Day 81

Day 81 May 27 – 0 miles –   Waynesboro VA

For most of the day we just stayed at the hotel and relaxed.  All our errands were done the day before and it felt good to do a whole lot of nothing.

The Guardians of the Galaxy 2 was playing at the local theater and we made plans with Zeus to go see it.  Stoat and I began walking to the theater when a guy in a parking lot called over to us.  He asked if we were thru hikers.  When we said we were, he said, ” Hold on a minute I’ll be right there.” After moving some stuff around in his car he came over and offered us a ride to the theater down the road.  We took him up on the offer.

His twelve year old daughter sat in the front seat and we sat on the back.  The fact that her dad just picked up some random strangers had no effect on her.  I got the feeling that this wasn’t the first time he had picked up hikers.

On the way over to the theater the guy told us that he had thru hiked several years ago and we shared some stories.  When we got to the theater he insisted on paying for our tickets.

He told us of a time during his thru hike that he thought about quitting.  He was somewhere in New England and the weather had been terrible.  A elderly woman invited him to stay at her house until he felt good enough to continue.  His trail name was “Great Legs” and he got a kick out of the fact that the woman called him that the whole time he was there.  I believe he was there a few days before deciding to complete his thru hike.

That act of kindness had a very big effect on Great Legs.  He wanted to “pass it forward” whenever he could and asked that we would do the same some day.  How cool is that?

A little while after Great Legs left, Zeus showed up.  He was a little disappointed that he missed some trail magic, but he got to take a picture of himself on a throne that was randomly set up in the middle of the lobby.  Zeus got to sit on his throne.  The name of the theater ….was Zeus Theaters.

After the movie Stoat and I went to a Mexican restaurant to eat dinner.  There was some music playing while we ate that made us crack up in laughter.  There was a beeping sound that would come and go at random.  It was like the band asked if anyone at the recording studio had any talents that they could add to the song and one guy said, “I know Morse code.”

After dinner we decided to call it a day and went back to the hotel.

During the middle of the night I spent a lot of time trying, unsuccessfully, to not throw up.  I didn’t eat that much at the restaurant so I assume it was food poisoning.  Whatever it was, made it so I didn’t get much rest.

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