Trail Days 04 TR - Gem says, "I'll stick it up..."

“Friday, May 14, 2004

Someone will have add to the beginning of the trip report as I didn't get there until 10pm, but they might not remember as when I got there most of them were already drunk out of their mind ;-) Our campground was tiny, but sufficient. We were setup across from some porta-johns at the corner of the road, across from some super-car campers who would get drunk and start singing hymns, very nice people, had their own musical instruments, huge tarp area, and a huge gas grill. Our tents were pitched so close together we could almost walk from vestibule to vestibule without getting any sunlight.

Most of us stayed up until 1 or 2am partying and having a good time in camp. Aiel got so hammered up at the main fire (huge bonfire visible from space, tons of half-naked barefoot hippies (our kind of people) dancing around the blistering fire that could be seen from space) that Rox1 and Fluffer had to drag her back to came—all of them falling into a ditch at least once.

Barney Fife came by and dumped out someone's Tequila and then carried the bottle around all night as a "prize." All drinks had to be in a cup or a Nalgene.

In attendance were me, Rox1, Hyway, Roam Around with his two minions ;-) destructoboy (lives up to name) and bebo, Crosscut and his wife Litefoot and their dogs Jessie and Maggie, Gemini, Opie, Miss Opie, Smokygirl, CGHiker and husband Steve, Stormbringer (Crash!Bang! thru hiker name), Aiel/LunaSC, Fluffer, Carlette, Carl and Wildbill4416 from the other site with his wife Billy.

Saturday, May 15, 2004

Everyone except Crosscut woke up at the ass crack of dawn, 7am. It was rumored that Fluffer and Aiel woke up from their drunken state of minds at 4am, ate some cereal, and left camp. It was not known when Crosscut woke up, but estimated at around noon…does that mean he gets the award for hardest partier?

I at some granola with cranberries and milk, an 800 calorie breakfast. For some reason they all gave me hell about this. ;-) After breakfast Gemini and I went to the vendor area setup at the entrance to camp. Here they gave away free samples, did free repairs, demonstrations. Gemini went back about 5 times to get free stuff, she went so many times they started recognizing her and turning her down. And boy did she stock up! I saw her take at least 10 pairs of boot strings myself!

Leki was in the camp area and they serviced their poles for free. I went with Gemini to pick hers up and no kidding, she won the "dirtiest poles award" beating out all of the thru hikers. And that's not a joke. Later when we went back to pick mine up they remembered her.

After this we all hitched rides to town. Some in shuttles, some in cars. The vendors area was great. Bbinkley didn't show up?? It was rumored that he was banned because of his low prices the year before. There were some good prices on hiking gear, and there were some bad prices. The guys from Trailjournals.com were there. Tom Hennessy himself was there showing off his product as well as a new unnamed winter cover for cold weather hammock use. I picked up an Explorer Ultralite A-Sym for $158 which included the hammock, tarp, and a new fast packing cover called snake skins. Gemini went and got one as well. I talked to Tom for half an hour, great guy, very popular there. Some of the guys went to the "Superfeet" booth. For $20 they would measure your feet and make adjustments to your boots making them wider, longer, etc, so that they fit better.

The Parade

At 2pm the parade was supposed to start but it was about 15 minutes late. The Backpacker.com mobile lead the parade and when it hit main street, it got pelted with water balloons. Opie brought a cooler full of water balloons, a slingshot, and two water canons. We assaulted the bp.com mobile when their windows were down with the canons. Further down the road Crosscut would get them again.

The thru-hikers also armed themselves with balloons and squirt guns so we ourselves were assaulted. One brave young lad rushed Opie and I and tried to get the cooler we were guarding. Both of us had to lay on it to keep him from dragging it away. Sadly for the HMWHC most of the women in white shirts had on thick clothes underneath so there wasn't a wet-T contest 

Gemini got the new trail name, "Snake Lady," as she had a snake that was a squirt gun. She walked around town asking everyone, "would you like to rub my snake?" It was sooo big some people were scared of it!

After our supply of balloons and water was exhausted, Opie and Miss Opie high tailed it down the river. Opie sat in the river assaulting everyone with his canon from thru-hikers to towns people as they crossed the bridge.

