Yesterday, (Day 6), Topo, Giggles, and I decided that it was time for a day off! Our knees and joints were sore, we were tired, and it was Giggle's birthday. So....we hiked the 3ish miles out of the woods and got ready to hitchhike into Helen, GA. After only about 20 minutes, we got a ride from a man with a truck and 5 hunting pit bulls. It was about 11:00 am. When we got to town, it immediately felt like a fairy tale. Helen, GA is a small, quaint German village. Every building looks like it came out of a German Disney movie. The hotel we stayed at, called the Helendorf, had murals of Rapunzel painted on the walls and we went to a chocolate shoppe called Hansel and Gretel's Chocolate Kitchen. A friend we met on the trail, "Left Toe," stayed with us. We had all day to shop, relax, hang out, eat restaurant food, and drink ice cold beer out of frosty mugs. It was amazing how much we enjoyed such simple pleasures. The only little "bump" we encountered was after we got dropped off at our hotel Topo realized that Mosey's doggie pack had been inadvertently left in the the guy's truck. As it was not something that can be easily or conveniently replaced, Topo was kind of freaking out at the loss of the doggie pack. As soon as he realized what had happened, Topo hitched a ride back to the trail head to see if the man with the truck (and hopefully Mosey's doggie pack) was there. We told the lady at the front desk of the hotel our situation and that we were hoping a man might possibly come by bringing Mosey's pack to us. We gave her our phone numbers in case he showed up. Unfortunately, Topo had no luck in his quest. He got a ride back into town and met us at the hotel. He had already discovered that he could not buy a dog pack anywhere in Helen, Georgia (no surprise there). Topo was understandably upset. Carrying Mosey's food would have added about 8 pounds to Topo's pack. As we sat there weighing our options and deciding what we could do about the situation, the phone rang. The man who had given us a ride had discovered Mosey's pack and brought it back to us. He lived quite a distance away and the folks at the hotel told us that it must have cost him $20 in gas just to do us that favor. The hotel staff were so impressed by this man's kindness, that they called in the story to the local paper! His good deed captured someone's heart because the paper decided to write an article about him. This morning, they came by to take our picture (including Mosey with his doggie pack on) to accompany our story. The rest of the day and night in Helen was awesome. We got to take showers, do laundry, eat lots of food (that was not freeze-dried or came out of a bag), go swimming in the hotel's heated pool and most of all celebrate Kat's birthday. We got some good "bed sleeping" in and woke up around 9:30 am. We chowed down on the free danishes at the hotel, went to the library to use the Internet, picked up sandwiches for lunch, and then hitched a ride back out to the trail. We picked up right where we left off....a huge uphill!! We only hiked about 6 miles today, but the elevation was quite high. Tonight we are camping at a campsite right in front of Tray Mountain Shelter. Left Toe is still hanging out with us. We enjoyed extremely warm weather today and a nice toasty campfire in the cool of the evening. Tomorrow is back to the grind. Oh yeah..... one last and perhaps most significant event, I got my trail name today. And it is Out Loud. I have tried a few other names, but none of them felt right and none of them stuck. I think Out Loud is perfect and anyone who knows me would probably agree. I am a very open person. I say what is on my mind and I don't have anything to hide. I also frequently tend to think aloud. I feel my trail name describes my personality well and I will be proud to be know as Out Loud from now on as I continue my journey on the trail. Good night for now.
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