New pack, still in Damascus.

Well I tried really hard to leave town last night.  My afternoon of swimming in the river, which flows through the town park, with another hiker, Scout dehydrated me and I decided to get a sweet tea at the pizza place.  Scout was really cool.  She is doing a section this summer for a few weeks, and is headed back to Pennsylvania today for a wedding, with a friend.  She lives three miles from the Appalachian Trail up in Pennsylvania, and will be a great trail angel when I'm in the neighborhood, around July fourth.

There was quite the hiker herd at the pizza place, about 20 showed up.  I decided to eat my leftover pizza from lunch, and have some beers.  Fortunate for me, I decided to lapse into having a drink.  I haven't been drinking in town, in order to save money, and increase my speed.  Not paying for beer means I can eat better food at restaurants along the trail, and still save money.  Tonight I lapsed, and found out the pizza place had wifi.  I used my iPod to check my email, and saw that Zpacks shipped a new backpack, to replace my damaged one, here to Damascus.   The arrival date was yesterday Friday.  Wow, I screwed around all day and I have a new pack at the post office. 

Luckily this small town has Post Office hours on Saturdays from 9-11 AM.  I decided to stay the night, and joined the huge hiker party.  We stayed at the pizza place till 11PM, then we all went to Fire Tower's room in a really nice inn close by.  I couldn't stay awake with all the kiddies so passed out early, not before taking off my shoes.  Someone was kind enough to remind me to remove them.  If you pass out with your shoes on, it is completely acceptable for people to write on you with sharpies.  I was planning on sleeping in the park, by the river, but Fire Tower is very generous and offered his floor to me. 

This morning a nice continental breakfast filled me up, and I hit the post office.  My beautiful new pack was in, and I switched my gear into it.  I decided to mail my long underwear home along with the pack, and my platypus bag.  I decided that gatorade bottles would be lighter and more durable.