After the parade everyone went back to the vendor area in town for a bit and then back to camp to begin the nightly debauchery. Too bad for us, thanks to hyway ;-) , it started raining really hard. The rain kept up for about 30 minutes and about 20 people were huddled under a tarp trying to stay dry. As soon as hyway put on his rain jacket it stopped. Then he unzipped it and it started again—the rain was all his fault!

In camp Gemini informed me she bought a Hennessy and she got hers! I paid for mine but it was supposed to be shipped so Destructoboy and I drove back to town to see what was up. On the way I picked up two thru-hiker chicks so they didn't have to walk. Destructoboy successfully popped a balloon on accident making them both scream, LOL. Turns out we had the option of having the hammock shipped or pick it up so I picked mine up—awesome.

The rain made a huge mess…MUD everywhere. There was a stream running through camp and a pond behind my tent.

After the rain Crosscut and Litefoot shared some of their wedding cake (from 2 years ago) with us. It was good and helped create the "Magic cookie" that the women made later. Ask them for an explanation of the "magic cookie" they offered to everyone that walked by. Hyway did some trail magic by making the thru hikers some fresh oysters. The oysters lured in many of them including the horned thru-hiker. The dude had a horn on his skull, no joke. Said he was born like that, it was really weird.

The Opies joined us in camp around 10pm. Gem, hyway, me, and the Opies went up to the fire visible from space to see what was up. Miss Opie wanted to dance around it so bad with the thru-hikers, so hyway, gem, opie, miss, opie, and me all hopped in the circle to dance. The heat from the fire melted our skin. Funny thing was, there were so many people dancing around the fire that when we joined the circle we filled it up and stopped the dancing, lol. This meant moving closer to the fire to dance around.

After that we went back to camp and Gemini made a comment about sticking something up her ass ;-) hahah! Hyway, what exactly did she call those green plastic things? Anyway, once we got to camp Hyway saw Carlette enter the porta-john and saw this as an opportunity for some fun. So he walked over and grabbed the side of it and started shaking it like hell! She screamed soo LOUD! All of us in camp were laughing our asses off screaming, "do it again, do it again!" So again he did it and again she screamed. I think she was afraid of the porta-johns the rest of the trip.

A

Sunday, May 16, 2004

Sooon.


Webshot Links
Aiel's
Roam Around
Rox1 album 1
Rox1 album 2
Fluffer”

“Got to town and finally located the gang after cruising the whole campground - they were in the last place I looked. Crosscut, Litefoot and Hyway, along with the Billies had picked us out a real nice spot.

Not a lot happened until the cop poured out the Jose, and being a jerk, made more of a big deal out of than was necessary.

Friday night, meeting strombringer at the bonfire, along with some other thruhikers, Dragonslayer was really cool.

Destructoboy had a HUGE water fight with Eats (the guy with the horn) and both of them were completely drenched.

The thru hikers also had a dunkin booth set up (see my pics) and after some minor adjustments it worked really well.

There weren't as many vendors as I expected, but there were some cool stuff, including fleece thongs, (see my pics again) if you wanted.

Gemini even found a pretty pink stuff sac and her and Smokygirl both grabbed some pink crocs. (Sheesh)

One highlight of Friday, for the gals at least, was this guy named Bramble (Rambo too) walking around in a kilt and no shirt. All the girls oohed and ahhed over him, Hyway finally had to tell him to get the hell out of our campsite. Gemini and Fluffer liked him so much that they even followed him to the little beer joint place in Damascus under the guise of going to meet aiel.

It was a great time.

Sat morn Destructoboy cooked breakfast, bacon and scrambled eggs for me and Bebo, good boy that Destructo (except he made me wash dishes)”

“Don't forget the part that proves Hyway will eat anything when Bebo dropped the bacon on the muddy, wet, ground and Hyway invoked the three second rule and ate it.

I posted this TR on the other site, I wonder how many responses it will get...my guess is five from people who didn't go.”

“lmao

by the way, I left around 9:30 sunday morn and pulled into my complex at 9:30 that night. Stopped for lunch and dinner too.

