Rain and rest

It rained for two days coming out of the standing bear and I was misserable. I discovered that my tarp and bivy just can't handle that much rain. All of my stuff got soaked and caked in mud, including my down sleeping bag. I was cold, wet, and had a serious case of hiker blues. Walking into Hot Springs was a huge relief. I'm staying at Elmer's. Elmer is a former thru hiker back in the 70s and a former professor. He bought this huge victorian mansion and now caters to hikers. All of the staff are former thru hikers as welll. The place is packed with antique furniture and appliances, interesting books, and all kinds of musical imstuments available to play. Everyone got their own room with a balcony. Also, they have a garden out back and make organic meals for breakfast and dinner every day. Last night I had a 4 course meal. Eveyone sits around a big dinning table and it feels like a nice big family. After dinner Elmer asked one of the hikers to give a performance so we all went to the music room and listened to Tamer play the piano for a while. Anyways, Elmers is awesome.

I took a zero day yesterday to rest my legs and explore town. Hot Springs is pretty small, but has everything you need. One grocery store, a post office, library, pub, outfittet shop, ice cream shop, and 3 restaurants. I spent the day at the library, picked up my package from Amy, and soaked in the hot spring baths for a bit. At night I went to the pub and met a bunch of hikers I haven't seen for a few days. I also bought a tent ... I don't want to go through another prolonged rainstorm in a tarp again.

The past few days I've been hiking with some interesting folks. Tamer is a former Arabic translator for the army, and as soon as he got out, he got on Jepardy and actually won two games. He's spending some of his winnings doing this trip before going to NYU on the GI bill. Balls and Sunshine are a father daughter team. Sunshine is only 11 and hiked the PCT last year. She is trying to be the youngest person to tripple crown after she hikes the CDT next year. I think I mentioned Beacon earlier. I started with him on April 3 and keep running into him. He's 63 years old but that man can move! He's a retired B52 pilot and has tons of fun stories to tell.

There is a big hiker festival in town starting today, but I think I'm going to head out after brekfast to avoid the crowds leaving town next week.