The curtains were pulled open and the sun shone in, at least it was almost 8:00. Lynn was ready to get on the trail, and after looking at the time, I got up too. We swung by McDonalds so she could get a hearty healthy breakfast and off to Pickham Notch we went. It's funny, when we pulled in I knew I had been here before. This was where we started our Mt. Washington trek hence why I was not hiking it again. There was an epic hand painted Volkswagen bus in the parking lot that made me quite jealous. It was a gorgeous sight. We went into the visitors center real quick, and then she was off. I somewhat know what my Papa feels like now just dropping someone off and saying; well, good luck! See you soon, hopefully. From there I went back into town to meet the guys for breakfast, it was Tumbles, Yeti, and Karate Kid. I got a veggie omelette with ham and it was giant...but I ate it all. After breakfast I picked up the boys in the room to take them to Walmart, the perks of having a car- thank you James! Senator, Tumbles, Yeti, Breaktime, and I dominated Walmart. We got back to the motel and there were two thru hikers looking to get dropped off at the trailhead, and even though I had a lot of blogging to catch up on; I brought them. Yetti came along for the ride and luckily it was only about a 10-15 minute drive. When we got back, I went in my room to prepare some Redds in my JetBoil for the pool, and gather some snacks. It is a gorgeous day to be poolside and the topic of choice at the moment is how good a JetBoil works as an amplifier for phone speakers. The rest of the afternoon consisted of hot tub talk, Senator serving us Brie, crackers, and peaches on a frisbee platter, beer, and eventually grabbing vampire Tumbles for lunch. We drove over to an Italian market and all got fabulous paninis, I know this because I tried 3 of the 5 options. Our sandwiches were cut in 4 triangles so Yetti and I traded a triangle, and so did Tumbles and I. It was a great colaboration spread and everything was delicious. We swung by the post office to drop off Tumbles to send back his old pack and then hit up the park for some brews and frisbee. I tried to catch up on my blog while the guys played. Yetti said he would come with me to get Lynn so we had to leave no later that 4:45. Breaktime and Yetti scored a soccer ball from the girls team practicing until we had to get going. We dropped off Breaktime and Senator and off we headed for Mount Washington. When we got to the toll I explained how I was here yesterday picking up a thruhiker and was again today-he had no mercy. And it cost extra for a passenger. Lynn said she wouldn't get to the top before 6:00 so we stopped at one of the brake check views and parked. We sat and talked about a lot of things, it's very easy for Yetti and I to talk which is a comforting feeling. Some things we talked about were real, and others were more felt than put into words. I will always cherish this time we had and the two photos below will always represent that time. The original plan for the photo was to stand on top of Jame's car with the "this car climbed Mount Washington" sticker; however I am silhouetted. The wind was so strong I almost was blown over, my legs were spread and as firm as possible to hold me upright. The photo was a bust for reading the sticker, but is even more meaningful to me for what it stands for. We drove to the top just before 6:00 and she was no where in sight, not again. I started to panic since we only had 15 minutes. I went downstairs and the woman recognized me from yesterday, I looked everywhere and soon Yetti and I were the only ones up there. The guard told us we had 10 minutes to start heading down, we explained how we were waiting for a thruhiker who was slackpacking and didn't have full gear; his response, she's a thruhiker, she must be tough. Yeah, maybe if she had the right gear to be out all night. Yetti asked for 10 more minutes and he said 5, wow this guy won't budge. The couple I gave a ride to this morning was up here and I would be giving them a ride back down as well. The clouds rolled in real quick and Yetti ran up one more time to yell her name, luckily I looked up and saw both of them! I told her I was going to tell her children she was fine, and then kill her for giving me such a scare! We all piled into the Jeep and started our drive down, he followed. I had told him how my brakes get hot so I stop at the brake spots. The first time I pulled over he got out and checked them and in a authoritative voice said, they're not even hot your fine. I explained how I did this yesterday and I smelled them so I am just trying to be safe, if my brakes go and we crash it's on you. Why he was being such a pain in the ass is beyond me, but there was no need to act like that towards us when I was just trying to be safe. From there on I stopped every chance I could, he told me how my back rear felt hot, "yeah, I know." We made it to the bottom and on the way back to the motel found Ireland on the side of the road; we packed him in too. Triple P was exhausted and needed a bath and some down time; the guys and I went to dinner at the pub again. It was a little bit of a wait and the guys all sat at the bar while Yetti and I sat on the window sill talking and waiting. It seems we always get in a deep conversation and then it is cut short, our table was ready. We got our own seperate room and that is probably for good reason. The majority of us got the Moroccan chicken and it was great. Ireland brought some whiskey that was passed around until gone, skipping me of course since I was driving these hooligans. When the bottle was gone it was put in his jacket, or so he thought. The waiter came over; held up the bottle and asked "should I throw this out, or recycle?" Oh shit! We laughed for 10 minutes. Senator got a bottle of wine which I did end up having a glass of, it was quite good. I couldn't have asked for a better night at dinner with a better crowd. There was a known storm coming in tomorrow and a lot of us were on the fence about another zero. I knew Lynn would appreciate it, and I wasn't about to hike in the rain. We all gave our thumbs up or down to a zero and the thumbs up own across the board. It's final, we'll be staying another night! They finished the meal off with coffees and baileys and then we brought Triple P her burger to go. What we didn't know was she was already in bed. I brought the guys for a gas station beer run and was blocked in by a logging truck. When we got back we hit up the hot tub for awhile until we were given the 30 minute to closing warning. From there I sat in a lounge chair out front for awhile until Yetti, Senator and I decided to go find Breaktime. He had gone on a walk an hour before and we sought out to find him. Only to our surprise he was a road over siting in someone's front lawn, we joined him. We sat for about 30 minutes before we decided to head back. Yetti and Senator went in to bed and Breaktime and I sat out front talking for an hour or so. It got pretty cold so I went in and called it a night.
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