Date: 2015-07-18
From: Winhall River

To: Red Sled Motel, Manchester
Miles today: 8.7

I am watching Netflix right now. That's right. Netflix.I am laying in a real bed. With a mattress. I am clean and my belly is (too) full and I am barely awake. It is like bliss.Right after I got in my tent last night, it started to rain. Yayyyy!No big deal, though. Because I knew that I would be heading into town in the morning, and could dry out.I was excited about heading into town. Town means food and clean laundry and a shower. Wonderful, amazing things.I got up early so that I could hike into town early so that I would have ALL DAY to get my chores done and then have time to relax and be lazy. This is always my goal for town days. It is never successful!After packing up my wet tent and stopping on my way north to let my bear bag loose, I hiked and hiked and hiked! Actually, I took it easy because it was my lazy day and the trail was easy. It was wonderful. The rain had mostly stopped, but the humidity was oppressive and I was Sweaty Red Panda in no time.I stopped at Prospect Rock to see the view (of clouds, of course...) and found Mama Bear brushing her hair while the kids continued to snooze. "Maybe I'll see you in town!" I said as I waved goodbye.As I hiked, my phone pinged. In had taken it out of airplane mode to see if I could get any missed messages. I was paranoid that the motel might somehow boot me out, since I had only left my first name with them. Reasonable worry? Probably not. But I am a worrier by nature, and worry I do.I had messages from mom and Team MoCo.First, mom. This is a longish story. When the Aussie Legs were hiking the detour in Falls Village, they found a cell phone on the road. Trying to be the awesome people that they are, they decided to contact the owner so that they could return the phone.But they had some trouble. They had picked up the phone but didn't have service where they found it, so they hiked on, continuing into the woods. When they did have service and contacted the owner, the person wanted them to return the phone to where they had picked it up... back down the trail! Then they asked them to mail the phone... super inconvenient for a hiker. You have to get into town on a day and during the hours that the post office is open, and, of course, FIND the post office.Anyway, during the hiker slumber party I offered to mail the phone for them, since I had a week of slackpacking planned. They were hilarious, wiping their fingerprints off it in paranoia that the police would come after them for "stealing" the phone and deport them back to Australia. "Send it cash on delivery!" they said, angry about the inconvenience.And so, last Friday, I finally got to the post office. I couldn't send it cash on delivery but it was cheap enough, so no big deal.Whoever the owner is, they sent back $100 as a reward. Maybe they regretted being so difficult in the first place.When I messaged the Aussies to let me know the best way to get the money to them, they said, "You mailed it for us so you keep it! Use it to sleep in a nice hotel room sometime on the trail."I am surprised that there is any of my heart left to melt, but melt it did. I feel guilty about it. They are the ones who went through the most trouble. Hopefully I catch up to them before Katahdin so I can make it up to them.Then, texts from Team MoCo (Coco and Magnus). I have been trying to catch up to them, slowly, since I took so many days off for wedding weekend (beyond amazing). I knew they were all taking time off with Chris's parents, but...They took way more time off than they said they would! Coco and Magnus are now 10-15 miles behind me! And Chris is 20 miles behind them! WHAT IS GOING ON?!The come and go and flow of the trail is so confusing.I got a ride into town today, stopped by Price Chopper because I was STARVING (it was past midmorning snack time), and loaded up the child seat of my shopping cart since Gertrude took up the rest of it. I had to be careful not to ram a little old lady doing her shopping as I wheeled around the aisles in search of delicious things. Of course, I got carried away I bought way too much food.The plan was to buy snacksI also planned, of course, on ordering pizza for dinner, as is tradition. At one point this morning, as I was stalking hungrily down the trail, I was ACTUALLY chanting to myself, "Pizza, pizza, pizza, pizza." I had planned half my day around pizza. BBQ pizza is my favorite now, but I had done online research and the pizza place in town, which would deliver to the motel, didn't have BBQ, so I bought a bottle of sauce at the supermarket so I could smear it all over my pizza later. Yes, I realize that is weird. But I am like a pregnant lady with my hunger and cravings and big, round tummy.My plans got ruined, of course.After the supermarket, I picked up my mail drop at the outfitter. As I was collecting Gertrude and my poles, I heard, "Red Panda?"Crossing the street behind me was... FUNK! Yay! He was with Next Time, who I have never met before, but who apparently met my dad when he was dropping off trail magic in Tyringham.Funk said that he had taken some time off and is feeling better, that his worries about Lyme were just mental. We all just seem to be hitting that wall. After some rest, most of us seem to be doing better.I