Shuttle Chaos, May 22nd

I got a great nights sleep last night. I actually slept through the night and it felt great. I spent the rest of the day with three hikers who were a few doors down who had went to dinner with everyone last night, Dirty Duck, Catfish (like a cat mermaid), and Kevin. The shuttle system is Marion was quite the disaster, it was unorganized and everyone told us something different as far as times and locations. We ended up getting a shuttle into town. I was able to send a bunch of things home then go to a cafe for a late breakfast. They had this amazing spinach and feta pie, I even ordered a second one which I had to take to go quickly because we ran out of time. I also got some fresh fruit. It was the best fresh fruit I've ever had as a side. It was sliced up into small pieces and delicious! The four of us each had a bit of a toilet mishap in their restroom. I ended up clogging the thing. Their toilet paper was more like thick rough paper towels on a roll so it doesn't suprise me that it did get clogged.

We waited for a long time for the shuttle. We were there early and we're exactly where the shuttle driver told us to be but nothing. With that having been a fail we stuck our thumbs out. Eventually a guy stopped by with a truck, he had to drop off a bunch of trash then came back for us. Having no room in the cab we sat in the back like the hiker trash we are.

We ended up going the 12 miles into Atkins. I would have gone further if it wasn't for the really late start. We didn't get to the trail until a bit after noon. It was a good day.

At some point I slipped and fell off a rock, falling forwards. I landed on my hands and knees, a rock being right under my knee. I was pleasantly surprised that I didn't get banged up from that. My foam pole handle on the other hand got chunked up. Then Viking caught up to us. He was yellow blazing and skipped another big chunk of trail.

We got to visit the old school house. It has trail magic every day from what I understand. It really had some great stuff too!

We saw a baby salamander and a giant toad today.

Dirty Duck bought two kites and gave me one to fly with him. It was really a great afternoon. The trails were really muddy though from all the rain over the weekend, it was hard on my knees slipping around so much.

Derby caught up with us right as were were arriving into Atkins and he joined us for dinner at the barn restaurant. It was a rather crappy place, very much so like a middle school cafeteria. Viking particularly hated the place, everything he said was some kind of complaint over the place, it was rather hilarious. He ordered a $10 steak thinking it would be a nice steak. The rest of us got fried chicken and it was delicious. I had a package shipped here because the guide book says that they'll hold onto them. They charged me to pick up my box. That was upsetting because I did their place buisness. All other places that charge specify on their blurb in the book that they charge if they do and they typically only charge if you don't do buisness with them whether it a purchase or spending the night for hotels and hostels. The restroom was more like an ER the toilets had a curved bar around the top with curtains hanging that you pulled around the toilet.

Viking, Dirty Duck, Kevin, Catfish and I split a hotel room together. We were warned that it was dirty but we stayed anyways. The Relax Inn was the grossest, dirty, nasty hotel that I've ever stayed in. So much filth. The outside looked like something from a horror film with trash and junk piled up in the lawn and an old sign advertising that this place offers color cable tvs. This place is falling apart and just absolutely gross.

Kevin is worried that the TV might fall on him.

Tonight in Atkins I'm staying at mile 544 with 1645.8 miles left to go.