4-13-15 Good ol' Erwin

Today I went to town with the hostel's morning shuttle and had breakfast and got back on the trail around 11 am. I was feeling good, I had fully recovered from my brush with sickness and I had no trouble making some good miles. There were several uphill climbs and it rained around 2 pm. but my spirits were high . I even took a break and started to practice on the harmonica a bit .... I wish I had some musical ability. I made it to a shelter and there were lots of people there in tents but there was a spot available in the shelter itself. I claimed the spot simply because I knew it was going to rain and I didn't want to pack my tent wet in the morning and carry the extra weight. One of my water bags broke and now I'm down to 1 liter capacity which is not good especially when water sources are far apart. I checked the map and there does not seem to be a place to get a new container for 30 miles so I will just have to be careful not to pass any water sources until I can replace it. I sat with some other hikers at the fire and caught up on trail news before going to bed for the night. It rained hard enough to wake me up in the middle of the night as it slowed the tap tap tap on the tin roof lulled me back to sleep.

Erwin earned some notoriety in 1916 when the only known public execution of an elephant in Tennessee occurred in the community. Mary, the elephant, had killed her handler, Walter Eldridge, in nearby Kingsport. As home to the region's largest railway yard, Erwin was the only community with the means to carry out the death sentence. An estimated 2,500 people turned out at the local railway yard to see Mary hoisted by a crane and hanged by a chain around her neck. The first chain snapped, but a larger one was found and the peculiar task completed - she was hanged for half an hour before being declared dead.

Only in the south .......