Police Arrest at Hiker’s Motel

This morning I slept in until after 7am, which felt fantastic. It’s always a wild treat to wake up in town and know we have the whole day off! This is only the third zero day in the last 51 days, so it certainly hasn’t lost its luster. When we got up we had a message from Fresh Ground asking if we wanted to go to Waffle House! Which was an easy yes.

He took yesterday and today off as well because of the weather. Even being out feeding hikers in temperatures like this would be utterly cold. So he finally got a couple days off to relax after feeding the Nobo bubble for the last week. We haven’t seen Fresh Ground since the Alabama road walk, so I was excited just to see him! I know we’ll be moving quickly so this will likely be the last time we see him along the AT. Though, I’ll never write anything off entirely. The world is small out here and things have a magical way of aligning and working out. The two of us got up and ready. Then Fresh Ground picked us up around 8:30am. He’s staying in a different town because he got a sweet deal on a motel. So even though we’re all taking the day off I didn’t think that we were going to see him! But he got us and drove us a ways down the road to the closest Waffle House. Then we all sat there together and had breakfast.

My Waffle House breakfast spread. A waffle arrived shortly after as well!

I got the all star breakfast with eggs, hash browns, toast, bacon, and a waffle. A hikers dream! Then we ate and had some laughs there at the table. It felt good to be back all together again. Fresh Ground has easily been one of the most familiar faces that I’ve seen all year long. I think I’ve seen him and spent more time with him this year than I’ve seen my own family over the last couple years. Which is wild to think about.

After we ate we headed back toward the motel in Dahlonega. On the way back we stopped off at a Walmart to grab a few things. I didn’t need much, but certain items are always running low. I got more contact solution and tooth paste. Then grabbed a couple snacks for tomorrow, along with some goodies to eat during the day today. I almost finished my entire half gallon of chocolate milk that I got yesterday, so I got another quart of it today. Chocolate milk is my current key to success. I think if I can drink as much of it when I’m town as physically possible, then I’ll be able to do a pretty solid job of keeping weight on this year. It just goes down so easy and has such a ridiculous amount of calories. I’ve drank more milk already this year than I probably ever have before.

We grabbed everything at Walmart and then Fresh Ground drove us back to the quality inn. I had to deal with some stuff with rebooking our room, after some kind of staff confusion between last night and this morning. And I got some details about the wild event that occurred in the room next to us! The craziest news was that the girl in the room next door was staying in there alone! Last night she was screaming asking for help because a guy in her room fell in the shower. I called the police because she was yelling for help and asking someone to do so. And the whole time she was quite literally completely alone. What a trip! I guess her family called the motel to ask for help because the girl is very unwell. I was told she has schizophrenia and is a full blown episode. Which makes a lot of sense considering the odd circumstances.

Punisher and I outside of Fresh Ground’s van.

After that I went back to the room to hang out and get my things organized a bit. I did some video work and writing for a little while as well. Then wound up talking to my mom on the phone for a long time. While I was standing outside on the balcony that connects all the rooms I noticed more chaos forming. There were two police cars in the parking lot, and what looked to be a couple mental health workers. They had clipboards and were going between talking amongst themselves and talking to the police. Something was clearly going down. Then I noticed a woman sitting in her car right below me on the balcony.
At first I thought it was a random person. Then I noticed she was clearly talking to herself wildly. And before I knew it, she rolled her window down and started talking to me! Even though she was a level below me and not very close. She told me that the officer behind her in his vehicle was trying to kill her. He was telling everyone that she had a gun when she didn’t, and he had turned off his body camera. I asked if she wanted me to call someone for her, but she said no. She just told me that her life was in my hands and I had to be here to make sure he didn’t kill her. I was still on the phone with my mom at the time. I just tried to calmly tell the girl that I was here and I was watching everything, and that it would be ok. Then once she stopped talking to me I slowly but surely moved out of eye sight with her so I wouldn’t have to engage again.

Yet another jug of chocolate milk! This one is only a quart, which is still 32 ounces. But is a bit smaller than the ole half gallon.

I continued talking on the phone and simultaneously watching the whole thing play out. Once a sheriff officer arrived the other police vehicles surrounded her car. Then a sheriff and a mental health advocate went to her vehicle together. They talked to her for a bit and eventually got her out of the car pretty peacefully. Then put her into the sheriffs vehicle. I stayed very far away when all of that was going down. Just on the off chance that she actually did have a weapon. But it was clear that she was just extremely paranoid from the episode she was in. Having working in addiction treatment I dealt with alot of people in extreme mental states. So the whole event wasn’t too unnerving and I felt for the girl. She seemed quite young and is clearly going through something unimaginably difficult.

