TRAIL DAYS 2017 // DAY 2

Day 2 of Trail Days! After going to bed late the night before, I slept in my tent until nine the next morning. Everyone seemed to be getting up around then.


The gang then headed off for breakfast at Mojo's Trailside Café, a place that I absolutely loved while I was on trail last year.


Of course it was packed, but it was nice being back in a place I spent so much time at during my hike.


I ordered one of their wonderful, huge cinnamon rolls and an egg sandwich on a bagel with salsa. Even though I wasn't hiking, I found myself incredibly hungry and was glad I had room for both because they were both so tasty!


After breakfast, we headed to the Trail Days festivities. Gear booths, carnival games, auctions, etc.


We found the Hiker Yearbook school bus!


And a funny shirt. It's funny how spot on the shirt's answers are!


And a fun pirate hammock!


After, we headed back to camp for a bit to freshen up (or fireball... whatever) before the hiker parade!


We found the AT class of 2016


And signed the banner. Just want to say how good it is to be Olive Oil.


And headed off into the parade through Damascus!


That is until it started pouring! Like POURING!


We ended up hanging out in a soap makers tent. For like an hour. Me, Splinter, 11:30, Boyardee, Mogli...


Not Waterfall though. He figured since he was already wet, he'd stay wet.


The tent across from us started flooding which was a bit sad.


Finally the sun came out! We stuck around for the talent show which was a lot of songs.


We maybe brought beer even though we weren't supposed to. Also, Boyardee got his beard braided.


We also met some of Pocket's friends.



And tried on Waterfall's hats.


After the talent show we headed off to dinner, but the craziest thing happened. We witnessed a hiker wedding!! The bride and groom met at the Hawk Mountain shelter (Mile 8 of the trail) this year, hiked with each other to Standing Bear, a hostel around Mile 240, started dating there, and then hiked another month or two together and just decided they'd get married. I know this sounds crazy. It is crazy! But as I mentioned in Day 1's post, trail time is so different. I have people I hiked with for two weeks who feel like brothers and sisters. I've hiked with someone for a day and told them my life story. It's so great.


Anyway, the wedding was quite a spectacle. The officiant wore a bathrobe and smoked a cigarette the whole time, the bride and groom shotgunned beers instead of kissing each other, it was just soo good. "Til Katahdin or death do you part."


Just look at them!! <3

Also I really appreciated that the guy's trailname is Extra Virgin. Partly because he got married lol, but mostly because that was *almost* my trail name :x. I carried 25.3 fluid ounces of olive oil into the Smokey's and two 19 year olds I had recently met thought I should be Extra Virgin, but I decided I'd have to shut them down before it stuck so went with Olive Oil.


After the wedding, the gang went off to dinner. I passed this sign and still think it's funny.


We put our names down for dinner and then I had to go move my rental car. On the way to move it though, I crossed the scene where the wedding had taken place and they bought a birthday cake at the grocery store and everyone was eating it by hand and obviously I took a piece when they offered!


After moving my rental car, I met everyone back at the restaurant for dinner. The guy on the right was slammered and wanted a pic with the waitress with Jimmy Hendrix looking down on them. It was ridiculous. His wife or date who was twice as slammered took the pic and couldn't figure out the camera for the longest time.


The funniest part of it though was that in the process of trying to take the pic, Waterfall had been sitting in the seat in front of the Jimi Hendrix painting. Instead of just asking him to move, the guy in the picture gave him a dollar to move. Waterfall also ended up getting a free marg because he didn't order one but the waitress accidentally brought an extra. Obviously this crazy luck had to be photographed. Anyway, our dinner experience was kind of crazy (we suspected that the majority of staff was on meth or something of the sort... because when in rural VA...), but we had so much fun and laughed so much. Trail situations are so absurd and make the best stories.


After dinner, we headed back to Tent City and danced around the fire, sat around and hung out and drank more beers, and enjoyed the last night of camping out for the weekend.