Zero in Pearisburg, VA

We headed down to the courthouse square for breakfast, only to find that the diner did not open until 8:30.  We sat on its front porch, and before long, the owner came and let us in.  By the time we ordered, there were about 10 hikers in there that we recognized.  The lady must be happy when the hikers come to town.  It was really delicious.  One of the best omelettes I've had.  The guys had french toast, and it looked awesome!

Keith and I spent the rest of the morning planning the next month's worth of hiking down to the day, because we needed to make plans with Elise (she and Daniel and Sean will be meeting us), and also the Kosinsky's, and later, Keith's parents (in Shenandoah Nat'l Park).  We have a pretty good handle now on how many miles we can cover, and how many days we'll be taking off the trail.  We then ran across the street again for Mexican food, and then to the Food Lion with Swamprat for grocery shopping. 

The most important thing we did today, was packing up a lot of things for colder weather, that we are convinced we will not be using again.  We packed up long pants, long sleeved shirts, gloves and winter hats, fleece jackets, and a few other things, and walk down to the post office to mail them to Keith's parents.  They will be meeting us much later in the summer and bringing the winter things back to us before we hit the mountains in New Hampshire.  It sure felt good to get rid of some extra weight in our packs!  We can't wait to get rid of the sleeping bags, but a cool front came through today, and tonight the low is 40, so we are hanging on to them a bit longer.

After repacking everything, we had the BEST soul food and BBQ at the Virginia Smoke House next door.  I had something called Brunswick Stew, which I was told was a "Virginia thing", and it was soooo good.  The guys had BBQ platters.  Dirty Girl came and joined us, and later on, Santa and Gnome and others wondered in.  We also ran into Snagglefoot, Trophy Wife, Nokey, and Flash, and got the great news that Snagglefoot had just gotten accepted into the graduate program at the University of Colorado in Denver.  He was so happy!

That brings us up to right now.  I am sitting in the office of the Plaza Motel, where Linda, the manager, has been nice enough to not only do my laundry, but also let me borrow her personal computer.  She is the best!  Thank you to Linda!!!  We'll be back on the trail in the morning!