I really do think the speed limit is way higher than any 70 mph!

Gotta remind destructo to set up our tent this afternoon as soon as he gets home from school so it'll dry.”

“The bacon fell on a tuft of grass, but I am sure that grass had been stepped on a few hundred times.

Yeah, that Bramble high tailed it when I threatened to open a can of whup-a$$ on him LOL. have you seen the pic where Billie is looking at Bramble with that twinkle in her eye and the stupid grin”

“damn boy, make a link!”

“Sorry, I was a bit lazy, I had to pull my head up off the desk just to make that post.”

“hyway that you?

nice ummm shoes”

“Haha, WildBill should be worried about that kilt-wearing bramble.”

“yeah, thats me. I wasn't quite as pumped as usual, but I think I was still looking good.”

“Dub, not true!! They gave me my samples every single time. LOL I went 3 times, that's all, and only once to the t-shirts.

I have started to write a small trip report, but we pretty much have the exact same report so it's no use to post.

Good report dub! And thanks for being nice :) I learned that I have to talk in complete sentences. Don't ever leave out a word or two, not even when you had too much too drink. Dang, things could sound real bad!!

The only person I actually met that I was able to add to my list is carlette, oh and the one minute intro to sgt. rock, but that's about it. Everyone else I knew already, but I didn't know they are TT members because they don't post much.

There was another guy that sold me the hammock (not the hammock dude himself), he knew me from this board. I forgot his name. Don't think he's a TTer though. He said something about Stovestomper.


what else to add? Not much really. I got soacked during the parade. I mean big time soacked. Hunky dude soacked me.

I got jan liteshoe big time. She was all the way dry until she came by me. LOL Dang woman even attacked me but didn't know how to use my snake. LOL Yupp, only the true expert knows how to use my snake.

Too bad smokey had to leave so early. I hope to do more hikes with her in the future. yupp we got pink crocks. cool, always wanted some.

I never have seen as many men in skirts then this past weekend. dang!!”

“The other hammock dude was Tom Hennessy's brother, I forget what he said his name is. I still need to log onto his website to figure out how to hang the thing.

And Snake Lady, you know you were banned from those vendors! ;-)”

“so thats not hyway, just a guy who likes to wear skirts.

well if thats the case, then ALL men should wear them.

LONG LIVE SKIRTS FOR MEN!


ps, your still cute hyway :D”

“awww shucks,”

“LOL Dang woman even attacked me but didn't know how to use my snake. LOL Yupp, only the true expert knows how to use my snake.
Gemini
03:58:25 PM
05/17/04


I wish I had a dollar for everytime I've said that...”

“and there I sat myself in doodoo again. I knew it the moment I pushed the "submit" button.”

“Gem, you add a lot of "flare" to TT. Why, if we didn't have you sitting around camp talking about "water ho's", well, this place just wouldn't be as fun. ;-) I for one am glad the snake lady is here.”

“...you just posted something nice. I was about to mark you off my "nice guy" list...you and hyway. LOL

anyway...water ho meaning...my friend used to call water hose a water ho...

see... what those half sentenses can do to ya??”

“LMAO! Still, I was looking for dem "water ho's" all weekend...you had my hopes up.”

“yeah, I got SOME freebies, but only because their gear deals wasn't really great this year. Not great at all. We miss binks...he's responsible for the low prices last year. I am sure of it.”

“You gonna upload more pictures? I only see 139, I thought you said you had like 200+. Can't wait to see more ;-)”

“dub, sometimes pictures don't turn out ya know.... :)
I have some pics, but they pretty much the same. Don't have time to upload right now, we're going the the boyscout meeting”

“Yep, Gem adds lots of flair. Bebo says thanks for showing her the finer points of hitching a ride too. ;)”

“Finer points of hitching a ride? What'd Gem do, flash the drivers?”

“noooooooo, not a flash, just that cute little smile that always turns a guys head, Bebo was just sticking out her thumb, Gem showed her how you gotta get their attention a little too.”

