An update.

Daniel and I are at mile 729 in Troutville, VA, with about 1460 miles to go!

We just changed out our winter sleeping bags out for our summer ones, and also sent home various other winter gear.
Overall we cut out about 1 1/2 lbs. from our packs each.

After we sorted through our mail drop, Daniel and I had lunch at 3 li'l pigs restaurant, mainly because they give a free banana pudding dessert to thru-hikers.

After our resupply, We decided that we would camp at the park here in Troutville, for one, because it's free, and two, the fire dept. across the street let's thru-hikers use their shower and laundry facilities also for free!

I'm working on some other stories for the blog right now, so this'll just be a short one.

If you want to know more about what we do out here, just leave a comment below!

~ Link (Sam)

Pictures are: The Homeplace restaurant, and Daniel sitting out side of the restaurant.

Two blogs gone to waste.

Sorry, Guys but when I tried  uploading two of the blogs that I had, my tablet went stupid and ate them both.

We've past the 1/4 point, and gone over 600 miles in these 43 days.
We're in Pearisburg, VA right now, and all the trees are in bloom.
It's quite a beautiful place, southern Virginia, Daniel and I both are wondering when Virginia is supposed to be boring.

The hostel that we're staying at is a very neat sort of cabin, with VERY strict rules about alcohol and drugs.
If one person is drinking a beer, EVERYONE is kicked out and the place locked up for 3 days.

A part from that, it is a great place for $10 a person.

Between us and 3 other thru-hikers we had Italian sausages, strawberries, beef fajitas, and Ice cream, and that was only part of it.

We've been having a great time out here, and we wish you guys all the best!

~Sam (Link)

Hiker update!

I was promised an "I will try to update" several days ago. That didn't happen!
This is the Motherly Parental Unit letting the blog followers know that we had a check in- "We are still alive and having fun!" call on Skype over the weekend.
Daniel and Sam continue to find favor along the trail. They are beyond Damascus, and in a region where there is little to no cell phone coverage for the coming week, and even less opportunity for wi-fi to do blog updates. Sam is still journaling and working on updates, so once they do have favorable conditions, we may be in for more than one update.
I found a photo of the hikers on one of their previous hikes. Sam has threatened to block my access to update this blog if I post it here. In a few days, I will be adding photos from the full photo card to the picture site- and a few choice ones here.
The web address for the pictures is in this link: Gravel Journey Extra Pictures
Thank you for reading!

Gatlinburg...

Hey everyone! This is Sam!

As it turns out, you can still find true adventures in this world today.

Halfway through the Smokies, we realized that we had missed a page in our guide book when we resupplied.
This left us with a choice, ration our food or, resupply in Gatlinburg TN.
Halfway through a day of starving our selves, we decided that the better plan would be to resupply.

So we caught a ride with a very kind lady trail named 'Mouse', she was section hiking part of the AT before doing the PCT later this year.
Wow...
We had no idea of what Gatlinburg was before we got there...wow...
Major culture shock, the middle of spring break, the sidewalks were PACKED with people.
My theory is that a traveling circus final wagon broke down on the spot that you can now find Gatlinburg TN. The elephants died away, but the Carnies have remained.

During our time there we were offered Moonshine twice (we turned it down).
Leaving there was our first time hitch hiking, it was kind of embarrassing to hold my thumb out for the first time, but I had a great case of beginners luck, and the first car pulled over.
Her first question was 'Are you guys murderers?'
'No...'
'All right! Hop in!'

Thus was our trip to and from Gatlinburg.