Day 17: Welcome to Dalton!

Day 17: Tent site at 277.2 to Days Inn in Dalton, GA

Sparks and I woke up and laughed once again about our predicament from the night before. As we were finishing packing up, we met a Pinhoti flip flopper who gave us some beta on the trail into Dalton. Basically, it’d be chill.

Right before I took down my tent from the trail in the morning.

The forest warmed up quickly as the sun bore down on us, and I was SO ready to take a shower. Sparks had booked a room for us at the Days Inn, and split between the two of us, our double queen room wasn’t much more expensive than some of the hostels we’d stayed at so far. I caught myself smiling thinking about jumping under the cozy hotel sheets.

We only had 7.9 miles to hike from our stealth site to town, and the last few miles were on the road. The road portion was curvy, and the cars were taking those turns fast. Lots of jumping out of the way today, and that felt mentally taxing for me.

Kind of dreading the road walk into town in the moment I took this picture.

My priorities getting into town were coffee and lunch. Specifically, I had a Starbucks craving to satisfy. Then shower, laundry, nap, dinner (Olive Garden, of course). I’ll get groceries tomorrow.

The promised land (Olive Garden)

After eating lunch at the Chipotle next door to our hotel, I showered while Sparks put our dirty laundry into the wash. She even packed special laundry detergent sheets for me in all of her resupply boxes. Sparks makes me feel so cared for, even when I like to pretend I’m fending for myself out here 🙂

Laundry chic

After I showered and swapped our laundry to the dryer, I checked out the pool and talked on the phone to my friend. Sparks joined me with ciders she’d gotten from the grocery store. Between the last few weeks’ calorie deficit and all the time in the sun, just a few sips hit my system quickly. Eventually, we ambled over to Olive Garden for unlimited salad and breadsticks.

This hotel bed is so comfortable that I can’t think of anything profound to say about today. I just know I’m about to have the best sleep I’ve had in a week. Goodnight 🙂