I woke up to rain, rain! We need this moisture so badly, where once earlier in the trip I may have cursed the insessent rain, now I love it. Oh yes, please rain all day!

It didn’t rain all day, but the shower did clean the air a bit and gave me hope for relief from the fires…every little bit helps.

It was a lazy morning, I went upstairs to find Tom and Laurie making lattes in a beautiful expresso machine…hmmmm, maybe I need an expresso machine?? We had a huge breakfast scramble and then I went back downstairs to sort all my gifted gummies, cookies, maps and more for the next week.

Cody (their dog) and I took a short nap, oh the luxury of rest days!

Later Laurie and I went to visit Tom at his shop, he is a machinest and was busy making parts for Chums, one of his clients (and one of my new sponsors!). I took a tour of his shops; I’ve never seen injection molding before, it was fascinating.

Then we went to lunch in town and ran by a movie store to find something to watch tonight. Laurie and I spent a few hours looking at lightweight gear…seems I may have sparked an interest! They weren’t familiar with a lot of the ultralight gear available on the market now, so I gave her a big list of folks to check out. I would be thrilled to inspire some solo backpacking adventures! Go Laurie!!!

We finished the night watching our movie and snacking (Aimee, they LOVED the crack bars, I couldn’t resist opening them before I got on the trail) and I went to bed marveling that I had just met Tom and Laurie a month before. It feels like we’ve been friends for a long time; I’ve loved getting to know them better and the whole weekend has felt like a fun vacation…heck at this point the CDT feels like a vacation! Guess I’m doing what I love and love what I’m doing.