Miles traveled: zero
Mile marker: 566.5
Sleep late? What’s that? It’s 5:45 am when I finally get up and get ready to do the laundry.
I try to be quiet, but I’m reaching for a stack of quarters and stuffing some dirty clothes into Savannah’s pump bag, a gray bag used to inflate an air mattress.
I get to the laundry room and my key card doesn’t work. Excellent. Go back to the room and exchange it for another key card.
This one worked.
I start doing the laundry and head to the lobby for breakfast. I run into Iceage, a hiker I’ve been hanging out with for a couple of weeks. We eat eggs and sausage on English muffins with cream cheese. Iceage eats this first, but it’s something I used to make when I was a kid staying in hotels.
Iceage has done the Appalachian Trail and the Iceage Trail. He said he always leaves the trail with a little direction. At some point along the way you have to make a decision about what to do next in life. Normally it is towards the end, because the path will end soon. Life comes later.
Truls joins us for a few minutes and then they are on their way.
I’m making coffee when Dad comes around the corner. «Oh, hey!» say.
“I just texted you,” he says. Sure enough, I see a text that says: Good morning! I’m heading to the lobby for coffee!
We sat away from the noisy lobby and chatted for a while. A group of hikers near us say they probably won’t need the bear barrels because there are bear lockers at each campsite.
Of course, this is not true. Bear barrels are very important in protecting people from attracting bears.
Big bear.
Hold strong.
Hurry.
The bear doesn’t care about you, human.
We go upstairs and I hang out in the lively living room where Rafiki and Lucie are checking their bags; They both have small injuries that they don’t want aggravated by heavy backpacks.
I spend most of the next three hours blogging and being in the middle of it all. I can hear all the conversations through my earplugs. Dad comes in and puts his feet on my bed.
Everyone is organizing food or cleaning packages. Bumper and Savanah go to the library for a while. I’m alone for a few minutes because Lucie, Rafiki and Socks are heading to the post office.
I order a new sleeping quilt for Lucie. I get a significant discount on illuminated gear because I also blog on The Trek.
Lucie will buy me my quilt and I will buy a new one.
One that can cross my mind.
Everyone else has ones that cross their mind! Of course, this is too long. It’s just cozier!
Hopefully the extra space in the bag won’t cause me too much extra weight. Or maybe I can just get better at squeezing the air out of my stuff.
It’s after one in the afternoon when I finally finish my blogs. I pack my food, literally on top of the people lying in my bed.
Then we go to the pool once everyone has returned. The jacuzzi is hot.
«Yesterday I told Tails to turn the dial on the wall once the bubbles stop. She goes up and hits the emergency button, then panics and pulls it out!» Rafiki explains to my dad.
«The water got hot, didn’t it? I’ll do it again!» say.
I turn the jacuzzi off and on again.
It’s starting to get hot! It really worked!
We moved to the pool. At first we just swam.
“Let’s play Marco Polo!” say.
I explain to Lucie while thinking about how the game works. Soon we are splashing around again as if we were ten years old.
We’re going to dinner at a Thai place. It’s good! Then smoothies for dessert; mine is too milky.
The next thing I knew, we were listening to Rafiki’s lonely cowboy music.
Tomorrow we will go hiking again!
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