More about town! New shoes, clothes, and lots of food!

Some of our stuff is falling apart. Dangit's shoes are dangit in tatters. For the last two weeks her right shoe has been held together with a combination of duct tape and safety pins. Similarly, my socks have survived the last three weeks by covering holes in the toes and heels with duct tape. Although it is a bit annoying to hike in damaged goods, I feel like we have started to morph from our soft city selves into certified "hiker trash". Nothing is better than destroying shoes by walking them to their deaths!  Thus, we are heading into civilization to replace our worn items.

No hitching this time! Our friend Kevin's mom Betty picked us up near Echo Lake and drove us down to her lovely home in the woods in Camino, CA. She was nice enough to buy all of the things we we craving on the the trail. By the way, "hiker hunger" (an insatiable lust for food) has finally struck. In fact, our new favorite game on the trail is to ask our friends what food they would most like to eat, but can't. It's sort of a sick masochistic game, but it makes town stops that much sweeter. Anyway, on Tuesday night we ate fresh salad! corn on the cob!! and grilled steaks!!! Oh, we may have also eaten a dozen or more of those amazing little balls of melty chocolate goodness (Lindt Lindor truffles). We also had a incredibly restful night in real bed. Honestly, when I woke up I felt like we were on our honeymoon. It was that luxurious!

The next day we ate more food then drove around town (thanks for the car rental Kevin!). We went into Placerville to cut Dangit's hair which is apparently too poofy and perhaps becoming slightly mullet-like in the the back. We ate at a lovely little cafe called Two Cooks on Main or something. I can't remember the name exactly, but the sandwiches we scarfed were divine! After that we went to a running store and REI to look for new shoes (Altras specifically. FAIL...). We also went to two different thrift stores to find short silky running shorts and a thin fleece for me, and some new windpants and a tank top for in town for Dangit. I have decided to bounce my down jacket (too warm) and my convertible pants (too warm!). After much digging in the racks we emerged victorious! Our tab: shorts, 50 cents; fleece, $4; windpants, $4; tank top, $2! Not sure why anyone would shop for camping clothes at a real store. Perhaps, they have more self respect or dignity I suppose. Our maybe they don't want to hike in clothing inspired by the movie Flashdance. Not us!

We we able buy far too much food for our next resupply our favorite store, Winco. We are particularly excited about some gumbo mix we found which we will cook with fresh peppers, onion, minute rice, and some smoked andouille sausage our first night out of town! After the stores we came back to the Barnes' and dined on another craving, potstickers! We also had more salad, salmon, and some yummy wine!

Today we ate bacon, eggs, and potatoes. I also borrowed Betty's sewing maching to patch some holes in things (Dangit's butt tore a huge hole in my windpants) and to remove the zippers and hem Dangit's new thrift store windpants.

Betty will drop us off at Echo Lake a small "blue blaze" (hiker term for skipping official trail miles by taking short cuts, cars, etc"). We will also blue blaze via boat across Echo Lake since Betty says it is much more beautiful to see the lake from the boat than from the trail.

We will be sad to leave the comforts (and food!) in town but are excited to be back in the woods which is feeling more and more like our home.