An Israeli, an Englishman, a Canadian, and an American Walk Into a Bar....

May 9: I woke up at a leisurely rate, in the small apartment in Riverside that my sister calls home. We went out the night before with one of her friends--Vanessa--and got some pizza. I also met her roommate, Rachel. I knew all of my male trail buddies would be jealous that I spent the evening with three young girls. =)

I packed up my gear, ready to head back to The Trail. Tierra stopped at WinCo so I could resupply food, then she stopped at a nearby Costco to get some printer ink for herself. I took the opportunity to buy a churro and polish dog for lunch/breakfast.

Then she drove me back to Idyllwild. The weather forecast for the night looked positively gruesome with 50 mph wind gusts and the snow level dropping to 6000 feet. I decided right then to take a zero day and figure out what everyone else was doing. I didn't want to continue through the snow by myself, so I needed to find out when other hikers would brave the snow and go back to the trail.

I walked to the Idyllwild Inn to check in, then promptly panicked when I discovered my wallet missing! #*#$&@@@! I called my sister from the phone there, praying that she would answer. Praying that my wallet fell out of my pocket in her car. Praying that she'd ignore that silly little law about not talking on a cell phone while driving. Assuming she even got coverage on that narrow, windy road that we drove up on.

She did answer her cell phone however, and did confirm that my wallet was in the car. *whew* Crises averted. She started the drive back to Idyllwild--fortunately, she hadn't gone far when I discovered this problem, and was shortly rejoined with my wallet and contents.

I checked into the Idyllwild Inn (a fantastic place to stay, if you ever get the chance--I stayed in the "Spring" room), then walked down to the campground where I heard rumors of a hiker BBQ going on. Most of the hikers I didn't know, but I did see one person I knew--a fellow from Canada named Morph who I had first met while we were thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail. =) He was the first person I'd come across that I knew from my AT jaunt, though I know there are at least a couple of others out there from my AT class. So far, we haven't crossed paths--except for Morph.

Then a bunch of us went out to watch Iron Man 2--a fun flick, but not particularly noteworthy. I caught up with Mad Hatter and Tomer and the three of us headed to the restaurant across the street from the inn (we each got 40% coupons for the place when we checked in). Morph was already there, and he joined our table.

And it never ceases to amaze me. It's not like I try to surround myself with non-Americans, but at the table, I was the only American. Tomer was from Israel, Mad Hatter from England (and currently living in Dubai), and Morph was from Canada. The sheer number of foreigners hiking the trail just amazes me. And that's not even including the illegals!

Seems like the start of a joke, doesn't it? An Israeli, an Englishman, a Canadian, and an American walk into a bar.... I don't know what the punchline is, though. =)

After a night of story telling and laughing, we all finally retired to our respective rooms and called it a night.