First day of road trip, woo!!

8-31-09 day 90
start: Augusta, ME
end: New Haven, CT
daily mileage: lots that don't count
total mileage: 1165.8


We woke up nice and early to bust out of Maine on our epic road trip. Sea Monster and I spent some time in the car on our laptops, typing up blog entries from weeks ago. It feels great to have a day off after so much walking, and it's crazy watching the miles fly by ("holy crap, it took us so long to walk through this state and it only took like 2 hours to drive it!"). We went to an REI before lunch for some little gear odds and ends- Sea Monster got socks and I got a lightweight Thermarest on clearance (which I'm really excited about) and a new spoon.


Mr. Smith did lots of work before he flew out here to find all the best places to eat along the highway, and we stopped to eat at a great coney place for lunch. Mr. Smith's GPS "LaFonda" is somewhat schizophrenic and seems to love guiding us through crazy backalleys (we spent a while joking about how it would probably guide us to a drug dealer and tell us what to say to him), but is otherwise pretty useful.


We made it to New Haven around 3 and checked in at a LaQuinta, where we did our laundry and watched a stupid movie on TV. When it was time to go to dinner, we went to the best pizza place in the world. Pepe's Pizzeria. We got a White Clam Pizza (fresh clams!) and a more traditional Bacon and Sausage- they were fabulous. After so much repetitive trail food I felt totally overwhelmed by the deliciousness. We even got a pitcher of Long Trail Ale to wash it down with!


We got back to the hotel pretty late, and Sea Monster and his family went next door to grab some Ice Cream while I made a few phone calls. Soon, we were sleeping on beds (like kings), as visions of pizza pies danced in our heads.