Date: 2011-06-14
From: Noam's Parents' House

To: Pavillion, Port Clinton
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: overcast clouds

(In which I take a zero to hang out with Noam)Despite staying up until 4am, I wake up at 8:30, and eat breakfast with Noam's mother, the only other early riser. I start my clothes washing and Noam's mother gives me an old pair of Noam's sister's clothes to wear instead of my normal rain gear laundry attire.Amparo is the next to rise, wandering sleepily down to kitchen in her nightgown. "I want to apologize to you both," she says when she appears. When we look confused she continues, "for saying the 'sex' word last night. Noam says that I have shocked and appalled you, and offended his family." She says it with a straight face and it takes Noam's mother and me a moment to be sure that she is joking. Amparo turns toward the upstairs bedroom, "It's OK, you can come down now," she calls. Her deadpan sense of humor surprises me, and for the first time I see a bit of Noam in her personality.When Noam comes in (having been outside for walk, not upstairs after all), Amparo tells him, "Don't worry, they've forgiven me." Noam looks confused but, not entirely surprised by whatever shenanigans she might be up to, then looks even more puzzled when he sees that I'm wearing his sister's clothes.Noam and I spend the morning driving around chatting and doing trail errands. I resupply at Wegman's, the largest grocery store I've been to since I've started and the only one yet that's had 100% fruit leather bars. At the checkout I ask the cashier if she has a store discount card I can use, and when she doesn't I ask the guy behind me if I can borrow his. "Do you know him?" the cashier asks skeptically. "Because if you don't you're not allowed to share cards." "Oh we're good buddies," the stranger says smoothly to the cashier, and winks at me when she turns her head.Noam drives me back to the trail, another two hours each way, and I feel lucky to have friends who are willing to spend so much time in cars to see me. We say goodbye at the pavilion and I wonder how much we will each change in the years before we see each other again.I had intended to read where Mehap had headed and try to catch up with him, but when I bumped into Rain Dance in Walmart she said that he had gone to visit his father who was having health issues. Mehap hasn't signed in to the pavilion register, so I gather that he hasn't made his way back on trail yet, and hope that he and his father are doing well. I attempt to send a reply to Papa Mehap, who had commented on my guestbook, but receive an error that the guestbook entry didn't contain a valid email address, so I try to communicate by positive thoughts instead.I decide to spend the rest of the afternoon at the pavilion, since I no longer need to catch up to Mehap and am feeling the effects of my limited sleep from the night before. Tom is also zeroing at the pavilion and asks me if I know how to play Magic the Gathering. I do, though I haven't actually played it in some time. We play three games and I recall how fun the game can be, but not apparently the subtle strategy, as Tom slaughters me all three times.At Walmart I picked up a tiny battery powered speaker that Buffalo and I had ordered online in Duncannon. When I see the speaker in person I laugh at just how tiny it is, only a little larger than an inch in diameter. But when I plug it in to my iPod, I'm astounded by how loud it gets. I can't imagine that the battery life will really last the stated 4-5 hours at high volume, since the speaker seems to weigh almost nothing and consist mostly of lightweight plastic, but if it does and manages not to break, I'd say that we have found a pretty great trail boombox.I test the speaker out in the pavilion, and Tom, Tinman and I all hang out listening to music from Tom's Zune. It's the first social music playing experience I've witnessed so far on the trail, other than the few musicians who have brought their instruments. It's a lot of fun to be able to hear other people's music and satisfying to be able to share the listening experience, and I hope that the little speaker lives to see many a shelter party.