Day 44: Monday, June 17

At the Independence Courthouse Motel (PCT mi 788.5), a zero day

Woke up and moseyed to Jenny's Cafe, which came highly recommended from a hiker we'd run into the day before, and it did not disappoint, best huevos rancheros of my life (sorry Kristin, sorry lady whose house I stayed at in Virginia on the AT). Shortly afterward caught the bus north to Bishop along with Bow and the Israelis, the latter having just hitched into town that morning and made it to the bus stop 30 seconds ahead of the bus. Bishop was bumpin ... I got off the bus thinking that it had the right outdoorsy, Sierra-y feel for someone like Galen Rowell, then a few hours later I saw one of his galleries on the main street and it turns out he'd lived (and died) there. Did errands in the morning, including the laundry, the library, and a visit to two different outfitters to see if I could get store credit to replace my holey socks ... Couldn't, I have to wait til Mammoth for that.

Round about lunchtime, went to the quasi-legendary, tourist-attraction-in-and-of-itself Schat's Bakery, sorry Bakkerai or some shit ... I was overwhelmed and it was too crowded/hectic but I did get quality gelato out of it. The Holy Smoke BBQ across the street was better, I had some nice fatty smoky pulled pork and real sweet tea for lunch there. Talked on the phone with Kristin, rounded out my latest email to Yogi, drank soda, sat in the park in the shade, found the terminus of U.S. Route 6 and sent pictures of it to Chris Parmenter in Cape Cod, did some supplemental food shopping at Vons, charged my phone from an outlet behind an ATM machine, caught the return bus to Independence around 6:30. The Subway guys had somehow gotten slower in the past 24 hours, but Bow and I eventually managed to get dinner there. Got chided by the hotel owner for leaving our AC on during the day, which is some heavy bullshit because we're paying handsomely for this room. Drank some beer, reorganized my approximately 20lb of food for the next week, then called it a day. Back out tomorrow, hopefully.