Date: 2007-11-18
From: Bus Rolling Down The Highway

To: "YDG's" House, Liverpool, PA
Miles today: 0.0

*****OK, here it is "Baltimore Jack" VS. "Roni". First of all a disclaimer. I am writing this because "Pokey"(AT 2006) loved the story. She knew both fellas; so, it may not be as funny to you all. I am also writing it for informational purposes to see how alot of these guys interact. I do not mean any offense to B-Jack; just trying "to keep it real, yo." Mid April 2006: Roni and I(I went by "J-Man" this year. I did this because I wanted to hike under the radar. J-Man comes from the movie ENVY with Ben Stiller & Jack Black. They discover "Vapoorize". Christopher Walken plays the J-Man. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XzsUydCxTA ....I chose this name because The J-Man was so anti social. So Roni and I pulled a 26 mile day from Groundhog Creek Shelter, NC to Hot Springs, NC. We were just getting into town around 10:30pm. We were trying to get into town to go to a party that we had heard about and heard for miles away up on the mountain before town. It was being held by a local rafting club. As we came down to the main street in town, I looked to the left and saw a big sign that said Hiker Hostel. It was a new one in The Cody House. Ive seen the house before; but, it was not a hostel before. I was so tired that I had forgot about the party and ask Roni if he wanted to go into this hostel. I told him that he could probably work for stay as he left The Standing Bear Hostel 2 days before without leaving a donation. He said OK, so we went into the hostel. Everyone inside was asleep; so, we sat down on the front porch and sorted out our sleeping gear. I told him that it would be appropriate to go to sleep quickly and quietly, which I did. Of course, Roni did not. He took a shower and wandered around looking for food in the cupboards, hiker box, and refrigerator. As I was just about asleep; I heard someone else come onto the porch. He said, "are you looking for a place to stay? Im the caretaker here!" Roni said, "So what!?" I laughed to myself and thought, "I told you to go to bed." I did not make out much more of the conversation, but, soon Roni had laid down to go to sleep; but, the caretaker prepared a full course meal. He made all kinds of noise and I thought, "man, he is making a lot of noise for midnight; Pretty inconsiderate." The next morning, I woke up and was pretty sore. Also, it was raining and supposed to rain all day; so, a zero was taken. As I moved around, I saw that "Baltimore Jack"(AT 1992, 2000, and a few others)(I got a wife and kid in "Baltimore Jack"; I went out for a ride and never went back). I went down to the outfitters; that ran the Hostel; to pay for the night before and the next night. I went in and said that I wanted to pay for last night and one more night. I also said that there was a "drifter" down at the hostel that stayed last night and would be staying again tonight, do you have any work? A really big, heavy male cashier said, "condescending!" He said it over his shoulder to the owner and real sarcastically. He was calling me condescending about my comment about a drifter. I said man, the guys not going to pay; do you have any work. The owner said, "look at the weather?" I said I would pay for the drifter then. He said, "does this drifter have a name?" as he wrote down the guest list. I said, "Roni". Jack, who was working here during the day, got real passionate and said, "Thanks!" Many of the "For profit" hostels have this ever presence fear of someone getting over & not paying their 15 dollar bill. I guess too, Jack, was under the impression that Roni was going to get a free ride. I picked up my food drop which also included a 50 dollar bottle of PATRON ANEJO Tequila. It tastes just like water. I went back and drank a shot a 10am with Roni, some other old guy that was hitching up the trail, and "Eagle"(YO-YO AT 2006 to present. He is presently in the Front Royal area doing hikes dressed in full confederate military era gear and uniform). During the day Roni had taken the contents of the Hiker Box and was sending it up the trail for future supplies. I bought quite a bit of food that Roni prepared. "Zippo"(AT 2006), jokingly said that I had my own serf. We did leave several things in the refrigerator for the morning breakfeast. One of the items was an onion. As it got towards evening, "The Wanderer(the big guy from Alabama)" came in and said, "Dan, said he knows that some of you SOB's havent paid and need to go down and pay!" Now, that's condescending! Everyone looked around and shrugged their shoulders, we had all paid? Later in the evening Jack came in and went to get some food out of the hiker box and said, "some SOB took everything out of the box!" I laughed to myself, "Roni", I thought. He went around acting out, he knew it was "Roni", too. Jack then went and prepared some hamburgers. Roni came running in and told me, "that SOB is eating your onion!" I said dont worry about, man. Im sure he will share all of those burgers. Well he never did and Roni called Jack, "Onion Jack" from then on because he jacked our onion. The night went on and Jack asked me what time we were thinking of getting up to get going. I said 5am. He said, "na uh, you cant get up that early, youll disturb everyone." Roni said, "Yeah, like you at midnight last night preparing that meal." With all the tequila in me and the situation; this interaction between these two "Drifters of the Trailway"(like monsters of the midway); I was laughing my butt off. Roni said, "I have to mail some stuff out tomorrow." Jack jumped in, "Oh, give me the money and I will send it out for you." Roni replied, "yeah right, like I will ever see that package." It was getting heated; so, I said that I was going to sleep and turned on the air conditioner and fan. In the morning, Jack was making some awful racket making breakfest and then Wanderer came in and turned on the lights, turned off the A/C, and turned off my fan. I was like damn, dont get up at 5am; but, we all get up at 7am! So Roni and I got going, after he quit eating things out of the cupboard. These type of interactions go on all the time on the trail. The old time drifters who have learned how to live off of the trail are always out here. I feel in a way that they take away from some thru hikers experience. They take temporary jobs that could be done by a thru hiker and take alot out of hiker boxes. I kind of picked on Jack here(he actually helps alot of people out); but, there are dozens of guys like him out here. These guys can also take away from thru hikers experiences because they are full of skewed information; talk people into yellow or blue blazing; or slackpacking. They can take alot of the self realization/discovery out of the hike. They also compete with each other for things, including "pink blazing". Roni on the other hand was new to the trail and said, "Hell man, I dont have a car, house, girlfriend, or job. If I new the trail was like this. I would have been out here years ago!"