Date: 2011-07-12
From: Kellogg Road Bridge

To: Tyringham, MA
Miles today: 19.6

i woke up feeling rather refreshed and ready to rock some miles. i nipped next door to the local gas station for some first breakfast and fancy liquids. i grabbed two powerades and was told by the cashier that they were on special this month and used the line "buy two get three free". assuming that she had misspoken i grabbed a third powerade. she repeated her rehearsed line and i returned with a total of five powerades and only paid for two. how awesome... i shared my knowledge of the insane deal with everyone. one by one the hiking party took part in the powerade cause. the wee hotel fridge was beyond capacity. we took off a little hastily due to the discovery of a moistened trunk again. poor Tera was enduring day in, day out hiker antics in her poor car. upon arrival at the trail head Flowers realized that he neither had is phone or camera. the kids and i decided to start out without Flowers and wait for him along the path. the kids and i banged out a reasonable climb right off the bat. we decided that this would be a suitable overlook to chill and wait for Flowers since it was the first place with a breeze. the day was foolishly hot and humid, very hot and sweaty. Flowers rolled up within twenty minutes and we all clambered up the next hill against the ridiculous humidity. we took a few minutes at the shelter where we briefly joined by a group of section hikers. the terrain was fairly simple for the most part - climbs were short and not very severe. we were lucky to find a sweet lake for lunch. this location had a constant breeze coming off the water which also kept the bugs at bay. on one of the next climbs we were passed by a summer camp group of young teenage girls. it was evident that these girls were dragged out here against their will. we stopped to chat with them and since G-unit was the same age as most of them she became an instant celebrity. poor G-lock was pummeled with questions that only 15 year old girls could come up with. Flowers and i rather enjoyed the performance from the back of the crowd encircling the kids. today was another great success for Flowers as his new flora was in abundance. it was a good thing that he returned to grab his camera in the morning. we returned back to the hotel at a good hour where i bartered for another night as long as i could pay in cash. I'm cool with the undercover IRS scams that people can pull to help me out in my thru hike... we walked across the street for some lovely pizza at a great value. this may be the best pizza I've had while on the trail. this is where things got a little out of hand. not in the disorderly drunken sense that usually follows me when in town. this was to be blamed on young Havoc. this young lad has an irrational phobia of human food. i have a number of friends who are very selective and arguably picky when it comes to consumables. this boy is in a class of his own. he walked into the restaurant saying that he hates pizza and everything to do with it. after discovering that this was the best pizza for miles we offered him a small morsel. he accepted the trial offer as long as we removed the cheese. fair enough. Havoc placed the small bite sized piece of dough in his mouth and chewed once. he proceeded to spit it back out into a napkin. okay, he tried it, didn't like it, removed it. not finished. young Havoc decided to publicly vomit onto the table in the restaurant. i don't think I've ever seen this sort of action in this sort of setting before. this lad got both hands involved and filtered all regurgitated material through his fingers. again, a sight i had not seen before. the confused boy had to be guided to the restroom to clean up. luckily the waitress had not seen the disaster that just occurred at our table, so we covered things up with plates and napkins. we left in a sly and rapid manner. Flowers and i realized that we had not had any adult beverages within 24 hours, so we went back to the brewery to refill the growler from last night. Young Havoc was a bit embarrassed to say the least, but feeling fine other than that. all in all this was a rather amusing evening which lead into a few cold brews for flowers and i.