Hostels along the trail are common and vary greatly. The best so far was Elmer's in Hot Springs, TN where I left off last blog. The whole town is historic, but Elmer's dates back 170 years and is complete with vintage furniture, a music room with a piano, guitar, clarinet, flute, etc for hikers to play, sitting room with plenty of videos to watch and they request that you eat at least one meal with them to get to know other hikers. We chose dinner which was an exquisite gourmet vegetarian meal. It began with a chickpea soup; salad in a huge bowl that was a work of art with feta and cherry tomatoes lining the rim; main course was rice with what I'd call goulash (sweet & red potatoes and various squash types in a curry sauce); and the grand finale, key lime pie. I gained back any weight I may have lost!

Our next town stop was Erwin, TN where we took a nearo day at Uncle Johnny's to resupply and relax. When we left there the weather was warm and the forecast good, but that was not to be true! By day 2 the wind had picked up and it was cloudy and chilly. Roan Mt, the "Roan groan" was a great trail and beautiful forest and I would love to do this trail again when you could see the views. The top of the mountain was totally fogged in. Still the day was good...until we hit the balds on the other side. Totally exposed with nowhere to go but onward, we fought to stay upright on the trail in 40-50mph gusts on the ridge tops, fog and eventually some rain. It was a relief to finally get to lower elevations, warmth and little wind.

Along the way, even on the bad weather days, are interesting things to see. We pass by several grave sites of Civil War infantry and at Overmountain Shelter (a big bed Barn converted to AT shelter), an interp sign telling of the Revolutionary War troups marching from there over 100 miles in snow and cold to fight the Brits. I thought a lot about those Civil War and Rev. veterans who suffered why more than we were!

                                                    near "Jane's Bald" in the wind

                                                   one of several bridges over creeks

It had been 2 weeks since we'd had any trail magic and my faith in the magic was fading. As we crossed Watuaga Lake Dam though, there was a pickup truck sitting on the other side with dam worker/trail angel Safety Bob. He'd found out about AT hiking and magic from a couple that needed help due to injury and he's been providing magic ever since. His bananas and brownies made my day, and then it got better. About 1/4 mile later, walking a short stretch of road, here comes a lady walking her dog who stopped to chat and offered up organic oranges she carried just for hikers. After several days of clouds and running low on day food, this magic appeared at exactly the right time.

May 5, early morning start, more high winds, cold and threatening to rain, when we hit a road about 12 miles from Damascus, VA, we bailed on the trail and hitched into town where we are spending 2 nights in the Dancing Bear B&B while it rains. We'll head out tomorrow and hopefully the weather will improve. By doing that I missed the official VA entry, but here is the sign on entering Damascus and that'll have to do. We are now in state #4 and have done 466 miles.  And yes, I am still having fun, loving the green and looking forward to hiking the state of Virginia!