Date: 2006-08-05
From: Hanover, NH

To: Hanover, NH
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: few clouds

The very last thing that was did last night before we went to bed was close the curtains to create a cave effect in the room this morning attempting to keep the room as dark as possible so we could sleep late. Well it worked. I woke up around 10:30 am and everyone else was just starting to stir around as well. Shasta and H-bomb went up to the lobby and fixed us a huge tray with breakfast and served the rest of us in bed. While eating we cut the TV on to find H-bomb¢s favorite show. MTV¢s top 20 videos of the week. To this point I have watched more MTV while on the trail than I have in years. Sounds funny but it¢s true. H-bomb is a music girl and wants her MTV just like the Dyer Straights song. After breakfast we had a group discussion and decided to take a zero day and stay around Hanover all day. We took our time getting ready then hitched a ride just outside town to a shopping area that had a L.L. Bean Outfitters, Easter Mountain Sports Outfitters, and an Italian restaurant called Lui Lui¢. The girl we hitched a ride with was on her way to work at Lui Lui¢s so we decided to eat lunch before doing any shopping. We entered and were seated right away to a long window front table. Being an Italian Restaurant our waitress brought us a basket of hot fresh garlic bread to enjoy while we placed our order. When the meals arrived to the table they were in hiker proportions. Huge bowls of pasta and draped with cheese. Typically when you eat at an Italian restaurant you have plenty to take home but not this time. We finished off every morsel and cleaned out bowls with the left over bread. We settled our tab and I went directly to the outfitters. I was in need of a new pair of shoes and EMS was the answer. I tried on just about every style shoe that they had on the shelf. I had been walking now for a couple of weeks in a pair of boots that just didn¢t fit correctly and didn¢t want to make the same mistake again. The selection was narrowed down to three styles and in all three styles they had my size. To add complication to the decisions in each pair I tried a pair Super Feet inner soles. Now the decision was which of the tree pairs would I choose and then would I go with the Super Feet or not. I walled around the store a good 10-15 minutes with each pair on before decided on a pair of Garmonts. These were the ones I needed and to top off the decision I through in a pair of Super Feet soles. Just in the time frame that I paid for the shoes and walked back out to the parking lot I knew these were going to be a lot better than the last pair that I had. Everyone finished up shopping and we hitched another ride from the shopping plaza parking lot back over to Hanover. Or ride let us out at the Hanover Consumer Food Co-op where we wanted to pick up a couple of items for tonight to munch on and also resupply for the next section of trail. The store was really unique and had a lot of natural food selections either packaged or in bulk. While shopping we ran into Donkey¢s mom and sister as they had come into town to pick him up and to spend some time with him. They are from the Boston area so it was a nice drive up to escape the city for the weekend. We finished resupplying and checked out at the cash registers with way too many supplies. We were going to have to do some eating before leaving town or our packs would be extremely heavy. We decided to walk from the Co-op back up Leganon Street through town to the bus stop so we could take all of our supplies back to the motel. On the way to the bus stop we noticed a lot of commotion in town and found out that there was going to be a huge wedding this afternoon. One of the family members that own Budweiser was getting married. We rushed to the room and back only to find that the Budweiser Clydesdales and Wagon was in town and carrying the groom and his bride through town to the reception at the Hanover Inn. People that were cheering and taking pictures of the precession as it made its way through town surrounded the streets. Come to find out all of the bars and pubs in town were only serving beer that had been freshly brewed that morning and had been shipped in for this special occasion. We took advantage as H-bomb, Shasta, Dirt, Yukon, The Jersey Boys, Miss Parkay, Jelly Bean, Bare Bear, and I went to the local pizzeria and pub there in town for pizza and beer. Jangles and Baro had split earlier and decided to catch a movie so unfortunately they missed out. We hitch a ride back to the room with a couple of local teenagers that by their driving abilities had only been driving a short time. We were blessed to make it to the motel in one piece. Jane and Baro gave us a call after their first movie let out to tell us that they were going to see Talladega Nights. It was starting in about 30 minutes and wanted to know if we wanted to join. I was all for it being from the Birmingham area the film was shot at the Talladega Super Speedway just a little ways from my house. Hot Springs picked us up and we got to see the best Ricky Bobby story we had ever seen. After some ¢shaking and backing¢ and ¢getting all jacked up on Mountain Dew¢ we called it a night and returned to the motel. Tonight in Hanover, NH: Jane, Shasta, H-Bomb, Baro, and I.