Originally it was supposed to rain this morning. None came. In fact, the skies were blue with big fluffy white clouds. It was so exciting! We only had twelve miles to cover to the parking lot mom and dad Warthog were meeting us at. We were there by 1:30p.
The forests through this stretch were particularly beautiful. I turned on some music and basically danced down much of them. I stopped a bit to admire the rock gardens. It was a section where hikers stack rocks on top of other rocks to make cairns. Just before the parking lot we crossed over a suspension bridge and a wide river. Locals like to come out to the river to swim. It wasn’t a calm river, but it had big pools where the water would gather.
We sat in the parking lot for a little bit, glad to relax our legs. Mom and dad Warthog weren’t comfortable with us hitching into town. Then we saw their car! We jumped up for hugs, introduced Snow Monkey and Wonder Woman (they were taking the zeros with us), and headed back to the hotel for showers. It has been maybe nine days or so since we last showered or did laundry. We were for sure due.
The hotel felt fantastic. The shower was even better. We all cleaned up and headed back to mom and dad Warthog’s room for sangria and snacks. No one makes sangria like Momma Warthog. Every time I taste it I think of summer. Around 5:30p we walked across the parking lot to a delicious dinner at a very nice restaurant. It was real food and really, really good food. Dinner took us until late in the night. When we finally walked back to the hotel, we went back thoroughly full.
-ansel