April 27: Laurel Creek, VA

576.1 miles.

Man. Perfect day.

Make that days. The sun has been shining strong for five straight, and it is glorious out. Yesterday as we climbed higher and higher up Brushy Mountain the dirt path became paved with sandstone, and at the top enormous sandstone boulders jutted up into the air at a diagonal, as though pushed up from below. Fossils of seaweed and shells marked the stones. To stand at the top of a mountain and know that it used to be at the floor of the ocean so long ago - that just knocks my little socks off.

The flowers are doing their thing in full force. Yesterday I must've seen a dozen, maybe two, different kinds of wildflowers -toothwort, bloodroot, chickweed, violets of all colors, crabapple, trillium, aster, lobelia, buttercups, wild strawberries, dandelion, hepatica, spring beauty, trout lily, mayapple, wood anemone, bluets -and then all the ones I don't know the name of, which is a lot more than I do know.

The leaves on the leaves are starting to come out, too, and we'll be glad for the shade since we're in the sunshine all day long without their cover.

Back to today, that perfect day. We woke up as the sun rose over Blake's Garden, the beautiful valley below, got up slowly and took our time over the first miles to the shelter ahead since we only had eight miles to cover all day. We got to the shelter, and there was a sign on the wall saying on Monday mornings from 9-12 the Methodist church five miles down the trail offers free all you can eat breakfast to hikers. Looked at the watch. Monday. 10:30. Tom said, "oh, that's too bad, we're gonna miss it." And I said, "oh I don't think so."

And then we ran. For five miles. Up a mountain and back down with our 30 pound packs on.

At 11:40 we came barrelling down the hill to the road, and there were two gentlemen with their trucks, waiting to give us a lift to the church shwere seven women were cooking up a feast. Packing up a feast actually, by the time we got there, but they welcomed us in and then placed before us coffee and juice and milk, grits, biscuits and breakfast casserole, sausage, pancakes, homemade applesauce, and bananas. And then we had seconds. And then they gave us cookies and fruit and fudge and bread for the road.

The pastor gave us a lift back to the trail (good thing, I don't think we could've walked), and we had just a half mile left to hike for the day. So here we've been , at this lovely campsite on Laurel Creek all afternoon. A bunch of friends from the trail who'd gotten to breakfast sooner were here, too, and so we played uno and told stories and relaxed in the sunshine until it was time to press on.

No pressing on for us cause tomorrow we'll get into Bland, VA where we'll meet up with Jeremy, one of our good friends from Okinawa, and then we'll head north a bit and hike with him towards Charlottesville, aiming to get there on the 3rd of May.

Once home, Patrick and Hannah are coming from Omaha to visit for a few days, and we're looking forward to hanging out with them, resting our legs, and catching up with friends and fam. We'll be taking about two weeks off the trail to fit in all of that good fun, then heading north again on the 18th from C'ville. Hope we don't get to squishy hanging out and drinking beers! But I guess if we got in shape once, we can do it again.