Dec. 20th
The natives were mostly friendly, John loaning his car, for example. But, according to the rules of American kamping, some morons have to sour the soup: A gang of four drunken Asians pulled into the sight next to us--well, they were soon to be drunk. They piloted a beautiful but noisy diesel 4X4 with an Alaskan pop-up camper. They idled for long minutes getting everything set up. Then they got down to drinking. The only thing that saved us were silicone earplugs jammed deep. A fellow tenting nearby said he almost lost it when the merry revelers cranked Celine Dion. Since the party went down inside the camper, the earplugs mostly saved us. But, joy of joys, the idiots decided to leave at 5:45AM, the growling diesel engine idling for way too long. Compounding their complete lack of respect of others was the fact that we were in a tenting-only area. Finally Jodi couldn't take it anymore and jumped out to give them a piece of her mind right before they pulled away. "Are you guys staying here another night?" she yelled over the roar of the engine. The fellow she confronted was deeply red-faced and sweating, hungover hard from the drunk fest only a few ours done. "No, no, we leaving!" he groaned in deeply accented English. At last the obnoxious rig and its bleary-eyed occupants grumbled off into the predawn gloom, clattering valves and pistons audible for hundreds of yards in the early stillness. What's not to love about kamping?
Awake beyond redemption, Jodi took Django and marched off into the dark for a short walk. I collected my few remaining wits and staggered out of the tent to make brew. Eleven hours in the nylon cave was enough.
So began our rest day--showers (bliss!), laundry, a few minutes cleaning up emails. The only mishap of the day was getting back to camp and realizing I'd left Jodi's Kindle charging back at the laundromat. Lovely. Unload the trike, unhook the trailer, and Scotty was off to the races to retrieve the goods. I was worried, of course, that the device would be gone, but the ride on the unloaded tandem was wonderful, zipping around corners and generally having a blast. And the Kindle was where I'd left it--totally charged for good measure. Back to camp for a good feed.
Miles: Meh; Total: Not much more
Climb: Double meh. It was a rest day, ya know?
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