Date: 2019-08-19
From: Warwick Motel

To: Warwick Drive In
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: broken clouds

Sometimes the best part about hiking the AT is not hiking the AT. After 2 weeks of non stop moving, today was the perfect day to take a break. Even though we did a nero into DWG, there's a big difference when you wake up and go to sleep in the same place. We stayed up pretty late last night. It's easier to just keep talking when you are sharing a room and suddenly you can hang out without swatting mosquitoes. Also let ourselves sleep in until 9 which was awesome. Had a quick bagel breakfast, called Mark- our shuttle driver- to come get up, and packed up. Then onto the grocery store for a quick resupply. I've decided that since I'm so far ahead I'll take my time getting back across Harriman and will plan to be home on Friday. So I only need to carry 3 dinners, 4 lunches, and 3ish days of bars. Easy peasy. And I won't be doing the giant miles so I'll probably still have leftover snacks at the end. But having a little bit extra to me just means you actually planned right. Better to carry a little extra in case of emergency.After groceries, Luna went back to the trail and I headed to the drive in. Hung out for a while being super lazy. Talked to a Nobo who was packing up to head out. Traded stories. He left and I decided to casually set my stuff up and try to decide what to do with the day. Around 2pm, I heard thunder. I don't know what it is about Warwick and storms but man they come out of nowhere. Staked my rain fly down (I always set it up with stakes in place but usually leave one flap up until I'm going to bed), tossed everything in my bag, and headed across the street to an awesome farm store and brew pub. Hung out there for lunch and a beer (New Holland Dragons Milk Spec Edition!), met the owner, chatted with a bar tender about the AT, had a couple people offer me rides. It was probably the best trail town experience I've had so far in that everyone kind of knew what I'm doing and were really interested in it. So that was cool. Got some "office work" done to start breaking down all of my information about this section. Charged my phone back up. And headed back to the drive in.At the drive in, I soon met the guy running the place. The first exchange we had went something like this:Him - Where ya from?Me - Originally? The middle of Illinois.Him - Yeah? Where about?Me - Peoria?Him - Huh. My dad was born there. My brother was born there. I was born outside Cleveland.Me - No. Way Him - Yeah. I grew up in South Pekin. We had a store there. One in Canton too.Totally crazy sometimes the people you meet out here, and in general for me. I get surprised every time someone knows where I mean when I say Peoria. Maybe i should start getting less surprised. But this one really caught me off guard. Really nice guy. Very accommodating. They're trying to clear more space for more hikers next year. He's keeping track of how many come thru and he thinks he's seen 600 this season. My foot is feeling better after giving it a full day off. I've been told the rock section ahead is kind of intense so we'll see how far I can get tomorrow. There's a shelter really close in 5m or I can shoot for something like 13 or 15 if I'm feeling good. So we'll see. Still planning to tape it up for safety. Just need to make it a few more days...Alright, time to fall asleep to the sounds of late night movies finishing up.