Damascus

5/12/17

• Miles hiked: 8.2 into Damascus 
  
• Shelter: Dancing Bear B&B

The overnight thunderstorms were loud and kept us up most of the night but we woke up excited to get to the trail town Damascus. 

We packed up the tent in the rain and headed out. 

A few miles in we passed the TN / VA border. PUMPED to knock another state off our list we posed and kept on moving. 

We made it to Damascus!!!

Once in Damascus we headed to the local pharmacy for medicine Ziploc needed. He had been battling a sinus infection for the past few days and after a quick call from Teledoc, he had meds waiting for him in town. We are so thankful for this medical technology we have access to in the trail. 

Luckily for us, there was an all you can eat (AYCE) pizza place across the parking lot so our rain soaked jog wasn't very far for food. 

WE ATE A LOT. And for the record, we both also had salads, some of our first veggies on the trail. Haha. 

We walked back towards town and passed Laurel Creek, the "Creek" that runs through the town. It was swollen and moving fast but that didn't stop the wildlife from enjoying it. 

We moved into problem solving mode. We knew our B&B would do our laundry overnight for us but when you only have the clothes on your back, you can't survive 12 hours without them. We checked our AT guide and found only one place in town that offered coin laundry. It was a lodge just down the street. There was no one there but we called the reservation desk and they directed us to the facilities. Then put on our rain gear, and only our rain gear 😉 and started the wash. As we started the wash the rain came down. We took advantage of the shelter on the lodge's covered porch (no room in the laundry) and waited out the rain and the rest of the laundry. Soon we were in clean, dry clothes and the rain let up enough for us to walk to our B&B. 

We grabbed our packages from the post office. I had some new shoes shipped to me and a package from Papa Bear with my Bluetooth camera clicker and lots of snacks and supplies in it. The shoes didn't fit and it was quite the ordeal to return them as the closest UPS (free returns) place was 11 miles away and we have no vehicle. The lady at the Dancing Bear (and Jellybean) helped me get them back to UPS and I am very grateful to them for the help. I'll have to try it a different way next time. Either way we all win because now you will see more photos of Ziploc and I (together) since we have the new CLICKER! 

After showers, we walked in the rain to a burrito place for dinner and then afterwards to a local arcade/restaurant for a couple of beers and a lot of pacman. 

The next day we picked up our resupply and some hot dogs at a yard sale at the church across the street and headed out of town. 

Seems like every town exit is over a bridge. 

Oh and we stopped for ice cream on the way out!