March 31

Blueberry

Woke up this moring early since it said in my guidebook that the shuttle to the hostel in Hiawassee drops hikers off at the gap here at 9:30am each morning.  The Boy Scouts were up early too, and invited us over for breakfast.  Bacon, sausage, eggs, orange juice, and pancakes with homemade strawberry syrup!  Heaven.  We filled up, and packed up our soggy tents and gear and hopped a ride in a Jeep that was dropping off hikers from the Blueberry Patch Hostel.  Gary greeted us and drove us down to his home and hostel just outside of town.  Upon arrival we were given the grand tour of the grounds, and introduced to his wife, Lennie, who was busy cleaning to change things over for our stay.  Many more hikers started rolling in that had gotten other rides into the hostel.  We dried out our gear in the grass and along the many clothes lines.  Lennie offered us homemade cupcakes, and took our wet stinky clothes in individual laundry baskets to start on the wash.  We all took turns taking showers in the bath house, which was fully stocked with any hygene product you could imagine.  Then Gary drove us all into town in a couple of shifts.  KB, Slims, Joe, and I all wanted to hit up a buffet for dinner.  We got an amazing southern dinner at Daniel's steakhouse, all you can eat salads, fried chicken, beef tips, potatoes, half a dozen types of vegetables, desserts, sweet tea (of course), for 10 bucks!  We walked around town, to do some resupply shopping.  I picked up a knee compression sleeve for at the drug store, and Gary picked us back up and brough us back to the hostel.  Some of us played cards in the dining area of the bunk house, then went to bed.  There were 11 of us in the bunk house that night:  Me, KB, Joe, Slims, Pops, Earthling, Tinkerbell, Steve, Dazed, Confused, and Robert.  For anyone planning an AT hike, the Blueberry Patch is a really nice place.  Gary is a former AT thru hiker, and he and his wife Lennie felt that God called them to offer this place as a refuge for hikers as a service to Him.  No smoking, drinking, drugs, etc here, so some hikers will skip the Blueberry, but that would be a mistake.  Gary and Lennie don't 'preach', or pressure anyone into their faith.  But through their warmth, kindness, and generousity, they are shining examples of God's true love.  There aren't enough words to describe how I felt staying there, but the best I can come up with is that they treated me like family.

At The Blueberry Patch with Lennie and Gary.