Nearly 600 miles

12 May, Day 55, 11.6 miles, The Relax Inn Motel, Atkins Va on I-81 exit at AT mm 542.2. The shelter location was excellent and the pizza had me sleeping great last night. Today's hike was a relatively short one by our upgraded standards. The scenery is starting to change a bit. VA is by no means flat, but we are walking through more open spaces...mainly cow fields. It's a nice change of pace and we all like the views. Today's short day was on account of meeting Truckers Dad at Atkins. The plan was to pile in his truck and go to a cabin he is building approx an hour away. We arrived at the road with plenty of time which was great as there is a restaurant called "The Barn" which as a hiker burger...1lb of meaty goodness. So we all had to order that, with cheese and bacon of course, and it was delicious! Even had fries and was considering desert but thought that may be too much after the pizza last night...its all about proper portion control. When truckers Dad arrived there was 14 of us and two dogs trying to figure out how to fit all of us and the packs into his truck. It just wasn't going to work so i gladly opted out and got a room at the hotel down the road a few hundred yards. Saph, Walk-n-Eats, and Golden joined me as well which was great. So we watched them cram into the truck and sent them on their way. We checked in, did laundry, had a shower, had dinner at a Gas station next door, grabbed a few beers And had a good evening just chatting in the room. All on all it worked out really great. 13 May, Day 56, 18.4 miles, USFS Road 222 at AT mm 560.6. The plan was to meet back at The Barn around 1000am. We got up around 0730, packed, checked out and went to the Barn for breakfast and to wait. The breakfast was great and fortunately they had free coffee refills as the rest of the crew did not arrive until 1130 :). That was fine with us as the four of us were in no hurry and had a nice surprise has a very nice lady bought all four of our breakfasts...We knew it was going to be a good day. They other nice thing was that Truckers Dad offered to "slack pack" us...meaning he would take all our packs up the road and meet us so we only had to hike with water and snacks. Any mile I do not have to carry 50lbs is good by me. So we loaded up the truck with our packs and hit the trail feeling very light indeed. Even Mojo and Skye got to slack pack so they were in heaven. It did start raining at about mile 9 but I had my jacket so was all good for the day. The rain just got heavier as the day went so I was pretty soaked when I got to camp. Trucker, 30 Pack, Atlas and Cheeks "volunteered" to watch our bags and hang out with Truckers Dad. It worked out great as they had everything covered and dry when we got into camp, and had a big fire going which was very nice so we got to dry out a bit.  Due to the rain though we just put up our tents and crawled in for the night. It is suppose to get worse the next two days so could be a wet week. 14 May, Day 57, 14.6 miles, Jenkins Shelter at AT mm 575.2. The weatherman got it right...unfortunately. It rained most of the night and we woke up to rain. Waking up to rain means there is this very long 10 or so minutes where you lay in your warm, dry sleeping bag and contemplate just staying there all day. Then you realize you would be bored silly and walking in the rain is all part of the journey...yea yea. So I packed as much as I could in the tent and then just got soaked packing up the tent...which means the back pack gets soaked as I pack up the dripping wet tent and the put it in the pack. Basically there is no good way to tent and pack in the rain. Not surprisingly, Rocket and I were the only ones to break camp and hit the trail. The first 4.5 miles was uphill, in the rain but it brought us too a very nice shelter where I had lunch. The rain stopped and the sun actually came out a bit so after approx 8 miles I was fairly dry. Unfortunately I had to go ten miles and the skies opened up 2 miles from the shelter. So I set up camp just as I had tore it down...wet and in the rain. Did I mention there is no good way to tent and set up in the rain either. Anyway, I crawled in the wet tent with my wet dogs and managed to dry off to an acceptable dampness and have not moved since. I even cooked in the tent which is the first time I've done that. There is a town 13 miles from here which I had not planned on going too, but if the rain keeps up I may have to just to dry out all my equipment. Watch this space.  15 May, Day 58, 11.6 miles, Big Walker Motel, Bland VA at AT mm 586.8. We woke up to a cloudy but relatively dry morning. So we actually took our time packing up. The plan was to head 14.6 miles and we had good intentions to make that. It started raining again about half way into the day. Not bad, but just enough to make us lose our motivation. We all had wet socks and boots so a few miles from the road that took us Bland, we decided our feet, which looked like a ham that has been submerged for 15 hours, needed to dry out before we did some real damage. So we got to the road, hitched a ride to the hotel and here we are. It turned out to be the correct decision as a few folks feet needed some help, and as we were eating at Subway, a flash flood warning came into effect for this area. So good call all around. Again we are at a hotel off an exit... I-77 this time, but it makes for a good phone signal and wifi. So today's walk was really pretty good but it's great to be able to dry all our stuff off. Back on the trail tomorrow with a few 16 milers scheduled the next few days. We would have hit 100 miles in 7 days if we did not detour into Bland, so our pace is picking up nicely. I am currently only three days behind my itinerary so very happy with the progress and trip so far.