This is a true story
Ideas started being tossed around. One only carries so much food on the trail so sitting in the shelter all day wasn't really an option: we had to go somewhere. I suggested we go back to where the trail crosses the road near Atkins, VA and try to hitch a little ways down the trail to a hotel room we could split five ways. Maybe get some beers. Whatever.
So that was the basic first iteration of the plan, but all plans tend to spiral out of control (whereas all plots lead deathward, or so I'm told). Night Rider, who's originally from Long Island, but went to mechanic's school in Northern Carolina suggested a more outlandish scheme. He had a job working on boats on a lake in northwest North Carolina last summer and was real tight with his boss. In fact, he lived with his boss on a property on a peninsula on a beautiful lake in North Carolina and, in fact, his boss was a really cool dude and, in fact, his friend who still lived and worked for this guy could get to a road two miles from the shelter in about two hours and, in fact, we could totally stay by the lake for a few days. This was a good idea. Calls were made, packs were packed and we five--Ajax, Freight Train, Night Rider, Dirt and Senator (me)--soon found ourselves flying down US81 toward a lake in North Carolina.
So here I am, somehow on the shores of Lake Norman in beautiful North Carolina. We've mostly been eating and sleeping and fishing and watching movies and drinking beers (it's exceptionally wonderful to find a proper beer store that carries beer nicer than Natural Ice). Actually, I'm going to go open a Pilsner Urquell and thrown a hamburger on the grill right now. Tomorrow, we walk!