Welp. Sleeping on the couch in the common area meant being woken up before 7am. These hikers man. And not a single one of them hiked out today. That makes it slightly more annoying than it probably should. Whatever, I’m a grump in the morning, I’m semi working on it.
Once it hit 8am, the lights were on and talking was loud. I laid in my sleeping bag and wrote out yesterday’s blog entry. Once everyone was up and ready, Cholula, Curmudgeon, Lizard and I were getting ready to head to the bakery for breakfast. Just then, Derby walked in soaked to the bone. He hiked 7 miles down from the shelter super dang fast. He said he was so cold in the shelter last night that he regretted not coming to the hostel. Instead of showering and getting warm, he and FeatherFoot came to the bakery too.
The bakery was amazing! I had an egg and cheese sandwich and coffee.. and an apple cinnamon donut, or two (I may have wished I had a third, they were damn good). We had to eat it outside under a canopy to protect us from the rain.. worth every second of the cold to be able to enjoy the sandwich while it was hot.
Derby and FeatherFoot left us while we walked down to the other hotel in town to do laundry. There’s something sort of peaceful about sitting in a room waiting on your clothes to wash. At home, you pop it in and carry on.. on the trail-you have to wait it out. The four of us talked and stretched and downloaded things to our phones to entertain us when we’re on trail.
We all just hung out at the hostel for the rest of the day, talking with other hikers, cleaning up cooking pots and bowls, taking out trash. Lizard and Cholula and Curmudgeon got rooms at the hotel next door for tonight and tomorrow night, I was late to the game and could only get a room for tomorrow night, but all of us, including Lizard’s girlfriend, Hannah-who gets here this afternoon, are eating dinner and listening to live jazz there this evening. Lizard has seemed extra happy all day today, I know she’s got to be excited to see Hannah for a couple days.
Sometime after 3, the three of them head over to the hotel and I stayed and hung out with the folks at the hostel. The second it hit 4:45 I happily walked over to the hotel’s restaurant and got a seat at the bar. The jazz singer started up around 5:15, and Murph (another hiker) was seated to my left and the 2 seats to my right were saved for Lizard and Hannah. Curmy and Cholula got a table reserved right up front from the singer, to celebrate his birthday. It was a pretty sweet set up.
I had a bottle of red wine, which was amazing, some baked Brie with berries on top served with pita bread, and then salmon with risotto and veggies for my meal. Each thing was better than the one before. Tonight’s meal definitely trumped all other meals on trail.. hands down. We all stayed there talking at the bar well after the jazz music was done. it was a great night.
I walked back to the hostel and tiptoed inside. It was well past hiker midnight and everyone was either in bed or actively getting into bed, so I did the same. Now, let’s all pray that I actually get to sleep in, just a little, in the morning. These early risers wear me out! Lol
Ps: sorry for the lack of pictures today, I was enjoying the company and forgot to take hardly any at all!
You are amazing in all the things you do, but, just a reminder, you will never be a wake-up happy go lucky kinda girl, you are definitely mine. Wake up and be quiet, have coffee and then maybe just maybe, talk and not be grumpy. I love you so much, keep on keeping on my sweet girl!