May 28...feeling like a couple bums

Tonight we are sleeping next to the James River. We met a young woman who is section hiking for the next seven weeks as she works on her thesis for school. She asked to interview us so we had a swim, shared a fire and talked. Mark gave her the trail name Scholar. Her family lives in Montana and she is in college in Maine. She told us it rains 50 percent of the time in Maine and they have no switchbacks (straight up the mountain and straight down). Good thing we have hundreds of miles before that reality sets in. At 8PM, we decide to call it a night.

It is very warm here so we did not use our fly which means the top half of our tent is all screen. Gives us a view of the sky and plenty of air flow. EZ is half asleep when we hear someone calling from the trail if there are any thru hikers. Scholar shares she is a section hiker and the gentleman starts to move on. This is where the bum mentality shows up. I yell out "Are you looking for a certain thru hiker?". He sees our tent and his wife and him start heading to our tent. Did I mention it's warm and we don't carry pajamas. We are scurrying to cover ourselves. He says he has some trail magic for us. We were dressed and out of the tent in two minutes. They offer us bananas and ice cold Gatorade. Roger and Bev (Dixie Chick) volunteer to maintain a section of the trail. Bev has section hiked up to Vermont. They were a pleasure to talk to. Asked if we wanted a ride into town tomorrow I have been craving breakfast so Roger offers to pick us up at 7:30 and take us to a restaurant.

After they leave, we get back in our tent. I look at Mark and start laughing at how ridiculous that was. We have had plenty to eat and drink, why do we get so excited. I guess when you don't have a vehicle to get those things that you desire, you know that you either do without or you accept the generosity of others. I have been wanting a good breakfast for some time and will enjoy getting to know Roger over an omelette, bacon, and hash browns.