Zero day with Courtney

Hello all! Jen and I are taking an off day with our awesome friend Courtney. She came and picked us up from a hostel outside of Pearisburg, VA even though she's at the end of her first year of medical school and had to drive an hour and a half to get there. Yay for friends :) Anyway, we are at mile 615 so we've gone over a quarter of the way. When we look at the entire map of the AT now it's actually a sizeable chunk that we have done. We've been on the trail for almost two months at this point and it still doesn't seem real that we are actually out here getting to live this dream.
We got new shoes in Damascus which have helped our feet immensely! Barbara also took home quite a bit of stuff for us so our packs aren't as heavy anymore. Thanks Barbara :) We've started doing bigger mile days now because of this. A 10 mile day is now easy and 17 to 22 miles is more the norm. David Beams also let us use their house in Damascus for showers and resting our feet. It was the cleanest and most refreshing shower we'd had since we started. He also made us some pretty awesome brownies and took us out for a magnificent lunch.
We had some great weather coming into Damascus and a couple of days out of Damascus. It has started raining again since then but at least it's not as cold now. We're definitely not in a drought anymore! Our sleeping bags that everyone was so skeptical about are keeping us warm and we've sent the liner bags home. They are the envy of the other thru hikers and one girl we're hiking with is even going to get her mom to make her one and have it sent to her on the trail.
All of the amazing people and trail magic that we have encountered have balanced out the rainy days. Just yesterday we met a couple on the trail who were on vacation from New York and they were passing out tootsie rolls and gummies to all the thru hikers. A few days ago a church shuttled about 15 of us hikers to an all you can eat homemade breakfast and they also had a basket of cards so we could write mother's day cards and then they mailed them for us. There is a 65 year old grandmother out here who we have all dubbed Madeline from Maine. She has run a marathon on every continent, including Antartica, and all since she turned 55. The group of healthy early 20 year olds that we're hiking with all started within a few days of March 15 with Jen and I; Madeline from Maine started March 26. Needless to say she was only with us for a few days before she moved on.
Whew, this is such a long post because it's the first time we've had unlimited internet access and there's not a line of hikers waiting to use the computer. We miss everyone and are tired of the rain but we have made a lot of good friends out here and, like I said, the awesomeness that we encounter on the trail outweighs the rain. Next weekend we're hitching back to Damascus for trail days and then we'll probably focus on hiking for awhile ;)
peace