54) How an imperfect day turned into a perfect one

 

April 29, Day 30

 

Spontaneous change of plan:

After tackling all our errands by 5:30 pm and confronted with the idea of departure, we spontaneously decided to book another night at Big Bear. Now we're at the beautiful lake-side Marina Resort (even our room features a view of the lake!), thanks to the lousy weather forecast for today: heavy fog, light rains, and bloody cold. We're at 2000 meters altitude, after all! Given yesterday's terrific zero day, leaving Big Bear today would have been all too depressing. Besides which we can really use the time for other things. Tomorrow the forecast is much better!

 

But, from the beginning: Midmorning we did our laundry in the basement facilities of the main lodge, the Honey Bear, a 20-minute walk from our lodge, the Embers. Permission was granted as a kind of reparation for the faulty TV and the ants who shared the room with us. Hotal manager Rachel was kind enough to offer to drive us to the post office in Big Bear City (5 miles away). Just in the nick of time, Sabine realized we'd once again forgotten our trekking poles. Rachel took us back to the Embers so we could pick up our poles. On the other hand: Downhill Mike was still in the city and would certainly have picked up our poles again. You recall he helped us once before, bringing our poles with him on the 3-day trek from Julian to Warner Springs.

 

After the 15-minute drive to the P.O., it took us an hour to take care of our correspondence. We had posted our old tent to this address in the event that the new one wasn't adequate. Since the duplex had proved perfect under varying temperatures, we mailed the old tent to our friend Marylou in New York. The two hard drives we'd ordered had also arrived. Now all we need is a computer to copy our film material. We plan to check out the local library tomorrow.

 

Afterwards, we did some grocery shopping in a small but well-stocked supermarket around the corner – to the tune of $140. Moved into a new room, ate pizza, and met Downhill Mike for a beer at the brewery. Mike plans to return to the trail tomorrow, as well. We’ve decided not to stop in Cajon, but to continue another 30 kilometers to Wrightwood – a total of 174 kilometers in about 8 days, to the southern foothills of the Mojave-Desert ...

 
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