Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Zero In Gatlinburg


The Crew watching Cyclone Sing

We got up and went to get some breakfast at this pancake place we heard about and ended up walking all over Gatlinburg before settling on a Burger King. It was horrible; we just kept getting mad at each other and not being able to decide on a place. Hiking with three brothers can really suck. Right after we left the hotel, we ran into a whole crew of people we knew including Cubit, MMM, Jill, and MacGyver. We found out they had been here last night too and they went to Karaoke, so we missed them, DAMN! That would have been fun. They were contemplating staying in town again tonight and that was making a Zero Day seem very nice.

Our bodies are still messed up but we really want to get down the trail. At this point we’re getting angry at each other all the time and part of it is because we aren’t meeting our goals in mileage. I keep reassuring the fellas that we are going to speed up at some point; it’s only been two weeks. It will take a month just for us to get our hiking legs. That’s not helping though. I’ve never done anything like this before but it seems to me that we’ll be able to make a lot of time once we get used to it. No one else seems to agree with me. Money is looking like it might be an issue as well; but, I’m trying not to think of that and let God handle the worrying. I’ll handle the hiking.

We couldn’t decide on a place to eat and we ran into Dixie Dawg and his partner Kansas. I think that’s his name. We saw them walking down the street and they looked like a couple of rough characters. I imagine the three of us look equally seedy and tentative. No wonder people keep getting out of our way; maybe we smell too.

During an Indiana Jones inspired breakfast at Burger King, we decide to take a Zero and get a cheaper hotel that we heard about up the street from Stoplight number 8. The stoplights are all numbered here and you can find anything by asking what stoplight it is next to. I heard about this when I was reading about Gatlinburg in the trail handbook and I thought it was funny so I wrote a song called “Stoplight Number 3” I will sing it for you sometime.

The hotel was a bargain and we ended up getting a double suite for the same price as a single. I borrowed the front desk’s computer and sat up there for hours catching up on blogs while the girls there were taking reservations and stuff. It was weird; I was just hanging out behind the counter like I worked there, uploading pictures and blogs and trying to answer my email. We’ve been getting a few donations from people and that is really nice. It makes me feel like I’m accomplishing something in light of our substandard mileage attempts.

Later that evening we went out in town, had dinner two friends of Cyclone’s who came down to hang out with us. We would later give him the trail name of Blue Blaze and her name was Stephanie. We ate a great steak dinner. Cyclone quizzed the waiter on his Meat Knowledge since Cyclone used to be a butcher and we all had delicious cuts of fine beef. We cruised over to the Karaoke bar after that and met up with all the hikers. Everyone sang. Cyclone did this great ray Charles tune and Rolex and I were surprised at his soulful voice. We’d never heard him get that “urban” before. We left the bar in stages related to our preference and the night ended in the way that nights like that tend to end. If it sounds like I’m not really saying anything; well, that’s because I’m not.

David AKA "Jukebox"

Website:
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