Bunny is very efficient. For the two previous days, she has been preparing a list of tasks for me to accomplish on our off days. She has one item on her list; work on the video. I have to prepare the food, repair gear, write reviews, update the blog, contact people about our potential jump to Oregon, do laundry, contact manufacturers about defective equipment, and pay bills. Sounds fair to me. I’m growing as a person—never question my wife.
We are nearing the end of the desert section and we really don’t have anywhere to go that isn’t under snow at present. We have decided that we are just going to kick it into a lower gear (if that is possible) and stretch out the 75 miles of desert we have left before jumping up to Ashland, OR. Once we get up there, we might rent an AirBnB for a week or go do some other trails in the area to kill time until middle to late May when we’ll, hopefully, be able to make some northern progress.
I also had another reason to take a double zero in Wrightwood. 4/25 is my sister’s birthday. She died over 27 years ago. Hardly a day goes by that I still don’t think about her. She was 10 1/2 years older than me. If she we’re alive, she’d be 66 today. She was only 38 when she died leaving behind 2 little girls (Jill and Jennifer) and her husband, George.
It’s so strange to me to be almost 20 years older than my big sister. She was the cornerstone of our family, the oldest child, first grandchild, and only female offspring. Everyone liked Beth. I remember her funeral. Originally, they had placed her body in a smaller side room at the funeral home but they had to move her into the large chapel because so many people showed up to pay their respects. Beth was a nurse that touched so many people’s lives. It was comforting that so many people came.
It wasn’t/isn’t fair that a happy person like my sister died so young. She had fought liver cancer for nearly 2 years before she couldn’t fight any more. I avoided coming to see her at the end knowing that she wanted to see me again. I figured if she didn’t see me, she wouldn’t die. I finally did go see her and she died the next day. She was on a self injecting Demerol pump. When the medicine wore off, she’d wake up enough to say “Kritus, Kritus,…” until the timer would allow her another injection. Kritus was her pet name for me because of one of my classmates in second grade couldn’t pronounce my name.
Beth got a double helping of happiness when she was born. I guess she took my share. She was a compassionate care giver to her patients. She was probably a little hard on her daughters, expecting perfection from them at times, but they both turned out great, thanks to George raising them as a single dad, after their mother died when they were so young. I rarely do well on Beth’s birthday or the anniversary of her death. I still get depressed. I suppose it will be this way until I die. Old habits are hard to break.
We did do the usual town things that we always do. Our Angel Alice sent us another food shipment which will carry us through the end of this section of trail. When we finish, we will have passed a significant milestone. For the first time this year, we will have less than 2000 miles to hike to finish up.
Our motel doesn’t have washing machines and there’s no laundromat in town. When we went up to the office to ask, a woman working in a shop offered to take us to her house to do laundry when she got off work. Diana has been an active trail angel for the last three years.
Wrightwood rolls out the red carpet for PCT hikers. Almost every business offers hiker discounts and people are generous with rides to the point we don’t even have to stick out a thumb to get a ride. It’s enough to wear the hiker town uniform—crocs and a puffy jacket.
EFG
Welcome to Episode #9
You finally arrived in heaven, your home in a wine cellar! Hope they have plenty of popcorn.