“LOL, quick to correct that one Roam, LMAO! I'm sure she'll learn that trick when she's a lot older, haha. Any more of your pics turn out? If you need me to host them lemme know. I need something to put on my TR webpage when I put it up.

Yeah Gem, I forgot that some don't always turn out. Figured with Dig most of them would.”

“its funny, theres no indication when they don't work, the pic just won't download.

Hey Dub, go to my webshots and pull anything you want to add to your site, you may have to download the webshots desktop program, it's small and fast.”

“That was cooler than crap! I had a great time! I wish I could have stayed, but Cracker Barrel with Azimuth in TN was calling... hee hee!”

“Thanks Roam! I'll do that. But I was saying if you had more that you wanted to put up I'll put them on my website with your name above them like I did Scorch's in Dec. I have no limits on the number I can upload.”

“nope that was all of them.”

“So the ones you took after the busted lens didn't work?”

“no they worked, I didn't take hardly any after the parade was over for some reason.”

“have you seen me? I need all the sleep I can get to recover from the previous night.

Where's the pic we wanted to put up first?”

“my vote goes to bebo.

"Is Hyway smart?"

My reply was no hun don't listen to a word he says.”

“I was late on the mail and have just added it to my trail days journal #2”

“LMAO! Great Report Dub!!

That Gemini sure packs a large can of whoop-@ss in that tiny body!”

“that's okay Dub Dub...next time you had a bit too much to drink and don't talk in complete sentences I'll tell on you too.

someone wanna hear the story about shy Dub not picking up girls??”

“Wild Bill and Billie made it to my house in Wilmington, NC around 10:30 Thursday night, we loaded their stuff into my Soccer Mom van. I am so manly. (I think it was the only one in the Damascas campground during the entire weekend) We drove through the night and made it to the campground around 5:30 Friday morning. The trip was uneventful for the most part, all except that last 45 miles, which if it isn’t the curviest stretch of road in America it ought to be. I was thinking about changing WildBill’s name to Mildbill due to how he was reacting to the way the mommie van took to the curves.

Arriving at the campground, we begin our search for Crosscut and crewCross had staked out with caution tape and proceeded to set up.

Soon after we had the tents up and were visiting with those already there, Gemini pulled up. She was wearing jeans and a hoochie momma shirt. Which I was grateful for since we didn’t actually go hiking and this was the only time I got to look down into a great valley the entire weekend. Soon after Gem set up her tent, Rox and Fluffer showed up. Fluffer had the biggest tent I have ever seen. People live in mobile homes smaller than that thing. I helped them set up then headed to town with the crowd.

Hiking into town is a short ½ mile jaunt. It’s even shorter to the festival venders. Still, it seems hikers are the laziest people in the world because we were hitching rides from the people who couldn’t stand the thought of a ½ mile walk and were driving to town. Town is being nice, this is more of a village. One main street, hikers everywhere. The cool thing is the Appalachian Trail goes right down the sidewalk we were on. There were white blazes on the bricks. Then the AT went through a small park along the river where all the festival venders were set up. Cross can now say he has driven his truck on the AT simce we parked on it Sunday afternoon. There were lots of gear tents, but not really many sales. I did get some Vasque trail shoes for $40. We beat around the festival, got something to eat, then headed back to camp.

Back at camp the alcohol was flowing, and more and more people were pouring into the campground. I went down to the creek and played like a kid, as seen in Rox’s pictures, doing cannonballs and flips off the rock in the middle of the creek. Back to camp for more drinks. Fluffer is an excellent bartender. She mixed the best drinks. I think her plan was to get me drunk and have her way with me. Or at least I was hoping that was the plan. In the meantime, the thruhikers had pulled this huge stump out of the woods and drug it behind a truck to the central fire. We went back and forth to the fire, then around 8:30 a few of us went back to town to meet up with a late arrival. On the way out, Dub pulled in. So now we are at the point where his story takes off.

