Date: 2008-06-30
From: Dalton, MA

To: Dalton
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: broken clouds

An ok nite's sleep, but I freakin woke up @ 5 a.m....argh! I watched the tube and witnessed the local weatherman make a huge blooper, he thought he was being taped I guess, because he mispoke about the kids being in school, then made a hilarious blllll sound and then got out of his chair and walked away! The camera was just shooting an empty chair with silence...made me laugh.I waited till 8:30 when the North Adams PO opened, and I called to see about forwarding my stuff here. He said they could do it and it would probably be here tomorrow! Perfect. I asked him to check how many packages were there, and he said 1. Uh oh...he found the box Karen mailed to me with more bug spray and roasted peas (bizzare craving huh? You'd think I was pregnant...NOT!), but my envelope with my maps and guidebook was the one he didn't see, and I mailed that back in April. He said he'd look for it, so I waited 30 min and called back, and he did find it, so both things should be here tomorrow. So I'm zeroing and will head out tomorrow as soon as my stuff arrives. I have 2 plans, 1 for a short day in case it's the afternoon, at about 5 miles, and a longer day @ 14 if I can start in the a.m. This will prevent me from having to stop again in 2 days, so it was the best choice.So with that taken care of, I decided it was time for COFFEE and breakfast. I walked outside and who is there but Alex and his (now safe dad) Tony. Louisa and Tom were here too and we all ended up @ the coffee place next door and ate breakfast together. Tony is a psychiatrist and I was glad to see he could mentally handle the scare and was laughing about it. He managed to get a ride to Dalton instead of hiking, and they've modified their plan to 5-9 miles a day, which is exactly what I would have suggested (if I'd been asked that is). We had a great conversation and Louisa ad Alex were in their own "in love" world, so they didn't talk much. I did get a pic of all of us. It seems Tom is making better decisions for the group now, so that makes me feel better about their safety. Even with zeroing today, I'm guaranteed to catch up to them within 2 days, so we all said bye, but knew we'd see each other again. Whew..what a story huh?So I got my 20oz caffiene fix and a yummy breakfast burrito, and came back to the motel where the other office person (Wendy) asked if I was staying, and I said yes. So folks, my suspicion that Linda was scamming was confirmed and now I've got an ethical dilemma on my hands. Wendy took care of charging me for tonight and she told me the hiker rate is $79.99\nite but with AAA or AARP she can give another 10% off, so I ended up paying $65.00 for tonight. And then Wendy started apologizing for my dirty room, and started coming down on the cleaning lady, and going into this long story about how she was gone for the weekend, etc.I had no idea what she was talking about. The light bulb hadn't gone off yet, so I just let her say her thing and politely listened and then left.I walked away and then DING all of the pieces came together. Yesterday, Linda asked me to pay cash, $75.00 was the "deal" she made for me down supposedly from $104.00. Later when she brought me my laundry, she gave me 2 credit card receipts...one showing she'd charged me, and one showing she'd credited me, and she said something about giving me a free nite because the toilet was dirty...but I had no idea what she was talking about. My room was fine. I just smiled and said thanks and verified my card wasn't charged (I didn't even know why she ran it, I thought she just needed it for security purposes in case of damages or long distance calls...this place does that).Well, what happened is she told the office and Wendy my toilet was dirty, that she gave me a free nite, "proved it" with the credit card receipts that made it look like she charged me and then credited me when I "complained about the dirty room" (which I didn't) and then pocketed my freakin $75.00 cash!! So now I am faced with that aged-old situation....just walk away, this doesn't "really" concern me after I leave this town, or say something to the owner or manager (in childhood terminology..I'd be snitching).Well, I've not actually been put in this situation many times in my life. On one hand, I don't want to cause someone to lose their job, but in reality her choice will be the cause, not my disclosure of her actions. On the other hand, this place services the hiking community, has for years and will continue to do so for years, and they do give hikers a break. So to me, this is actually bigger than just "me" and if I walk away knowing what I know, I don't believe it makes me at fault, but I do believe it is not honest. I think of it from the business owner's perspective too, and if I owned a business, I'd want to know this was happening. Who knows how many other hikers have or will be taken advantage of like this too. (and then I wonder how many people just turned their heads prior to Enron falling or places like that)And oddly enough, my phone rang this morning. It was Linda calling to see if I am staying a second nite, and when I said yes, she asked if I charged it, and I said yes and left it at that. She goes, "Ok, well I'll see you when I get there." She wasn't even at work when she called me! She was probably wondering if I had figured it out and if she was