Day 43

Day 43 -April 19 2017- 6.2 miles – No Business Shelter to Erwin.

The decent down into Erwin went pretty quickly.  There was one good view of Erwin from the trail and everyone stopped to take a picture.

The trail dumped us right onto a road in the back skirts of town.  Uncle Johnnys’ Hostel right across the street.  Wolfie went in to pick up a resupply package and Stoat and I kind of milled about wondering how we were going to get to the Super 8 hotel that was several miles on the other side of town.  Initially we thought we might be able to hitchhike in but there wasn’t any passing traffic at that time of day.

Wolfie came back out with his package and told us we made the right decision to go to the Super 8.  The hostel owners were super nice  and were known in the hiker community for their generosity,  but the hostel was more of a party hostel and that wasn’t our scene.

We saw Bisquick and Brooklyn talking to a guy next to a van.  The guy was a shuttle driver for Uncle Johnnys’ and could give us a ride for a few bucks.  We took him up on the offer.  I should probably mention that he was a little rough around the edges and was wearing a fake wolfs head as a hat.

Once we were in the van I had to chuckle to myself.  If I saw the guy in my “normal” life I probably would have thought of giving him money NOT to get in his van.  But life on the AT is different.  Everyone is a little more accepting of everyone and a little more trusting.  I didnt think twice about the guy before I got in the van.  He seemed nice enough and that was good enough for me.

Once we got on the road the driver said ” You guys like Skynyrd?”, and turned up the radio.  And so we arrived in Erwin with a guy wearing a wolfs head hat and Lynyrd Skynyrd blasting on the radio.  What an experience!

When we got to the hotel we wound up having to wait for the rooms to be ready.  So, we decided to wait in the lobby.  There waiting with us were: Wolfie, Bisquick, Brooklyn, Zeus, Flashfire, Terry, Godzilla and Turkey.  More and more hikers started showing up.  Rumor had it that 60 hikers wound up staying there that night.

After we got our room Stoat and I went to the Huddle House and had lunch.  Then we walked a mile to the local supermarket to resupply.  The cashier asked us if we were thru hikers and then gave us a discount.

Zeus, Godzilla, and Turkey went in search of a mythical all you can eat KFC restaurant only to find that they stopped doing that last year.

Stoat and I really didn’t care what we ate as long as it was close.  We wound up eating at the Hubble House again for Dinner.  A hiker named Ten Fiddy joined us and we shared trail stories.

The sky began to grow dark and that was our signal that is was almost bed time.

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