April 3rd and 4th at Nantahala Outdoor Center (NOC)

We took a zero day on the third, the Warrior Hike guys went white water rafting. They seemed to have had a blast. I decided not to go since I'm still fighting this sinus infection/cough and figured the 40 degree water wouldn't be good for me. The guys went to a VFW stop in Andrews NC. Cody decided to hang back with me this time; we had dinner again at River's End restaurant. NOC is nice but since it's 13 miles from Bryson City they have a pretty good monopoly going here. There's one restaurant and an outfitter and "general store" (sodas are $2 each, juice is almost $3 for a regular bottle!!) We haven't been too impressed with this place over all. Apparently the men's restroom and showers haven't been cleaned for days. Someone puked in the men's room and it has just been sitting there, apparently there are band-aids in the shower drains too. The women's restroom and showers aren't as bad, it isn't clean but just has soap and hair all over the place. Our room is in a bunk house and has two sets of bunk beds. Cody and I have one and Steve and Kevin (both former marines) have the other. We woke up to the sound of pouring rain on the corrugated metal roof this morning. After some discussion I decided Cody and I would just pay $20 each and stay again tonight. Everyone else planned on leaving for the trail again (with the exception of Gary, Liz and Joelle because they arrived late last night) but eventually decided it wasn't worth it to be wet and cold. It's been pretty much a non-stop downpour today and the temperature dropped a lot too. I'm glad we ended up staying, much better to be bored staring at each other while being dry and warm instead of being on the side of a mountain in a tent being wet and cold staring at each other. The River's End restaurant is playing the movie Deliverance tonight and having free hot dogs and burgers; at least we will have something to do later. It doesn't start until 8...8:45 or so is my new bedtime so I hope I can stay awake to watch it. It's funny how quickly we've adapted to this sleep schedule. When the sun is up, we are up. When the sun is down, we are down. It's a running joke among hikers that 9 or 10pm is known as "hiker midnight". We will be heading out tomorrow for sure. We've got a 7 mile hike that's all up hill, but at least it won't be in the rain. We're looking forward to getting into the Smoky Mountains in a few days and hopefully renting a cabin in Gatlinburg for our next zero day(s)!!