Date: 2011-06-21
From: The Church of the Mountain Hostel, Delaware Water Gap

To: The Church of the Mountain Hostel, Delaware Water Gap, Day 2
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: overcast clouds

(In which I zero through Naked Hiking Day and watch my first movie on the trail)Mehap, Tom and I walk down to the bakery half an hour before it opens and sit by river, imagining our breakfast. When the bakery opens we run eagerly into the shop to hungrily survey the options. I order a cinnamon roll and egg, cheddar and bacon sandwich on an everything bagel. When I turn around I see that Tom is holding a gigantic peanut butter cream pie and Mehap is gazing at it with anticipation. I look enviously at their pie and they in turn look jealously at my breakfast bagel, so we arrange a trade of half of my bagel for a large slab of pie. I finish my breakfast pleasantly full, but Mehap and Tom look sick when there is still almost half of the pie left. They end up bringing the rest of the pie back to the hostel, where it can be more fully appreciated by the collection of remaining hikers.Tom and I, who are zeroing, catch the 10am shuttle to Stroudsburg, and Mehap, who plans on hiking out, comes along for a ride to Walmart. After watching me use my Kindle every day and trying it out for himself, Mehap decides to spring for a Kindle. Mehap's father has not been able to update Mehap's blog while he recovers from his double knee replacement surgery, and Mehap thinks that it would cheer him up if he kept the blog going with his own posts. Tom and I wave goodbye when we get off the shuttle in town, knowing that we may not see him anytime soon if he leaves today and speeds up like he's planned to.We walk to a laundromat, and in the absence of any bathrooms, I briefly celebrate naked hiking day in a corner of the laundromat while I switch into my rain gear. We follow laundry with slushies (mine from Dunkin Donuts, Tom's from Wawa, both of ours bright blue) and then walk across town to the library for more internet.At the library we see Denim, the sectioning southbounder who, in his torn off jeans and sleeveless shirt, looks more hipster than hiker. He likes our plan to watch the Woody Allen movie, and decides to meet us at the theater. Tom and I surf the net until the slow speed of the connection finally convinces us to walk over to the bus stop. It's a hot, cloudless day, and the shadeless parking lots remind me of how lucky I've been to have all of the tree cover on the AT. I try to picture myself hiking the PCT, but can't picture myself enjoying the long sections of desert.We catch the bus to the movie theater and sit on the pavement in the shade of the awning until the theater opens. When the doors finally open we buy our tickets (the man behind the counter gives us an honorary student discount, what with us being hikers) and then sit in the cool, air conditioned theater to wait the hour until the movie starts.The experience of sitting in the dark and watching a story played out on the big screen is a strange and enjoyable one. As with music, if not as strongly, movie deprivation makes everything on screen seem better and more powerful. And though I can tell that the movie isn't as good as earlier Woody Allen fantasies like The Purple Rose of Cairo, it is still a mesmerizing experience.The movie is a lighthearted wish fulfillment fantasy involving time travel, Paris and an assortment of beautiful women. It seems more than anything that Woody Allen tried to think of what he'd most like to watch and, being Woody Allen, got his choice of Hollywood movie stars to act it out for him. The difference between Schmuck's fantasy and Woody Allen's is that Woody Allen's is less explicit and more playfully drawn out.After the movie we stop by Dominos for some cheesy bread and coke, and then cut through a poor section of town to reach the bus that will take us directly back to Delaware Water Gap. The predominantly black locals look at at us strangely as we walk with our pizza boxes through the small residential side streets. I wonder how many hikers make it to this section of the town several miles off trail and what we must look like without our packs to and to people not used to seeing thru-hikers. We've definitely become hobos, I decide, and it's not an unpleasant new identity to have.Back at the hotel we read that Mehap, having struck out on his Kindle mission, had hiked on. I hope that I will see him again someday, and that the rest of his hike goes well. I play some more Magic the Gathering with Tom, winning one out of three games this time, and sit around talking, as is the hiker pastime.After nearly two days without hiking, I miss the trail, but it's not the same sense of urgency of before. Instead it's more of a pleasant longing, and after a resupply and trip to the outfitter, I look forward to returning to the trail and sleeping outdoors tomorrow.