Birthday Dinners and Bathrooms

I am now in Damascus, VA 460 miles from Springer. I will be taking another full day off the trail to sit around and not do much. The past ten days had two days of snow and some wonderful trail magic as well as a couple of stories.
On my birthday I went out to eat with Shadow Cast, Pinky and Miss Priss. Miss Priss hiked in 05 and was having some girl time with her college friend Pinky. Shadow Cast and I are now back to hiking together. We all went to the Bridge Street Cafe. We sat down and ordered. Pinky and Miss Priss both ordered the same thing, and the waitress came back out a couple of minutes later with one menu and said they were out of that. They both changed their orders, and a couple of minutes later the waitress said they were out of one of them, so Miss Priss changed her order again. All this time we are asking for our bread which now finally comes. A long time later my food and Miss Priss' food comes out, and the waitress says that they are out of what Shadow Cast and Pinky had ordered. They reorder from about the three things still left on the menu, but our appetizers never show up. Then a couple of minutes later the manager arrives and gives me a free dessert for my birthday, and yet I still have most of my dinner in front of me, and Shadow Cast and Pinky are still waiting for theirs. When all the food finally arrives, it is good, but we are slightly frustrated. However we are only charged for two meals.
Our next meal ensemble is much better. Shadow Cast had gone to church the day before and all four of us were invited to breakfast at someone's house. The food was wonderfull, had lots of butter and kept on coming. It was not until 11am that we were finally on the trail.
We were now on the trail with our bags full of food and as always we were thinking about what to eat for dinner. Around 5:15 we get to a road crossing and there is a sign saying Trail Magic and directions. This leads us to a two hour stop and a three course meal of Belgian waffles, chili and fresh made apple pie. The only down side was that our backpacks were just as heavy the next day.
After a couple of days of great weather we run into some snow. The first day we get some light snow as we were hiking, and that night several inches fell. The next day it snowed a little more, but it was absolutely gorgeous. We stopped that night at the Kincora Hostel. When we arrived the only bed available was a double bed in the unheated treehouse. It was a tight fit, but better than another night in a shelter. We went into town for groceries and pizza, and it is amazing how easy it is to eat a large pizza by yourself.
The next morning about 9 miles into the hiking I was starting to think about how nice it would be to find a toilet. Lo and behold we come across a picnic area with a restroom. There were a bunch of forest service vehicles in the area and the workers having lunch. So I go into the restroon and take care of business. Part way through I hear the door lock. This worries me. After washing my hands I try the door and it does not budge. So I try banging and shouting and still nothing. Shadow Cast is waiting for me, but I do not know at what point he will come back to the restroom, so I start thinking about how to get out. There is some wire mesh in the triangle between the roof and the wall so I turn the trash can over (it was empty), and start beating on the mesh. After a couple of minutes I manage to get an opening I can squeeze out of. Then it was only a couple of foot drop after hanging over the edge of the wall. I slide through with only a scratch or two to show for it.
Shadow Cast and I are hiking fairly quiclky, but that should us allow us more zero days and the ability to slow back down when we get the White Mountains. I am not sure when I will be able to get more pictures up, most of the small towns are not set for for something like that. My next two mail stops will be Pearisburg, VA 24134 and Waynesboro, VA 22980. I am estimating Pearisburg about April 25th and Waynesboro May 9th. So if you are mailing something
Jeffrey Berliss
c/o General Delivery
Hold for AT Thru Hiker
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