We got a bit more sleep again. No breakfast in a hotel can be nice because it doesn't make you feel obliged to get up at a certain time. Though, yeah, obviously not having it sucks too. Dean texted us to let us know he had made it to town. We had heard the Amish Cupboard had prepared food so we figured we could get our breakfast there and said we would meet him before we all headed back to the trail. We did have a pre Amish Cupboard breakfast of little Debbie frosted donuts and cheese. We still needed a few items before we left town too. Stove fuel, band aids, and tortillas. The latter two items would be easy. The family dollar should have both, though turns out they were sold out of tortillas so we figured we could bread. Fuel wouldn't be so easy. The dollar store and two gas stations which we passed on the way to the Amish Cupboard, didn't carry it. We met up with Dean. His knee was feeling a lot better and thought he could easily get to Waynesboro, the next resupply point, by Monday when he would be meeting his friend Michael. Dean had gotten into town ten miles beyond us, but we thought we could make it for Monday as well. The three of us entered the Amish Cupboard. Though a bit more expensive than usual resupply, the food looked incredible. There were half gallons of locally made ice cream, various flavors of cous cous, dried handmade pasta, a huge deli selection, a large variety of cheeses. We were kids in a candy shop. We all ordered sandwiches from the deli, got some unpasteurized cheese to eat for dinner that night, a half gallon of ice cream to share outside the store, and some saffron and chive cous cous. All of it was incredibly good, and oh yeah the sandwiches were on homemade bread.
If the food wasn't enough, the employees and manager of the store were so kind and helpful. They made sure we knew they would take our trash. When they heard about our fuel problem, they started calling local stores for us. When Tyler visited the local stores and found out it was only propane, they got information on the local bus schedule that ran to Lexington where they had a couple other outfitters. They were so nice, we almost felt embarrassed by not having anything to offer in return. Anyone who does not visit this place while in Buena Vista, or any surrounding town is big time missing out. Tyler tried to take the bus while Emily got rid of wrappers and played watch dog to the packs. The bus stop was across from the library, but when the librarian, also a saint, photocopied (for free) the bus schedule, he realized he would have to wait another 55 minutes and the day was slipping further and further. Tyler returned and we decided we would just use the local taxi to get to Lexington.
We left Dean figuring out his own shuttle back to the trail, and we got in E' s y Rider Taxi. The taxi guy, who was fairly quiet for most of the journey, drove us to one outfitters in Lexington with no fuel, then to another where we were finally successful so we would be able to make it to the trail by the ripe ol' time of 3:30. Our latest yet. The entire fuel saga was about the cost of our trip into Buena Vista because of the roundabout route Bob had taken. The taxi fella even started talking to us a bit about driving Blue Ridge Parkway and Skyline Drive since he really enjoys driving hikers to the Punchbowl overlook spot.
Because Tyler's shoes are falling apart he now has a blister on every toe of his right foot. We had to stop for a while to do some foot maintenance. After about 30 minutes and trying several things, he changed his socks, popped two ibuprofen and we went on. We hiked a short nine miles to Brown Mountain Creek Shelter, then kept going a bit until we saw a beautiful campsite all to ourselves just after the shelter. We set up the tent right next to the creek and Emily got a fire going. We ate pasta coated with the smoked cheddar from the Amish Cupboard and sat around drinking juice made from stream water directly next to our site as the fireflies blinked on and off all around us.
