8/04/01
The master plan today was to leave Hanover and start hiking again. The beauty of the trail is the flexibility to change plans! For the third morning in a row we went to Lou's for breakfast. The place was jam packed, so Finn stood in line for us while we ran errands (Redneck, Phantom and I). Soon we were chowing down at the best breakfast place on the trail so far. The guys still had errands to run and the town was holding their annual Shriner's parade and football game. The town was overrun with people lining the streets getting ready for the parade. To escape the crowd I headed back to Tabard and attempted journaling between interruptions of conversation from other thru-hikers. Green Light arrived in town mid-afternoon and we were all excited to see him since our last time together was in Pennsylvania. I was determined to leave town, but my compatriots were highly unmotivated to leave as the afternoon wore on. We ordered pizza to be delivered to the frat house and watched The Negotiator as a group. Finally Priceless and I put on our packs around 5 pm and told the guys we were leaving town to go to the first shelter only a mile north of town. I was only half serious about leaving without the other members of the fab four and my strategy was to get them motivated to leave as well.
Priceless and I got as far as the Ben and Jerry's, which is right on the AT as you leave town. We stopped for yet another free White Blaze milkshake, my third one since arriving in Hanover. While there we decided to go back to the frat house to see if the guys were packing up. No such luck. We found them in the center of town sitting on a couple of benches admiring the college coeds walking by. So I got sucked in for another night. The gang was going nowhere! From downtown we went to the student union on campus where Priceless said he had seen a nightclub. In actuality it was a small tavern where two students performed live on guitar and piano. Priceless, Phantom, Redneck, Finn, Green Light and I spent an hour and a half there before going back to Tabard frat house for the night. Another round of beer pong was played and I snuck off to the TV room to go to sleep while the game was still in progress. Three zero days in a row. It was lots of good fun, but time to get back on the trail.