had breakfast (I mean, third breakfast... I had a nice large snack upon departing the supermarket) with them. Amazingly amazing blueberry pancakes. Toast. Chocolate milk. Eggs. I couldn't even eat it all (I mean, I COULD, but resisted in an attempt to save room for pizza...) and Funk had to finish my eggs and potatoes for me.Even though I didn't finish breakfast, it was painfully clear at this point that I had WAY TOO MUCH food, and was going to have to skip my pizza. It is a sad day for Red Panda. My streak has been broken. I ended up eating some of my barbeque sauce on tortilla chips like the barbarian I am (don't judge me!) because I would have felt like I totally wasted the two dollars I spent on the bottle if I didn't even open it.I am losing a little more of my sanity every day out here. Could you tell?We'd had to wait a long time to get a table at Up For Breakfast (cute because it is on the second floor), which was very busy and popular, I am sure because the food was so fantastic. So by the time we left, I was ready to head straight for my motel.When I arrived at the Red Sled Motel, the very jolly proprietor, who was bustling around doing chores with a towel around his neck, told me that they only had four hiker rooms, and they were all full. Also, it cost $9 for laundry. I had stupidly, mistakenly assumed that it would be coin-op. $9 for laundry is ridiculous, even if they did do it for me.The cost of my stay had skyrocketed. What had happened to the $70 room that my guidebook promised? I was looking at closer to $90 now. Dan would be screaming, "It's worth it!" But my bank account was screaming, "If you actually end up slowing down, you can't afford this!"But what could I do? It would waste my precious lazy time to try to find a different place to stay. And then I would have to try to figure out how to GET to that different place. I shrugged it off sadly and gave in.I immediately spread my gear ALL OVER the room, letting everything, which was damp (seriously everything is always wet) air out. Then, so I could drop off my nasty, smelly clothes to be laundered, I took a wonderful hot shower, scrubbing away six days worth of sweat and mud and just gross.As I was perusing my Netflix choices, the phone rang. The proprietor asked if I would mind changing rooms. I glanced around at my mess. You would be amazed how much stuff really ends up crammed in my pack. Plus I had my mail drop, which I was halfway through sorting, spread all over the bed. Also, my extra groceries.It was like a war zone. I dreaded the idea of relocating all of my gear and food and clothes and snacks and pages and shoes and EVERYTHING. But, again, I shrugged it off and said "Sure."I haphazardly shoved as much as I could in Gertrude. I stuffed my mess back into my mail drop box. I crammed my tent, still wet, back into the bag. Loaded up, I carried my first load of stuff to my new room. As I returned to pick up the rest of my stuff, the phone started to ring again.He asked me to move AGAIN! I was like (in my head), "Are you kidding me?! I have to haul all this junk around again?!" You would think that it wouldn't bother me, since I haul all my stuff around all day. It was disorganized and took two or three trips to move, though. And I just wanted to lay down and watch TV!But this time, it was a little different. Down at the end of the motel is a house, where John (jolly proprietor man) and his wife live. If I was willing to stay in the house, where I would still have my own room and bathroom, they would refund me $50.An opportunity to save money?! SOLD. I have slept in super bizarre places. As long as I had a bed, I was happy. Maybe this sudden influx of economic cushion is the AT's way of telling me to extend the adventure.So I relocated AGAIN to what used to be one of their children's bedrooms. I have a bed. And a TV. And running water. I am quite content. As long as I got a shower and laundry, and had a place to charge my phone, I would be happy. I would've tented out back, I don't care.I moved into the old bedroom of one of the couple's children. And they are so nice! They are from England and have sweet accents and are the friendliest hotel owners I have ever met. They offered me a burger, and ice cream (I had to politely deny both... and I still have too much food. My tummy is aching. I will never learn.) They told me to air out my tent wherever I want. They let me bring my muddy boots in their house. They scrubbed the little bathroom and brought me a little TV dinner table.I spent the rest of the day snacking and doing chores (SO MANY CHORES) and snacking some more. I haven't been able to watch as much Netflix as I wanted but anything is better than nothing. My stomach is full and I am ready for sleep. I don't even know what I am doing tomorrow. I'll figure it out whenever I wake up. If I wake up.I am thankful for this super comfortable bed, for my amazing breakfast with amazing people, and this cute motel. I am thankful to know that Funk is okay and back on the trail. I am thankful to have met Next Year (he even bought me breakfast!) I am thankful for my life. I am thankful for a short break. I am thankful that mom and Dan may visit me again in two weeks!Most of all, I am thankful that I continue to be the luckiest girl on the trail. Here's to more adventure!