Date: 2016-11-21
From: Woods hole hostel

To: Cincinnati
Miles today: 0.0

"Home for the mf'ng holidays". This super nice guy sar-tech we met at Shaws liberally sprinkled his speech with mf-er's and for some reason that one stuck with us. So here we are. It was really great to hang with my sister tonight. You forget how different and great it is being on the trail too until other non hiker trash people see you as different. Apparently we're different =]. Although not in appearance. Note to all hiker trash: no need to shave your beard or change clothes. That's how people look in Cincinnati already. Blaze orange sock hat over dirty hair, big scraggly beard, hiker wears. That's the look. This morning left me with a decidedly mixed taste about woods hole hostel. It's supposed to be this hiker oasis and in many ways delivers. It's a gorgeous, pretty self sufficient log cabin with animals everywhere. The rooms and food are great too, I just didn't feel welcome. I think if the bunkhouse had been open it would've been different because inside there's no separation between their house and our hostel. Michael had seemed nice on our shuttle ride to the trail yesterday, but when I got up first today there was no where I could go where I wasn't in the way with him sprinting and huffing about avoiding eye contact. He had made coffee, so I grabbed a cup and then got scolded for it. The bad vibes and tension between him and Neville were palpable, and for him that translated to him just being a dick all over the place. She was super chill and welcoming but in hindsight threw her shots in too. At dinner last night they give thanks before eating and you have to say one thing you're grateful for. She said I'm grateful I know when Michael's lying to me and when it got to him he said I'm grateful that I never lie then stormed off. So yeah, tension. And in our snapshot it's impossible to judge but hopefully they're going through a temporary rough patch. One of their goats had some lesions that Kate and Jen were gonna look at for them. So after breakfast she was like just go get ready while I clean up and then we'll go look at the goat. Apparently he then flipped out in front of buckshot that we didn't help cleanup. And this is a breakfast we pay for to by the way, and helped cooked and set up for. And the zingers kept coming. He just is clearly in a bad place right now and I hope that subsides for him soon. In the meantime though, I'd avoid this place unless the bunkhouse is open. On a positive note, they have an awesome history. Her grandma ran it as a hostel for hikers since the 40s. And her typeset memoirs are great. The way she describes hiker culture is exactly the same as now. And her husband was a grad student studying now non existent elk there. The locals sometimes saw that as highly unlikely and that he must be a German spy. Anyway we eventually got out in Jens car and took tealeaf and buckshot with us. That poor guy has been dealing with tunnel vision for a week and decided he better get his head checked at the clinic before their friend picks them up for thanksgiving. Really hope that goes well. Not least for if it does then we'll probably be back on trail around the same time and place and can meet up soon. I mightve mentioned already we've decided that we are the sobo bubble.