The thing about zeros is that they are never zeros. By the time you do your laundry, resupply, take (a few) showers, clean and dry your soggy gear, you need a whole other day to rest. We don't have time for that though. We grabbed our continental breakfast and waited for Grant and Funky to drop their stuff off. They actually decided to stay another night too, proving that indeed a zero needs a zero. They decided to crash with us to offset costs. After vegging (quite literally while eating some celery from Funky) Tyler headed to do some laundry and resupply. Laundry was less eventful that last time, but he did run into Papa Smurf and BG (Big Guy), who we had briefly met the night before. He got a little more of their story. They had both recently retired. Papa Smurf had run a business for twenty years and over the years lost touch with his marathon running triathlon roots enough to break 300 pounds. Both of them were ready to hike the weight away. BG gave Tyler a clementine, which is AT friendship currency. Back at the hotel, the arduous process of washing the gear commenced and finished with no real issues (other than believing shortly that we had clogged the shower until Emily fixed it). Also, more annoying, the display on our phone went out. Tyler spent about an hour with customer support which resulted in them mailing a phone to Stecoah Gap and suggesting we pick a cheap one up from Wal-Mart in the mean time.
We headed to a final dinner with Funky and Grant. It has been great hanging with those two. They probably deserve their entire own post. Maybe we can do a best of homies someday. Off to bed for us (Grant being full of vigor headed to a brewery called the Lazy Hiker). Back to the trail tomorrow... even though a zero needs a zero
