Day 102 (10/24): brown mountain creek shelter to Buena Vista VA

Miles today: 20
Total miles: 1405.6
It’s been a long few 22 mile days in a row so I woke up tired and excited to get to town by the end of the day. Also it has been so cold all the time lately that I was excited to be able to just go inside a restaurant for warmth for a bit. Our plan was to hitch into Glasgow VA, a small town that has a free shelter and showers in their town park. The day was cold, very chilly with weather in the 40s. It even hailed on us on a mountain top! And snowflakes drifted around throughout the day. I did not expect the weather to be like this so far south and in October!

Delta and I got to the road around 430 and started hitching. Luckily we looked miserable and cold enough that we were Picked up pretty quickly. A woman in her 60s actually turned around to come pick us up. She was immediately hilarious, as she had to clean some stuff out from her backseat and there were a bunch of empty wine bottles and she declared in a thick southern accent “oh haha those are for crafts. IM NOT DRUNK!” Oh boy. We also learned within minutes of her picking us up that she’s had probably 30 something speeding tickets in her life and said she needs to be careful because she’s on some sort of driving probation. Her last ticket was for going 65 in a 35. Oh boy, comforting stuff to tell strangers you just picked up AND ARE CURRENTLY DRIVING. After a few minutes, Memmaw, as she came to be known, offered to let us stay at her home so we wouldn’t have to sleep outside in the predicted below freezing temperatures. We very quickly accepted her offer. And so began a very strange and very stereotypically southern/hick adventure.
Apologies in advance if I offend anyone by joking about and poking fun at my experiences at Memmaws. It was just so unlike any experience I’ve had and so stereotypically southern that I couldn’t help but laugh. In the end, I’m so grateful for the kindness Memmaw and LB showed us.
I don’t even know how to accurately describe my experience at LB and Memmaws. When we got there, Memmaw had to check with LB, her husband, that it was ok we stay. LB had an even thicker southern accent than Memmaw and had a way of saying things with absolutely no experession so I could never tell if he was serious or joking. Literally the first thing he said to us was “y’all have any guns with ya?” To which we replied no. After that it was confirmed we could stay. The room we stayed in was like a Disney version of Hoarders–everything imaginable was Mickey Mouse, from the blankets to mirrors to figurines on every shelf. LB is apparently a big fisherman and a big hunter. They had a nice big gun cabinet right in the living room. Memmaw said she doesn’t like to hunt all that much–her preferred type of hunting is “shooting gophers under the barn from the bathroom window”. She was dead serious. LB taught us the term “nary one” which means none. He gave the example of if someone asks how many fish you caught and you hadn’t had any luck, you reply “nary one”.
I was excited to get to watch a World Series game! I watched with Memmaw upstairs while delta and LB watched downstairs. Apparently Delta had some priceless moments with LB including details of how sometimes LB can’t keep his hands off Memmaw while they’re out in a boat fishing, comparing it to the song WagonWheel’s “rock me mama like a wagon wheel”. Apparently there were some confederate flags downstairs I didn’t have the pleasure of seeing.

Memmaw cooked us dinner and then breakfast in the morning and dropped us off at the trail. But not before initiating a prayer circle in the parking lot to send us off. I am so incredibly grateful for Memmaw and LBs kindness and the many new and mostly hilarious experiences I had with them. This was confirmation that I am in fact in the south.