march 9- dj found

Today was a pretty good day. I pulled a zero day, which means i took the day off. Partly because of my ankle and knee and partly because it was saturday. Either way it was a well deserved day to relax. I woke up around the same time i usually wake up, about 8am, made breakfast, then brought my pack from my tent to the shelter to lay out everything and decide what else to send back tomorrow when i get to hiawassee. I managed to find about 4lbs of stuff to get rid of, clothes, wilson, water bladder, and some other things that i just have too much of.. An eagle scout troop came through about lunchtime, and a few other thru hikers also stopped at the shelter for lunch, so i spoke to them, seeign if they had seen dj at the previous shelter. Nobody had seen him, but about 1pm he showed up, with snacks given to him by the people that helped him. The eagle scouts left shortly after, but not before givin me their extra food. My strategy for my off day was to eat and sleep alot to help my body heal. So I had a big lunch and took a nap. When i woke up an hour and a half later gthere were more hikers here, some that planned to stay the night, and a few that didnt. One of them, irish charm, told us that he and some other hikers stop in every town and drink. He wants to write a guidebook for the trail with the best towns to get drunk at and/or just have a good time. We all ate and sat around a campfire while an older hiker, john, told us stories of vietnam and his time in the army. We all sat around the fire talking until about 8, and gthen everyone went to sleep. Tomorrow im only hiking 2 miles to unicoi gap to hitch a ride into hiawasse. Im gonna get things i need, as well as a lighter tent and backpack. And ship the rest of my stuff home. Ill prob stay at a hostel called gthe blueberry patch, then get a ride back to unicoi gap in the morning and continue hiking from there. Me and dj have decided that we'll keep to a similar schedule, but not necessarily hike together, so we can go at comfortable paces for each of us. When DJ, now DTour, showed up, he asked me what it felt like to have a zero day. I told him it feels like getting a day off from school. Its just more relaxing.