Pie, Puppies, and Toaster Houses

This morning we had gotten to the Toaster House around 5:30am. Then were luckily able to get into a room and go straight to bed. I managed to sleep for a little while, but not continuously. Then around 10:30am we had to get up to do our town chores. The post office closed at noon and we had to go to pick up our resupply boxes.

This morning my eyes were blood shot and I felt so delirious.

The post office in this town has very strange hours. It’s only open for about four hours a day five days a week. Luckily we knew about this and we planned around it as well. Sparkle and I were absolutely delirious this morning when we were leaving the house. We walked over to the post office and got our boxes. Then we were sitting outside, melting in the hot sun. We were feeling kind of lightheaded and wound up having to sit down on a bench to gather ourselves. I think we’re both just overtired, exhausted, and the hot sun didn’t help.

The entrance to the Toaster House!

Last night I hardly ate or drink anything for the last 15 miles. It’s often hard for me to eat once it gets dark. I think my body just thinks it’s unnatural. Even though we were really pushing ourselves and clearly really needed the food. I’m just happy to be in town lounging today.

Heading over to the Gathering Place.

After going to the post office, we headed down the road to the Gathering Place, a local restaurant in town. This spot sold all types of food and not just pie. There’s another place in town that apparently has the best pie and has been there for decades. But we wanted to get real food at this restaurant first, and then go to get our pie.

Chilli cheese fries and cornbread for lunch.

For brunch, I got Dr Pepper, a chocolate milk, a water, and chili cheese fries with cornbread on the side. It was an incredible spread. I wound up sprinkling the cornbread over top of the fries, which was so good. We hung out there for a while and were just so tired. We had moved into that giddy phase where everything is funny and you can’t stop laughing because you’re so sleepy. That’s always a treat.

Pie-o-neer. Which apparently had the best pie in town. I got a pecan pie which was fantastic.

After we ate our lunch we got some pie at the iconic spot in town. Then we headed back to the Toaster House to chill for the rest of the day. There were tons of hikers at the house. Most of them just hiked into town normally so they felt fine. Obviously, we were in a unique situation. It was so cool to see everyone though. It was a lot of hikers that I haven’t seen in days, weeks, or even months. Case was there with Tucker, which is so cool. I go to see him briefly last night, but I was way too tired to talk to him. He finished the trail a few weeks ago in Colorado, connecting his footpath after his flip-flop.

A cute note inside the Toaster House.

At the Toaster House there was actually a hot shower, which was surprising. Even with all the hikers there in the house, there were still hot water. I took a nice shower, which felt amazing. Then we did a load of laundry and hung our things outside to dry. Fortunately, it was a nice sunny day out so our stuff would dry quickly.

Hanging out with a true trail legend, Tucker! He’s hiked a lot of the CDT this year with his owner Engine.

Tucker is happy to be retired from hiking this season. Now he’s just waiting for his owner to finish the trail.

The rest of the day I just sat on the porch and hung out with a bunch of hikers, or laid in bed. There was no in between. It was a really nice and relaxing day and I was so glad to get to see so many familiar faces. And even though I didn’t sleep all day, I still felt pretty well rested from laying around. Then wound up calling it a night super early and laying down.

A bunch of people had a bonfire tonight. I was just too tired to hang out.