Well I made it this far. I took the bus this morning from REI in Cary up to Banner Elk. It was a really long ride–but I met some interesting and very chatty folks on the bus. There was one alarming moment when the bus nearly sideswiped an 18-wheeler and once we got in the mountains things were quite twisty especially for the poor guy that used the bathroom in the back of the bus. But after nearly five hours on the road we got here.
I think I did all the things I needed to do at check in. Then I schlepped my bags over to a baseball field and took a survey of where best to pitch my tent. Up against the fence seemed like a good spot. Amazingly, I managed to get my little tent all set up–I