Date: 2013-08-04
From: US 4, Rutland VT (10 miles W)

To: Mountain Meadows Lodge, Killington, VT
Miles today: 3.9

After a great night¢s sleep, I'm the first one up. It looks cloudy out so I quietly turn on the TV (sleepy head is still asleep) and I see rain in the forecast. Man, there's nothing like hiking in the rain after taking a zero. An hour or so goes by and it¢s time to feed the bear. Cash is awake as I head out the door. I tell him I need to go eat and he joins me just a bit later. A lady walks over and asked if I was thru-hiking? I said, ¢Yes, how did you guess?¢ She says, ¢Your beard and blue crocs.¢ She says her twin daughters, ¢Rise¢ and ¢Shine¢ are just behind us on the trail. She wished us well and we said we'd keep an eye out for them. We went back to the room and grabbed our packs and had started down the hall when we meet Don and Carol. They asked about our hike and then Carol offered us some homemade muffins. I thanked her and we all stopped by the desk and checked out and while we were walking across the parking lot, Don asked us how we were getting back to the trail. We said we didn't know yet but we would probably hitch. That's when he said, ¢We'll take you,¢ and they did - twenty miles out of their way, because they¢re coming back into Rutland. They dropped us off and we took pictures of one another and off we all went. Don and Carol - thanks again for your kindness and the muffins were great!As we walked down to the trail, ¢Sky Pilot¢ was crossing the road. I yelled out, but with the road noise he didn't hear me. I was talking to Cash and I turned and ¢Monk¢ was standing behind me. He's the one that was catching a bus to Atlanta awhile back. After a long ¢how's it going¢ talk, we hiked for awhile till Monk got off the trail to go eat at the Long Trail Inn. So Cash and I continued on and it started to thunder. He stopped and put his pack cover on and I went on. That's when I met a couple from France. They were going up to a viewing area and asked me if they were safe with their metal poles. I told them, "If you hear thunder, put them in your back packs." I hope the skies cleared up for them.I'm at the Gifford Woods State Park road and it¢s raining. I start looking around for cover and Cash comes down and we spotted a building which turns out to be a bath house with hot water, showers and electricity, so we wait it out. More hikers show up and I asked them, one by one, ¢Where y'all going tonight?¢ They all said to the next shelter. That's where we were going too - that place is going to be full. So I talked to Cash about staying in the barn at Mountain Meadows Lodge, so that's where we are headed. This is the same place that was holding my packages for me on Friday but didn¢t have a room for me to stay in. We get there and Sky Pilot, Little Sas', Stink Bug, Honeybun and a couple more hikers are here. We go check out the barn and Alice, the potbellied pig, is here. If we stay in the barn we would be sleeping with the pig and when I say sleeping with the pig, I mean sleeping with the pig! That's when Cash came up with a better plan, ¢Instead of paying ten bucks each to sleep with Alice, let¢s pay thirty seven dollars each and split a room, plus we get breakfast, oh yeah, and there's a hot tub. I was asking Little Sas' if she had gotten a room and she said she was going to tent. I told her, ¢Don't do that. We have a spare bed in our room. Let¢s go ask the owner if it¢s okay.¢ The owner said it was not a problem and that we could get supper as well. The supper was an additional $10, but it was good. I'm in my room now watching it rain. Little Sas' has already thanked me for not having to set up her tent. It¢s like Bean said the other day and what I¢ve been saying all along, ¢What comes around goes around!¢ So there you have it folks. Cash and I have managed to hike 3.9 miles today!