Welcome to the wonderful gentle gradients of the trail in Virginia - a fast easy walk. Mid-morning we cross a small bridge to be greeted by a group of Baptists offering trail magic to hikers. We eat cakes with 'cream', make some fresh sandwiches, drink two cans of lemonade (soda), and when we are totally stuffed we continue on. The path follows an old railway so it is very gentle, and we soon catch an old hiker - male, and very slow on the hills, carrying a day pack. His trail name is 'Lifeguard' and we discover later that he is 'slack-packing' and plans to slack pack the whole trail, all the way to Maine. He has a car and is walking with another hiker, they pass in the middle and swap car keys to do car shuffles every day.
There is a sense of anticipation as we approach Partnership Shelter - it is on the road to the town of Marion, and it is possible to have pizza delivered. What will we order? - we linger over the menu. The mobile only works in the car park so we have to walk out to the road to place the order. In the car park is a hiker who is waiting for a fuel delivery, from the shop owner in Marion. The shops are closed on Saturday afternoon, and this shop owner is driving the 10 miles up to the shelter to bring 'Ugly Tuna' a litre of fuel for his stove.
Sensing an opportunity, I ask if he could take us back with him to Marion and he agrees. He drops us at a motel and we get a chance to have a shower, do our shopping and go out for dinner. The motel is a centre for hikers. We meet Lorie again, last seen on Day 15 in Franklin trying to organise a ride for a slack pack. How did she get here? We are much faster walkers than her. She has been 'yellow-blazing' - following the road - the dotted lines on the road are called yellow blazes in AT culture. She has hooked up with Warrior, an ex vietnam veteran, who becomes notorious on the trail for skipping bits, reappearing and pretending that he has walked the whole way. Warrior is delighted to drive us back to the trail tomorrow - he has hired a car for a few days, so that makes it easy for us and we are very grateful.
That night at dinner, we find ourselves in a 'Christian' restaurant, opposite the motel. We should have realised when we saw the fish symbol on the wall. We meet Jamie aka 'T-Cozy' for the first time since Burning Town Gap - Day 16. He has dropped out of the trail because of injury.
Our inability to find restaurants which serve wine with meals is becoming a joke by this stage. Sweet tea as the drink of choice must be one of those things you have to grow up with, but that's what we are becoming used to.
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