This morning I slept in the hostel until about 8am. It was so nice knowing I didn’t have to be anywhere and had absolutely nothing to do. Eventually I got up and put my contacts in. And then I got into bed and uploaded a blog and then a video. I’ve been making a daily video for every single day that I write my blog, so if you want to check that out you can find it on Instagram at @madisonblagden. I make a short one minute narrative video to go with every single day of the blog.
Eventually I got up and went downstairs to join everyone. They had been up for a while and were chatting. I stayed with everyone for a while and then we went down the street to stock up on supplies. It seems to be sweltering hot every day so it seemed like a good idea to shop early. Plus I wanted to get some food and drink supplies for the day.
The store in town is definitely not the best option for stocking up on supplies. But I managed to make do with what they had. I have a feeling I’ll be a little hungry when we get to Lima. But I’m just going to take it day by day. The store didn’t have very many meals, so instead of eating a hot lunch every day, I’m just going to eat cheese and crackers and stuff like that. I guess that saves a little time, but might be a little less filling. Then I bought a bunch of stuff like Pop-Tarts, cookies, and hostess items. This reminds me of a classic gas station fill up on the Florida Trail.
The Mustang Inn in Leadore.
After that we went back to the hostel. I got all my things organized and packed up again. At some point today I will be moving from the group room to my own room. I’m really looking forward to that. For now I lay in bed for a few hours and did some video work. Then sometime between 11 and 12 Mark came in to tell 9 Lives and me that our rooms were ready. It was so exciting and we set off straight away.
The private rooms at the Mustang Inn. This place was incredibly beautiful.
The bunk beds are $50 and the private rooms are $100 per night, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. I knew the private rooms had their own bathroom and shower. But I didn’t expect the private rooms to be so nice and even have their own kitchenette. Mine had a sink, two burner stove, and a small fridge. For $100, this is the nicest room you can get. I’m so excited to have some space and just be able to enjoy some time to myself.
Once I was in the room, I brought all my stuff over. Then I laid in bed for a couple hours and did a lot of voice recording. The little videos I do every day are narrated, so after I put the video together, I have to put a voiceover on the whole thing. It’s really not that time consuming, but sometimes I make mistakes, and if I’m recording seven different videos, it takes a while. It was so nice to be able to just do all of this from the luxury of a bed. This is literally the first time along the way that I’ve had my own room. Before, I would walk down the street or go somewhere else to find a quiet place to do these things. It’s so much more convenient to just lay in bed and do everything from there.
A big, hot cookie that I bought fresh from the supermarket, right out of the oven.
After I finished shooting all the video, I took another shower and washed my hair. It felt so good to wash my hair and get it clean. Around the same time, Syrup came back from Salmon. He had to go to the pharmacy in Salmon, so he went and had Jenn give him a ride today. He also offered to get anyone any little things they needed from town. So it’s not like we could resupply or anything, but if you needed something specific, he would get it for you. He got me contact lens solution, Aquaphor, and a stick of butter. I didn’t even ask for the stick of butter, but he just brought it anyway, which was very nice of him. Everyone else got a few little things too. It was incredibly convenient.
Sidequest and Syrup play Halo in the hostel.
After that, I went back to the room and did some speech-to-text exercises to write some blogs. Then I just lazed around in bed for a long time. I even watched a little movie when my brain just stopped working. Then later I found the motivation to work a little more.
Before 7pm I went back to the main house to have dinner with everyone. Syrup also bought ground beef, pasta and sauce. That way we could have a little family dinner together. Everything he did was incredibly thoughtful and so nice of him. He really shouldn’t have had to make a special effort to get everything for everyone, but he did it because he’s just a really nice guy. When I went back to the house pretty much everything was ready and it smelled amazing.
Our amazing dinner. Syrup bought the ingredients and HP cooked!
I loaded up a plate with pasta, meat sauce, and some garlic bread. This meal hit the spot. It was exactly what I needed. And then we made some plans for tomorrow. Since there are so many of us, we have to take two shuttles to get back to the trailhead. Jenn will take a few of us at 7am and a few at 8am. So we had to decide who wanted to go at what time. I decided to go at 7am with HP and Syrup. I prefer to go earlier than later, even if it means getting up a little earlier. Our day starts with a long climb, so I’d rather get it done as early in the day as possible. Plus, we’ll be a little ahead of everyone else, which means we can either wait for them at some point or get to camp a little earlier.
My beautiful little Tramily! Syrup, Sidequest, High Profile and 9 Lives.
After dinner we all cleaned up and then I decided to go back to my room to do some more work. It was already about 8pm which felt so late. Zero days always fly by. This one was incredibly relaxing because there really is nothing to do in Leadore. That makes it nice and easy because we didn’t walk around at all. But somehow the day still flew by and it feels like it barely happened.
Dinner with the crew.
I got some work done and then organized all my things. Then I laid in bed and watched a little TV before calling it a day.
Since they didn’t have any mini Aquaphor bottles, Syrup got me this huge one. But I’m sure I’ll use it up over time.
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