This morning the First Baptist Church picked up hikers here and at other nearby hostels and took us to their hall for a free breakfast. They do it for a few weeks around this time of year for thru hikers and we caught the last day they were doing it this year. Pancakes, bacon, coffee and juice were served. Really nice people who have been doing this for about 10 years. Hikers can sign a board using their trail name for their thru hike year and they keep these on display. You can see two on the wall in the picture. The pastor of the Church does give a short sermon and we had a group prayer but it’s not like a recruiting thing. More like praying for safe trip and the like. After breakfast we were shuttled back to the Sapphire and it was time for laundry and resupply.
First thing I needed to do was locate the leak and patch my sleeping pad. It was tough sleeping without the pad on the ground. I need to do this before we go to the outfitters in case I determine that I need a new one. I filled up bath tub, inflated the pad and systematically submerged it until the telltale bubbles gave the leak away. It was tiny and hard to see but I marked the spot, deflated and dried the pad before applying the patch. I let it set then tested it. It worked! It will be a lot easier on the trail now😄.
I got clothes washed and dried in the machines down the hall while waiting for patch to set. It’s first come first serve so you jump on it when they free up. Clean clothes 🤗🤗🤗.!
Now we need to resupply at two stops. First to an outfitters for some gear and fuel for our stove. Then to Ingles Supermarket for food. It’s a small town so it’s either hitch hike or walk. Rain subsided so we set off on foot. The first outfitters we came to was closed. They don’t open on Sunday. So we needed to walk another 1.5 miles to get to one that was open. It started pouring once we got on our way. Got soaked again but we neeed the fuel. People at the store were very friendly and when they heard about our predicament offered to drive us back to our hotel with a stop at the supermarket. It didn’t take us long to accept the offer. They say the trail provides and that is in large part to the generosity of those you meet along the way. The town of Franklin earned its reputation as an hiker friendly town and is now visited by most thru hikers on their journey.
We had intermittent thunderstorms the rest of day and into the night so we stayed by the hotel and got ready for the next leg of the trip. Between downpours we did get a rainbow.
The severe weather is sliding through and hopefully gone by tomorrow so we have arranged for a shuttle to get us back to the trail tomorrow. It is expected to be cooler with lows in the 30s the next two days but no rain!
I FaceTimed both Megan, Sean and boys and Deirdra and it was great to hear and see them. While I got to talk with Mac I missed Andrew who was spending time with his Memere.
I’m packed and ready to go so it’s off to bed and some shut eye. The trail shuttle will be coming tomorrow at 8:45.
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