People I met
Swarm
Tutu
Freebird and Marina
Today had a normal enough start. We woke up with the sun, which make sense for a room without curtains filled with a bunch of hikers who are used to waking up with the sun.
I tried one of the other coffee shops in the town, but they had an eternal Xmas display up and I don’t really feel like dealing with that. I popped in, looked around, saw it wasn’t my vibe, and went back to the Dutch coffee shop. Those pastries though.
Something really weird happened this afternoon. The owners of the hostel approached me and asked if I could figure out what was going on with Spirit. He’d been asking around for work he could do and hadn’t given any sign of wanting to leave. They’d talked with some legal-inclined friends and determined that two weeks was the absolute threshold they could host somebody without allowing them to get squatter’s rights.
I asked Spirit what his plans were, just conversationally. I approached it as a situation of “hey I’m stuck here because of my pole, what’s your game plan?” He got immediately defensive with his tone and said “I’m going as soon as I can.”
About an hour later I was sitting on the porch with the hosts and Spirit came out with one of their folding bikes. He asked them, not if he could borrow it, but how to unfold it for use.
They asked him to leave immediately. They interpreted it, and I think it was correct, as him trying to take it without permission. They also were leery of his preaching and his asking for work. I went upstairs, per their request and for my own sake, to make sure he took only his things. Upstairs he yelled at me for telling them he proselytized to me. We got into a verbal argument, in front of Oopa and Brandon, and then went back downstairs.
Just before he was being asked to leave, a car pulled up with hikers. It was rented and driven by Dance On, who I hadn’t seen since the Lake Arrowhead trail magic, Swarm, Tutu, Marina, and her partner Freebird. Dance On took off, having just dropped off everyone in the car.
The new arrivals dropped their stuff off upstairs, then went off to get food. It was when they got back that everything with Spirit was happening.
Swarm and Tutu were looking for spots outside, and ultimately decided to sleep inside. Marina and Freebird opted to get a room of their own at a motel.
Michael and Annika were concerned it was what happened that caused Marina and Freebird to get the motel, but it was only because they’d been traveling with the others for so long and they needed some alone time. It was typical couples stuff, not hostel drama, that took them away.
Otherwise, I still hadn’t heard back from Nemo about my tent pole yet and I was getting really antsy. I asked one of the workers if I could borrow some pliers. I figured I might be able to get the pole to fit in the splint or I could jury rig something with a spare stake and duct tape. I just wanted to be out back on trail.
After about thirty seconds of trimming aluminum pieces from the poles, the splint fit right on! I was ready to go!
I let Michael and Annika know the good news! We talked and said how much we’d miss each other. They told me their local hospital is always needing PTAs which I believe.
It was off to bed after that. I was eager to resupply in the morning and continue on.