7/26/01
Overnight a cool steady rain started which cooled off the warm corner room on the third floor of the English Inn. After an hour of coughing between 12 and 1 a.m. (my new routine) I was ready to sleep in and the overcast rainy morning provided the perfect opportunity. Last night's coughing session actually provided an opportunity to have a lively conversation with one of the long term boarders at the Inn. As I sat coughing and reading the paper in the first floor kitchen, one of the chefs (I can't remember his name) entered the kitchen. So we sat and talked about the restaurant industry and the life of a chef. Since cooking is one of my hobbies I asked a lot of questions and thoroughly enjoyed the conversation. I was the last thru-hiker to get up, rolling out of bed around 10:30 a.m. Everyone else was downstairs playing the piano, reading, or admiring the house. Since Sarah was scheduled to take us back to town or the trail at 12:30 I spent the balance of my time at the Inn journaling and writing postcards to friends and family back home. At 12:30 we all piled into two vehicles and collectively decided to go back to town (with the exception of Sobo Terry). Sarah told us she would drive us back to the trail when we were all ready, so Beatle, Sara, Redneck, Finn and I all agreed to meet at Friendlys at 2 p.m. I quickly left the group and found a barber shop in town. The gentleman who cut my hair must have been alive during the Civil War! He was so old I was afraid he might pass away during the haircut. For $9.00 he did a reasonable job giving me a semi-marine cut which should last me to Maine.
Then with a little time to spare, I stopped at McDonalds, then the convenience store for, you guessed it, a pint of Ben and Jerry's ice cream. As I was walking down the street eating my ice cream and heading toward the group meeting point, I heard a woman calling out to someone on the sidewalk. I thought she was speaking to the women in front of me so I stepped aside. Soon she caught up and I realized that it was Phantom's mom. I hadn't seen her since the day I met her walking southbound on the AT near the Pennsylvania/Maryland border when she and her mother were meeting Phantom there. We exchanged a hug, then Carisa (Phantom's girlfriend) and stepfather Al caught up to us. Carisa had recognized me from the website photos as I walked down the street. We talked for a few minutes and I got an update on Phantom's return to the trail as well as an update on some thru-hikers behind us that Phantom had seen while taking his time off the trail. It was great to see Phantom's family and I wish we could have talked longer but they had a long drive back to Indiana and I was late getting back to the group.
Inside Friendlys, a very stuffed but content group of thru-hikers sat waiting for their check so they could pay. Beatle still had a couple of errands to run, so it was nearly 3 p.m. when Ed (Sarah's co-worker) picked us all up and we piled in his truck (along with Ryan who joined us) and we returned to the trail. Ryan stopped to camp at the Bromley tenting area, only .8 mile up the trail but the rest of us hiked to the Bromley Mtn. summit where we all planned to sleep in the ski patrol warming room next to the observation deck and chair lift. It was a beautiful, but cold late afternoon and evening as we all explored the summit ski area and settled in inside the warming room. I was very happy to be inside a room with four walls out of the stiff wind blowing about 30 mph outside. We all went up on the observation deck after dinner to watch sunset, then hurriedly returned to the warm room for the night. Sleeping inside the room for the night were Finn, Redneck, Beatle and Sara, northbound section hiker Seven Year Plan and me. Braving the cold in his winter bag just outside the warming room was Nobo thru-hiker Stray Cat who we just met this afternoon. Ah yes, it was great to be back on the trail and I am confident that Phantom will catch up soon. Today's stats: low 62, high 78. Rainy morning, then clear to partly sunny skies and windy. Today's mileage: 2.8; cumulative mileage: 1634.9.
