Kevin's AT Thru Hike

Day 76, Tuesday, 5/31 – Lisa prepared breakfast this morning for Half Time and myself. The scrambled eggs, toast, and yogurt were all delicious. It was a laid back morning after breakfast.

I went into this adventure with the intention of letting it all go. But I caved… I got a hair cut. It was just getting worse and worse. I first realized I needed a haircut when I was at Farmhaus in Waynesboro a few days ago. I was drinking my coffee on the porch and I made eye contact with a cute girl walking past me into the coffee shop. I gave her a smile and got nothing back. Then I thought to myself, “Of course, I look homeless.” I mean, I am homeless, but I don’t need to look homeless. So, I found an electric razor that someone had left at the B&B, and Half Time shaved my head.

Genie, Splitzy, Dogfish, Half Time, Birthday Sandwich, and I got a ride into town. I stopped off at the post office and mailed a few more miscellaneous items home.

After the post office, we hung out in town. Lunch at a Thai restaurant was followed by a couple bar visits. Now that I got a fresh haircut, I was thinking about my facial hair. I’ve never had a beard before, but I know it could also use some attention. I took out my phone and found a barber in town.

I walked into John’s barber shop. The first thing I see is a black and white TV playing an old Western film. I immediately think to myself that if there is anyone who can shape up mangy facial hair, it’s going to be this guy. We started chatting a bit about what I wanted. He said that’ll be $5 cash. That was unexpected, literally nothing is $5 anymore. I sat in the chair, got some great service, gave him a $10, and was on my way.

While exploring the town yesterday, Half Time and I went into a bakery and thought it was a good idea to purchase a pie. So we picked it up on our way over to the grocery store.

As we were walking over to the grocery store, we saw a store selling local art. Dogfish, Half Time, and I stopped in to look around. The back half of the art store had a ceramics studio. Dogfish was so excited to hear that they offered classes. Next thing I know, I’m signed up for a pottery class at 10:00am tomorrow morning.

We made it to the grocery store and did our food shopping. Lately, we had all been getting hitches quickly. Of course, once we buy refrigerated items on a hot day, we struggled landing a hitch. We ended up waiting 15 minutes for a ride. Fortunately, Richard stopped for us on his way home from work and gave us a ride back to the B&B. Richard is a middle school English teacher. He was unfamiliar with the AT, so we gave him a rundown on the way. It’s cool that he gave us a ride without knowing what the AT was. To him, we were just strangers on the side of the road with a bunch of groceries.

I cooked myself dinner for the first time on trail. Nothing crazy, just salmon and veggies. I followed it up with some pie, and hung out with Half Time, Dogfish, Genie, Splitzy, Broadway, and Birthday Sandwich. We are all staying in a cabin together at Mountain Home for the next 2 nights.