We ate more of our fruit for breakfast, not quite ready to return to the land of beige. Though, true exciting news, we heard Andrew and Bambi were going to arrive at the super 8 today! A Tramily back together again! First thing on the agenda for the day was to ship some bulk home. We are hoping, for the time being, to put most things in Tyler's bag as Emily still heals, but in order to do so we are finally making some cuts. We headed to the post office, but as soon as we walked out the door of the hotel, Bambi and Andrew were there! They found a ride in from Sam's Gap. We were quite excited to see them and to be able to spend the day with them. Sadly, Greg wasn't there as he got off the trail at Clingman's Dome to visit with his new puppies. He said he'd start hiking again on May 4th, but now has Merca on his elbow, so, time will tell if and when he returns. We left Bambi and Andrew to get checked in as we headed out, again, to the post office and to get a final Taco Bell. Taco Bell is big news for these days off so, of course, we have to provide some details about the final visit. We finally got the name of the cashier who helped us out, Jo-Evelyn. She told us that she and her brother used to play in the shelters up and down the trail. An older fella in the Taco Bell also heard us talking and asked us about the journey. He said he shuttles hikers around quite a bit, just cuz he likes doing it. He asked us if we needed anything at all while we were in town. After being in town for four days, it felt like we couldn't possibly need anything ever again, but the offer was beyond kind. We finally made it to the post office with some mittens, hats, a pair of pants from both of us, Emily's large journal and watercolors. The woman working at the post office immediately knew we were sending gear home. She let us know to not send too much cold gear home since it is supposed to snow in the mountains the coming weekend. Emily promptly took her gloves out of the box. In total, it ended up being 6 pounds, which between the two of us, didn't seem like too much, but we are sure that will help too. Back at the hotel, we ran into a familiar face we hadn't seen since mile 20. Dave, or Dangerous Dave as we thought of him, who now goes by Obi Wan Potato (Obi for short). He's a definite jack of all trades (Master diver, breakdancer, coffee salesman, etc). He is now hiking with Di and her lovely dog Harley. Emily promptly began to focus all of her attention on the dog. Tyler, Dave, Di (and shortly Bambi and Andrew chatted and had some beers in the lobby. Since everyone was heading back to the trail the next day, we all decided to head to Food Lion to resupply.
After the excitement of resupply, we ran into Hand Solo and his girlfriend, Nacho Mom. Hand Solo had been hiking with Nacho Mom for a few days after she drove up from Florida. She had been putting in the miles, total natural! We also learned that, sadly, Tree Hugger did have to head off trail for the rest of the year. After getting geared up and resting her feet, she found out her husband had lost her job and financially, she couldn't swing it anymore. Hand Solo assured us that she had the confidence and drive to head back in the future. And, exciting for us, Hand Solo headed to the Super 8 from Devil Fork Gap as well and said he could give us a ride back in the morning when he headed off solo again.
We ended the night hanging out with Bambi and Andrew. We ordered pizza, Andrew and Tyler shared some Budights, we chatted about what's been going on, and watched the very captivating television. We headed to bed, a bit nervous but also excited about heading back to the trail the next day.
