Day 16 I think: Since I mail these off at each town I don’t really have the luxury off referencing yesterdays to be sure. Its Wednesday. I’m pretty sure. May 1st, maybe 2nd. The date display on my point and shoot reads May second. It could be wrong. I only like the feature because it stamps a nasty digital date on whatever pretty thing you are taking a picture of. It lends the image a little false obsessive/ compulsive look.
Well, the festival is over. We are back in our sleeping bags up Van Deusen Canyon. Our new friends and hiking partners, at least for the morning, are camped on the other side of the marshy creek. John has red hair and lots of freckles. Chris has a beard. We got to talk to all our loved ones on the phone today. Phone time accounts for a big part of town duties. It is second in importance only to picking up the resupply package from the PO. We met Chris and John in town and talked to them both there for a spell. John was going through a package at the PO. Chris was in line behind me at the store buying a pint of ice cream. They told us that the pizza restaurant, which was closed, was owned by a nice lady that was there and made them a pizza anyway. So, Dylan walked right in and struck up a conversation with her. Got a pizza. A good pizza from a super good and friendly person. She was there defrosting a freezer on one of her two days off and was busy cooking pizzas for whomever called and asked for one or whomever ignored the big closed sign on the door. We weren’t the only ones. Some random older guy came in to pick up a large pepperoni and anchovies to go. He sat down and drank a near beer and ate pizza until his buddy called to see what was holding him up. He, seeing that we were walkers, told us that Chris and John were at his house that very moment drinking iced tea!?
More phone calling led to a late start up the canyon. It would have turned dark long before we hit camp if Chris and John had not cruised buy in a hippie van that stopped for us as well. Driving the van was the same kid who had served us onion rings at lunch. He drove us half way up the canyon. we straggled back to kill off the rest of the pizza in the dark. I fixed my flailing pack. now it is bedtime.
Totals for the festival of calories:
(Once again we unless otherwise denoted we each consumed the following.)
1 huevos rancheros (3 eggs) with: hash browns, 2 flour tortillas for me
3 corn for Dyl, a little tub of whipped butter, I had a hot cocoa with whipped cream while Dylan, perhaps over reacting to yesterday had a tomato juice, and 1/2 platter of home fried chip with salsa . 1 glazed cinnamon roll.
2 ice cream bars, actually Dyl showed restraint with one.
1/2 platter onion rings with ranch sauce.
1 1/4 lbd. garden burger. Mine was LTO with extra avocado. Dyl had the same with ketchup and mayonnaise.
3 cups root bear.
(At this point we were at the cusp of the puking stage.)
1/2 large mushroom olive deep dish pizza. Minus 1/2 slice for me that Dylan ate.
1 iced tea. Dylan had TWO MORE cups of root beer
2 triple chocolate cookies. Dylan ate three
1/5 of three passes of the pipe for me. 1/5 of two for Dylan.
Its amazing how much random stuff can happen in a town. After writing so many windups of trail days in a row I can feel the difference through the pen. The events were fun, for a day. We have missed that thin dirt path and look forward to setting out in the morning.