Red River rest

June 2

Another breakfast, another smothered breakfast burrito. Green chile is such a flexible term that it seems to be meaningless. This morning's was in the camp where they believe it's sausage gravy with diced green chile suspended in it. Tasty, but odd.

By the time I hit the sidewalk out the restaurant, the bright morning sky was already beginning to be dotted with clouds, and the wind was picking up. I stopped into an outfitter and got a balaclava and a cheapo low-quality down vest on summer clearance. I'd no appetite for sleeping cold again, and the trail was going up high in this next hitch.

In the grocery store, enthusiasm wrestled caution and won. I walked out with a lot more food than I needed, a direct reaction to having walked into town with literally only peanuts to eat. 

Outside, I sat on the ubiquitous unoccupied bench that all grocery stores seem to feature. Field stripping my food -- removing excess packaging and sometimes repackage in ziplock -- I convinced myself to give up a couple things. Wouldn't be needing all ten packets of oatmeal from that box, after all. When I'd got my kit together, I tossed the garbage and stood there with a little box of extra food. What to do with it? 

An older woman walked by with what looked like her grandson, and I asked her is she wanted the food. I was pretty sure it would weird her out; the unintended implication might be that she needed charity.

But no. She looked at me, accepted it, and thanked me. "You just have extra and want to find someone who can use it," she said. Exactly, I replied.

By this time it was early afternoon the white fluffy clouds had turned into leaden hammer-of-the-gods clouds, When they broke into a sudden downpour of pea-sized hail, I did the brave thing and got a hotel for the night. I spent the rest of my day soaking in the hot tub and watching baseball. 

When night cane, I walked down to the bar to see a live rockabilly band in color-coordinated outfits play to an audience of ten, including the lone, hula-hooping dancer. I'm not too much of a dancer, but even if I had been, she was kind of taking all the oxygen from the room. I walked back to bed.