When we decided to go to Trail Days, we didn’t want to waste too much time with it. Our plan was to arrive early Friday afternoon, see all the equipment booths, wash our clothes, take a shower, camp in tent city Friday night, drink a lot of beer, wake up and eat a good breakfast Saturday morning, and be back on trail by Saturday afternoon around 1:00 or 2:00 at the latest. It was a great plan. Of course it didn’t work out that way.

Right off the bat we had gotten there way to late on Friday night for the gear booths, showers, or laundry. All our gear was wet, but we walked around and met up with lots of other hikers we hadn’t seen in a while. I saw Hot Sauce, a guy me and Shelby met on the approach trail on day one. The day we met him he told us he had just finished hiking the Florida Trail, and that he was planning to do 25 miles that first day. I figured I would never see him again. Turns out he was less than 50 miles further down the trail than I was at this point. Funny how the trail works and where it takes you.

We decided we would go ahead and stay Saturday and get all our chores done, see the booths, and plan to get back on trail Sunday morning. I bought that new Hyperlite Mountain gear tent. I was going to have to carry both tents for a couple of days until I could send the Hilleberg home. The Post Office was closed until Monday so I had no choice but to carry both for a few days. We just hung out, ate a lot, and visited with the other hikers and the local people. There were lots of people at Trail Days that weren’t hikers too, they had a lot of questions for us about the trail. The sun came out and dried our tents, packs, and sleeping bags, It was a great relaxing day.

Sunday morning we woke up and got out of town. We were headed back to Allen Gap after stopping to grab some Subway sandwiches to put in our packs for lunch. The drive was about two and a half hours to get back to Allen Gap. Everything was going well.

About forty-five minutes from Allen Gap we had a second blowout, it was the spare this time, the same wheel as the first blowout. The road was climbing up the mountainside when it happened, but fortunately there was a gravel road right ahead so we were able to pull off. We didn’t have another spare, both tires were completely destroyed.We didn’t know where we even were.

After a few minutes we heard an ATV heading up the gravel road toward us. A young couple on a four-wheeler drove up and asked us if we were okay. We told them we were hikers, trying to get back to the AT about forty-five minutes away. They were country people, they had lived there all their lives and had never even heard of the Appalachian Trail. They couldn’t believe we had walked there all the way from Georgia. I don’t think they even believed us at first. We asked them where the closest town was located. They said Weaverville North Carolina was the closest, about twenty-five miles away. They said there was a towing service there that could probably get us to the tire shop, which opened in the morning. We called and an older gentleman answered the phone. He said to give him thirty minutes and he’d get someone there to pick us up.

The same man that answered the phone showed up with a flatbed truck and loaded up the Blazer. All the other guys road in the Blazer and I jumped in the cab of the tow truck. He was a really nice guy, I wish I could remember his name. He was 78 years old and still running his own towing service. He brought us to the Budget Motel then he and Zach took the Blazer to the tire shop. We walked a mile to a Barbecue joint and ate, and I noticed a Pack and Ship store a few store fronts down. I decided to go there the next morning and send the Hilleberg tent home. Things were looking up.