Our hike has been replete with southern hospitality. It seems like everywhere we go, people are bending over backward to make sure we are comfortable and well taken care of.
From Slick's mom, who got up early to cook breakfast, lunch, and dinner to 3 girls she had never met before, to the owners of the Shady Lawn Lodge, who drove hikers to and from the trail as a complimentary service, to the waiter at the Mason Jar, who went out back and gave us the leftover sweet yea and biscuits to take with us when we left, it seems that everyone is going above and beyond to help us out.
In everyday life, going to work, paying the bills, trying to get all your errands done, it's easy to get caught up in all your own stuff and forget that we are all on this together. On the trail, things are different. You rely on the kindness of strangers and the goodness of others to help you get it all done. And in return, you try to pay it forward in some small way, to somebody else.
It seems to be a way of life down here.
So though I titled this "southern hospitality", I'm hoping that this is not, in fact, a southern thing, or even a trail thing. I'm hoping that all this helpfulness and good will is something that has existed all around me and until just recently, I've been too busy to notice.

In North Carolina, I came across this side trail:

So, of course, I followed it. At the bottom of a hill, was a pile of M&M's under a box that was propped up by a stick. Hmmm. That seems very strange. But hey, free M&M's!
It took Big Spoon and Chiclet 2 hours to free me.

One thing every hiker has, no matter what the weight of their pack, is a journal. Seems we all want to record and remember pur experiences here and we are all positive that we are going to turn put journal musings into a best seller!
I had purchased an iPad mini before leaving, to use as a computer and kindle and possibly as a journal, though I wasn't sure how easy it was going to be to journal on a tablet. So I brought both: an iPad and a paper journal with the intention of making a decision early on about my preferred journaling method.

WORTH THE WEIGHT:
The iPad! Takes a little getting used to, but not hard at all. And for less weight than a paper journal.

EXPELLED:
Paper journal in a hiker box at Neel's Gap!

I met Sweet K my second day on the trail. She came up and said "it's nice to see other females on the trail. We are certainly outnumbered, aren't we?" Yes, we are. By about 20 to 1!
Sweet K is just that: sweet as can be. On the day of the sleet storm, when everyone else was grumbling and looking like drowned rats, Sweet K just said "my, it's wet today, isn't it?"
She is a section hiker, has been dping sections for a few years now, and was tackling the southern section in between semesters at grad school this year. For a few days, she hiked with the Upstate, K-Biz, Chiclet, Big Spoon, and Pink LAdy brigade. And we all nearoed at the Hampton Inn together the tornado warning day.
After pur yellow blaze decision, Sweet K got up the next morning and decided to stash her pack in her tent so she could slack pack south and cover the miles we weren't able to get to the day before.
Afterward, we got a text that she had cme to some decisions and was not going to return to school, she was getting off the trail, and going home to take care of some personal business. The text made me sad, because I had thought she would be very good at the field of study she was going into. However, we all must hike our own hikes and live our own lives and obviously, she known better than I do what is right for her.
She did say she was going to be on Virginia in May, do I'm hoping we run into one another again.

(I don't have a decent picture of Sweet K because her hair was always even crazier and out of control than mine. I wanted to wait until her hair wasn't sticking up in 27 directions before taking a pic. Sadly, that never happened)

May10: I was up at 6:30 am, HOT! You know it's gonna be a hot day when you are hot at sunrise! All the folks at the shelter were packed and gone and I was still sitting there, waiting for the guys. Finally, they showed up. We took some shots of the views from the shelter and hot the trail.

The morning was tough, still lots of uphill. I hiked on shorts and a t-shirt, sucking down water and swatting bugs away. We lunched and replenished water at Ironpuntain Shelter with some section hikers. We were all pretty tired from yesterday, with low motivation.
Afternoon was a little easier, more level terrain. We passed a cooler of trail magic... empty! Denied! That hurts.
Across the road, the trail entered a cow pasture for a while before entering back onto the woods.

Then the thunder starts rumbling again. Determined to outrun the storm, I pushed ahead at a pretty good speed, not stopping until I reached the next shelter. The guys arrived about 5 minutes later. We replenished water and then the skies opened up. We decided to do an early dinner and then if it cleared up to push ahead another 2-3 miles.
It did stop raining but I wasn't thrilled about setting upstate tent in the mud, so I opted for the shelter with Sub while Hawkeye and Raid Runner continued ahead. I was dry, but had to contend with shelter snores! Not a lot of sleep.

May 9: our strive for 18 miles with 3.8 thousand vertical feet of climb. (2 up, 2 down, then 1.8 up again)
We showered again on those awesome showers and had hot chocolate before hitting the trail. I led the group for awhile down to Laurel falls where we stopped for pictures and then lost the trial temporarily, climbing up a steep, treacherous non-trail before turning around. Strangely, that's what seems to have fixed my ankle!