Eventually she was taken away and then some of the people spoke to a woman who appeared to be her mother. Then I finished up my own phone call with my mother. The juxtaposition was interesting. While I had a great conversation with my own mom, catching up on everything as of late, this other mother and daughter were going through something starkly different. It was great though to have a chance to really catch up with my mom. There’s always so much going on, so these opportunities are lovely.

The elite uncrustables! I love the Nutella ones, but these are the best.

Then I retreated back to the warm room. In the shade it is frigid today! I can’t imagine what it’s like at higher elevation in the mountains. I was only wearing my sun hoodie and alpha pants outside, and even in the sun it was cold. But I just paced around while I was on the phone. I’m definitely trying to build up my tolerance for cold a bit. But I’m glad to have grown up on the east coast! When you’re from Massachusetts you get used to the cold. Our winters are frigid with the cool air off of the ocean and all of the moisture. I’m just not as used to it right now because of all the time that we just spent down south.

When I got into the room I decided to eat my bag salad. Which was really good! I love a bag salad. It’s cheap and easy, and they’re usually very delicious. Then I did a little more work on my phone, which just never really ends. By the time I finish a blog and video for one day I’m immediately working on the same for the next day. Then other days I have to do editing for the longer YouTube videos. And the occasional extra project or write up. Believe me, I love it all! It’s the good kind of work, that you’re passionate about and excited to do. But I would still call it work nonetheless.

Lounging in the room! I love my montbell sun hoodie that I’ve been wearing this year. It’s so dang comfortable.

Later on I ate a bowl of soup that I got from the deli section of the grocery store. Then just lounged around and watched tv. Periodically scrolling on my phone or working with something small here and there. I like letting my ADHD take charge of things on days like today. When I have plenty of time to do everything at whatever pace I desire. I can mess around with photos, or do a little writing, or perhaps edit a couple videos together. Sometimes I feel inspired to write and will draft things up for future projects. And I have a bunch of different lists and notes that I add to regularly. Whether that means tallying our daily or weekly mileage, tracking spending, and other things of the sort. I can pass a lot of time doing stuff like that when I’m in the mood.

The sun setting on the quality inn parking lot. Where all the drama went down earlier!

At this point the day had already flown by! We’ll be getting picked up around 6:30am tomorrow morning to have a nice early start on trail. Which means we’ll hopefully be able to bang out a 30 mile day to get us back to it. In the evening we started deciding what to do about dinner. I had eaten the soup and salad, but in true thru hiker fashion I was already hungry again. My body is really starting to take down food. I can stuff myself and be ready for something else within an hour or so. Now that we’re well over 1,000 miles in I have finally noticed a change in my appetite. And I’m trying to satiate it to the best of my ability.

There wasn’t much within walking range, but we had options. With a few fast food places nearby I knew we’d be able to order something in for dinner. We wound up getting chic fil a, which is top tier fast food. I got a spicy deluxe meal with waffle fries and a key lime frosted lemonade. The exact same order that I got last time we had chic fil a with Fresh Groukd for lunch. That frosted lemonade tasted just like key lime pie! They blend their key lime lemonade with vanilla soft serve to create the greatest milk shake of all time.

Chic fil a for dinner! The key lime frosted lemonade was my favorite part.

I annihilated everything pretty quickly and still felt good. Just a little full! It feels so good to eat as much as possible in town. Even though I don’t particularly feel like I’m losing a lot of weight, I know it’s a slippery slope. I never eat 3,000-4,000 calories in a day when I’m hiking. But we burn just as many calories each day, if not much more. So when I’m in town my only goal is to eat as much as I can. It can be a pretty delightful job to do! As long as there are some decent options in town. Gas station food and the like has certainly lost its luster by now.

For the rest of the night I just laid around and watched a movie or two. I got most of my things put away and ready for tomorrow. That way I don’t need to spend much time getting ready. Then I did some writing to finish off today’s blog before getting too comfortable. I didn’t nightly exercise routine as well. Every night I do one set of 10 of reserve clamshells, clamshells, and leg raises while laying on my side. Rotating which side I do the exercises on. I’ve been doing this nightly since my PCT hike in 2022. They are my key to success and keep your hips and IT band from getting tight. I also do some stretching a few times each day. That combination has been key to avoiding injuries such as tendinitis for me while thru hiking.

After I got just about everything done I finally started to wind down. Then just finished up a movie before calling it a night.

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