July 18th
Among hikers, breakfast at the Copper Kettle is legendary. The food, both in quantity as well as quality, lived up to it reputation. Country style hashbrown potatoes covered an oversized oval plate not as a side dish but as a base layer. The biscuits and gravy on a separate plate could have been a meal unto themselves. By the time we showed up, Tigger, Strut and Trainwreck had arrived in tow, found the Copper Kettle and firmly planted themselves in front of a sea of food.
Chester is a great trail town with lots of restaurants to fuel all our food fantasies. And our room at the Senneca has a nice little couch and sitting area, perfect for sitting back and reading the Sunday paper. The gravitational pull of these two facts meant we were staying for a zero day. Its only too bad that ten years ago we walked across highway 36 unaware that any of this existed.
After some time, the breakfast wore off and we were able to drag oursleves to the “Pine Shack Frostys” for burgers, fries and milkshakes. With 35 flavors this is a place that hikers all visit and which warrants much more research than we were able to give.
Back at the motel, in the afternoon, our sleeping bag airing and our socks drying in the sun were a give away that hikers were in the house, and as he arrived Honolulu paid a visit. He had been hiking hard after a few days off and we got caught up on the news of who was where just behind us.
We took dinner with Zig Zag at Mings, an outstanding Chinese restaurant. It was packed with locals trying to get in their last meals. We are sad to report for future hikers that this fine place closes their doors for good this Friday…