August 23

Pizza party

Woke up fairly early, and got all my gear packed up.  Headed over to the Richard Black Community Center and paid a few dollars for shower and laundry.  Got my electronics charged up while I was waiting.  The rest of the day was spent exploring Hanover.  What an incredible trail town!  In recent years, the city has really pushed to become more hiker friendly.  I'd say Hanover did it right.  A model for other towns to strive for.  Many restaurants in town have hiker discounts or even free give aways.  Lists of trail angels are posted at the library, outfitters, and community center, if you need a place to stay.  Free buses to take you to neighboring cities.  There's also a booklet that hiker's can pick up at many locations in town, that answers all the questions of where to stay, where to eat, where the freebies are, when the buses run and where they go, etc.  And the locals.  Oh my gosh.  I couldn't walk one block without someone saying, "welcome to Hanover", or "congratulations on your hike", or "good luck".  It's a nice, upscale, boutique kind of town, but despite my dirty, smelly, grungy apperance, I never felt unwelcome for a second.  Then there's the college.  Pretty campus.  And the Dartmouth Outing Club there maintains the trail in this section.  Over 90% of the entering freshmen, elect to do a backpacking trip with a group of their fellow first-years as a part of their orientation procedures.  So cool.  All I remember from my freshman orientation was going to lame information sessions, and having social mixers with girls' dorms.  The accessibility, and amount, of information for hikers, the services in town, and the people there, all make Hanover my favorite trail town so far.  Lunch was a free slice of pizza at Ramuntos Brick Oven.  Second lunch was the hiker special at Stensons Deli, a sandwich, chips, and a soda for $6.  I went around the corner to the Bagel Basement, and got a free bagel, 'everything' with boursin cream cheese.  I picked up some mail at the Post Office.  A bunch of us were all hanging out on the sidewalk in front of the Mountain Goat Outfitter, opening our packages.  I got several ziplock bags full of assorted cookies and a card from my grandma.  My mom had sent a package too, full of birthday treats, in addition to some of the cold weather gear I had requested.  The rest of the afternoon, I hung out at the library.  For dinner tonight, we went to EBA's for the pizza buffet.  We had a proper party there to celebrate my birthday.  In the mail drop that my mom had sent me, there were birthday themed plates, cups, napkins, and even a banner.  Tink had bought a box of donuts.  For desert, I put 33 candles in a chocolate iced donut, lit them, and blew them out.  My friends sang happy birthday to me.  At the end of the meal, I didn't have a bill either.  We walked back to the soccer fields and set up for the night.  Stayed up pretty late hanging out.

Pizza party with Slims, Rainbow Eyes, me, Apache, Tink, and Thai Dye.