Day 14-3/24-Cody Gap to Fontana Dam, NC-8.7 miles

Rain pounded hard early in the morning, but slacked off before sunrise. I got packed up knowing it would be a short day into Fontana Dam where Rhiannon would be meeting me. I planned to be there by noon, and got in about half past. Though the day was short, it was scenic. Elevation slowly dropped by about 2000 feet, and the dam and lake were in sight for the last several hours. It makes the decent seem especially slow when you can see your destination for that long but haven't yet reached it. Just across Highway 28 there are restrooms, a phone, and park maps/shelter sign-up sheets. I availed myself of the latter two, calling for a shuttle into the resort and signing up for the shelters I thought I would be hitting through the Smokies. The sign-ups aren't technically necessary for thru-hikers, but if you don't sign up someone with a reservation can kick you out of the shelter even if you reached it first.
I waited on the shuttle with two fellow hikers. Cell service was non-existent, so I couldn't call Rhiannon and let her know it was there. Nevertheless she pulled up within 20 minutes. The shuttle driver had been at lunch, so we all piled in and rode up to the main office. After dropping off the other hikers we headed to the cabin Rhiannon had reserved. We grabbed lunch, laundry, and a resupply of food. Rhiannon had also brought some goodies with her. I was excited to get some pretty mundane items I had asked for earlier. I sorted through some gear changes and cleaned all my items. We had dinner at the lodge restaurant, pretty much the only game in town.
After falling asleep later the night we were awoken by a rather loud frat party nearby. I'm not sure, but I'm going to put the blame on UGA. Might not have been them, but whoever they were they brought enough kegs to make a small blockade of one of the roads. After a trip up to the lodge to complain (no phones in the cabins) nothing had changed 45 minutes later. The amplified music was too much for Rhiannon to sleep (I could have slept through the test detonation of the first atomic bomb) so another trip to the lodge yielded us accommodations there for the evening. It was a late night for someone who had been going to bed at 7:30 PM.