I had to break my 6:20 streak so I purposely refrained from packing anything until after 6:20. But apparently my idea of sleeping in is leaving at 7:00. It’s just really hard to lay in a smelly tent in the woods and do nothing.

The morning is nice and cool and the sun is shining brightly. There is not a cloud in the sky. You at the forecast is for the high to be only 73°, which sounds divine.

I have a few miles of this Trail in the hunting grounds left to hike this morning. Although this end of the trail is actually private land. Once I break out onto the road it’s going to be roads all the way into town, except for one tiny section that is less than a mile.

The trail is somewhat unremarkable. It has a few hills, it has mostly hardwood trees, it has a tiny bit of meadows, and it has a few rocks strewn about.

After three or four miles of walking on roads with very few cars I come to the tiny trail section that was the stretch goal for last night. It is in a chunk of woods that have been recently forested. So that all is left is some straggly trees, a bunch of stumps, and weedy vines everywhere.

When I get to the designated camping area I signed the register but don’t bother to take the side trail to the actual camping spot. If I had busted my ass and hiked here until 9:00 in the dark last night I think I would have been pretty pissed off. The other camping sites have been pretty decent but this one looks lousy. So far on this trip I have been pleased with my campsite selections.

Soon it is back to road walking. But not until I sit on a stump and make powdered coffee. I am dragging a little bit this morning and would rather have the energy to finish the eight or nine miles of roads into town with a little pep in my step.

Coffee does work wonders for hiking. Within 10 or 15 minutes my pace is pretty brisk. The roads passed by a few dairies and a lot of corn and alfalfa fields. But here they are growing something that I have no clue what it is. They are making mounded rows about 4 ft wide with a deep ditches between them and then putting fence posts along them to suspend black shade cloth. I saw the same crop a few days ago but I’m getting a better view of it now as they are just putting up the covering. If there was someone around I would have stopped and asked them what they were growing. I didn’t think to take any pictures.

The roads slowly turn rural residential. Someone is trimming their apple tree and just dropping the apples on the yard. If I hadn’t just had coffee probably would have asked them if I could have had the apples. Finding apples has been a good pick me up in the afternoons.

I hit the edge of town at about 11:00. Hotel check-in is not until 3:00 p.m. but I can probably get an early check in but not this early. I have already spied a Chinese buffet on Google maps and it is my first target. It is only two blocks from the hotel.

I shift my hiking direction to take me to the main Street going through town so that I can see the businesses. In just a few blocks up the street I spot a bakery. If I can get some fresh baguettes that would be wonderful. The ones from Walmart just aren’t cutting it. They are intended to be taken home and baked so they can brown. When they are only partially cooked they just don’t have the same magic. But I am horrified to discover that they don’t have baguettes. The closest thing they have are sliced French bread with garlic butter toasted on them. Why not try something new.

Not many of the other businesses catch my eye. There are far fewer restaurants than I expected. But as I near the hotel it becomes suburban mall territory. Every fast food chain you can think of is represented. But I make a beeline for the Chinese buffet and get there at about 12:30. Perfect timing. I stopped snacking after I drank the coffee so that I would purposely be hungry for this.

Inside it is exactly what you would expect. One giant row of Chinese dishes and one row of the exact same chintzy desserts that all Chinese buffets have. I am here for the meat and vegetables. Three plates and I am done. On the Pacific Crest Trail I ate six plates. But that was after doing about a thousand more miles than I have done on this trip so far. Speaking of which, I passed the 700 mile mark at some point today.

After the big meal I want nothing more than to nap. It’s still a bit early to check into the hotel but I spot a gigantic tree next to it casting wonderful shade on the grass. I had straight there and veg for about 30 minutes reading emails and catching up on things. It was just what the doctor ordered.

I head into the hotel about 1:30 to see if they’ll let me check in early. They usually do and they do this time as well. I get change and soap for the laundry because that is chore number two. Chore number one is shower, of course.

While I am doing laundry I come back and clean other things in the room that smell to high heaven. The foam sleeping pad and the inflatable sleeping pad that I use both smell pretty bad. I sandwich my dirty clothes between the two layers every night. And it only occurred to me a few days ago that maybe that’s where a lot of the smell is coming from. They both get a thorough cleaning and drying.

I should watch the tent too but I’m just going to dry it out this time. Every time I come back to the room the first thing I notice is that it smells like hiker feet. There is still more cleaning to do.

And speaking of cleaning, my shoes now are officially dirty and they are officially smelly. 700 miles is about the right amount of distance to get on a pair of shoes. These have very little wear on the uppers, but I noticed the souls are starting to wear flat. This is why I have been slipping on the mud. I have a new pair of shoes waiting to be sent to me but now I have to figure out where they can send them that is far enough ahead of me that I won’t get there too early or the package be late and not be able to pick them up.

Today is opening day for the Florida Gators football team. I put on the game while I’m doing other chores and watch the Miami hurricanes destroy the poor Gators. I should have put the game on mute so I didn’t have to hear it.

The rest of the chores are planning out the next few hundred miles, shopping for groceries at Walmart, and grabbing a burrito at the taco joint next door. This Walmart did not carry backpackers pantry dehydrated meals. But I checked the website of the next one I will hit and the do. So for the next several evenings dinner will be mashed potatoes again.

Back at the hotel it’s more chores and blogging and watching some other team play football. I do turn the sound off this time. I have the next 6 to 8 Days planned but I still don’t know where to send the shoes yet. The West side of the trail has far fewer options than the East side did.

I will plan to leave the hotel no earlier than 8:00 tomorrow. That is going to have to be my version of sleeping in. They don’t start breakfast until 7:00 a.m. on weekends anyway.

Emotion of the day, Relaxed

Even though sleeping in really only equated to 40 minutes, that small amount of time set the pace for the day. I was in no rush to do anything or to go anywhere. And the only annoying part of the day was the small section of trail in the logged area.

I took a break under a tree when I got to town. I took a break under a tree after eating lunch. Most of my chores I could do laying in bed. It sounds like a day off if I wasn’t so busy. But I like keeping busy.

Apparently I also like napping under shade trees.