During my trailcation I got to see some amazing friends get married and I got to celebrate my cousins engagement, I also spent some quality time with my cat. Unfortunately I also dropped my phone in a pool, had a parked car run into the side of mine, and pulled a tick out from under my skin and was subsequently diagnosed with lyme disease. I flew back into Boston where I met up with my PCT friend, Juneau, and we walked the freedom trail for the fourth of July. The freedom trail is two and a half miles long through downtown boston, stopping at 16 historical sites. We like to say we thru hiked it. He took us back to the trail and we started back on our hike. On my first day out I pulled 19 miles in new shoes, with lyme disease, after being off trail for 20 days. I was pretty happy with myself until I woke up the next morning. I was terribly sore and exhausted. We slept in and got going later in the day. I was having a rough time and had been in a bit of a funk since getting back on trail. Suddenly the rain began to come down and no matter what you did, you were completely soaked to the bone in seconds. I began to laugh. I couldn't help it. Skipper caught my laughter and as we tramped through the mud in the pouring down rain, I realized why I was out here. The worst thing in the world wasn't standing there muddy and soaking wet, in fact it was enjoyable. I was having a good time and it just felt comfortable to be exactly where I was at that moment. It rained on us off and on all day till we got to the cookie lady's house. She offered us fresh baked cookies and said we could crash in the garage to try to stay dry. After stripping off our wet clothes and getting comfortable again, we got a call from our good friend and amazing trail angel, Rob Bird. He picks us up, buys us pizza and takes us back to a hotel for showers and a bed. The next day he bought us breakfast and then took us back to the trail and slack packed us back to the hotel for a second night. He's around town for a while and will be helping us and many other hikers along the trail out for the next month. The next few days we got to slack pack all the way into Vermont and got the tour of all the best restaurants in town from Rob. We even treated ourselves to a zero day before hitting the trail again. That night there was no room at the shelter or tent area so we had to push on to another spot. We have been blessed with really great weather for Vermont and have managed to stay out of the mud. At the moment we are trying to outrun a thunderstorm that has been threatening us for the past couple days. Only a few more days until we hit New Hampshire and the dreaded whites! Mile 1651, 538 left to go!