I had a great time and was happy to meet some Trail Talk folks. Smokeygirl is such a nice person (and cute too), as was Dub (although I didn’t think he was cute). Roam Around showed up at some point on Friday, I don’t even remember when, but he’s a pretty cool guy and his kids are great, although Sarah is a terrible judge of character (I are to smart, little girl). I met Opie and Miss Opie a couple times. They had the coolest little light balls that looked great in the dark. I would like to think Miss Opie for the blistered skin on my right side caused by the fire that could be seen from the space shuttle. Two-scoops/stormbringer/crashboom seemed like a very quiet guy unlike a lot of the other thruhikers that were everywhere. And the Carolinas Hikers crew were a blast to hang with as usual.

Favorite Quote? Gemini walking back from the bonfire on a dark trail putting a light stick into her back pocket and saying “I am going to stick this in my a$$.”

2nd Favorite Quote? Billie saying that if the lightstick starts going on and off after Gem went to her tent we would know what it was.”

“"Pocket"

I wanted to say I am going to stick this in my a$$ Pocket

My favorite quote: "is hyway smart?"”

“yep hyway got slammed by the 9 year old”

“The correct answer is yes, Hyway is smart, he just plays an Idiot online.”

“lmao”

“how do you post a link? for us newbies? and a photo? I missed the lessons, Sorry I was sleeping in.

Our trip began early Thursday afternoon, with packing everything including the kitchen sink. So off we go, heading up to Trail “Daze”, truck packed like Sanford and Son.
We arrive around 10:30 and call Carlette and Carl to tell them we are here and find out how far they are from getting there. Carlette tells me they are about 90 miles out from Damascus. So Litefoot and I drive the truck down the muddy roads in the fog and rain looking for a site big enough to house the crew. With all the rain many thrus had set up on the road or just off the side so navigating the road was quite hairy. We finally decided on the spot we had, after an hour of driving and dodging tents and drunks.
Begin to set up and stake out the area, when a fella comes up and offers to help. Jay, a campground owner along the AT in Erwin, helps us unpack and set up the boundaries.
After the tent and all are set up, Litefoot decides to head off to bed. I figuring the two C’s will be along in a minute, so I decide to stay up and start “drankin” with Jay. Along the way a nice little hippie hiker comes along and starts to set up right beside Jay’s crew of hikers. We offer a light to help her see. Give or take about five minutes and here comes the local police. They walk up and I am thinking, hell I ain’t been here two hours and I am off to see the tank already. So they ask to speak to the lil’ hippie chick and cart her off back up to the entrance, leaving all her belongings right there with Jay and I. Well to make a long story short apparently the nice hippie fellow she walked in with smelled like some organic matter, and they wanted to chat. Noting the lil’ chick had nothing, they released her and she came back to resume setting up. After that, I decided I would be better off, closer to my tent. I went back and decided that the two C’s must stopped or gotten lost, so I headed off to bed. Climbing into bed, telling Litefoot goodnight and that sure as I fell off to sleep they would pull up. Go figure what happens next. I hear a “Hey, we are here”. We help set up Carl’s hubble tent and back to bed, wondering if this time Hyway and Billie’s were to wake us next. No such luck, as they got the campground, couldn’t find us and decided to sleep in the car. Litefoot got up the next morning, to cook up some viddels and along comes Hyway, Bill, and Billie. The rest is history.

Some memorable thoughts and some thoughts were un-rememorable. Lol”

“I believe the conversation went like this.

Bebo: Is Hyway smart?
Crosscut: No. [pause] No he isn't.
Dub: LOL
Hyway: Did someone say my name?
Group: LOL


And Gemini, what are you talking about! I asked those girls if they wanted a ride! They were dressed (and smelled) like town chicks and when they got in they talked to each other so I said screw it, I'll find the hiker chicks to talk to.”

“link: do it like this:

< a href="http://www.website.com"> what you want the link to say goes here < /a >

note that i put an extra space at the beg and end only to get the text to display on this. When you do it for real the "a" and the "/a" shouldn't have any spacing before the angle brackets.”

“so put up your dadgum pics already!”

“...I wasn't even there.”

“okay, okay, okay....
uploading them right now. total is 88 pics. nothing great though. Give it some time. I have to leave and if webshots acts like I think it will, it won't upload all of them and I will have to upload later when I get back.

pretty much same pics that everyone else got.”