Chap. 13 – Ice cream and wild idyll

Tomorrow

Slept in until 8am today at Idyllwild Bunkhouse. I’d say I probably slept better than I have since I started the tour! I don’t remember waking up all night, which has been a constant theme for me in the store. Maybe it’s because my tent doesn’t like to stay in the loose, sandy dirt here, or because my inflatable platform isn’t as comfortable as a real bed… I’m not sure.

Once Boostie was awake and we both put off moving as long as we could, we picked up our clothes to head to the laundry room. Luckily, our fellow hiker Frodo and his father stopped on the side of the road to take us into town. It may be a 0.4 mile walk, but when you try to rest, it feels very long. They also needed to do laundry, so the three of us hikers gathered all of our clothes into one wash.

They took us back to the bunkhouse to leave our clothes dry and then took us back to the city. We spent most of the day wandering around Idyllwild. Boostie, Frodo and I had coffee at Pure Bean, where we accidentally ran into a couple more. After window shopping, perusing the equipment shop, and grabbing ice cream from Atomic Cow, we sat down in the city’s central courtyard for a quick break. I worked on my posts while Boostie looked for heel or arch support inserts. No luck, but he found anklets for Bliss, so he sent her a photo so she could get some to sleep in.

Late

All the shopping left us pretty hungry, so most of our group had lunch at Idy Sushi. I had a salmon teriyaki lunch plate, and it hit the spot! Shortly after we returned to the barracks. I needed to go through my food bag to see what replenishment foods I really needed. The grocery stores in Idyllwild are quite expensive, so I didn’t want to buy more than I needed.

After figuring out what I would need to resupply and put my watch on the charger, we headed back to town. After lunch, we called to meet with the mayor. Indeed, we were able to meet with him. Mayor Max! I never thought I’d call a mayor a good guy, but who can resist when this is the mayor?

We said goodbye to the mayor after hanging out and taking tons of photos… and giving him lots of pets. Afterwards, we went to dinner at the brewery to celebrate the birthday of one of the hikers. We all had drinks and Boostie and I shared a double pretzel. After dinner, resupply and post-resupply, we headed back to the room for the night. We shared the room with Bliss, Pocket Operator and Catch. The five of us watched Quadzilla’s video on how to survive a wildfire. It had a lot of useful information! When the video ended, we all called it a night. What a nice day of rest!

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