Date: 2010-08-03
From: Libby B&B Gorham, NH

To: Libby B&B Gorham, NH
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: fog

woke up to the smell of bfast. sat down to a bowl of fruit - watermelon, banana, honeydew. coffee, oj. cheese omelet and toast with butter and jam. lovely.I finished coffee while watching the weather channel. if we play it right we could be on Mt. Washington in beautiful weather. Mo enjoyed his coffee on the front porch in the rocking chair. There was finally a break in the rain to we walked around town to check this place called Gorham out. Visited the hardware store which also carries a bunch of the hiking stuff we need. Visited the outfitters that didnt' have shorts my size. And visited the PO for our packages. Went to a general store and bought homemade fudge (Ameretto, dk chocolate, and jalapeno chocolate for Mo).Ran into the rest of the gang as they were on the way to The Barn, a hostel attached to the B&B we are staying at. I sat down to try and plan out the next few days...its hard when you don't have a clue what is coming up with the Whites and Presidentials ahead of us. So i went to the barn and found some NOBOs who shared their experiences with me and we were able to figure out how we may spend the next several days in this new state and new range of mountains.Our room came with bathrobes so Mo and I donned them and washed EVERY bit of clothing we have with us - we even washed our shoes and packs. I also cleaned most of our equipment.Ate lunch at a great Italian deli - Saladino's. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. Paninis are wonderful. Throughout the Whites are these shelters called Huts. They are run by college students and are very expensive to stay at, but hikers can do work for stays to stay for free and get dinner and bfast. Sometimes work is simple like sweeping or dishes, other times you have to do real cleaning like cleaning the oven or bathrooms. Depends on how much the staff likes you i guess. Any time you pass a hut at lunch time they have soup, $2 for a bowl, $3 for all you can eat. A NOBO told me to beware the pumpkin spice soup though. They also sell snacks...So this will help us not carry quite as much food for the next 100 or so miles. On Tuesday nights Gorham has live music in the Commons - an area in near downtown with parks and playgrounds. Its right next to the B&B so we just sat on the porch and listened for a while. Mo and I ate dinner at Mr. Pizza where we sat at the bar for dinner with some NOBOs. They were really cool. Trailmix and Seedless Joe. Trailmix is from Clearwater area, Seedless from Connecticut. They told us some great trail stories. And we ended up learning about New Hampshire from them. They saw some friends of theirs across the restaurant, so they picked up their beers and headed off to see them...that is when the entire bar area and the bartender yelled at them - you can't walk with your beers!!! Apparently it is state law that you can't walk around with alcohol in your hand. HAHAHA. Then they ended up getting kicked out of the restaurant for flirting with one of the waitstaff...harmless flirting...we watched the whole thing and there was no reason for them to be kicked out. The bartender was acting mean. Like she didn't like hikers or something. Never smiled or laughed or joked the whole time we were there. Also learned from the guys that you cannot buy beer at the liquor stores in NH. They had walked to buy some and the clerk looked at them like they were crazy...For some strange reason there was a clown at the restaurant doing magic tricks and making balloon animals.