Parents' visit

[Mom and me, relaxing after Mom's second consecutive 10-mile day on the trail, Va. Rte. 603, May 2]

Hotel by night, trail by day. That's been my life for the past three days as my parents have been visiting me here in southwest Virginia.

On Friday I was planning on using my phone to help coordinate the meetup with my parents, who were driving from Ohio. The phone didn't register any signal until I began ascending Whitetop Mountain [around 16 miles into my hike]. At the top of the mountain I was passing by three hikers sprawled out next to a spring at 5,100 feet elev. "You're not Ink, are you?" a dude asked. I plucked my earphone out and answered. He told me my parents had just come by and had been waiting at the next road not five minutes ago.

At the road there was no sign of them. But finally my call got through and my stepdad turned the car around and sped back up the hill.

I was relieved. Our original meeting point was another 45 minutes of hiking north and it was getting late. I was tiring fast. They had been driving all over creation in this land of no cell service and unpaved roads hoping to find me, asking strangers for direction.

We all hugged and sat down to enjoy Mom's AT cookies and Dr. Pepper. We gave some trail maj to a hiker I know named Greendog, who came over looking for a place to set up camp. Soon we got back in the car and checked into a Comfort Inn in Atkins and had dinner at a Mexican restaurant in Marion, just off Interstate 81.

I took a shower, turned on the tube, called my girlfriend and slept like a rock.