Virginia and Bonnarooooo

Hey everyone, I'm in Pearisburg, Virginia, mile 635, day 39! Things are still going really well. We passed the 1/4 point (on day 33 I think, so I gotta get moving if I want to finish in 100 days) and are into our 4th state. Virginia is the state with the most miles of the trail (around 500) and is supposed to be a little flatter than the first quarter of the trail. In the first few days in Virginia we went through a park that has wild horses:

We also got to see and chat with this guy: http://www.runnersworld.com/elite-runners/updated-before-retirement-scott-jurek-attempting-appalachian-trail-record?cid=social46666436&adbid=10152810138731987&adbpl=fb&adbpr=9815486986
He was really, really nice and took the time to chat for 5 minutes and take some pictures:

His wife was walking with him at the time. She drives the support van and meets him at most road crossings along the trail. By the way, I would not want to run on the trail... too much steep downhill, and rocks and roots. What this guy is doing is really, really crazy. If he can do it in 42 days, I should be able to do it in 100.

We took a little break from the trail this weekend and went to Bonnaroo music festival in Manchester, Tennesee this weekend. It was an awesome time. I've been a few times before. The festival is huge, almost 100,000 people, almost all camping. The musical lineup is always stacked and very eclectic and the atmosphere is super fun and friendly. We saw some awesome shows and had a nice little 4 day vacation from the trail. Me and Gen had been doing around 25 mile days the week leading into it. Hiking that much really doesn't leave much free time. All we do all day is hike. But I like the adrenaline rush of pushing the mileage. I usually listen to music or podcasts for like two thirds of the day. Gen's doing it old school, without an ipod. I have no clue how she does it.
Me and Gen did a 5k fun run at Bonnaroo that was pretty fun. I'm glad I decided to just tempo it, considering the heat and fact that I haven't run in a month. Man was it hot and sunny... It's kind of funny that even though we've been in the south for a month, it really doesn't get too hot in the woods.
Big thanks to Skye's friends Jeff, Mark and Chloe for coming out of their way to pick us up, and Mal for bringing down a few things for us (I got a new pair of hikers). It wasn't the easiest thing to coordinate picking me, Skye and Gen up, because we were all in different places and not able to use wifi very often. I ended up getting picked up at 3 am while napping under a McDonalds sign where I had been loitering for like 8 hours. Then we drove to a hostel in the sticks to pick up Gen. Showing up in the middle of the night, searching through the hostel bunkhouse, shinning my headlamp on people, and whispering "Killer" (Gen's trail name) was probably the creepiest thing I've ever done in my life. We picked up Pop Tart a half hour away sleeping on a library's front lawn.
The Harrigans and honorary Harrigan at roo:

'Roo crowds:

Ok, that's it for now. I've gotta go meet up with Killer. She was 10 miles behind me so I'm chillin in town while she catches up and then we're meeting up on the trail and doing 7 or so more miles.  L8ter!