Pearisburg

You know you are a thru-hiker when... You approach a man in a skirt to ask him for a ride.

In the interests of getting our blog up-to-date, we've decided to skip a few weeks and continue from Trail Days. A few weeks after crossing the Tennessee/Virginia state border we arrived in Pearisburg. Coming down a mountain into town, we were debating whether to make reservations at a local motel. We decided against it. After all, how busy could a small country town with three motels get?

Trail Days is an annual hiker festival held in Damascus, Virginia and for weeks on the trail it had been the only thing talked about. Every hiker within about 200 miles of Damascus generally hops off the trail for a few days to attend. It's famous for free gear, food and lots of beer. Our plan was to stay in Pearisburg for a few days until it started and then hitch the 150 miles back to Damascus. Unfortunately it seemed that everyone else had the same idea.

After checking out two motels and finding them full, we moved onto the third. We saw a "No Vacancy" sign in the window and decided to go inside anyway to ask if there was other accommodation nearby. As soon as we walked in the door, the receptionist asked, "Are you guys hikers?" From previous experience we knew that this line generally preceded something nice. "We have to look after our hikers. We don't have any real rooms left but we can move a couple of mattresses into the gym if you want. It has a bathroom and it's yours for $17 a night." Before he could change his mind, we said, "Done," and put the money on the table. Our next problem was finding a ride back south.

Problems always look better when you're clean. After a quick shower we headed to the Laundromat. Half way through the spin cycle we overheard a guy in a skirt talking on his phone, "So you'll take us all the way to Damascus? Great. See you tomorrow." We went over to ask him how he went about organizing his ride and were pleasantly surprised when he (Lush) offered us two spare seats. We were set for Trail Days. We thanked him, sat down and waited for the spin cycle to finish.

Just as we were putting our clothes in the dryer, another hiker entered. He could best be described as looking like a cross between Louie the Fly and Franklin the Turtle. He was a large man who wore thick glasses and walked with a hunched back. He introduced himself as Minnesota Smith. For the first 20 mins of conversation he had us in stitches as he related his trail journey so far. Then halfway through our drying cycle, he asked us the loaded question, "What do you guys do?" We explained that we'd finished university and were avoiding getting a real job. Then he focused on Zan, "So what are you planning to do with your degree? Become a housewife?" Thinking he was joking, we both laughed as Zan replied, "Maybe a school teacher." Then he launched into his well rehearsed monologue, "The only true profession that a woman needs to fulfill is to have babies. The Muslims are outbreeding us and the only way to keep this country pure is to have more babies than them." We prayed that our washing would dry quickly as he kept speaking, "Married women should not get the vote because they are going to vote for whoever their husband tells them to anyway. I'm not saying that women can't have a career. Once they're done having babies... Say when they're 40 or so, their husband can support them if they choose to go to college or do something else." We took our still damp clothes, said our goodbyes and were glad that he wasn't going back for trail days.