting on the bus, another hiker talked about how he went to Pal’s and walked through the drive-thru. Which disappointed me, because I thought you couldn’t do that… Anyway, he said it was good food.
Since one of my points of this blog is to educate, I researched (Googled) the entire journey for a self-service situation. The best I can tell is that many large chains are against their company policies to have people walk through the drive-thru for safety and liability reasons (makes sense). But it doesn’t seem to be illegal. The more you know.
Statistics for the 27th:
3.2 miles
2128′ ascent, 1,677′ descent
Stealth site for Erwin. Tennessee (mile 344.6)
19 DSLC…
Stove use times: 4
Tracker of whole pizzas consumed: 3
Statistics for the 28th:
0 miles
0′ rise, 0′ fall
Erwin, Tennessee to Erwin, Tennessee
20DSLC…
Stove use times: 4
Cookies consumed today at Bojangles: 5
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