Date: 2012-08-07
From: Happy Hill Shelter

To: Stony Brook Shelter
Miles today: 12.5
Weather: clear sky

I've gotten out of the habit of writing at night - likely because I'm reading The Hunger Games Trilogy. A lot has happened in the past two days!We hiked to the Full Belly Deli in W. Hartford, VT on Sunday morning. We had second breakfast there. There was a message from Cruzin' in the register to us! She told us to give her a call, so I did (she had given me her number back in Maine). Unfortunately, she was in PA on her way to VA for vacation. Then I called Fancy Free and left a message on her voicemail. Fancy returned my call on Heavyweight's phone, but he missed it. Then she called me on my phone and I missed it, so she called the deli! HAHA! I spoke with her and we tried to make plans. I wanted to ask Heavyweight his opinion, so I started to go to the outside porch when a man, presumably the owner, spoke very harshly to me about the phone not being my private line and where did I think I was going and stuff like that. I became very flustered and told Fancy to come and get us. I hung up the phone and humbly apologized to the girl behind the counter, nearly in tears from the extremely rude way I was treated, and exited the establishment. Then I cried. I will not likely go back there in my lifetime.I do understand that it was the store's phone and that it was a privilege to use it. I did note that it rang only once in the very long time we were there (which seemed to be a personal call to one of the employees), so it wasn't likely going to lose the deli any business. Thirdly, I was not the one to initiate the telephone call. Anyway, it was upsetting.Fancy came to get us and she had Scrabble with her. YAY! She took us back to her apartment where we hung out most of the day. She and her husband had gone to Burlington for the day (with Scrabble), so we had run of the apartment with the cat. We went swimming in the river and got veggies from the co-op. It rained most of the day - I was kind of glad to be inside. I tried to make friends with Skeezicks, the cat. He was tolerant of me. We watched Five Million Steps and It Happened One Night. The next day Fancy drove us to the trail head where she had picked us up and we slacked abbout 13 miles to the next main road where she met us at 2:00 PM! She then took us swimming at Silver Lake and also to get maple creamies. Yum!At home, she made pie and dinner of corn on the cob, chicken, and salad. It was all SO GOOD! After dinner we played Ladderball in the backyard - men vs. women. Each team won twice.This morning Fancy made waffles and eggs and set berries on the table for the waffles. We packed up our gear and she took us back to the trail. How much more awesome could she be??We hiked 12.5 miles to Stony Brook Shelter, but the book says 13.3. It is amazing how much difference the heavy pack makes in regards to distance/time. Hiking in VT has been awesome so far. There are fields of blackberries, goldenrod, queen ann's lace, milkweed, thistle, and butterflies. The forest floor is so soft compared to New Hampshire and the hills are steep, but short. YAY FOR VERMONT! Also Hooray for barred owls! We heard two "talking" to each other this morning. It was thrilling.