75% Done!

Hey all! Just checking in from Damascus, VA! I have less than 500 miles left to walk!!
Apparently there's a big AT festival here every May called 'Trail Days' that sounds like a lot of fun. But that particular weekend of this coming May, I have something much more important to see to: my friend Ben's wedding! So no trail days for me.
Lately I've been travelling with two guys I met named Snowman (age: 25), and Riverdawg (22). This morning we woke up to snow flurries (!) and pushed to Damascus to get a package from my sister that I bounced from Atkins, VA, but it's not here yet :( Time to find a place to sleep... (Though all the hostels are closed for the off-season).
I could tent with the local homeless folks...
Which brings me to the latest debate in my mind: getting rid of the tent.
As I've mentioned before, the AT is very user-friendly. The prevalence of shelters along the trail has made me question (to the point of neurosis) my 3.5 lb tent.
At this point, I still don't know whether I'll finish this winter, spring, or at all. But every mile I carry that weight, I resent the wear and tear on my body. The flip side is that some of the best nights I've spent on the trail have been in that tent. But I can camp any time, right? And the lightweight pack beckons... like a siren in the night.
So whenever these packages show up (My friend Sharkey is sending me something as well) I'll be off again, sans tent. Past the Greyson Highlands, with their wild ponies, and on to the smokeys, with their snow, probably.
Wish me warmth :)

Spoiled :)

Well, I had stopped at a free hostel called Four Pines, which is really just the three car garage of a good-ole-boy type who is kind enough to let weary hikers sleep there on old cots, couches, or a twin bed in the corner.
But it's hunting season, so he had three gory, gutted deer hanging in the garage when I got there. 'No big deal' I thought, figuring I could still take advantage of a free place to rest my body for a day. After the previous 6 days of hiking 20+ miles/day, I had some sort of a stitch in my right calf, and I figured I was being cautious by resting up.
Bad idea.
After I left, the first symptom I noticed was feeling abnormally exhausted. Normally, other than acute feet, I feel great after 15 miles, but here I was, 2 miles in, and I felt like my boots were made of cement.
Lyme disease? I wondered, in a 'here comes the show stopper' sort of way. So many people have to quit this journey for injury or sickness, that I figured it was my turn :(
But the next day it was hard to force food down my throat and I had pretty horrible diarrhea, plus a pain in my gut that was seriously distracting. So when I hitched into a post office to mail Lysandra a b-day card, I just kept hitching... to another hostel (not free: a good way to avoid sleeping in a petri dish) that I had read about and was looking forward to (free yoga?! Oh yeah!)
And I took another zero.
                             ... in paradise.
This place is called Woods Hole, and is a log cabin that's as close to 'self sustaining' as a place can get while still having all the amenities to help a sick hiker recover while he poops his brains out.
Three hitches later, I arrived and was told by Neville that she and her husband, who run/own this little slice of heaven were going into Blacksburg, VA for a rare town run. They'd leave in the morning, would be running errands all day, and were taking he opportunity to see live music, so if I wanted to see live music, I was invited to buy a $12 ticket online now and I could go with them.
The band was called Rising Appalachia and, I was told, are popular in Asheville and I'd love 'em.
One day, one amazing small-venue concert, and 3 home grown and home cooked meals later, and I feel like a million bucks! This place could easily be a rustic-fancy $200/night B&B, but for hiker-hostel rates I got garden fresh food, got to play a hand-made early-sixties Martin guitar, got a free ride to a totally eccentric spin on Old Time Appalachian music (right up my alley), got to feed baby cows, goats, and chickens, and got an hour long massage (okay, that was extra).
Wow.
Guess it's time to go hiking :)