In Town When a Tornado Touched Down

This morning we slept in at the room. We could hear rain dumping down hard for most of the early morning. And the wind was whipping! It turns out a tornado went through Rome, this town, last night! So it looks like it was a good call to get a room last night. It would have been a scary night to be out in our tents.

A big donut for breakfast.

Once we got up and moving we left the days inn and continued along the road. Another day of road walking was ahead of us. But pretty soon the road walking will be done and we’ll be on the Appalachian trail. We continued through the town of Rome and went by a few gas stations in the early part of the day. I stopped off to grab a chocolate milk and a body armor for the day. I got a quart of chocolate milk and threw out one of my water bottles so I could carry it along. It was definitely cold enough to bring a chocolate milk for the road.

I wore my rain jacket for most of the day to stay warm. It wasn’t too cool when we first got moving. But as the day continued it just got colder and colder. By the early evening it’s supposed to be around 30 degrees with the feels like temperature around 21. A cold front is coming through over the next week, so we have to get used to this for the time being.

I carried this jug of milk like a water bottle today.

The road was pretty busy and the shoulder wasn’t too wide. But it wasn’t anything worse than what we’ve done before. The road brought us through a couple more small towns with some gas stations. But I didn’t need anything else for the day. We just stopped off every now and then for the luxury of peeing inside, rather than hiding somewhere along the road.

An abandoned arcade.

There were a whole lot of dogs along this road walk. But pretty much all of them were behind fences or tied up. Only one or two ran out to the street to greet us. And all of them were friendly enough. As I walked I talked to my dad briefly on the phone. Then later on I was able to talk to my friend Dar for about an hour. That was an awesome call and it’s always great to catch up with her. It’s funny having friends that you basically never see! These last 4 years I’ve been on trail the majority of the time. I usually only go “home” for a handful of weeks at most. And over the last 2 years I spent more time in Philly than in Massachusetts. That’s where I stop off to work when I’m not on trail.

Another gas station pit stop.

Later in the day the road turned and we began heading toward Adairsville, the small town where we will likely be ending our day. These last 2 days have definitely been a lot shorter than our typical hiking days. But because of the road walking and the excess of private property in the surrounding area, we’re a bit limited on options! If it was a typical road with a lot of woods and open land, then stealth camping somewhere would be easy. But this road hasn’t really had a lot of camping options. Over the last 2 days we haven’t passed a single area where it seemed possible to set up. There isn’t much wooded area. And anywhere that had woods or options is usually behind a fence or near homes. I just don’t want to risk accidentally trespassing and upsetting anyone if we can avoid it. Doing two shorter days won’t be the end of the world! And it makes our lives a lot easier.

The highway walking continues.

The last stretch of road for the day was a really busy highway. The shoulder was super wide though which was nice. Then not long after that we actually got onto a sidewalk for a while! You have got to love a sidewalk. What a luxury for us road walkers. The side walk continued until we got further into town. Then of course once we actually got by businesses the sidewalk disappeared. Then we just had to walk in the road again as we made our way into town.

Making our way into the next town.

It was such an early day so we really didn’t want to stop when we got into town. But looking ahead, it seemed like camping was going to be impossible. We would be getting onto a slightly quieter road, but it was all farm land. And lately these farm properties have all been fenced in private property. Not wide open fields or wooded land like you would hope. Which led us to the decision to stay in Adairsville. I wasn’t psyched about another sub 20 mile day. It doesn’t feel right! But it was the most practical option.

Once we got further into town we headed over to the Royal Inn Suites, the cheapest spot in town! Gotta love Georgia, because a room was only about $60. I’m really looking forward to being back on some actual trail where you can just stop whenever you want and camp basically wherever you want to. That is going to be fantastic. It’s nice staying in a room after a long day of walking. But feels weird staying in a room when you want to walk further, but have no place to camp if you do! This isn’t your ordinary thru hike though. That’s for sure.

The Royal Inn Suites, where we called it a day.

We got to the motel and got into the room. For a cheap place I was pleasantly surprised that it was very nice and clean. We dropped our things and got comfortable. Then grabbed some dinner to bring back to the room. I got a hoard of Taco Bell to eat over the course of the night. Then we returned to the room to lounge.

Wrapping up the day in an actual bed once again.

I ate a ridiculous amount of Taco Bell. Then charged a couple electronics up and took a shower. After that I just did some video work and writing. Then ate some more Taco Bell while we watched a movie before calling it a night.

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