It was a dark and stormy night.
No bears heard overnight, but plenty of wind and rain. I vaguely remember having to get up in the middle of the night and going outside (you can all guess why) and getting fairly soaked.
We're all up early, since that has worked every other day. Made the decision to call John (remember John was staying in a place who's "front yard" was not under four inches of rain like ours was) and decide to wait it out for a bit.
We had an eight foot overhang off of the camper, so picnic table and all chairs were huddled under to keep us as dry as possible. This is where we formulated our plans for the day. We were one day ahead of our planned schedule, so we could actually walk zero miles today and still be on track for making it to the field prior to the game on Sunday. But you've got four Red Riots (and Tom), and that ain't how we play that game. We had built up a bit of a road warrior mentality over the prior three days, plowing through the heat, and the aches, and pains, so no tropical storm was going to stop us. Especially one named after a Disney character.
Here's the other thing, this was move out day from the campground. Next two nights were in a hotel in Peabody MA. (For you non New Englanders - that's pronounced Peebidy). So not only did we have to get ready for the walk, but we also had to pack all of our belongings into John's truck for him to schlep them to our home for the next two nights.
While we waited out the wind and rain we did things like constantly check the weather maps...communicate with John from his dry hotel room...packed...did our radio interviews...and tended to our wounds.
I "eliminated" two monstrous blisters I had been walking on for the last fifty miles or so. While not implementing operating room certified hygiene practices, I did my best not to worsen my condition. Much to my relief the procedure was successful, and with the help of the right combination of bandages, antibiotic cream, first aid strips, duct tape, etc. it made my next 40 miles fairly comfortable. Sometimes you make the right decision.
After a few hours is seemed like the animal pairs we saw walking by on their way to the ark that was docked down the street, we decided to bite the bullet and hit the road.
A brief breakdown of the next few hours -
- John shows up and he maneuvers his truck between two trees and under the canopy to try to stay as dry as possible to load up our supplies. John takes pride in his driving skills. I was impressed.
- We (he) load up the back of his truck in the pouring rain. He's got one of those canvas covers to keep everything dry and in place, but obviously that needed to be peeled back to put the load in. This was where John earned his money...wait a minute, he wasn't paid for this...so let's say this is where John earned our respect.
- The weather maps showed the rain still with us for a few hours, but we were getting antsy and could not wait any longer. We were driven, but we were not necessarily smart.
- John brought us the the spot we had left off yesterday, much to the chagrin of Joe because it was at the bottom of another immense hill. The same hill that we decided we could not reach the summit of that day before.
- So, driving rain, layers of clothes, wet feet, and a positive attitude and we were off. Had to be better than 90 degree heat, right? Actually, yes, right.
- Some images of this stretch...
I had some videos of the torrents of water we were dealing with on the road, but can't seem to get them posted. Anyway, I think you get what we were dealing with. This was still a very very (very) hilly stretch and the volume of water we were walking through on the side of the road was, let's see, what's the right word,....deep.
Towards the end of the day the rain actually subsided, so now we were just carrying ten miles of rain soaked into our gear. It just wasn't being constantly replenished at this point.
Like I said, we had covered ten miles, which by the prior three day's standards was a drop in the bucket, but when that bucket is a rain bucket, that is plenty.
Time to stop. We had made it to Danvers. Time to dry off, check into the hotel, shower up, and start to feel like humans again.
But first, a nice meal in a great spot in Peabody (yes, there are great spots in Peabody). Landed in a neighborhood pub by the name of Paddy Kelly's. This was one of the good decisions of the trip.
We look ok, don't we?
Made friendly with the locals - got to love locals in a pub early afternoon on a Friday. Told them our story, once again, got a few donations on the spot from a Mom and daughter across the bar from us, and another guy (picture Norm from Cheers, same seat at the bar every day) that was very definitely a regular patron.
After lunch we loaded into the truck to check into the hotel. No offence to the Tidewater Campground, but this was my kind of camping. We broke off into our rooms, Pete and Link in one...Joe and Tom in another...Denise and John in their own rooms. This was the first time since we left on Tuesday that John slept in the same location as us. Now we all saw what we had been missing.
We had some time to clean up, rest and relax. Dinner plans that night were to meet up up with friends of John and mine - Dave and Maria. A fantastic salt of the earth couple. I've seen as many Red Sox games with Dave as I have with anyone (with the probably exception of John). Dave and Maria are locals and we knew they'd bring us to just the right spot, for dinner. Did they ever.
Joe, Link, Tom, and Denise opted to relax in the hotel that night so just John and I. Not the best decision by those four, but rectified the following night.
Spot we went to was called the Dugout. This was the kind of place only a local would know about...not a tourist. Just to get a flavor of the place, here is the table we sat at
Get the feel?
Anyway, their special dish is the steak tips. If I tried to describe how good these were I don't have the adjectives in my vocabulary to accurately represent how sensational a pleasure it was to have made this choice for dinner. Suffice to say, we loved them so much that this is where John and I brought the other walkers the next night so they could experience this place for themselves, That was one of the better decisions of the trip.
So, great conversations over dinner, Some clarity from our hosts about the best way to navigate the walking route from Danvers/Saugus into Boston. This was invaluable, as the next leg was a little tricky in planning from the Google maps research I had one pre-trip. They even gave us a little tip for a decadent treat, which I will share in the next post.
Said our good byes to our friends and head back to the hotel. Early start in the morning, This was going to be our last big push - hoped to make it to the Boston city limits to minimize the walk on our last day to Fenway.
Best night of sleep since we had left home,
Next up - Link gets an eyeful.
