April 16 Bad to Good

Monday morning and another day at the office. A deer visited our campsite-he did not seem very concerned about us. Started out at daylight in a howling rain cloud. We had about 3 miles to reach Clingman's Dome at 6500 ft the highest elevation on the entire AT.
Visibility was about 30 ft so we did not spend a lot of time there.
This was my toughest morning with a tired back and heavy feet. Pushed on for first ten miles and stopped at a major rd that went to Gatlinburg. Our plan was to have lunch, rest and refill water right there and move on. There was no water available and we were very low. Public bathrooms were waterless. Laying on the ground looking homeless among the large number of tourist Julie calls a shuttle and we ask them to bring us pizza, water, pop and of course the AT staple 4 snicker bars. While laying there we are over heard talking about water and the next thing we know someone offers us a diet Pepsi then another takes me to there trailer to fill our water supplies and I return to Julie who now has 2 water bottles. Our pizza arrives I eat more than my share along with 1/2 diet Pepsi, 2 Cokes, 1 water, a snickers bar and a lady pulls up and asks us if we want some sandwiches, soda, chips and candy. Sure we do- do they made us a goodie bag for dinner for when we completed our next few miles before calling it a day-and the weather cleared. The pep in my step returned for our last 3 miles up the mountain to our campsite.
As we lay in our tent with full bellies and thankful for all the nice people we met today it is now raining as we are snug in our tent for the night.
Over 200 miles down and we hope to hit Hot Springs NC this weekend.
Mark