grants, and Buddy!

I woke up early this morning, partially excited to get into town early, and partially nervous I was going to get a knock on my tent inquiring why I was camping right next to the back door of the ranger station. Either way, I wasn’t really complaining. 

I put on the kettle (I.e. boiled a cup of water on my stove) to make some coffee. I didn’t even eat my oatmeal as I was excited for a big ol’ subway sandwich, which awaited me at the gas station only about 7-8 miles down the road. 

Only about 15-20 mins into my walk down the road, I look off to the left and see something darting through the bushes. A moment later it pops out, and a black and white lil pup bobbles over to the fence with a sweet look on his face. Very confused, I look around to see if I can see any sign of civilization of vehicles. Nada. 

The pup is sweet, and kind. When I walk over to him he sits down and patiently waits, and I walk away he follows me along the fence. Soon, he finds a little place to climb under the fence so now we’re really next to eachother, but at the same time, now I realize he’s not where he’s supposed to be. I had thought maybe his owners property was vast and he was running around, but now that he was on the side of the road, seemed not to be the case. 

Fortunately, he had a collar on with a number, which I called and left a message. Few minutes later, a woman calls me and says that is in fact her dog, and she lives only a couple miles away and will come pick him up. Funny enough, it seems Buddy here is a repeat offender, and only a few days prior followed a few hikers all the way to the gas station! She had been trying to figure out a gps collar and way to keep him on property without locking him up, but clearly hadn’t found a good solution just yet. 

Happily reunited with his owner, and feeling happy I was able to keep him safe and away from the road, I continued to hike on. The road walk wasn’t anything exciting, and filled with large dump trucks going back and forth hauling dirt from who knows where. I’m sure the drivers laughed as they passed me, who knows how many times, in the span it took me just to walk one way to where they were dumping. 

Right after I passed that spot, there was the highway, and the green and yellow glorious subway sign. A big ol’ foot long was soon fully ingested before the people pumping their gas could fill their tank. 

Still about 5-6 miles left on the day, I soon hopped up and continued down the road. Since the road was the actual “trail” I didn’t throw out the thumb to get a hitch. However, in all honesty, I was walking on the right side of the road and wouldn’t have turned down a ride if someone had offered. Buuut to no avail. The cars rolled by, and off in the distance I could see the orange roof of my hotel for the night get (slowly) closer and closer.  

I also found out that Money, Chef, and Melon were also in town. So after I finally got to my room, showered, plopped down my gear, I walked over to the Walmart to get a few things for the next stretch, to Cuba. I also got a few beers and then went over to hang with the fellas for a bit (and made our own all you can eat Chinese buffet with 7 plates of food, between three of us).

Eager to get some actual rest in, I headed back to my spot across the street around 4-5. Planned to do some laundry, but they had run outta detergent so just plopped into bed and had a food long chat with Lauren before heading to bed. A good half day, indeed.