No walking

On my hike I lost two things. The cap for the filter (which covers the outlet port) and the key to the van. The key had been in my right front pocket for the first four days, and I kept thinking, I should put that away. Then the fifth day it wasn’t in my pocket any more. Luckily, though, Heleen and Tom had been better stewards of the extra key I had left at their house.

Early in the cool morning I went out to the van and opened the side door and sat in the back seat. I experienced a great and calm satisfaction. The van is sort of like a backpack, but with even more stuff; the substantial and endearing difference is that it will carry me where I want to go, I don’t have to carry it.

The PCT thru-hikers refer to a day off as a zero day,” in that they cover no miles. I had a zero day at the house in Starlite. I could have gone off" on a bike ride with Tom, but instead I sat in the living room with Heleen and read The New Yorker and dozed, then read some more…. Later, for lunch, Heleen cut up bread and Dutch cheese and tomatoes from the garden.

The afternoon was hot again…. I did get off the couch long enough to pack some of my gear in the van, do laundry…. But mostly I sat and read or chatted….

In the evening Tom and Heleen had a dinner date with colleagues from the hospital, a radiologist and her husband. These were not people they knew well, or apparently had much in common with, but the radiologist, a Russian woman, was new, and Tom was being friendly. They invited me along, but I thought it best to stay home…. Even though they were going to the Thai restaurant down at the airport.

Before dinner they were supposed to stop at the couple’s house in town to meet their one-year-old baby. Heleen, who had reservations about the outing, voiced half-joking reluctance about visiting the baby. “Now, if it was a puppy or a dog….,” she said, laughing as if she were joking. But I don’t think she was.

I had the house to myself, and sat on the floor in the living room beside the coffee table and ate leftover bean burrito and pizza and read the latest issue of Harper’s, reveling in and appreciating the culinary and cultural gifts of civilization.