going to have a job when she got here.So here's my plan, they've already had a shift change, so the person I need to speak to is no longer here, but will be back in the a.m. or late this evening I think. When they get here, I'm just going to explain what I think happened and ask that all records of my credit card # be destroyed. I mean shit folks, I swear you all must think I'm making up half the stories I've been sharing about my hike..because sometimes it seems rather unbelievable that ALL of these things could happen to one person, but it's all true.It's shitty all around, and if by some chance I'm wrong about this,I'll drive back to this town and apologize to her face, but my intuition tells me I'm right about this unfortunately. Even if there's a chance that I'm right, I can't hike away with a clear conscience if I don't say something. I'm not the ethics police and I'd never want to be, but for whatever reason I feel I'm being tested and this is what I feel is the right thing to do. So..it's what I'll do.In the meantime, I found out that I can catch a bus for $1.10 and go to Berkshire a few miles down the road to resupply @ a real grocery store (all that's in Dalton are like gas stations) and a Wal-Mart is there too, where I can get even more bugspray (lord forgive me for shopping there...LOL) So I'm totally piped up on my coffee now and will make my resupply list and go take care of that.I talked to my mom, who is en route to her move to Florida, and she's doing great. I'm feeling more positive now, which zeros always help me with. Hopefully tomorrow my stuff will be here, I'll be able to look @ the words "Mt. Katahdin," and I'll be able to stay mentally positive for the remainder.I also have to give you all (my readers) a virtual hug and huge thanks for the incredible words of encouragement. You've all been left hanging on that 6.18 entry while Persistent has been back hiking, and even though I've hiked on, I have continued struggling, so all of your words will be carried with me in my pocketmail and I will return to them for strength when I need it again. Do you all understand the importance of your role to me? Do you understand that when I speak about the "AT Community" that you are as much a part of it for me as the physical hiker who is flying past me?In essence, you are all my hiking partners in your own virtual way, and I appreciate you taking the time to write to me. Oh, and to my buddy Tom..I'm REALLY working on getting a grip on this lightening issue, so thanks for your point..I think you're totally right. First time in my life I've ever borderlined on truly experiencing an irrational fear, but I'm working through it. I don't like being afraid of anything honestly, and I'm usually not one to entertain fear, so yes, my heart still drops into my stomach when I hear thunder out there, but I'm getting really freakin tired of going through the panic cycle..it's exhausting, and why worry about something I have absolutely NO control over other than trying to get low. That's my mantra..it will soon stick the more I repeat it, so I'll be ok in other words (I say this in the safety and worry-free environment of my motel room too! LOL).So it's now evening and I caught the bus, and met a nice woman named Dorothy who just handed me some change so I would have exact change for the bus fare. She's lived here for 47 years!I got to Wally World and did my shopping. I thought about buying one of those mosquitoe coils that you burn..and somehow attaching it to the top of my head while hiking. Then I thought better of it. I checked out and had about 45 min. till the bus came by, so I'm sitting there on a bench and this man walks up with a cart full of plants. He sits down next to me and starts drinking out of a 2 liter bottle of coke that sprayed all over the place when he opened it. I finally looked at him and I'm not joking, he had the exact haircut\color of Moe, from the Three Stooges. Then I realized he was saying hello to cars driving by and talking jibber jabber, and it became abundantley clear he was probably mentally disabled in some way. He did make sure to tell me that I should move my 3 bags closer or I might lose them, so I accomodated his concern and moved them all the way to my right side. I figured he had a hang up with personal space (even though I WAS there first). No big d! eal, the world would be awfully boring if we were all the same you know?The bus shows up, I hop on and we're driving and then I realized we weren't going the right direction. I finally asked the busdriver where this bus went, and I got on the WRONG BUS! LOL I bet "Moe" didn't do this, so there ya go. I got quite the tour of Berkshire, so the bus driver gave me a transfer and radioed another bus to look for me, and he told me where to hop off. Within minutes my correct bus showed up...duh....made me laugh.I also stopped by the PO and asked what time my stuff would probably be here, and they said 9 a.m., so that's great.I got all my crap organized and ready to go for tomorrow. I couldn't talk to anyone tonight by the way, Linda was working again, so I just chilled. Perhaps tomorrow morning, and honestly, I'd feel better getting out of town. You just don't know people or what to expect in their reactions.So I'm pretty tired from having woke up @ 5, so it's time for some zzzzz's. Hiking tomorow unless my mail doesn't show up, but I'm crossing my fingers it will be here. More tomorrow....~Certain