Day 31

Day 31 - Erwin, TN - 339.9 miles total!

Another cloudy morning with on again/off again drizzling. We made good time as we descended down to the river. When we reached the valley and the road, we saw the hostel we'd been hearing about right across the street. We saw soda machines on the porch, so we decided to check it out. Took a look around after a chat with "Uncle Johnny" and decided we'd head on into town and fend for ourselves. While walking what we thought would be an easy couple-of-mile jaunt to town, an SUV pulled over an the guy driving asked if we wanted a ride. He was very friendly, and offered to take us around town to wherever we wanted to go. He said he has a rafting business (USA Raft) and since he was his own boss he could be late to work if he wanted- very convienent for us. Also, he and his wife hiked the AT as their honeymoon in 2004. After a quick tour of half the town, we hopped on the 'highway' and headed to Wal-Mart (which the hostel said would cost us $15- but we got there for free-awesome!). Mike was in need of a Wally World to find a new pair of hopefully adequate shoes (his were falling apart at 100 miles & only Super-Glue to repair them + 240 more miles= totally worn out). We were also looking to get a new camera since ours died halfway through the Smokies. Our new friend waited in his car and worked on his laptop while we shopped (got a new camera but no shoes) and afterwards he was even nice enough to drop us off at the CHEAPEST motel in town. We settled in, got our chores done (Mike did the laundry at an eatery/gas station/carwash/laundromat next door) and had some time to relax. Aside from the shouting between the owner and a disgruntled match Laura overheard, it was a quiet afternoon. Strangely enough, eventhough we were surrounded (kind of, but not really) by a Grocery store, a dollar store, and a convience store, the only place to buy beer was at another convience store which a little over a mile away. So at about 5pm Mike walked there (and saw a dejected looking Uncle Johnny) and was lucky enough to get a random free ride from some 16 or 17 emo kid. It was starting to rain harder so he was thankful for the ride back to the motel. We ate junk food, ordered a pizza, watched dome trashy TV (i.e. Wife Swap), and went to bed in one of the junkiest beds we've slept in a while. (For the record, the room had limited outlets; the microwave was stacked on the mini-fridge in the bathroom- hilarious)