NOC and More - March 20th (Edited)

Yesterday Builder hiked 13 miles and stayed in a shelter with some new friends - Hammerhead and his dog Nalla. He said it was nice to be greeted by a nice friendly dog in the morning. (I'm laughing at how impossible it would be to hike the AT with a beagle -- must - sniff - every - little - smell.)

He said he did some ridge walking and sent a photo of that as well.

Today he stopped at the "NOC" in North Caroline for resupply. He did laundry, took a shower (not necessarily in that order) and planned to get dinner and stay the night. He said tomorrow will start with a big climb as they are in a gap.

I should note that the AT dances on the NC/TN border for a while. A simplified map on the webpage below shows what this looked like at the time this map was published: https://www.jeffryanauthor.com/appalachian-trail-info/at-in-north-carolina-and-tennessee/

He had great wifi at the NOC so he sent a number of pictures. I'll post more soon.

Meanwhile, I had lunch (by myself) overlooking the beach because an event I was going to attend got pushed to next week and I missed the memo. Oh well! It happens to be a favorite restaurant with a waiter we call "Arlo" because he looks and sounds like a young Arlo Guthrie and they have a delicious island bowl with Mahi Mahi. The day was sunny, the tide was high and the waves were crashing.

I then went and got my car inspected. This is something I haven't done for a long time because car stuff was on Bob's list. We live in an area full of amazing people and both the hostess at the restaurant and the car inspector really lit up my day by being so friendly. I also took the opportunity to drop by a friend's house and chat with her in the sunshine. Life is good.