As crunchy as I wanna be...

Yesterday started with a walk downtown to Abingdon's fantastic farmer's market, which we'd never been to but heard great things about. We walked away with some spinach and some grass-fed ground beef (with instructions to cook it slower and cooler, or it will "taste like rubber," according to the very earnest young man who sold it to us. We'll see how I do.)

So yeah, organic, free-range, hormone- and pesticide-free goods, yadda yadda. But let's be honest: the best part was when we found the guy selling his fresh baked goods and danish. Yum.

Then we spent the afternoon at Trail Days in Damascus, just a few miles from here. Damascus is where the Appalachian Trail and the Virginia Creeper Trail intersect, so it's always got a fairly significant hippie/wanderer/vegan presence, but once a year they have this festival to celebrate trail culture, and specifically, to cater to the many thru-hikers (those attempting to hike the entire AT from Georgia to Maine). If you're planning on thru-hiking, I gather, the first big hurdle is to make it to Damascus by Trail Days.

Of course, we arrived by car. Well, most of the way; it was so crowded in town, we had to park pretty darn far away and walk the rest of the way in. Once we got there... mayhem. I'm not sure what I expected but holy crap! It was HUGE. The entire town was full of all kinds of vendors (of camping/hiking gear, t-shirts and other trail memorabilia, incense, candles, something called The Outdoor Bible, and tons of food). Plus, there were at least two very cool free services: free buzzcuts, and free vet checkups for "trail dogs." Awesome.









It was, needless to say, a great spot for people watching. We saw: several people in full-length, tie-dyed unitards; a great many sets of dredlocks;

dudes in kilts;



and babies.



Being on the go meant Lea's nap schedule got all shot to pieces, and then, against all logic (jeez, Lea) she also decided not to sleep last night. Which meant today she was basically comatose. [OK, the commentary is unessential, but I needed a legitimate excuse to post these totally unrelated sleeping-baby pictures. Deal with it.]