Date: 2009-06-06
To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

Dear readers,Let me continue the saga of my crazy emotional week. My last entry ended with me waking up really late with a large day of hiking ahead of me. Luckily, I felt well rested and emotionally renewed from the trials of the prior day. And, it was sunny. Life was good again. I set off ready to take on the day, aware it was likely going to be a late arrival at camp that night. The hiking was nice and I appreciated the time to think and reflect on the prior day. Bad days happen to the best of us. I was glad to see I could turn over a new leaf and have a positive outlook the next morning and be content, hiking alone with my thoughts for 21 miles. Don't underestimate the power of a good night of sleep! The hiking was fairly easy, but it was hot. According to the registers, everyone had come and gone well before me at each of the shelters I stopped at to take breaks.At mile 16, I passed through Pen-Mar Park. I was running low on water and had been rationing my last few sips, so I was thankful to finally arrive somewhere with water. Then, I saw it. Out of the corner of my eye, a blue glow was coming from around the corner of the closed concession stand. Could it be? Yes... it was a soda machine. All thoughts of water were quickly averted and my newest priority became a 20 oz. bottle of Mountain Dew. I knew I had cash on me, the question was how much and in what form. The sodas were $1.50. I anxiously got out my wallet to see what I could find. My $20 bill was useless. Yes, one single! Now for the change... it's heavy, I usually try to spend it or put it all into tip jars before leaving towns. One quarter.... one nickel.... seven pennies.... and nothing else. No, no, no, this is not happening. I am not thirteen cents away from a Mountain Dew. I emptied every pocket and potential coin holder in my pack to see if I could scrape together anything else, but with no luck. I looked around to see if there was anyone I could ask for spare change from. The only man in the park was really far away and looked quite absorbed in whatever he was reading on the picnic table. I didn't wish to bother him. There were two little girls no older than 7 playing on the swings. I could ask them... but taking money from a little child just seems wrong. With begging ruled out, I thought about what I had in my pack to barter with. The only things useful I had that I would trade for a quarter were stamps. For some reason, this seemed like a better idea than begging. But that does me no good without people around. I moved onto homeless tactic #2: looking for coins. I walked around the park looking for any potential signs of silver coinage on the ground. Under picnic tables, under and in the change return slots of all vending machines, in the bathrooms, in the grass. It's a huge public park. Someone had to have dropped a quarter somewhere! Nope. Damn. One of the little girls walked up to me... she asked if I wanted a piece of gum. Wanting to say "what I really want is a Mountain Dew from that machine", I held my tongue and politely said "I would love a piece of gum, that's so nice of you to ask." She opened her hand up to display a square blue piece of gum, not in a wrapper or anything. The blue coloring was coming off from the sweat of her hand. I took it and thanked her again. She seemed pleased. When she wasn't looking I threw it away. I'm sure I've eaten worse, but when it comes to germs on little kids' hands, I don't mess around. That much I learned from being a toddler teacher. I felt a little bad, but oh well. I was still focused on trying to "Do the Dew".This was the one time all day I wished I wasn't hiking alone. When you are with someone else, together you can usually scrape up enough spare change to buy whatever it is you're craving out of a machine, even if it means sharing. It's still better than not at all. That day, I walked away Mountain Dewless. I vowed never to get rid of spare change before leaving town again. I chalked it up to Katahdin (I refer to Katahdin in god-like fashion these days) not wanting me to have exorbitant amounts of sugar and caffeine in my system for the last 5 miles. Maybe it would have made them too easy? I trudged onward, sipping my water bottle, pretending it was fizzy and electric yellow in color. I arrived at the shelter around 8 o'clock that night, glad to see all of the Goonies there. Best of all, there were two quarters sitting on the picnic table. I smiled, picked them up and stuck them in the pocket of my hipbelt so that I will always have fifty cents in change on me. Overall, it was a good day, no caffeine necessary.Happy Trails,Wags