Day 69 - Monday, July 5

At the Mellow Mountain Hostel in South Lake Tahoe (mile 1090.8). A third zero day.

We again took our time getting up this morning and Frank, Jedi, Jack, Magnet, Narrator, and I went to the Driftwood Cafe for brunch. Upon arrival, we were told it would be a 45 to 60 minute wait for a table, so we gave them our info and went across the street to Raileys to get some coffee. Right as we were ordering, the restaurant called and told us our table was ready. It had only been 15 minutes! We rushed back over and got our table. Frank was wearing a birthday tiara that her sister sent to her in her resupply box, so the restaurant brought her out a birthday muffin and sang Happy Birthday.

Breakfast was pretty good and afterwards, we did a little window shopping at the nearby stores. The others then left to go see a movie and Frank and I meandered down the street, doing more window shopping. We ran into Boujee and Vagabond who are in town just for the today and tonight. Eventually, we wandered into Nevada and the casinos which were just across the state line.

We went into the Hard Rock and looked at some of the memorabilia before trying our luck at some of the slot machines. I lost a few bucks at the first machine that I played, but then scored a win at the next machine and immediately cashed out. Overall, I came away with an extra $67 in my pocket which I consider a huge win. We went to another casino and Frank played a few rounds of blackjack before heading back into California and doing a bit more window shopping.

We then took a break on a bench for Frank to do some research and figure out what she wanted to do the rest of the day. She settled on mini golf and then sushi for dinner. We went back to the hostel and told the others what was up. About half an hour later, we set out for the bus stop: Frank, J-PRO, Narrator, Magnet, Jack, Thin Mint, and myself. We had to wait a while for the bus to show up, but it eventually did and took us right to the mini golf place. We split up into two teams and played a round.

The course had some tricky holes on it. Before we started, Narrator declared that the highest score wins, and she ended up with that so she won.

Afterwards, we played some arcade games before walking down the street to a brewery where Mama, AB, and Jedi were hanging out. After killing some time there, we got a few UBERs to the all you can eat sushi restaurant. Our table (for 14) wasn't ready yet so we hung out outside. Forrest and Arugula, who we hadn't seen since Bishop, turned up. They both got off trail briefly and skipped small sections, but they'll come back to do them at some point. It was good to see them again and it was also good to meet Price Point and Honey Bear, a married couple who are hiking together.

A little girl in the restaurant told Frank that she had the same birthday crown at home.  We placed our orders and ate a ton of sushi before finding an UBER back to the Hostel. When we got there, I ran over to the grocery store to get Frank an ice cream cake which she had really been wanting. Upon my return, we ate that as well as a strawberry-rhubarb pie that AB had made for Frank. Both were really good and after eating more than was wise, we rolled ourselves to bed.

The other day, I calculated that we need to average 23-24 miles per day to reach Canada by mid-September (not including a number of zero days we want to take). Time to get moving.