Today’s Miles: ZERO
So, today wasn’t supposed to be a zero-but man am I glad it was! We all woke up early, and packed up with all of the intentions of hiking out of town.. and then someone randomly says, “uh guys? Should we zero?” I’m pretty sure it was Firefly. I was immediately in. Everyone else agreed too, but to help save money, we decided to go to the free park for tonight. Awesome.
We took our time and walked over to the park, explored every inch of it, and then decided where we’d set up our tents when nighttime came. There was a lot of hanging out, reading, writing up these posts, relaxing.. you know, typical zero day things. Once evening hit, I decided to walk to the Italian restaurant in town that has excellent reviews. I’m still a sucker for some mushroom risotto after all.
Everyone was dressed so nice, and here I am with my holy hiking shirt and sandals. Yikes. They probably didn’t want to sit me outside and have me be the face of the restaurant as customers walked up, but too bad-I wanted the view. I sat down and ordered a glass of wine, a caprese salad, and the mushroom risotto. As I was sipping my wine and munching on the free focaccia bread (getting ready to ask for more) the hostess walks up with some man all dressed up.
She smiles at me, he looks confused, and clearly I am too. He can immediately tell I am not dressed for a first date and do not look ready to share my table.. come to find out, his gorgeously dressed date was seated at a table inside! Ha! He and the hostess apologized and the relief that washed over him was visible! How hysterical!
I finished my meal and walked back to the park. Everyone was just starting to decide where to set up their tents, so I joined in. Before long, the entire grass was covered in tents, and most weren’t even CDT hikers, although many were. We chatted and hung out before all settling into our mosquito free beds for the night. I’d say today was an excellent zero day! Goodnight, yall!