Date: 2008-06-17
From: Manchester Center VTÃÂÃÂ¢ÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂ Carriage House Motel

To: Manchester Center VT ÃÂÃÂ¢ÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂ Carriage House Motel
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: scattered clouds

Day 121 ¢ Tuesday June 17 ¢ Manchester Center VT ¢ Carriage House Motel ¢ Miles Today: 0 Total Miles: 1638.4We're still at the sick ward in Manchester Center Vermont. Grasshopper took some Tylenol before going to bed last night as she was still running a fever. She took more about midnight. The fever broke during the night again with the sweats, but not nearly as bad as the night in the woods. She¢s still not doing too well. She awoke for short periods of time throughout the day, would eat a little soup or some crackers and then go back to sleep. For dinner she tried a little tossed salad and a little bit of a sandwich.About 8:00 in the evening, she seemed to come alive a bit more. Now we just need a night with no fever. No Advil or Motrin has been taken since midnight last night so we shall see how the next 24 hours go. Brakeman headed out in the morning with an empty pack to walk to town for errands. Harry and Marian's care package, which was supposed to be delivered to the Mountain Goat Outfitter apparently ended up back at the post office because Mountain Goat was not open when they tried to deliver it.   Well, the bad news was when he arrived at the Post Office, they no longer had our package! It had been delivered to Mountain Goat this morning. Unfortunately there¢s quite a distance between these two facilities. Luckily he was able to score a hitch with the man who had overheard the conversation! What a sweet deal and to top it off, he got a hitch in a convertible. But then the next set of bummer news arrived. Mountain Goat was closed for 40 more minutes! Oh well, Brakeman just sat on the curb until it opened. Once it opened he bought us a new water filter cartridge and looked over lighter weight packs. Then it was on to the grocery store. Never, never, turn Brakeman loose in a grocery store! We had huge scope creep - a 12-gallon of chocolate moose tracks ice cream ¢ ¢It was only $2, I had to get it!¢ he said; potato chips despite the fact we already had Pringles in the room ¢ ¢But they were on sale and it was a good price!¢ he said; and chocolate syrup ¢ ¢Well, I thought you might want some chocolate milk.¢ he said. He did good! We have enough food in the room for a couple days. We even had a delightful care package from Tom and Nancy!!   Sorry guys, that we are eating your goodies from the sick ward rather than the trail.We have been in touch with Mr. & Mrs. Grasshopper and they are going to be here tomorrow afternoon. They will spend the night and then drive us back to the lake to recover the following day. We'll regroup from there as to when we will head back to the trail. We have 2 schools of thought: Give us just enough time to physically heal, mentally get rejuvenated but not so long that we lose our hiking leg muscles, or wait long enough to catch the fall colors. So who really knows? It's too early to make a decision. We just need to get rested and healthy before we make all those decisions. I guess that's it for the sick ward. Let's hope that tonight the fever does not return and that tomorrow brings us a healthier day. Goodnight.