An Appalachian Tale: Part 12

16 May 2010

Yin:  Today was a good day to do much of nothing!  By the time I woke up this morning "Cowboy" and Lithuanian guy we on the trail and Yang was straightening up the shelter as well as figuring out breakfast.  The rain clouds were already on the horizon as we enjoyed SPAM on toast with cheese.  Very good!  We then decided to stroll through town again to kill some time and we found ourselves at the general store with a root beer in our hands yet again.  For lunch we went to a place outside the resort area called "Pit stop".  It was a combination garage/biker bar.  After a light lunch and two pitchers of beer we made our way up the hill towards our supper restaurant called "the Bistro".  It started to pour almost immediately and a nice couple gave us a lift to the top of the hill.  At "the Bistro" we had a Merlot and I had a turkey Reuben that was very well made.  After supper we headed back to the shelter to get our packs ready for tomorrow.  Just before I turned in for the night, another north-bounder from FL showed up.  After getting to know each other a little bit, I'm ready for bed!  Smokey Mountains tomorrow!

Yang:  We took the zero day today.  After a late breakfast of some delicious SPAM burgers we got bored and went back into the "village".  We did the general store thing and picked up a few meals for down the trail.  Yin had a root beer and I had a grape NEHI.  Yum!  From there we thought it would be a good idea to eat nachos and drink two pitchers of beer for lunch at the "Pit stop".  Needless to say, we were feeling no pain as we headed back up the hill in the driving rain.  A nice young couple gave us a lift to the resort inn/restaurant.  Survived the rain!  We had sandwiches at the restaurant which were very good.  I had a turkey club and Yin had a Reuben.  When we left the restaurant we got some coffee from the inn's lobby area and had the desk call the shuttle for us.  While we were waiting for the shuttle I decided to walk around the gift shop.  I found a nice piece of American Indian pottery I had to pick up for the wife.  We also picked up a jar of apple preserves to spice up our oatmeal.  When we got back to the shelter we met a fireman from Florida (originally from Boston).  He seems like a pretty cool guy to hike with tomorrow.  G'night for now!