June 5, 2004 - Yesterday: When I went to the store to buy food I had to walk a mile to get there. When I got into the store, a big foodmart, couldn’t make up my mind of what to get. I knew 2 things I wanted right away; chocolate milk and BBQ chips. After getting everything I walked outside. It was pouring rain. So I sat outside the store and just started eating until the rain let up. For breakfast this morning, Will and I went to a small diner called The Diary King where they had all-you-can-eat pancakes for $5. So we went in and each ate 15 and set a new record. That’s not that many so they must not have been around long. They were the best pancakes I had ever had. I couldn’t make up my mind of staying another night here in Damascus or get in a few miles. Some people were trying to get me to go see the new Harry Potter movie in the next town over (13 miles). After washing clothes I decided it was time to move on. Will left 3 hours before me and Joe was going to leave tomorrow. I started out on my own around 4:30 pm. I made it to the 1st shelter at 7:30 pm and decided to try to get to the next one. That was a bad idea. I was close to the next shelter when it started to get dark. So I pulled out my flashlight and the batteries were dead I couldn’t find my extra ones, so I have to walk in pitch black. I then start using my lighter to see if I was on the trail every few feet. After a little while I couldn’t find the shelter so I found an open spot and set up my tent in the dark right on the trail. What a fun experience. I ended with 16.3 miles for the day.
