Update for Thursday, April 29

My fingertips are still numb from the other day. As I was cutting back and forth down the hill into Damascus, in the dark, on Tuesday night, I was listening to a radio station that played, on a five-minute loop, an info segment boosting the town that began with "Welcome to Damascus, the friendliest town on the Appalachian Trail."

I zeroed here yesterday. In the evening I joined a group including Creepy, Tintin, Kashmir, an older guy named Hyway and a younger dude named Tornado in hitching to Abingdon, a slightly larger small town 12 miles west of Damascus, for the cinema. It took about 20 minutes before a kindly couple and their toddler pulled their VW van over. Here it is:

[Tintin and Creepy, Damascus, hitchin'!, April 28.]

We saw the movie "Kick Ass," a surprisingly good flick.

My plan now is to hike 24 miles by evening tomorrow and meet up with my parents, who will be visiting for three days. I'll be doing some hiking by day and staying in a hotel by night, which I'm looking forward to. And my parents will get a real live boots-on-the-ground look at the Appalachian Trail and the life that lives on it.

Salut!

[Me in front of the Abingdon Cinemall, Va. Wicked Yoda riding a goose.]