Bud and Vicki Hogan's 1996 Appalachian Trail Journey
June 14
Roaring Fork Shelter to Hot Springs............................................................14.5 miles
Hiked on and off with Ray and Noel, took each other's pictures. There is some nice hiking in this area. At the top of the hill, several miles above Hot Springs are 2 graves. Graves of some people who used to live up here. How on earth did they get up here? Where was the road? Where did they get their water? We continued on our hike.
Steady hiking all day until close to 3:00 when Vicki mentioned we might be able to make it to Hot Springs before the P.O. closed at 4:30. That was her mistake. We started hiking as fast as we could, which was hard on the knees and blisters, especially going downhill. Getting into town, it was even harder going on concrete. I was urging Vicki along, but she was having a hard time keeping up, it slowed me down. We found the Alpine Court Motel and tried to check in. There was only one room left and this place doesn't take credit cards. No problem! I do have some money, and in our mail drop I have another $40 in travelers cheques. I'll just go get them.
The post office is about a half block away. I left Vicki with our gear and sprinted to the P.O. It was 4:20........the P.O. closed at 4:15. @#^%%$^$^ Went back to the hotel. The owner was very helpful and said that I could get to the bank, it was still open, and get a cash advance on my credit card. Good idea. Again, I left Vicki and headed downtown, 1 1/2 blocks away, to the bank. Got the cash advance. Back to the motel. They had only one room left. Great, let's have it. It was late on Friday and we needed to do laundry, mail drop, grocery shopping, and just a little resting, so we got the room for 2 nights. We were both looking forward to a rest.
We settled into our room, got our clothes together and headed for the laundry. Ray and Noel staggered in around 6:00 or 7:00. Vicki went over to talk to them as I went in to the laundry to check on the clothes. While Vicki was talking to them, some local walked over to them and introduced himself as "Wingfoot". When I came out of the laundry there was Vicki, Ray, and Noel, and some guy I'd never seen before. I went over to say "hi", and I was introduced to "Wingfoot". He invited us up to his place. We said that we were doing laundry right then but we would drop by tomorrow. Ray and Noel stayed at the campground, down by the river. Vicki and I ate dinner and returned to the motel.
That night Vicki felt that she was "taking a vacation from our vacation". This was our first bed since Fontana Dam, 10 days ago. And we were lucky to get the last room. Vicki could tell by looking in the mirror that she had lost a good deal of weight, and she felt good about it. I had lost some weight, also.
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