Project Eveningland

4/3/2023 Monday

I’m still nauseated but doing much better. It was way easier to eat today. I am so damn glad that the last dose is behind me. Will reached out last night—he’s in the area—and offered to drive me around today. A chance to see a trail friend and get a strip mall haircut! My dream!

I left my stuff at the BnB I’d be staying at tonight and we grabbed ice cream and drove to Abingdon to a Great Clips or similar. There just wasn’t time to get an appointment somewhere better.

Will drives a white Tesla. (Note: dairy products no longer to be consumed before curvy drives). I put my name in at the haircut place and we bummed around Food City next door while we waited. A very itchy cut later—isn’t it possible to angle my head such that the hairs don’t fall directly into my face?—we headed back to Damascus. Will had had to get off trail for medical reasons. He said he got picked up at the red caboose at the edge of town. I talked about how my own thru-hike, which ended sooner than I wanted, and in some disappointment, became a really happy set of memories after I’d grieved for it. We parted. I walked up to my breezy little room above the tiny main street.

My sister Tracy asked about my clothing and laundry habits in the comments. Since I’m just gonna lie around today, why not a tour?

BTW, I’m so glad I took a third rest day. I am still tired, still wiped.

That’s every piece of clothing I’ve got with me. My laundry strategy is to arrive at accommodations and shower and put on my town clothes. Then I wash my hiking clothes. Then if there’s time I’ll do another load to wash my town clothes at the end, but often I’ll just keep those as clean as possible and change back into clean hiking clothes.

End of tour.

Went to the Damascus Diner and had another great meal. Chicken tenders. It’s my microbiome telling me that it misses Ben.

I gotta stop looking at my phone. I’ll be glad to be outdoors if only to cut down on my screen time.