Monday, May 18th--Day 26

There is an ice cream store here, although I have not visited it yet. Yet.

Woke up this morning a hundred times better, happier than last night. It surprises me how quickly and completely we recover from a grueling, awful day. Every single morning, I've woken up ready to hike, ready to cover whatever miles and hardships lie before us. I'm very thankful for that.

Hit the trail (Acorn Trail) and made a fast descent down to Acorn Drive, a street lined with large wooden houses, more beautiful and luxurious than rustic. Followed Acorn Drive down into downtown Wrightwood, which was just waking up. Stopped for water at a cafe (food was too expensive) then to the post office for our food box.

Wrightwood is a really nice town. It's a little like Idyllwild in that it's well planned out for the pedestrian, with all the necessary stops (post office, market, hardware store) very close to each other. And, as in Idyllwild, the residents love thru-hikers. We quickly found ourselves at the home of a very kind woman, named Molly Ann, who offered to put us up for the night. We have showered, eaten, washed our clothes, and played Guitar Hero. Speaking of guitars, there is a real guitar here that I'm in love with. It transforms all of my clumsy fingerings into beautiful wooden sound. I played it until my fingers hurt too much to continue.

I can't really describe how generous complete strangers have been to us out here. I didn't like people before, but I'm starting to like them now. In general, I mean.

After a huge dinner and lots of phone calls, we headed out to the bar for karaoke, at which I am like a God-King. Unfortunately, there was none, so we drank beer and shot pool until closing time.

I'm not really that awesome at karaoke. I regret that God-King remark. It's way, way past bedtime. Goodnight.