31 May - Salisbury CT

Beautiful Memorial Day with a clear, blue sky.  High 88.

Last nights shelter was very nice and had a good spring despite what the Thru-hikers Companion says.  What I forgot to mention was that it was a half mile down hill, some of which was extremely steep.  This partly explains why we were there alone.   Tough way to start the day.

Although it got to 88, it was still in the 70s when we hiked in to Salisbury.   It was a great hike with one nice viewand we passed the giant thumb.  Yesterday we passed an old hang glider launch site that had a great view including Lime Rock Park.  This is classic 1.5 mile car race course used by Paul Newman and other celebrities.  We could hear them racing yesterday and today since it is Memorial Day Weekend.

As we came down the mountain, we could hear drums from the parade.  Coming into town there was a ceremony at the cemetary.  As we passed a church, the folks out front said "Hikers.  Want some lemonade".  We talked about AT hiking, answered the usuaL questions about... How long have we been hiking? Where did you start?  How far are you going?  How much does that pack weigh?  They gave us directions to where we are staying and we headed off.

After we crossed the street and continued, a woman came down from the lawn of a nice house on main street.  She said "your hikers right?  My friend Betty would like to know if you would come up and have some lemonade and talk about your hike."  So we did.  Betty is the owner of the house and having a party for her friends to view the parade.   We had lemonade and donuts, answered questions including "Can I try it on?" which Wendy got after "How much does that pack weigh?"  Keep in mind that we have not been in town to take a shower for 10 days.  Everyone was extremely nice and very proud of their village (which they should be - classic Norman Rockwell as Betty said).  Then the parade came back through town from the cemetary and we got to see it after all - and with a front row seat.  They pointed out Vanessa's house (she rents rooms to hikers) and we said our goodbyes and went to get our room and most importantly, a shower.  What a wonderful introduction to Salisbury!

Obviously, we like Salisbury very much.  We now plan to take a zero day here tomorrow during the storms.