ECT Day 207&208

IAT Day 38&39

Day 207: zero day

This morning we all slept in super late at the room. When I finally got up and ready it was around 9:40am and the continental breakfast was about to end. So we headed over quickly to grab some food before it was over. I made a bagel, a mocha, and had some cereal.

Then we headed back to the room and all got into bed once again. We’re all being super lazy during our time off, as you might imagine. For the next couple of hours, I wound up mostly just writing. I got all caught up on my blogging which was great. It’s been a hard thing to maintain over these last 200+ days of thru hiking. But I’m proud that I’ve done it! I’m grateful for the memories and little details that I now will have forever.

Around 3pm I finally finished up writing and I had a little snack at the room. We have all been in bed for literally the entire day. And sadly, my shoes still have no arrived! The USPS shipping hasn’t updated either which is pretty annoying. I’ve been getting daily updates up until today. I’m worried that we might have to take the day tomorrow too waiting for my shoes.

I feel bad making Trucker and Sparkle wait too. But we kind of knew that this was going to happen. All of us only mailed our boxes out last Monday, which was literally just 8 days ago now. My hope is that maybe the shoes arrive before the end of the day today. If not, we might just wind up zeroing again tomorrow. Then we still have to spend a day traveling to Prince Edward Island afterwards. I guess we’ll see what winds up happening.

After hanging out at the room all afternoon we finally decided to do something. So we all got ready and walked down the street to the brewery to get lunch. I got a pulled pork Mac n cheese which was unbelievably good. We ate and hung out there for a while before heading back.

But the brewery was right across the street from a Tim Hortons, so we couldn’t resist stopping there too. Between the three of us we got about 20 donuts. Then went back to the motel to feast and resume our lounging. We laid in bed and stuffed our faces with donuts. I had a sour cream which is one of my favorites.

All of us watched TV and did our own thing for a while. Later on, we decided to watch a movie all together. The three of us laid in one queen bed and watched it on Trucker’s phone because he had it downloaded. The TV in the room only had a handful of channels to watch so we made do!

By 9pm we were all still up just laying around doing a whole lot of nothing. My shoes never came today which is so upsetting. I really hope they arrive first thing in the morning tomorrow. But if they don’t, we may wind up having to kill a whole other day here in Campbellton.

Day 208: zero day

This morning I woke up around 8am to the sound of the phone ringing in our room. Apparently, my shoes had arrived! That was so exciting. We still missed our opportunity to take the 8/9am bus to Prince Edward Island today but at least we can take it tomorrow morning.

When Trucker went down to grab the box from the front desk though he came back with just a slip. Apparently, I owed additional money for the box going through customs. So I had to go down to the post office and pay the remaining balance before I could pick up the box. I’m shocked that the $45 it cost my mom to ship them didn’t cover the additional taxes and fees in Canada.

I got ready and Trucker and I walked down to the post office together. It wasn’t particularly far from our hotel which was nice. I paid the remaining balance which cost even more than the shipping had. Then they gave me my shoes! I would not recommend having anything shipped to Canada if you’re going to hike the IAT. But shoes weren’t optional for us. We have all been wearing our shoes for about 800 miles. It was time for new ones. And I don’t really want to try my luck with some random brand of shoes here in Canada.

My last pair of topos were from all the way back at Shaw’s Hiker Hostel in Monson, ME. I’ve put about 850 miles on them since then which is crazy to think about. I’m glad that my mom was able to ship me a pair to New Brunswick though. Hopefully this pair will get me through the rest of Canada! We still have about 90 miles in Prince Edward Island, 300 or so in Nova Scotia, and 400 or so in Newfoundland. One pair of topos should do the job.

Sparkles and I in our new shoes!

After I got my shoes, we headed back to the room to chill out. I had a splitting headache and took some excedrine to hopefully calm it down. Today I got my period for the first time in 2-3 months, and it definitely had me feeling a little off. I really haven’t had one much while I’ve been on trail, likely due to the caloric deficit and all the weight loss.

I laid in bed for a long time after that watching TV and writing my blog. This is our last lazy day before we travel to Prince Edward Island and hammer out the rest of Canada! Winter is coming, so we have to get moving. We all wound up lounging in the room until 3pm. Then decided to move our bodies a little and walk down the street. We went to a sushi place and sat down for lunch. It was just two younger kids working so the food took a while, but it was really good.

Then we walked back to towards the hotel. Along the way we stopped off to get any last food and drink that we would want for our bus ride tomorrow. It’s gonna take basically all day to get over to Prince Edward Island. I grabbed some new water bottles because I finally threw out my old moldy ones. That’s a classic hiker trash move right there. Keeping the bottles for so long, until one day you actually look at them and realize how nasty they are.

Back at the room I wound up sitting outside and making some phone calls. Then I got back into bed to relax for the rest of the day. Some crime show was on TV, so we watched that for a while. Then we all finally went to bed once it was pretty late. Tomorrow we’re taking a relatively early bus from Campbellton, NB to Prince Edward Island.