An 8:30a wake up. Breakfast in the lobby and then laundry. While we waited, our friend GQ invited us out to lunch with him and his boyfriend. We were excited to see them, we hadn’t met Arthur yet. They picked us up at the hotel and we headed to downtown Johnson City. You can see it’s a downtown that’s really working on revitalizing itself. I’d be interested in returning in a couple of years to see all of the changes. I think in 5-10 years it’ll be a totally different downtown. There were still tons of artist shops and delicious eateries… but there was also plenty of room for more to settle in. We chose a pizzeria for lunch. It was delicious, the best pizza I’ve had in a while. After lunch, we walked around downtown for a bit and stopped in coffee shop. We hadn’t realized it closed an hour earlier. There were people hanging out just in the window and the door was unlocked. The owner was more than happy to have us still and filled our order. I was glad, because I saw a cafe miel was on the menu – one of my favorites!
After lunch and exploring downtown, GQ and Arthur dropped us off at the hotel. They decided to stay at the same place as us and Warthog was able to get a military discount for their room. We went back and caught up with FaceTiming family, journaling, and then we binged on the show Cops – shaking our heads at each of the seemingly impossible scenarios those poor boys in blue have to face. It’s not exactly a nice bedtime story, but it certainly was a window into another world.
Speaking of other worlds, tomorrow we return to the trail. My heels are looking good. I’m excited to try my new shoes and see the difference they make. These last couple of days have done wonders for my skin.
-ansel