Day 30-31, let Month two begin!

17 Apr, Day 30, 10.6 miles, Hot Springs NC at AT mm 273.9. Today was another nice day for a pretty easy, mainly downhill walk as we headed Into another trail town. This town is a bit different as the AT actually runs through this half mile town. There are AT symbols in the sidewalk through the town which is pretty cool. Walk-n-Eats got a cabin for his birthday but it is six miles out of town. Again, with Mojo and Skye, hitch hiking that far is a bit of a pain so I got a "cabin" in town with Damn Yankee and Kentucky. It's a great location...the town is only a half mile long so there really isn't a bad location. Showered then laundry just 100 yards down the road followed by an excellent ribeye dinner.  There is a great outfitters here so we poked around there a bit.  They have a scale in the shop which they say is acute so I now officially weigh 225 pounds for those keeping track :).  We were going to head out tonight but the rest of the pack had a hard time hitching out to the other cabin so never made It back into town. Probably a good idea as they might never had made it back after the bars closed. So us crazy 40+ers came back after dinner and just hung out in the room. The plan is to meet up tomorrow and see what this town has to offer for our zero day. 18 Apr, Day 31, 0 miles.  We could not have picked a better day to take a zero. It rained all night and day so we were very happy to be in a room. The folks who came hiking into town today were very wet indeed. Not a lot going on today. We went for breakfast, resupplied at the dollar general and outfitters and had the same ribeye dinner as last night...need to get the steak when we can. :). We saw the rest of the pack doing their chores so met up with them for a bit, but really had a relaxing day chilling out. I guess that is the idea of a zero so we relaxed. Tomorrow is one month that I have been on the trail. As a quick recap, I have hiked nearly 274 miles, averaging just over 9 miles a day which really isn't that much at all. That average will pick up a lot as we get out of the mountains and into Virginia. We have only had two zero days. I've slept in my tent 20  nights, a shelter 3 nights and "under a roof", meaning a hostel or hotel, 8 nights. I think I've lost around 20 pounds so far and the hair and beard are looking ridiculously awesome. I've lost one big toenail and the "scar of Serpico" is settling in nicely. Ive gotten into a good routine as far a setting up, tearing down camp and packing my backpack. I could not have asked for a better group of folks to hike with, Mojo and Skye seem to be doing great so all in all, I would say it has been a very good month. Tomorrow we hit the trail again. It looks like five or six days to Erwin TN so based on past performance in this part if the country, I may not have cell coverage until then so will post when I can.