Subaru by the falls

Hawkeye by the falls

When we found the trail, again, it started put as a nice, meandering stroll next to the river

Road Runner by the river

Then we started climbing. And climbing. And climbing. Real steep. Real long. Climb climb climb. Then climb back down. I'm starting to get to the point where I need to carry easily accessible snacks so I can eat in between my 6 meals a day because I'm getting bonked, especially when climbing up and down. At the bottom of the climb were 5-6 14" steps made of railroad ties in the hill. I slipped on the top step and landed sitting on the bottom step - BANG- me and the backpack weight. Ouch.
The trail was reputed on the lower elevation because of flooding, and we actually did walk through neighborhoods for a while. We decided to stop for lunch and water at Watauga Lake Shelter, which was really nice. I started acting a bit saucy, saying I had thought of the perfect birthday presents for the guys whose birthdays recently passed (next town we stay at that has movies...Iron Man 3 tix. How awesome is that?) But, in typical Heather style, when attempting to dangle the idea of "perfect b-day present" in their noses, I tripped over a rock and almost went sprawling. So much for cool and suave.
After lunch we crossed a dam and then continued to climb straight uphill for a few hours. Good times.

We finally got to a water source .2 miles before the next shelter and .3 miles down a steep hill. So when the guys suggested going halfway back down the hill to camp, I pushed ahead to the shelter and tented there with 7 or 8 Getman hikers

May 7: Back on the trail. It's starting to seem like Monday morning going back to work when we lace the boots up! We got a ride back to the trail from the owner of the Shady Lawn Lodge where we had just stayed. They were so nice and accommodating. I picked up another fuel canister at a hostel and then we were back in the woods.
It was a good day of easy hiking on soft- underfoot smooth terrain. The trail wound around the towns of Roan and Elk Park so that we'd hike by a cemetery, a church, a sports field. I was expecting to stroll through somebody's backyard while they were grilling on the deck! Then we went uphill and away from the towns.
The sky turned a threatening grey with rumbling in the distance, so we decided to stop at a shelter after only 10 miles. The rain continued, so pur stop turned into an overnight stay.
The shelter was one of the nicest I've seen on the trail so far. Three levels of sleeping space, lots of hanging hooks, ample table space to cook on, and a good water source. Did a little more hanging out and socializing with other hikers than usual, which is also nice. Pretty decent sleep for a snorey shelter, too!

May8: up and ready to hit the trail at 8, but Hawkeye and Road Runner needed a bit more time, as they had opted to tent outside the shelter and they were drying out. Do Sub and I headed out with plans to meet at Mooreland Gap shelter for lunch. We hiked all morning in rain gear, as the sky looked threatening. It never did rain, and we were hot and sweaty from pur efforts. Of course, the second we stopped, I got cls and had to pile pn layers for lunch.
I've been loving my cheese and tuna on wheat thins for lunch! Complete with my bandana table cloth, I'm like Martha Stewart, I tell you!

After lunch, with rain still threatening, we decided to stop at 16 miles and stay in Brown Bear Cabins for the night. Hot, clean showers, laundry, microwave, ice cream, alcoholic beverages, movies in the "bear's den", and brand new mattresses on the bunks. All for $10 per person!
Pack Man made one of his appearances, looking for Smiles, and we hung out and chatted for a while. He had all kinds of wild ideas, like swimming in Laurel Falls and then hiking 34 miles in one day to Damascus. Not for me. But power to him!
Comfortable sleep, thought its starting to get hard sleeping indoors!

No rain, no Maine.

(it's been getting me through the wet, windy weather of have past week or two)

Before I jump back on the trail today, I wanted to acknowledge the big weekend that my niece and nephew had.
My niece Caroline had her first communion and from all reports did a stellar job with all the exercises and prep work leading up to it. Congratulations Caroline!
Yesterday, my nephew Brandon turned 6. And as everyone knows, that is a very important birthday! Happy Birthday, Bran Man!
Love you both and can't wait to see you again.

May 6: After yesterday's trying day, and with our gear still damp and soggy, we decided that a zero day was in order today. The rain tapered a bit, allowing us to walk down the road to the laundrymat to wash our clothes. Sadly, we are reaching the point where our freshly laundered clothes don't smell fresh and clean, just less rank than before. We sat and checked email on our phones, updated facebook, and ate snickers bars while we waited for our laundry. Then we stopped by the grocery store and dollar general to replenish our supplies. We had to take a bit of a meandering path through town, because yesterday's rain had caused intense flooding and washed out bridges and roads. (Maybe CHOSE to take a zero day isn't exactly accurate)
In the afternoon, we organized our gear, watched movies and napped.
Road Runner, another hiker that Subaru and Hawkeye had been hiking with, arrived at the lodge this afternoon, just as the rain stopped and the sun came out. We all went down to a barbecue restaurant and had giant plates of barbecue, sweet tea, and fried pickles as bluegrass and mountain music played on the speakers overhead. A great small town North Carolina zero day!

Flooding on Newland, NC