Breakfast! Grits with cheese and fresh vegetables from the garden, eggs from the chickens we watched all afternoon, bananas, and cinnamon rolls that were to die for. Plus seconds. It was too much, but in a good way.
The day began with relaxing on the porch, overeating, and cleaning up after ourselves. Tapeworm and Mr. Fantastic got massages and were in heaven. The whole experience at Wood's Hole was almost too nice, and none of us really wanted to leave.
It took us until 1pm to set out, but we were taken care of by a couple of section hikers who were there. They had a car and shuttled our backpacks to the Plaza Motel, where we planned to stay. That makes today our first official experience as slack-packers.
Everyone else got a ride into town, but Mr. Fantastic and I are purists and insist on hiking each and every mile. It rarely feels good to be a purist, but so long as we finish the trail it'll all be worth it in the end.
The 10 mile hike into town was surprisingly tough, even without backpacks. It was very rocky with a massive descent, and we were both quite grateful for the diminished weight. There were a couple of nice views, but otherwise it was just challenge pure and simple.
Once at the road we walked over to Hardee's and had a great, greasy, post-hike meal. Another block brought us to our planned party motel. Most people had already arrived, and they had no vacancy left. Thankfully Goose let us move in with him for the night, and he happened to be next door to the party room.
After a few hours of showers and tv, people finally got into gear and we headed across the street to the Mexican restaurant. Stonechair's farewell bash was attended by Meta, Dick Flap, Tapeworm, Goose, Rowan, Cadence, Suds, Ulysses, Hoppel, Shenanigans, Wendigo, Mr. Fantastic, and myself. We filled the restaurant's bar, dominated the pool table, and owned the juke box for the entirety of our stay. We of course closed the place down, but when last call is at 10pm is doesn't take a lot of effort.
Back at the hotel the cases of beer came out, and everyone started getting loud, inside voices abandoned. This is of course the point of the night when we get complaint phone calls, so I'm going to take this chance to watch the Game of Thrones finale, and rest up for possibly 19 miles of hard terrain tomorrow. It may not be the best planning, but this trip isn't about planning, and we have to send our fellow hiker off in style. So long as we don't get kicked out, tonight was a raucous success.
