Date: 2006-07-07
From: Horn Pond

To: Stratton, ME
Miles today: 5.3
Weather: broken clouds

B and Van Go call me Jack, and I dig it. & Van Go is all about the Kurt Vonnegut references, so he's calling our little group a "curass," which I'm pretty sure is a nudge at The Sirens of Titan. But it's been a few years since I read it, so maybe I'm wrong. It might be from Cat's Cradle. Does anyone reading this remember?Some more background on my hiking buddies: Van Go has done all of Maine before in 2002, & when he did this, it was with his buddy Doug. Doug was deep in the throes of heroin addiction at the time, but a month on the trail cured him. Wow. B was in a terrible car accident when he was about 15. He was walking alongside the road when a woman hit him, and he had to relearn how to walk. He got a lot of money in the settlement, but he wasn't allowed to access it until he graduated from college, which he just did in May. He keeps talking about riding a bike across the country after he finishes the AT. I hope he does it.I'm not sure whether or not I've mentioned this, but Laurent is leaving us soon to brush up on his Mandarin before moving to China to teach English. I'll be really sad to see him go. Furthermore: once, when living in Cape Cod a few years back, he was in love with a girl but knew that he had to leave to explore more of the world. So he went to Greece and got a job as the steward on a boat that took mostly French tourists around the Greek islands, so he learned how to cook a lot of Mediterranean dishes. When I asked him what happened with the girl, he said they remained good friends for a while, but haven't talked in the last few years. "But I will always love that girl" he said, and he was standing in Pleasant Pond with the sun at his back & he looked over his shoulder & smiled at me as he said this, & I knew that this was the way I always wanted to remember him.I took a near-o today & got into town before 11. I had a little more trouble hitching a ride on ME 27 than I have before, but I still wrangled one probably within 20 minutes, so it wasn't too bad at all. The guy was cool - he had an ashtray full of Marlboro Red butts and a mountain bike in the back. He said by the end of the hiking season he'll probably have given 150 hikers a ride. And he said he gives so many rides because he hitched cross-country before, so he intimately understands how much they're appreciated.I stayed at the Stratton Motel on the couch for $15. Not a bad deal - free unlimited long-distance calls & internet access. But the guy who owns the place, Don, has a bit of a quick temper. I ate at the diner, found a Madeleine L'Engle book that made me happy, checked v and email. After a bit I wandered across the street to the bar, in search of the usual suspects. B, Laurent & Van Go were hanging out with a local dude, Paul, who was totally obliterated & bought us pitchers of PBR. He provided us with loud, lewd, ridiculous entertainment throughout the night until for some unknown but probably hilarious reasons he gave me $3, & I was kind of freaked out. After that I steered clear of him, in case he wanted...his $3 back. Gross. Haha.I crashed early after not too many beers. A good day.P.S. - A Van Go anecdote: When I couldn't drag myself out of bed (read: my sleeping bag) before Stratton, he tried to encourage me to get up with the following enticing remarks. He was like, "Come on, there'll be pizza. Pizza! Showers! Hookers?" Hookers. Haha.