Nero Day in Franklin, NC

Nero Day - A day where one hikes a short time and takes the rest of the day off.
Over 100 miles in eight days! We never in a million years saw that one coming, but miss a shelter and have to put in a 19 mile day instead of the planned 14 will do it. Luckily good weather was on our side until yesterday when the thunder storms hit. The 19 mile day on Thursday put us ahead so that we only had four miles on Friday. Friday morn we woke around 6:40 and hit the trail by 7:45. We needed to hustle to make the 9:00/9:30 a.m. shuttle pick up to take us to Franklin, NC. About 1.5 miles up the trail the clouds rolled in and thunder began to boom. SassySunshine blew past Daddy Long Legs and didn't look back since he could easily catch up with her (his words;). The lightening, thunder, rain and hail had begun as we raced up the trail. SS got down to the pick up spot by 9:02 and joined the rest of the hikers standing around looking like drowned rats waiting for the shuttle. Hiker after hiker joined the crew, but no sign of DLL. SS began to worry when the hiker they passed together near the beginning of the trail came down and said that he hadn't seen DLL, so she took off her pack and ran up the trail to find him. "Praise be to God!" there he was coming down the trail drenched and looking relieved to see her. "I ducked in the woods to get away from the lightening over head", was his response to the obvious question of; "where have you been!?!". Two minutes later Ron Haven's shuttle (an old school bus) pulled up to take us into town. We got a room at the Budget Inn, reunited with some old friends (Old Corpus, Blessed, Stew Ball, Cat Whisperer & Bonesy), warmed up with a hot shower, stuffed our faces with an all you can eat Mexican buffet, did laundry & lounged around watching TV. This morning we were treated by a local church to a pancake breakfast. This town loves hikers and we love them for that.
Happy Easter!