[at-l] dec 22nd, 1999

[AThiker@smithville.net (Felix)]

Get yer badselves a cup of coffee and belly-up to the
screen. It's time
for the latest installment of "Year ago today...", only, I'm
starting
with a "Year ago yesterday..." instead. I think it's okay to
do that. I
haven't heard otherwise.

A year ago yesterday I hiked in to Hot Springs. On the way,
I passed
some hunter-type men. They were teaching an unhunter-type
kid to be a
hunter-type kid. They were chasing, yes 'chasing' a squirrel
through the
woods. Well, dad and junior were. Granddad was yelling at
them. The
first thing I heard as I was coming down the hill (the hill
that you go
down to get to the bridge over that highway north of HS) was
a bunch of
shooting, then a bunch of yelling. I waited a little while,
up the hill.
The shooting stopped, and I started again. The fellers were
all standing
on the Trail when I got there, 'cept for the kid-type one. I
talked to
them for a while. They were okay, just not real good
hunter-types. At
least the kid-type one.

Anyway, I got to town at about 11. I called my good friend
Alice
Kauzlaauzlaauzlarich. I ate fajitas while I waited for her.
We went and
visited Wingfoot for a while. In fact, I think that is where
she met me.
She took me to a grocery store in a town that wasn't Hot
Springs. That
is where I did one of the things I regretted most on the
entire hike. (I
did not regret the thing that happened in Buena Vista. I
regretted the
results. Big difference.) I was in a grocery store, and a
hardware
store, and a dime store. I did not regret this part. The
part that I
regretted was the part that made me say "$15 for a
disposable camera? No
way I'm paying $15 for a disposable camera." When I was in
the Smokys, I
would have paid $115 bucks for half the camera. I would have
given my
left liver for one on Thunderhead. I would give my GED
certificate for
one picture of that sunset. (Were I to have my GED
certificate, I mean.)

Again, anyway...I spent a very enjoyable evening with the
Kauzlaauzlaauzlariches. (From now on: Kuazes) This is where
I found out
that my dad has prostate cancer. Don't ask him about it. He
won't talk
about it. I also learned two things about chickens here. Who
would have
thought that there were two things I didn't know about
chickens?

The next a.m., (A year ago today) Alice took me back to Hot
Springs. It
was raining/sleeting. Marty was drivin'. We met Wingfoot at
the
restaurant (Smoky Mountain Diner, me tinks). Alice and Marty
ate a ran.
Wingfoot and I had a nice, long chat. It confirmed what I've
always
said: I like Wingfoot. It also confirmed something I wasn't
sure about:
I wasn't going to join ATML when I got home. I am not the
type of guy
Wingfoot wants on his list. I am probably not the guy a lot
of you want
on this list. I digress. Anyway, I knew that the message I
would bring
back from my hike wasn't the message that Dan was gonna want
on the
list. I realized that over coffee.

I left town in a cool drizzle, a little past noon. Walking
out of the
last trailtown was a bittersweet thing. It was dark and cold
when I sat
down on a Bluff Mt rock for a Snickers Bar. It was much
darker and
colder when I got to Roaring Fork Shelter. I think it was a
little after
8. There was another guy in the shelter, asleep. I quickly
woke him. We
had a nice long chat. He was a mind doctor of some sort. I
played with
his while he studied mine. (Minds, that is). It got VERY
cold that
night. It warmed up enough to be raining the next morning,
though....Hey, that would be "A Year ago tomorrow." Must
stop now...

--
Felix Navidad
ME-->GA '98
"Your Move"
http://Felixhikes.tripod.com/