Thumbin' It to Hot Springs

Yesterday, after nearly a week at Standing Bear Farm, I finally made a move. El-Train had hiked in from Newfound Gap (he bailed from the Smokies the day before I did with a sprained knee) and he wanted to make up some time, so the two of us decided to hitch-hike to Hot Springs.

Before I go into story-telling, let me just say that I am feeling greatly optimistic and rarring to get out there and hike to Maine.

Anyways, in the morning El-Train and I started packing up and Curtis offered to drive us down to hwy. 70, which would leave us with a straight shot all the way into Hot Springs. He dropped us off at 11:00 and within 5 minutes a car pulled over to pick us up. We piled into a tiny baby blue toyota that reeked of cigarettes, and met Robin, our driver. El-Train, in an attempt to be nice, commented on the beauty of the area.

"I'm not from Newport, I'm from Cosby. There all a bunch of nigger-lovers in Newport. There ain't sh*t in Newport." Robin exclaimed.

El-Train and I exchanged a look that said "If I jump out will you follow me?"

She then went on to explain that she didn't even know where Maine was, and didn't think we'd be able to find it, and that to get to Hot Springs we really should have been on a different road.

"The interstate goes to North Carolina. You've got to get to North Carolina and then you can go to Hot Springs or wherever. You should be on the interstate." Robin then dropped us off at a parking lot in front of a bar where she worked. The place was a trailer in the middle of nowhere, about 20 miles away from Hot Springs but still on the right road, as we knew and Robin apparently didn't. Her final message was one of warning,

"I don't like North Carolina. It's always cold, even in summer."

After an hour of no luck in front of the bar, El-Train and I walked farther down to see if we could find a gas station or something less sketchy. We walked about a mile, with frequent rests for my leg, and just as we were starting to lose hope, faced with a continuous uphill and several barking dogs, a woman pulled over in her pickup truck and told us she could get us within 7 miles of Hot Springs. We hopped in the back, thanking her profusely, and set off once more. We were elated, and exchanged looks of joy. The wind rushing in our hair was pure bliss... i meant motion, progress, and being that much closer to a real meal (The food available at Standing Bear Farm, while better than trail-food, was still all frozen). I commented to El-Train,

"All of the books about the AT have pictures of trees and mountains on the cover. If I write a book about the AT, the cover will be plain white with a huge freaking cheeseburger in the middle." It's all about food -- and I'd barely hiked in the past two weeks.

Finally we were dropped off at a gas station. El-Train bought a pepsi and some beef jerky and we started walking. Finally we were picked up in another pickup truck, and taken straight into downtown. We had made the 35 mile trip in 3 hours and 4 rides. Not bad, we thought.

In Hot Springs, I checked into Elmer's Sunnybank Inn. It's an old victorian home on a hill, with a music room and several original bathrooms with large claw-foot tubs. Most describing is the book collection. Every room in the house is filled with bookshelves. Every left-wing political or social commentary book ever written can be found at Elmer's, along with a huge collection on Zen Buddhism, the entire works of nature-writer Edward Abbey, and a large shelf of books on the AT, among many other collections that I have yet to discover.

And they serve dinner. An amazing three course vegetarian meal, family style, at 7 o'clock every night. Last night we had cheesy corn chowder, a salad, and a red curry on rice, finishing with homemade cherry cobbler and vanilla ice cream. Wow! It was the best $10 I've ever spent on food.

Today I am just running errands - post office, outfitters, laundry, etc. Tomorrow I'll read and pack, and on Saturday I plan to hit the trail again... FINALLY! I am so pumped up. I want to go RIGHT NOW, but everytime I walk up steps I am reminded that to do so would be very unwise.

More on my stay at Standing Bear Farm coming tomorrow, maybe.