Took our time getting ready today. We have decided to go to a hostel tonight since it is supposed to storm this afternoon & tonight.
Saw a bunch of pink ladyslipper orchards, which are pretty rare.
We went over Dragon's Tooth today! This is a really neat stone monolith that is 0.1 miles off the AT. There were lots of dayhikers out today. This area is really close to Virginia Tech, so lots of students are out and about since their finals are over. One girl was out with her boyfriend and noticed our packs - she asked me if we were going camping. I said we were staying at a hostel tonight, but we had been camping last night. She asked where we started hiking, and when I said "Georgia" she looked at me as if I were an ALIEN. I couldn't resist - said "yeah, we've hiked almost 700 miles so far" - and then she REALLY looked at me like I had tentacles growing out of my face. It was really funny.
Saw our first rhododendron bloom today!
We stayed at the Four Pines Hostel which is really a 3 bay garage with cots & lawn chairs & couches for sleeping. Pretty chill place, Joe is a really cool guy, he runs the place with his two sons. It is "donation only" - has a shower, fridge, electricity, a radio. The best part (besides the shower/fridge/electricity/radio/being indoors/cell service) is that he shuttles to the grocery store and the HomePlace Restaurant - a ridiculous family style all you can eat place.
There was an hour long wait, and we hung out on the grass like the hiker trash we are. Once our table was ready, we went back and rolled up our sleeves. The waitress brought out fried chicken, pulled pork, mashed potatoes, green beans, pinto beans, biscuits, baked apples...it was amazing. The food kept coming until we were stuffed...and then we had peach cobbler with ice cream! The *only* bad thing was we had in our group one of the most obnoxious people I have ever met. He talked a lot but made very little sense, and whistled at the waitress to get her attention. The second time he did this I said something to him about it. The third time he whistled at her the whole table started griping at him about being rude. He said - "dude that's what we do in Costa Rica, it's not degrading it's just a habit"...then "i fought for this country"...then "i hate this f***ing country". But he stopped whistling at the waitress.
Greyhound is here tonight (super nice guy), so are Magnolio (SOBO), Derelict, DayPack (from AL!), Samba and his buddy (forgot his name), along with a couple other people whose names I unfortunately don't remember.
