Day 10 - 10th Apil - Hiawassee - Zero Day

We have taken a rest day at Hiawassee - in AT parlance this is called a Zero - meaning nil hiking. Yesterday we only hiked for part of the day - this is called a Nero. So we have been slacking - taking a nero followed by a zero! Our bodies needed the recovery time.

We had breakfast at the local cafe with 'Domino Dude' - french toast with stawberries, eggs over easy, and grits! Grits are like porridge - an acquired taste and no doubt if I had been brought up with grits I would have thought they were wonderful. Eggs over easy means that the eggs are turned over and cooked but not hard. All this lingo to get used to.

We visit the Hiawassee supermarket to resupply and buy cranberries and make our own trail mix. This is to become a standard procedure - buy the ingredients - cashews, dried fruit, maybe a bit of chocolate mainly M&Ms and mix it altogether and divide into bags, one for each day.

We decide to send our $20 Dominos pizza voucher that Jo had given us to Brenda, the post master to say thankyou.

Hideous monstrosity of a church on the main street

Window boxes of tulips in Hiawassee

Cute little pioneer cottage in the main street

The town landscape of Hiawassee is memorable - huge ugly churches, cute little pioneer cottages and tulips in the window boxes. 

We meet two young Australian men - Peter and Chris - they are distracted by other things like booze and cigarettes.

We buy a 6-pack of cider from Vermont and bask in the sun for the afternoon at the motel relaxing and enjoying not having to walk. We meet Mike who is living in a caravan at the back of the motel and doing all the hiker shuttles.. We offer him a cider - he is shocked, he is a teetotaller.