Day 1 on the Appalachian Trail

Hello everyone! I am currently sitting at a computer at a Howard Johnson Hotel down in Virginia. I want to take a moment to tell you about my crazy first day on the Appalachian Trail! Here is a recap:
1) I got to see Mr. DeVoe after over a month-and-a-half of him being away and gave him the BIGGEST hug ever!
2) We started hiking at 8:00AM out of a small town called Catawba.
3) About 3.7 miles in we reached McAfee Knob, a famous place on the trail with a breathtaking view and this rock that juts out over the 2,000 foot drop! (Don't worry Mommy, I was careful when I got a picture taken of me dangling my legs of the edge!)
4) Shortly after this, we reazlized that Koda's backpack wasn't designed very well and it kept falling off of him easily. It got so annoying putting it back on every 3 minutes so at one point Mr. DeVoe and I split the weight and carried Koda's weight ourselves.
5) The most horrible part of the trip for me: At some point early on in my first day on the Appalachian Trail, my backpack broke. The strap that hugs my hips so that the 35 pounds is mostly on my hips broke so that it wasn't bolted into my pack anymore and it was sliding up. With this broken, now all of my pack's weight was on my shoulders and the pack was leaning backwards off of me. It's like trying to hike up a hill with someone grabbing your shoulders and leaning back on their heels. It was gruesome and frustrating because we would not reach a town until Sunday and the backpacking store is closed on Sundays. I called the company that made the backpack and they are not open on weekends and I fear they'll be off Monday for Memorial Day. So I won't be able to do anything about my pack until at least Tuesday. In the meantime the two boys I'm hiking with were increadibly kid enough to each take something heavy out of my pack and carry it for me. That made it a lot more bearable, but still incredibly annoying.
6) My class will love this one... I saw a huge snake! That's pretty lucky for my first day! The guys I'm hiking with have only seen 2 or 3 snakes these last couple months! It was climbing up a tree and I got pictures of it!
7) Another lowpoint of my first day: remember how we started hiking at about 8:00AM? Well 12 hours later at about 8:00PM the sun was setting and we were looking for a place to settle down and eat dinner and go to bed. We checked the guidebook and thought we had crossed the last ridge that would take us into town, so we decided to press on thinking the town was less than an hour's hike away. We excitedly called in reservations at a hotal and thougth about the yummy dinners we could have. My feet were killing me at this point but I pressed on thinking we were almost there. It started getting pitch black dark and we put our headlamps on. We hiked, and hiked, and hiked, and could see the lights of the town next to us but the trail was not turning down the mountain to head toward them. After awhile we realized that we must have made a mistake and we much farther away fromt he town than we'd thought. It was past my bedtime, my pack was broken and digging into my sides in an uncomfortable way, my feet were swollen and sore, and I hadn't eaten much all day. I almost started crying it was so frustrating. But Mr. DeVoe's optimism pressed us on and we hiked and hiked until finally at 11:10PM we stumbled out of the woods and into our hotel. I had hiked for 15-and-a-half hours, 20 miles on my first day!
7) At the hotel I collapsed ont he bed and peeled my boots and socks off. My feet were calloused and blisters were forming. The sides of my hips were red and starting to bruise. We ordered a large pizza, 10 wings, cheesy bread and a 2-liter of Coca Cola and devoured it in less than 10 minutes. All I ate that day was one pop tart for breakfast, 3 granola bars and one-and-a-half candy bars throughout the 15-and-a-half our hike. Mr. DeVoe and his friend Kevin each took their first shower in 8 days and I was spoiled enough to get a shower in on my first day! We fell asleep at 1:30 AM. Koda was exhausted too.