Knowing only a handful of miles were going to be done today, we went out to breakfast. We took the bikes down for a little ride to Dalton's Restaurant and I got an omelette. On the way back Lynn needed cash so we stopped at the drive through ATM...on bikes. Once we got back, all of our stuff was soaked from the condensation of camping on the lawn, great. Back to square one, I took off the rainfly and hung it over my poles and set my tent on it's side. Luckily it was a little windy and sunny, and it ended up drying rather quickly. Tom left to drop someone off and he nearly ran over my whole pack, luckily it was just the base and nothing was in there yet and I caught it just in time to tell him to stop and pull up. Hopefully the frame and internals are ok. As we were about to head out, a white van pulled up with Casper on the side; how creepy. He got to talking to a group of us and one thing lead to another and we were offered to slack pack for free. Uh, yes! Rob said he would drop our packs off at the church that we planned to stay at that night and we could take daypacks that he had. I decided it was short enough that I wasn't going to take a pack; just my Smartwater bottle, trekking poles, and phone. We had a bit of a road town walk so Lynn stopped in the Cumberland Farms to get a coffee. Nothing hard about hiking with a coffee kind of day. The walk was super easy especially with nothing on my back. We knew a thunderstorm was in the area and wanted to get back before that hit, though it wouldn't be that bad since we were slacking. We got down to the road just in time and found a little ice cream shop where I got a moosetrack milkshake. Rob pulled up in the van and it started to sprinkle so we waited and drank our milkshakes on the front steps. The rain didn't stop so he drove us up the road to the church. Once we talked with Rob in the van for quite some time, he had to leave to pick the others up so we went inside. It was just a giant room full of tables and chairs, a stage, and two separate rooms within. Lynn decided to sleep in one of the rooms so I set up my tent in the big main room by the window. Our maildrop was also sent here so I opened that up and started to organize, realizing that I had way too much food again. It was Wednesday and we were getting picked up on Sunday. The rain got louder crashing on the roof and as I walked over to the window in the room Lynn was staying in, I realized it was hail! I went outside to watch dime size ice balls fall from the sky. It was like someone was dumping marbles all over the parking lot, they would fall down and bounce all around. The amount increased and so did the size. It was the most wild hail storm I had seen and it was August! We took all kinds of photos and videos and within 30 minutes it was over. I washed up a little in the bathroom sink and was thankful there was at least a bathroom even though we didn't get showers. I was bummed that Tumbles and Yeti were staying at Rob's campground and wouldn't be at the church tonight, the other guys showed up; Ginja Ninja, Break Time, and 10:46. We decided to all go to dinner at Bass Water Grill .9 down the road, and we walked it. It felt kind of weird just leaving all of my possessions behind in an unlocked, unsupervised building, but it was a church after all. The food was really good, Lynn and I shared an eggplant pasta dish, and a burger, and I got a Sam Summer. We did the usual, where are you from, how did you get your name, what do you eat on the trail, how heavy is your pack, etc. After, we walked back to our church home for the night and two of the guys decided to set up their sleeping bags on the same side of the room as me. This huge room and we have to be all in a line? Break Time set up behind the stage. I didn't go as far as putting on my rainfly but I did sleep in my tent, I like the security of having my space around me, sure is weird to fall asleep to the ceiling of a building though.
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