Poor Warthog can’t ever sleep in. His clock is fully in sync with the sun. Luckily, when we are in town, he will leave for coffee and let me get extra sleep. I was still awake by 9a, whether or not I wanted to be. Well, let’s be honest, I didn’t want to be. But the group was ready for breakfast.
We walked across the parking lot to a place called Angelle’s Diner and ordered a copious amount of food. We sat on the patio to eat. We eat outside for every meal when we are hiking (unless of course it’s raining). However, for some reason, sitting at a table on an open air patio felt fantastic. Maybe it was the chair. Although, I’m pretty certain it was just that it reminded me of special times back home.
We basically rolled our way back across to the motel. Then spent a couple of hours in our rooms, trying to get ourselves organized. Warthog needed to visit the outfitter store for new shoes. His boots are still good, but the weather is getting warm which means trail shoes will keep his feet dry and healthy. Worried about being able to get to the post office to mail home his old boots, we left before the rest of the group. We had about a mile walk to get to the store.
We spent the rest of the afternoon/evening at the outfitters, coffee shop, and grocery store. Then we grabbed dinner after we ran all of our errands at a local place called Three Little Pigs. The restaurant is extremely friendly towards hikers. It’s policy that they give us a free banana cream dessert. We all happily accepted, even those that don’t like bananas. Leaving dinner was the second time I rolled away from a place today. Warthog says we have, “impulse control issues”. He’s absolutely correct. It’s a horrible cycle that goes from hunger, desire, fulfillment, and then… oops… too much, ending in pain and discomfort. We enter the restaurant miserable from hunger and leave miserable. At least it’s a miserable resulting from good food.
Tonight we got to be uncomfortable and walk home in the rain! I include an exclamation point, but I was not excited about it. But, what choice did we have? We don’t have a vehicle. Funny the threshold you gain for being able to put up with things when you have no other choice in the matter. I’m just glad to have a room tonight with a mattress, environment control, indoor plumbing, and a door. It makes the walk through the rain totally worth it.
-ansel