The Forbidden Item and The Grocery Store

Miles 0

Camped at hostel in Dillon, CO

I kept waking up thinking I’d never sleep again, except I’d fall asleep again almost immediately. 11pm, 1:30, 2:15, 4am, 5:12, 6:45. Finally, I made some coffee and sat in the living room in the morning sun and played around on my phone until Anji got up.

We blogged for an extrodinarly long time, and Pterodactyl Man told us all about how last night he learned how to spell pterodactyl, and then we decided to try to go grocery shopping. The bus was too much of a hassle, so we walked there, which turned out to only take about 15 minutes, but by bus takes half an hour and 10 minutes of walking.

I was feeling really good. The meds were working, but Anji had too much coffee and had the jitters. By the time we got to the store, we were so hungry we just bought food and went outside to eat. I bought a Poke Sushi Bowl with gluten-free soy sauce, coconut yogurt, a giant container of fresh pineapple, and a chocolate frappuccino The perfect hiker breakfast.

I couldn’t finish it all, and the receipt blew away into Parking Lot Never Never Land, and then we knew we had to go back into the store. We stashed the remainder of the food in my backpack and then Anji was afraid they’d think I’d stolen the food since I had no receipt anymore, so she stuffed the packs into the underneath part of the cart and we headed back inside.

We wandered around the Grocery Store, eyes big and frustrated. People restocking every aisle. Impossible to move around them. Them not giving one and a half shits that they were in the way. Smiling and saying Good Morning as though it were like that every day. And maybe it was. Seventy-five million people in this huge grocery store. On a Thursday. Seventy-five million people with nothing to do but grocery shop. On a Thursday. And everyone was in everyone’s way. And there were every kind and flavor and brand of every item in the store.

We tried to buy bars to eat on trail, and there were literally fifty different kinds to choose from. And twelve people crammed in there, shopping for them. And one stocker. It was so overwhelming. All kinds and colors. And we are gluten-free, so we had to read ingredients on everything we bought. And we felt disorganized. And we needed coffee for trail. And there were twenty kinds. And we needed beef jerky. 23 flavors and brands, and most of them had soy sauce, which is not gluten-free and not labeled.

It was taking forever.

And the pharmacy hadn’t received my other prescription yet. Finally, they received it and told me it would take 15 minutes to fill it.

We went back to shopping and came back again 15 minutes later. It will be 15 minutes they said.

Finally I sat down. And I was so thirsty but my water was in my pack. Stuffed away under the cart in front of me. The Forbidden Item.

I’m sitting right here. I said. Please let me know when it’s ready. I said.

You’ll have to keep checking back. They said.

I’m the only one here. Can you please tell me when it’s filled? I was so thirsty. I glanced at my backpack.

You’ll have to keep checking back in, ma’am.

I said down for a while. After about 20 minutes, I went up to check.

Yes, ma’am. She smiled and dug it out from the bottom of a bunch of filled prescriptions. It’s ready.

I felt like I was going to scream.

In the meantime, Anji had been trying to get a Kroger card so we could get discounts. She’d been on the phone with their customer service for 20 minutes trying to activate the customer card. Finally activated, we weren’t allowed to use any coupons for a week after activation.

Our heads were spinning by the time we left. Anxiety-ridden, we went outside and barely stuffed everything into our packs before we managed to catch the bus back to the hostel. Because overall, it saved us 5 minutes of walking…and I had my water.

Eventually, our friends from the beginning of the trip, Watercolor and Rushmore, came to spend the night at the hostel too. Watercolor immediately set to work painting a wall of the stoner house with a fancy design of her own making, and we cooked bacon and eggs, with veggies, of course, for everyone.

We blogged, and we planned for the slackpack tomorrow.

And I took some steroids for my feet and meds for my acute mountain sickness and wondered how tomorrow will go, well above 12,000 feet.