No two trail angels are alike. This I know is true. Terrie summed it up well. The Saufleys run their show with corporate efficiency. They have everything any hiker could want. They are easy and chill and they make it look like they don't even try. Donna is in the yard watering flowers, smiling, always smiling. Jeff is patting a hiker on the back, wishing him a safe trip. There is something eerily perfect about the whole thing. The Andersons, on the other hand, are running more of a Hippy Daycare. They're playing it by ear every day, running to the store at any hour for extra beer or nacho cheese when stocks run low. There are torn up shoes in the yard, dishes on the countertops and weed packed glass pipes on the coffee tables. Terrie is chain smoking and drinking beer at 11am. Joe is screaming profanities at the dogs, laughing like a mischievous 14-year-old. Then there are the MacKenzies in Wrightwood, and old Pat and Paul back at the Oasis in Anza, and Walkabout in Big Bear . . . Somehow, all these absurdly different people are out here, living their different lives, helping out hikers in their own different ways.
We had pancakes and waffles and coffee this morning. Last night we decided to take another day off, let our surprisingly sore feet readjust to the hard life, and enjoy ourselves at the Casa for a day. Six or seven people had already left by 9am. I wanted to make a few phone calls, catch up on this Pocketmail. Eliza slept in, hidden up on the hill behind the house in a sun speckled passageway deep in the Alice in Wonderland Mananita forest. I am carrying two books now for some reason, The Great Gatsby, which I love and am rereading (and should have finished today, it's only 200 short pages) and another book written about NYC in the 30s -- One of these needs to be finished and jetisoned immediately. If anyone out here knew I was carrying two books!
At noon, we set off on an 8-mile slack-pack. The walk was realt nice. We spent an hour recalling everything we had eaten over the past week. The break in LA was very good for re-establishing some semblance of equilibrium to our chortling GI tracts. Our two-week experiment in junk food dieting ended badly. We felt ill going into the Saufley's and vowed then and there to take better care of ourselves . . . if anyone out there wants to send some good food our way, we're currently accepting applications for long-distance re-supply duty.
It's been a quiet evening. The TV's been running DVDs nonstop. I've been immersed in my typing. We had our second night in a row of Terrie's taco salad and everyon is off to tents and beds . . .
Tomorrow, we walk. Hikertown awaits.
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