One more time, the trail reached State Road 281. Again, the trail used an overpass to go over another highway, This one was U.S. 78 and was where we needed to stop for today.
We knew from comments posted in FarOut that if you call Heflin's city hall, someone will drive here to pick you up. When I called at 12:45 p.m., it seemed that everyone was at lunch. I had to leave a message.
We waited then, unsure if someone would pick us up. Just a few minutes later, I got a call back from a member of the city's staff, Tammy Perry. She said she would meet us shortly, and it wasn't long before she arrived.
Tammy told us a little about Heflin during our ten-minute ride to America's Best Value Inn. When we arrived there, she wouldn't take any money for gas. What’s more, she said she would pick us up at 4:45 p.m. and drive us to a grocery store. She said it was a little too far to walk from the motel, and that was agreeable to us.
I never thought about making a reservation at the motel before we arrived, but it appeared we were lucky to get a room. It looked like ours was the last one available because the annual NASCAR race at Talladega Superspeedway was this weekend. Despite that, the desk clerk honored the motel's usual hiker rate of $75.
The plan to do our shopping at 4:45 gave us plenty of time to get cleaned up and walk to a nearby Mexican restaurant for a late lunch.
We also met a hiker named Israel, who was staying at the motel. For the last week, we had seen his name written in trail register books and guessed he wasn't far ahead of us. Israel said he was making his first attempt at a thru-hike, and he was just starting to get a feel for the ins and outs of thru-hiking.
I told him the Pinhoti Trail seemed like a good trail for doing that.
Tammy picked us up as promised. When we finished our shopping, the grocery store gave us a hiker discount of ten percent off our purchases. Tammy then returned to take us back to the motel.
She also offered to drive us back to the trail tomorrow. We will meet her at 9:30 a.m. and go to the city hall first. Tammy said she likes to introduce hikers to the mayor.
We saw today several examples confirming Heflin's reputation as a hiker-friendly town. And yet there might be more kindness to come. When Tengo mentioned he had broken one of his trekking poles, Tammy told him she would try to find him a replacement by tomorrow.