woke up at 8:00am. watched the weather channel. took something less than 5 seconds to decide that this day has “zero day” written all over it. the cool thing is that every other hiker in town appears to have made the same decision. there are at least a dozen other hikers in town today. i guess i’ll have to hurry thru virginia because i’m certainly taking my time getting out of the southern appalachians! this is my fourth zero day. i’m such a slacker. i had breakfast with packman and ladybug (they are keeping a journal on trailjournals.com), terrapin, and rabbit hutch. also in town are trail dancer, slojo and indiana red, gerber, sticks and patches, and a bunch of other folks. i think my “hiker hunger” is starting to set in. i’ve lost a TON of weight, and i’ve spent $60.00 on food (ok, a large part of that tab is alchohol :-)) in the last 20 hours. it’s 11:00am and i’ve already had a huge breakfast, a milkshake, and a king sized snickers bar. oh well, gotta run. i’ve got a lot of nothing to do today before i hit the trail again tomorrow. i should be in hot springs in another five or six hiking days. hot springs is a cool town because the A.T. goes directly through the town.