Damascus, take two....TRAIL DAYS

what's happenin' people.  well, we just finished trail days, a weekend in damascus dedicated to hikers.  it was pretty awesome...we set up our tent in tent city, about a half a mile out of town....(the townies didn't want to deal with the crazy hikers), and then the debauchery began.  but first things first.  we SOBO'd from troutdale, va, through the grason highlands, probably the best part of the trip so far! gorgeous mountains, then through the highlands which have herds of wild ponies!!! we spent about 3 hours taking pictures of them and playing with them, they liked to lick the salt off our skin! haha, it was great.  stayed in a cool shelter and met some new people, second shift, frodo, and broadway, we huddled together while a RAGING storm shook the shelter and lightning lit up the sky all night.  after getting into damascus on thursday, we walked around, saw ALL of our friends who have either been way ahead of us or behind, checked out the street vendors, ate some corn dogs, drank some beer, played some darts, watched some movies, met former hikers, hung out with our friends, and just chilled out for three days in a town that is all about hikers on the AT!!  on saturday there was a hiker parade down main street which was a lot of fun, everyone got dressed up in salvation army clothes, and the townies threw water balloon and squirted us with squirt guns...  the weekend was epic, we survived it through and are heading out this morning to really start virginia...all 550 miles of it.  we are loving this trip! we are about a quarter of the way done! 500 miles down, 1600 to go!