Date: 2006-07-15
From: Sutton's Place, Manchester Center, VT

To: Manchester Center, VT
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: 0

Cell good.Everything went well today. Sue arrived right on time, and we've enjoyed being together. The first thing we did was find a room for the night, and I changed out of my hiking town clothes into civilian clothes. The next thing we did was to go to the Laundromat and wash all my clothes. We then went to the local Eastern Mountain Sports store to buy new zip off pants and a waterproof pouch for my cell phone. Oh, by the way, Sue went to Cingular last night and got me a replacement phone.We then ran more errands and went back to the room. I took a number of equipment pieces outside and thoroughly dried them again. It seems trail chores get in the way of our reunions. I have so much to do while Sue is here that she sometimes gets lost in the shuffle. I would rather spend quality time with her than do these chores, but then I wouldn't be ready for the trail tomorrow. For this reason, I am growing tired of the trail, and I'm ready for it to be complete. I want to get back to our normal life, and spend the rest of our lives together. It is hard to leave your best friend, knowing she is holding up the fort, and also worrying about me, too. I want to have daily conversations with her, or just sit next to her and watch TV. Sharing my time with Sue is my favorite past time, and I want to resume that life. No, I'm not ready to call it quits, I will reach Katahdin, but when that's done I'll go home. Old Goat Sue;s Note: It was wonderful to have this day with Old Goat. We stayed in The Avalance Motel. I'm not sure what the motel owners were thinking when they put the curtains on the windows of the room we were in. We had to pin the sleeping room curtains together to have privacy, and there was a sheer curtain on the bathroom window. Our bathroom was on the parking and road side of the motel, and all rooms are on the ground floor. It was comical to see all of Old Goat's gear spread out around the room, and then, later, spread out on the parking lot. (In the room when we were running around to do his chores, on the parking lot when we got back.) The tarmack was hot, which helped dry out his gear quickly. The local EMS has a hiker sign-in book. We were surprised to see that Tinkerbell had signed in yesterday. We thought he was with Coyotebec and Gumby, and that they were days ahead of Old Goat. We gave some hikers rides from town to the AT - that was fun! "Goat" and "Stretch," who are hiking for www.hike4thecure.com. On our way back to town, we picked up a mother and her son who are hiking the Long Trail. Old Goat met the mother and son a couple days ago. What an wonderful thing they're doing - they decided they want the son (about 14 yrs old?) to have do something constructive for the summer, so they're hiking the LT. What a terrific summer experience! (The mother did a lot of back pack camping years ago.)Old Goat and I had a wonderful dinner at The Sirloin Saloon. The Hiker's appetite has kicked in somewhat for Old Goat finally...he thinks maybe within the last couple weeks. He had a huge plate of salad and then half of a huge steak (1 1/2" thick and about 7" x 9" in dimension!). He took the rest of the steak and we put it in the refrigerator in our room. He'll take it for lunch on the trail tomorrow.After dinner, we took three more hikers from town to the AT, then turned it. A wonderful day!