Food, Food, Food

Tom Tom called me when he was six miles from Neel's Gap, I was still about a hour away by car.  He wanted me to stop and get some food.  He was hungry, "Lots of Gatorade and Candy."  He came across the parking lot at 7:00 pm, wearing his sleek black square quilted jacket.  He said he had blood in his urine, something that Jill had told me.  She got it off his facebook page.  We checked , it usually meant he was dehydrated and overly strained from doing too much. 

After pigging out on the wood deck at Neel's Gap, we drove to Blairsville to rent a movie; $1.60 since we were going to watch it in the parking lot with my laptop.  Tom Tom picked out "Tron."  We finished watching  it with the engine running after the laptop battery died.  He told me that he was giving up the record, conceding that he would rather have a companion on the trail and support, before he tries it again.  Physically he said he can handle it, but it just isn't as much fun all by himself all day.  We drove back to the trail parking lot to sleep.

Tom Tom slept in till 11:00 and we went back to Neel's Gap outfitters to buy him new shoes.  His trainers were down to their last 30 miles, the soles were paper thin.  He bought a pair of fancy hiking sneakers for $150.  They would last the whole trail.  His total funds for the rest of his trip were down to $350.  We went to town for an all-you-can-eat pizza, then to the laundry mat.  It was also an Internet hot spot for facebooking and uploading pictures.  We still couldn't get TomTomRace.com to allow me to blog.

Off to the movie theatre to see Pirates 4, a stop at Walfull House then back to the trail head.  Tom Tom Slept in to 11:00 again. 

He finished peeling the wrappers off all his candy and put them in a Glad bag.  Took his water filter back out of his box for me to take home.  Part of the reason, he was so dehydrated was that he was rationing his water because it took so long to purify it with the silver pellets (over an hour).  He decided to also carry an emergency small bottle of water inside his pack.  His 22 pound pack was now up to 30 pounds with his three days supply of food.