July 7th and 8th, 2022 by Singsong and Biscuit
Seabiscuit and Singsong here, taking over the blog!
After a night of hearing Galileo vomiting, we awoke knowing plans would be changing. We had only planned to spend one night and nero out of Quincy today. Obviously, Galileo wasn’t feeling at all well enough to hike, so we booked another night in the motel and decided to give him some space to rest. First up (as always for Singsong) was coffee. We walked down to the Morning Thunder Cafe and had a delicious breakfast with generous portions. Plenty of hikers were also at the cafe, and we ended up having a long conversation with a fellow hiker, Ranger. From knee pain to trail boyfriends (Ranger is keeping an eye out for Biscuit), we covered just about it all.
After breakfast, we grabbed the car the Allreds had so generously loaned us for the day and headed out to do chores. First stop (of course) was our second cup of coffee, this time at Midtown, which Christina had recommended. Next was the post office to pick up Biscuit’s resupply box. Lattes in hand, we used car keys to open Biscuit’s tape-covered box (we struggled Tim!) and assess what she needed to supplement with at our next stop: Safeway. Resupplying is always quite the process. You have to take into account calories, weight, and what you’re sick of vs. what you will actually eat. We usually spend a good hour meandering through the aisles. As we drove up to Safeway, we decided to hit up the hardware store first for fuel. We quickly found it, but of course proceeded to explore the entire store. Biscuit found some homemade cookies for sale and added the snickerdoodle to her basket. At checkout, the older ladies asked us if we were hikers and boosted our egos by complimenting us on making it this far on the trail. Feeling good, we walked over to Safeway to pick up about 5 days’ worth of food. Singsong was sort of dreading doing this without Galileo, as she’s always worried she’s going to miscalculate how much food they really need. Resupplying for two people is the difference between 8 bars and 20 bars for a stretch. It’s always helpful to have a second pair of eyes to double-check. But regardless, the resupply was successful, and we even found Barefoot Rose Spritzers that Biscuit loves! You bet we grabbed a four-pack for our gals’ day!
We also ran into Dim Sum and Dirt Magnet at the grocery store. So after we all finished up, we gave them a lift to their motel, which happened to be directly across the street from ours. Easy peasy (lemon squeezey).
The rest of the afternoon did not disappoint. After tirelessly searching for our favorite reality T.V. show, Below Deck (and to no avail), we settled on Southern Charm. It was just as dramatic as we hoped, and it didn’t take long to become engrossed in the gossip that goes on in Charleston. Good stuff, would highly recommend if you want a mindless watch.
Next up was ice cream and Quintopia! Galileo was able to join us for the brief ice cream outing after dropping the Brits (Dim Sum and Dirt Magnet) off to finish laundry (arguably the worst town chore by Biscuit’s standards), and it did not disappoint. Coming from Biscuit, the ice cream connoisseur, it was good stuff. If you’re ever in Quincy, go! The staff was so friendly, and every PCT hiker gets a free scoop of whatever they want with a waffle cone!
True to the gal’s day theme, Singsong and Biscuit left Galileo to rest and walked the short .2 miles to the homey brewery. The drinks were so good that, a mere 22 hours later, we would find ourselves right back in the brewery the next day. Joined by Christina and her coworker, Candice (who brought her husky mix, Ty), the gals’ day 2.0 was truly elevated by their company and shared stories!! We got to fill them in on all things PCT, and they told us all about work, regular life outside of hiking, and Quincy. It was a nice break from hiker trash life, and we even got to wear our town dresses, which we fondly refer to as our prairie gal dresses.
Aside from the second trip to the brewery, zero #2 was another day of leisure. While
Galileo’s health was improving, but he still wasn’t feeling well and really hadn’t eaten enough to hike. A trip to the thrift store, the cutest pharmacy we’ve ever seen, a natural food store (that carried Tony’s Chocoloney, much to Singsong’s delight), and of course another coffee shop in town set the tone, and it truly felt like a zero — absolutely no chores were done. Strangely, we ran into zero hikers we knew, but enjoyed the quiet of the day, feeling more like locals than tourists. We’re lucky that, of all the stops where Galileo got sick, Quincy was the best stop in a bummer of a situation.
We plan to head back over to Christina and Keevin’s house tomorrow for breakfast and to drop the car off, and they will kindly drive us back to the trailhead! The next section is quite the burn zone, with some gnarly high temperatures in the forecast, so we’re hoping to beat the heat in the morning.
Awesome post! Boy you both walked a long ways!