Food, storms, and Franklin, NC

Food! No matter which way you slice it, when your on the AT, it's all dry or needs to be reconstituted with water. Whether you've thought ahead and dehydrated yourself gourmet meals or didn't want the hassle and just picking stuff up along the way, your options are still kinda limited. So as you're hiking 8 to 10 hour days, your mind kinda wanders, which is why most of hikers' conversations are about food. What you're craving, what you miss the most, what you'd sacrifice a small child for, etc. So a few days ago when Rob was talking about an all-you-can-eat Mexican buffet in Franklin, for 4 days, all I could think about was burritos and tacos..

Now to the storm. For anyone watching the weather channel, yes there were horrible thunderstorms. And yes, we got caught in the worst one. Many of us did. But yep there were me and Rob at 10:30 at night hearing the crack of thunder and seeing the lightening and hoping this would be like the other storm we encountered (it rained for 15 minutes then quit). We checked weather.com, we knew to expect rain, we just didn't know the actual type of storms that were going on. So yeah 50 mile an hour winds, sideways pouring rain and thunder and lightening above our heads, not exactly the best time we've ever had. Our little tent was not built for that kind of weather.

So to ride out the rest of the storm and to resupply, we came to Franklin, NC. The owner of the budget inn here and in Haiawassee, GA picked us up and shuttled us to the hotel. Where we did laundry, took much needed showers and looked over the food options. After talks of craft beer and burritos we headed to a Mexican restaurant. Sadly, the food was kinda bland but served its purpose. Rob ate at McDonald's. And then (with the recommendation of Brave, and seeing they had craft beer) off to Outdoor 76, a local AT outfitter. There's actually a little craft beer bar inside the store!!

 The staff there was so amazing and helpful! After a quick trip to Walmart to resupply or food stocks and a gratuitous spraying down of the tent (so filthy from the storm), we were ready for dinner. There is a place here called Vito's. It's a pizza place that advertised that it would come pick us up from the Inn and bring us back when we were done with dinner. We had delightful pizza made by Miss Jane (Vito's wife) and were entertained by our server/bartender Debbie and even Vito himself! Many laughs were had and Rob even got a couple of craft beers he hadn't had. After a shot with Debbie after dinner, Vito drove us back to our room! Truly one of my favorite spots so far.

The southern hospitality and the people we have met so far on this journey have been amazing!

Us crossing the border in North Carolina