Date: 2015-06-16
From: Congdon Shelter

To: Bennington, VT
Miles today: 4.3
Weather: few clouds

I slept in today. I didn¢t get out of my bag until 6:15am. I was going to meet Heg at the Route 9 parking area at 9:00am. Since it was only 4.3 miles, I left at 7:00am, just in case the terrain slows me down.When I left at 7:00am I was making good time. Better time that I thought I was, actually. The only part when I had to slow down was the last quarter mile down to the road. It was very steep and there were stone steps. They were muddy and had leaves on them. At about 8:15am it started to rain. I had to be very cautions to get down safely. I ended up getting to the parking area at 8:30am and took cover from the rain. Heg was to arrive at 9:00am so it gave me the opportunity to throw on my flip-flops, change a shirt and collapse my trekking poles. Shortly before 9:00am Heg¢s bright yellow Jeep Wrangler pulled into the lot. I immediately headed over and hopped in. It was only about 10 minutes from the parking lot to the house. We pulled in and I started dumping out my wet gear in the garage. I hung my tent so it¢d dry out. I gathered up my laundry. I pulled trash from my food bag and more. The next order of business was taking a hot shower¢¦I felt human again.Cleaned up and ready for the day, I grabbed my laundry and we headed into downtown Bennington. The game plan was actually to get a bite to eat before doing laundry and town chores. We drove until we saw this little place, Papa Pete¢s. They serve breakfast and lunch all day. Despite breakfast being my least favorite meal of the day, I changed it up and had an omelet¢¦and boy was I glad! I had the BEST omelet in my entire life. It was four eggs, mozzarella, ricotta, Italian sausage, onions, and peppers and covered in marinara. I¢d go back any day!With our stomachs full, we continued into town to the laundromat. It was at that point that Heg pointed out the travel sized packet of ¢laundry detergent¢ I¢ve been carrying since Shenandoah was actually fabric softener. I couldn¢t believe it. I¢ve been carrying this stupid packet of fabric softener for 700 or something miles. (I¢m very allergic to Tide so I bought the travel ¢detergent¢ just in case any laundromat only had Tide for sale).We completed laundry and hit Walmart and Price Chopper just down the road. We bought food for breakfast in the morning and I did my resupply for the next few days. But before we could get back to the house, we had to feed the grumblings in my stomach¢¦I NEEDED McDonalds! We finished the greasy, calorie-filled food and drove back to the house. I broke down all of my food and then I borrowed his computer to update my Trailjournal. That was a huge help. Instead of me typing on my phone, I get a real screen and real keys. It was a couple hours after we returned and we then headed over to the Madison Brew Co. I had a pulled pork panini that was very good. They had a pretty good beer variety so I tried their milk stout. In all honesty, it was not impressive at all. It was over-carbonated and didn¢t really do anything for me. I expected much more from the beer. We finished dinner around 8:30pm and headed back to relax. I stayed up late and watched a movie though. I¢ll be good to go in the morning!