Mar 26

ZERO DAY #1
LOCATION: Gatlinburg, TN
TODAY'S MILEAGE: 0
TRIP MILEAGE: 204.7
MILES TO GO: 1,974.4

Today was fantastic. I awoke AFTER the sun rose. A treat in itself.
Cornpatch and I split a load of laundry and were off to do the rest of
our chores by 10:30.

First stop... Food. Shoneys all you can eat breakfast. It was heaven
under a heat lamp. French toast sticks, bacon, eggs, biscuits and
gravy, bowl of frosted flakes, tall glass of milk, coffee, water,
fruit salad, jello and chocolate pudding.

We opted to walk to the library, and my god... Gatlinburg is a trip.
Put Hampton Beach, South Lake Tahoe, Laughlin Nevada, Venice beach and
Switzerland in a blender and hit purée... Gatlinburg, TN. I love it.
We saw a pirate walking down the street. Not acting or in character...
Just a pirate.

We took the 50 cent trolley around town to the library, uploaded pics,
paid bills and kept my former employer's accounting department in
line. Headed to the Food City hungry... Big mistake. We went hog wild.
I was aiming to get 3 days of food and got about 5. No worries, it
means I can skip a hostel resupply. Cornpatch had a slight case of
buyer remorse with the smoky bear hat and squeaky rubber chicken he
bought and hung from his pack. But he was cured when prepubescent
Gatlinburgians were chasing him down the street to squeeze his
chicken. C-Patch an I had dinner at a decent italian sit-down and
split a large Hawaiian and Meat lovers pie with a bottle of suds.
Lovely.

Ran into the Thrasher, Turkey and Dr. John at the 31 Flavors. Caught
word that Research was here at the Grand Prix Motel too, but haven't
had a chance to meet up with him with the repacking I had to do after
our tour of G-town. Probably see him on the mass exodus to Newfound
Gap tomorrow. There's about a dozen of us all headed back into the
Smokies tomorrow. Also excited to hear that Scruffy will be rejoining
the rolling commune on Saturday. He'll be a day or 2 behind us, but
that's nothing.

Most importantly I got my body some much needed rest. My first zero
day was everything I hoped it would be. But, looking forward to
hitting the trail again. Three zeros coming up in Hot Springs, NC.
Will be meeting up with the McNeills for some R and R in the NC
Appalachian foothills. Very excited for that!

Smokies Part II begins tomorrow. Stay tuned folks.

-natedog