Thursday, 7/30

AT Miles = 0 / 1640.6
Other Miles = 0 / 54.1
Total Miles = 0 / 1683.8

Miles to Katahdin = 537.7

A day of no forward progress, but a good day nonetheless.

The hostel here is a wonderful, comfortable place, spo last night I
decided to take a zero here. The most strenuous thing I did today was
to walk the mile and a half into town, where I went to see a movie
before walking up the street to the local steak house where I had a
big dinner and a beer.

Most of the day I hung around the hostel. I cooked up the food I
originally bought for last night's dinner as today's lunch. I ate a
huge plate of sausage and peppers and pasta, and what I couldn't eat
some of the other hikers finished. For dessert I had another pint of
Ben & Jerrys, this time Cherry Garcia.

Tomorrow I will be back on the trail; I promise. The forecast says
there is a 90% chance of rain tomorrow, but Saturday looks to be dry.
That;s something to look forward to.

I got an email today from a couple that live in New Hampshire and are
apparently reading this blog, offering me a shower and a place to
sleep when I get near their home. It is that kind of amazing
generosity that makes an AT hike such a special experience, and I am
looking forward to meeting them.

After I finished my dinner at the steak house I called Jeff, the
hostel proprietor, for a ride back to the hostel. As we were driving
back along the lovely, quintessential Vermont road to the hostel, we
passed a couple of cyclists out for their evening ride. Boy, I miss
cycling! I wish there were roads like these to cycle on back home. I
sure am looking forward to cycling somewhere with Jodi next summer.
Hey Jodi, let's spend a long weekend cycling up here in Vermont, and
we'll spend a night here at the hostel. I'm pretty sure Jeff would
welcome a couple of touring cyclists even though this is a hiker
hostel.

So now I have to spend a bit of time getting my bounce box together
for mailing tomorrow morning, and my bavkpacvk organized to head back
out to the trail.

Good night from Manchester Center, Vermont.

—
~~~~~
Allen F. Freeman
allen@allenf.com
www.allenf.com
allenf.blogspot.com