So much!

We slept in this morning until 5 minutes before the continental buffet shut down, ate the surprisingly gross food for how nice a hotel it is (I am sure that it didn't help that that we both made buttered and jellied toast with bread that turned out to have caraway seeds, not flax). Then we sorted and repackaged our food, once again going through, "this isn't enough/this is way too much cycles." I think we concluded that it's way too much. And boy oh boy, it doesn't take up that much space, but trail mix sure adds pounds.

We loaded Carmen's pack up with all the food, and headed to the nearest shipping location. Unfortunately, they didn't have any flat rate boxes, and we can't use UPS for general delivery, which would have been cheaper. So $54 later for two boxes of food, we headed to REI for our last second, no-fly items like bear/man spray and stormprrof matches.

The bus was an adventure in itself. We bought our tickets while an autistic kid sang, danced and squealed while his angellically patient mother got him to take his passport photos, and on our other side, an old man with a foreign accent, obviously not completely there was trying to get a refund for his bus ticket and spoke very loudly about how it was an "med-ee-cal e-mare-jhen-see." Back out on the street, a woman who had been talking to the picures on the side of the bus conversed at us about how the price of cigarettes really should drop, now that gas was back to $0.29/gallon.

On the bus, there was a... person who I first noticed thinking, "Hey, that man's kinda hot!" and quickly realized was having a silent, animated conversation with somebody across the bus who wasn't there. I was confused, because the broad shoulders, skinny legs, and square jaw were all very masculine, but the boobs and lack of Adam's apple were feminine. I would been okay saying, "okay, transgender," but the clothes were very masculine. If you felt that you were a woman beyond that minor detail of owning a dick, wouldn't you dress like one? When four Mormons got on the bus, Carmen muttered under her breath, "Don't you dare strike up a conversation with these guys!" but she didn't need to worry, the object of my scrutiny quickly got up to go over and flirt. Seeing the boys squirm was priceless, and her goodbye wave solidified the use of the feminine pronoun in my mind.

When we got back to the hotel room after our journey to REI, we loaded up our packs with the food and water too. So much trailmix! I had my second or third gear (minor)-failure when I realized that the short, wide-around compression sack couldn't actually fit in my pack with my water bladder full. So now my sleeping bag and down jacket are just stuffed free I the bottom of mu pack, and I swear it msould fit better if compressed better.

Carmen and my packs weighed 22 and 29 lbs respectively when we went through the airport baggage check. Adding 13 lbs water, 3/4 lbs bear spray, and 9 lbs food... that's 45 to 52 lbs. I think I may need to let Carmen carry more, and I predict we get rid of the folowing items:
-tent body
-clothes
-toiletries that both Carmen and I have.

So now I have a gear wishlist:
Bug headnet, NO wire!
Sea-to-summit ultra-sil compression sack, M or L, big enough to fit a 0 degree L bag,
(micro) XD card for my camera.


Okay, I'm finally sleepy.


- Typoed on my iPhone

Location:Columbia St,San Diego,United States