Day 18: Zero Day!

Ah how I love zero days!

Yesterday while I was doing laundry for roughly 2 hours (the machines were broken and stayed on the "fill cycle" for over an hour) I met a gentleman who was biking the top half of California. He had just quit his job as a city bus driver and decided to bike from LA to the California/Oregon border to kick off his retirement. While we were discussing the benefits of lyrca- he had just purchased a new bike shirt and I was attempting not to melt my only pair of hiking shorts in the dryer- the topic of food came up. I'm pretty sure I started salivating when he mentioned that the outfitter where he had just purchased his new duds was directly across the street from a lovely cafe called Looney Beans. The muffins were fabulous and the coffee was the best in town. I didn't need any more convincing after just those too words "muffins" and "coffee." I raced upstairs to tell Replay the good news that I had found our coffee spot for the morning.

Looney Beans was as amazing as my biker friend said. Notonly was there a computer and hot coffee but the atmosphere was perfect. The place was packed with locals and the staff couldn't have been nicer. Replay used the computer for about an hour while I read the latest Time Magazine from cover to cover. I don't think I've ever done that in a single setting! We definetly had removed ourselves from civilization. Michael Jackson had passed away and the debate over health care was in full swing. It is amazing what happens in just over a week!

Shaky from all the coffee we'd consumed, Replay and I decided that groceries and lunch were in order. Earlier this morning we had consulted the "PCT hiker's bible" aka Yogi's PCT guide for lunch spot suggestions. The Goodlife cafe was a vegetarian favorite and the friendly gas station attendent, who we'd met the night before when we used the pay phone out front, said it was one of the better places in town. He probably could've simply said cheap veggies and we would've gone. Food is such a motivator at this point in the hike. Each time we get into town we indulge to the extent that we fell ill. I would even go on to say that our binges are worse than any holiday festivity eat-athon. I guess our bodies are lacking certain foods? Hmm

After our salad and a wrap lunch we headed to the library to check out the FREE Internet. Mammoth Lakes isn't a huge town, but it has every amenity that I could ever want- groceries, restaurants, a library, and a ski mountian! Once our time had expired at the library we decided to go back to the motel to clean up for dinner.

Dinner was a Mexican feast. A number of the library volunteers had suggested it boasting it had the best veggies in town. Unfortunately we might have over indulged in the avacado and chips or perhaps it was the pretend meatless burrito because around 2AM Replay rushed to pray to the bathroom gods.