Date: 2016-07-18
From: Norwich Inn, Norwich, VT

To: Norwich Inn, Norwich, VT
Miles today: 1.5
Weather: broken clouds

Day 34: We awoke at 5am (habits die hard!!). Having Wifi, we explored the various options for getting home. We also tried to figure out what to do about the 2 boxes for resupply that were sent ahead that we will now not use. The second box actually has clothes in it for our flight home...Hmmm!! We finally decided to rent a car and drive to Pinkhams Notch, our planned ending point before "knee-agedon", and retrieve our box. Then drive to Newark airport. Why all the way to Newark, NJ?...We wanted to use frequent flyer miles on United and saw Newark had a lot more options than any other airports. So with the decisions made, we made car reservations for pickup tomorrow, hotel reservations at Newark airport and plane reservations for Wednesday.Next we hit the continental breakfast at the hotel, then walked next door to a place called Dan and Whits. It's a grocery, hardware, gift store and more kind of place. I'm sure if I looked hard enough I would have found a kitchen sink!! Our AT book said the place had fuel canisters so we wanted to check it out in preparation for our return to AT next year (how's that for positive thinking?).Next we checked out the local bus stop where a schedule and route of the free local bus to plan our day. Then to the Post Office to explore our options for the remaining box sitting at the North Woodstock Post Office. Turns out all we have to do is give them a call and ask that the box be returned to sender, which we later did.We were finally ready to accomplish our goal for the day...finish our hike of Vermont. With no packs and Spider wearing a brace on his right knee, we headed back to the AT. The AT stayed on the city streets of Norwich, VT down to a bridge across the Connecticut River, where half-way across we entered a New Hampshire marker. We continued on another 0.6 miles to downtown Hanover, NH. We figured out the location of the Enterprise Car Rental office where we would pick up our car tomorrow. Then off to eat lunch at a local bistro. We still have "hiker hunger", but need to start dialing back the calorie intake to enjoy the benefits of our "AT Diet Plan"!!We sat next to the window in the restaurant and watch the high activity of a college town walk by outside as we ate lunch. (Hanover is home to Dartmouth.) We then walked a block and caught the free bus back to Norwich. We will use this same bus system next year to return to Hanover, to continue our AT hike.Back at the Norwich Inn it was time to relax and enjoy our "Nero" (Nearly Zero miles hiked on the AT) day. The Norwich Inn is an interesting place. It is old stage coach stop built in 1797. It's been added to over the years. We are staying in one of the newer buildings. In the original building is a pub and restaurant where we ate dinner last night. They also have a brewery on site.Spider got his golf fix by watching the replay of the British Open. Then we both sorted through our packs, throwing away the things we don't need to haul home, then repacked our packs for an airplane flight. At 6:30pm we headed to the Inn's pub for dinner and libations.Tomorrow the getting home adventure begins!!