Taking advantage of not having to hike today, I woke up late. Penny picked up her sister, Allison, from her group home. Then, Pam joined us, and Penny made the four of us waffles.
Penny's second son, Thomas, recently had a wedding in Hawaii, where he lives, working with one of the radio telescopes there. I had inquired yesterday as to how the wedding went, and was treated today with a slideshow of several hundred photos of the wedding and other locations on the island, along with running commentary. The photos were wonderful, and it makes me want to visit Hawaii that much more (I'll get there eventually — I do want to visit all 50 states).
When we ran out of photos from Hawaii, Penny, Allison, and I went to REI. (Allison likes to shop.) I got replacement poles, and taking advantage of the opportunity, also got a replacement toothbrush, a new bottle of Repel bug spray, and a bottle of permethrin to spray on my clothes. (I am dubious as to how useful it will be as a bug repellant, since bugs aren't really spending that much time on my clothes. Maybe if I were wearing my pants legs it would help against ticks, which would spend significant time on my clothes, but ticks really haven't been a problem for me.)
On the way back, I grabbed a sandwich from Subway, as well as a bunch of cookies to share. Back at the house, I ate my sandwich, and finally got my food bags packed from yesterday's run to Walmart.
Edwin and I went on a walk though the same private neighborhood as Penny and I drove through yesterday. At one point, we passed a sign indicating that running or driving on the roads by non-members was not permitted. We concluded that since we were walking, we were ok.
When we got back to the house, I checked on my tent, and was very happy to find that it had dried out. Before I could package it up, Pam arrived, ready to take me to the members-and-their-guests-only Roton Point beach for kayaking. On a bit of a time crunch, since we were unclear on when they stopped making kayaks available, I quickly sprayed my clothes with permethrin, and left them outside to dry out.
At the beach, I took out a kayak onto the Long Island Sound, and paddled around for almost an hour. There was a lighthouse about a mile off-shore, which I would have considered kayaking to if I had more time and a swimsuit.
Penny, Pam, Allison, and I had a dinner of ribs on the picnic area near the beach, with Edwin joining us late after his golf game.
Back at the house, a 10 pm bedtime a distant dream, I took down and put away my tent, finished packing my bags, and got to sleep, ready for tomorrow's trip through the Fort Montgomery zoo. (Yes, really, the AT goes through a zoo!)