Thursday, March 14, 2019
I shipped off my resupply boxes this morning, using Uber again to transport them to the post office. The driver wasn’t as accommodating as the driver in Bend – he parked across the street from the hostel so I had to make two trips to transport the boxes to his car, then he parked across from the post office so I had to make two trips again. In the car I gave him a cash tip to try to schmooze him, but he acted suspicious of the change and said that he had never seen dollar coins before. Hey, I’m not an expert on American currency, but a ticket machine in the metro gave me that!
The rest of the day was travel. Buses, train, trolley. I met a hiker at the bus station in El Cajon and automatically shook his hand when he held it out, breaking my pledge not to touch other hikers’ hands. DAMMIT, JANET. He told me his name but I’ve forgotten it. I’ve come around on the concept of trail names since they’re easily memorable. Yes, there may be hundreds of Jokers or Sunshines out there, but at least I can remember what to call you in a category narrower than ‘human’. Suggested trail prank: identify the people without trail names and name them all the same thing.
Excited to get on the trail tomorrow!