Day 27: Pizza chefs

Hiked 4.6 miles staying in Landrum, SC

I think for every degree below 45 in the morning it takes me about 30 seconds longer to unwrap myself from the cocoon of my sleeping bag.  This morning it took 10 minutes.  It was very cold.  We broke camp and everyone got on the trail as soon as they were ready.

Today we had a very short day mileage wise.  My cousin Polly very kindly offered to pick us up and take us to her house in Landrum for a shower, meal and bed.  So we arranged with her a couple days ago to pick us up at Sam's Gap at noon.  Doing 5 miles before noon is not a challenge. We noticed last night however that there is a cafe only 3 miles down the road from the gap.  Our solution?  Get up relatively early and get breakfast there while we wait.

On the way down I ran into Stumbles and Big Job which was nice because we got to hug it out and wish each other well, we likely won't see them again, they do way more miles daily than us, clearly we are slackers.  We also managed to get ahead of Why Not without seeing her which caused much confusion for Srocket and I.  Apparently she stopped somewhere along the way to dig a cathole. 

At the gap, after crossing under I-26 our third interstate, we came to a parking lot and found Steve, a trail crew leader waiting for his team to arrive so that they could head out and work on the AT.  Since none of his team had shown up yet he very kindly offered us a hitch to the cafe saving us 3 miles of non-AT walking.

Breakfast was awesome and we used the time waiting for Polly to figure out our plan for the next few days and what we needed for resupply.  Why Not has to pick up mail drops in Erwin and Hampton Tennessee but Srocket and I plan to not resupply there.  We are instead doing two 5-day hops to Damascus instead.

Breakfast and planning session

Polly showed up and we loaded up and headed out. It is a little over an hour to Landrum and it was a very nice drive.  After much needed showers she very generously offered us her car for the afternoon so we could get our errands done.  This allowed us to get to the laundromat and grocery store and check out downtown Landrum.  It is a cool sleepy little town.  If we had a little more time there were some neat looking Amish furniture stores that would have been fun to check out.  I didn't know the Amish were prevalent in this part of the country.

Polly and her husband Alec built their own wood brick oven and run a bread making business out of their house.  We got to try some of their Ciabatta for lunch and it was fantastic.  They were at one point making and delivering 600 loaves a week but have scaled back to a more enjoyable number.  This means they only fire the oven once a week now and unfortunately that isn't until Wednesday.   I wish we could stay to see it because it would be really interesting, unfortunately the AT calls.

The oven doesn't have to get as hot to make pizza though so Alec fired it up for dinner.  I gave him a hand carrying the wood to build the fire and he explained all about the process.  I didn't know much about it and it is a lot more complex than I realized.  I gained a new appreciation for brick oven restaurants.  He also walked me through some of the different doughs and how they are made.  I learned a great deal.

For dinner we got to try our hand at being pizza chefs.  Polly and Alec made a smorgasbord of grilled veggies, sauteed mushrooms, cheese, sauces and other toppings to choose from.  We were given a piece of dough and told to go for it.  I tried my hand at throwing the dough like a famous Italian chef and had moderate success but went back to the rolling pin in the end.   Everyone had a blast making up their pizzas and watching them cook , though we were definitely covered in flour by the end.  When I make my dough at home I always use a little whole wheat flour, but Alec used some rye in his and it made for a delectable pizza crust.

The outbuilding with the oven

Getting ready to make pizza

Srocket learning about bread making

Making the crust

Adding toppiongs

Why Not is very proud of her creation

It takes time to create a masterpiece

Polly and Alec's home

Why Not showing off her final product

The sunset from the patio

Their house is in a beautiful location.  It feels so peaceful and tranquil here and the view is superb. We ate dinner on the patio and got to see an amazing sunset over the mountains as we ate.  What a perfect end to a perfect day!

Polly and Alec thank you so much for some terrific trail magic.  We had a fantastic day and loved being able to get off the trail and see this part of the country.  It was a long drive for you to come pick us up and super generous of you to share your home and good food with us.  We will have a bunch of good stories to make other hikers very jealous.