Date: 2010-07-01
From: Dried up spring!

To: ???
Miles today: 0.0

Rest Stop made the following quotes today¢¦I polished a few of them up nice and pretty.¢I¢d rather not use the privies. I prefer to shit where no man¢s shat before.¢¢Hiking is like being pregnant. You forget how bad it hurts eventually.¢Rest Stop bet Orbit that Veggie and the gang wouldn¢t make it to us last night. He won a soda. So incredibly hungry for the deli today! Only 9 miles to it. Thankfully morning miles are shorter than evening miles. Felt so happy and light because I haven¢t been carrying much food at all. I tend to move faster when there¢s food at the end of the trail. Kind of like the donkey and the carrot. Told them the Native American proverb; ¢A hungry bird flies faster than a bird who has just eaten¢Ate cold rigatoni, tomatoes, basil and cheese. Knew they wouldn¢t be able to sit around and wait long enough for the hot subs place to open. Hiked out feeling good and happy. They both packed out dinner, but I only got instant potatoes. I¢m trying to watch my weight, pack weight that is. These 25+ mile days have been hard on my feet.Rest Stop is surprised that I¢m hobbled and limping at the end of the day. Even after walking this far, I can still have problems. I¢m just not use to this hard work style of hiking.These climbs around Nuclear Lake are grueling in the since that they¢re up and down so close together. I could tell that the trail looped in a horse shoe around the lake just for fun. Had to use the bathroom, well, I mean the woods and broke off trail. Never fails, the trail curved back and Rest Stop and Orbit could definitely see me squatting. They were giggling.There was a pink flamingo in front of the Morgan Shelter! I hiked alone to Hwy 20 and ran into Orbit going south. She¢d been trying to contact a friend that lived nearby and the friend contacted her, but she didn¢t have service. We¢re trying to get a ride into Pawling for dinner at the Great Wall Chinese restaurant. Rest Stop was at the rode waiting. After a while Orbit came back with bad news. No ride! Her friend¢s baby-sitting. The taste of Chinese was already on our minds. We decided to give it 20 minutes worth of hitching to see what had happen. Orbit and Rest Stop must be able to sense that I¢m on a thin thread today with being able to keep up. I¢m tired and they know it. Orbit says, ¢Dammit, let¢s try it, Skippy deserves it!¢The whole time we¢re there we¢re in awe of the Dover oak tree right by the highway. It¢s humongous! 5 people couldn¢t hold hands and reach all the way around this thing!Orbit tried hitching first, with no luck. Rest Stop tried and I hid in the bushes. After a couple of SUV¢s and soccer mom¢s, someone gave us a lift!Ahhh! The Great Wall only accepts checks or cash! Great, I don¢t have either. Rest Stop let me borrow some cash. Sesame chicken, pork fried rice, and two egg rolls! Boneless baby back ribs for Rest Stop. He ate a ton of hot mustard. I¢d be in the hospital afterward. Tofu for Orbit. Tiny as she may be, she has an appetite that would rival mine. She¢s also a vegetarian.I asked the Senorita down the street for water in my bottle. She got upset and told me how busy she was. What a nice lady she was, to give a fellow human some free tap water.I decided to show the gang the art of hitchhiking and I had a ride after the 4th vehicle! Haha, it¢s the smile! The ride was in a mini-suv with a mother and daughter. They¢d just talked about how hard it was to get a ride with a vehicle with more than 1 person. Check! Haha!Quick ride back to the trail with my belly full and happy as a lark!Nice graded field trail leading away from Pawling. Uphill but nice and calm. We could hear the cows mowing like crazy! They sounded desperate. It must be feeding time. Overcast skies and a cool summer breeze tonight! Rest Stop claimed that cattle won¢t run from you if you don¢t look them in the eye and stir their flight response. He tried it, but the Hereford still ran from him. The golden sun sinking under the mountain we climbed down earlier, cast a long shadow on the huge hay fields. Smelled like summer time! What a beautiful moment to be on the trail. I lived for these days when I was back at home. I loved evenings like this after a long laborious weekend. When all the work you put into the weekend is over and you can find a nice shady spot or a swing and cook dinner on the grill while drinking ice cold sweet tea! Ummm! I miss Durham!Spooked another button buck and a Doe. 2 for today! As the darkness of the evening set in, we made it to camp. My feet feel better, so much better than yesterday! My muscles are tired, but I¢ll take it one thing at a time. We¢re all still pretty full from dinner, but Orbit eats her Eggplant sandwich!I¢m going to try to make Kent early tomorrow so I won¢t hold them up. Set my alarm. Tonight I put on my jacket and socks before going to bed. It¢s been to cold lately for anything less!