Day 18 was Monday, March 30th and was pretty relaxed.
I woke last night at 1030pm to realize it was still Sunday night and that the The Walking Dead season 5 finale had already aired! Fortunately, I knew that AMC airs an encore showing of each episode. I stayed up long enough to watch. I’d been keeping up with the shows episodes via Google Play since starting my hiking trip. After I watched, it was back to sleep!
In the morning I had coffee and breakfast downstairs. While talking to a day hiker, I learned that the National Forest’s service roads would re-open on April 1st. That meant I could modify my return-to-trail plans. By staying an extra day and waiting until April 1st to return, I could avoid the extra hiking on the forest service road back to the A.T. This would save me an extra six miles of pointless hiking that didn’t count. Plus it would give me extra time to spend with Jim.
So, to do something useful this day, I tried to do laundry. I went to the front desk to get change and laundry detergent. Arriving on the second floor where guest laundry resides, I saw a sign stating: “Warning!!! This washer uses HOT water only!!!” Great. I cannot wash my hiking clothes in hot water, as it would destroy them. They are all made of polyester, nylon, wool, merino wool and all need cold water only. I briefly thought about using my bathtub to perform a manual hand washing, but deferred to tomorrow since Jim would be here and could take me to a laundry mat.
Regarding Jim, per the most recent communication, he was due to arrive somewhere around 4pm. So, during the afternoon, I took the time to start bringing my neglected blog up to date. I replied to a bunch of comments and also wrote the Day 16 post about bailing out. Trust me that having a couple days’ perspective made it much easier to write. Being occupied with writing, lunch got away from me, excepting a few snacks. After finishing that post, it was now 5:30pm and there was still no sign of Jim.
After twiddling my thumbs and watching some really bad TV for a while, the clock now read 730pm. Just as I was about to give up hope of a dinner outing with Jim, and have a microwave dinner instead, Jim finally pulled into the parking lot.
I went down to say “hi” as he checked in. We made arrangements to have dinner after he got settled in to his room. Finally at 8pm, with Jim exhausted from his drive, I drove us over to Shoneys where we had dinner. I enjoyed a trip to the salad bar and a main course of baked spaghetti with garlic bread. It was good, but the salad was the real highlight. Ever since hitting the trail, I crave vegetables like a mad man. Not that I ever hated salads and vegetables, but out here they are WAY tastier!
Following dinner we returned to our rooms and said goodnight, agreeing to meet for coffee in the morning.
With a full belly, sleep was close at hand…
Wandering on…
Kelly