Date: 2009-05-19
To: Costco madness! (and a word on food drops)
Miles today: 0.0

Yes, I did it! I went to Costco and let me admit, went a little nuts. I went down the isles and bought every delicious food my heart desired in large quantities. It was extremely and oddly cathartic. I got a variety of dried fruits, nut and seed mixes (including Bare Naked "Take a Hike" mix!), granola bars, oatmeal, fancy-shmancy organic poptarts, whole wheat pasta, and instant brown rice packets.As you can tell, I did end up buying enough food for all of our mail drops(oops!) I'll repackage it all into individual one-day's worth of food ziplocks and if there are entire bags left over I'll return them... or at least that's what I kept telling myself last night as I packed more stuff into the shopping cart. I mentioned earlier that I was only buying a few mail drops worth of food in case we got sick of what I bought. Instead, I made sure to buy only one bag of everything so that no two mail drops will be the same at all, and also left enough food unbought to allow for ample last-minute improvisation.I also made a 90% effort to buy whole and organic foods, and few things with ingredients I couldn't pronounce (a lot of dried fruit and nut mixes have sugar and all sorts of weird oils and chemicals in them). I'm just not willing to sacrifice my foodie habits. I probably paid $40-50 dollars more for organic poptarts, peanut butter, oatmeal, granola bars, Baked Naked trail mixes, etc than had I bought their "conventional" weird-ingredient laden counterparts. However, I'm a strong believer in fueling your body with the highest quality fuel you can afford. And I say I gave only 90% effort because I quietly and happily sneaked two bags of dark-chocolate covered pomegranate seeds, as well as a package of Nutella into the cart. You would be sadly mistaken if you thought I could go that long without chocolate.Also, a word on food drops. You can access our list of mail drops by clicking the ¢Mail Drops¢ link on the left sidebar. These are the 10 places we intend to send ourselves the said Costco food. Everywhere else we pass through has a decent grocery store, so a mail resupply is not be needed. If you, out of the goodness of your heart, would like to send us some treats, you can send it to one of the listed addresses. However, you MUST notify one of us that you¢re sending it for two reasons. First, we¢ll unknowingly ask for one package at the pick-up off point instead of two and miss out on your kindness. Second, you should include an ETA or ¢Estimated Time of Arrival¢ so the recipients know approximately when to expect us. If you tell us (via phone, email, guestbook, or parent) that you¢re sending something, we can estimate when we¢ll get to the pick-up location from about two weeks out, which is how long in advance you should send packages. Make sure you also write ¢Attention: Hold for Thru-hiker¢ on the package so the store or post-office knows to not chuck it if we don¢t pick it up right at the ETA. And lastly, if you want to send a package in between these drops¢there is a 500+ mile gap where mail resupply is not needed¢ you can ask us for the closest post office ahead of us on the trail and we¢ll be happy to give you an address. That¢s about it! Of course, feel no obligation to send us treats, but if you do, you will in all likelihood have our undying love and affection. Anya