Day 45: (0 miles)

We spent the day lazing around…after a few “chores”.  First a hair cut at the local barber shop for Paul.  He was looking a little shaggy.

We went to little barber shop and by little I mean 10 x 20 ft. one man show portable building in a small parking lot. We walked into an “older” gentleman’s club and the five men inside looked at us silently as if something was wrong. Paul asks in his smart ass way “Are women allowed in here?” This breaks the ice, everyone laughs and we hear someone say “of course “. We’re in.  Paul then starts talking and asking questions like only he can with the gentleman seated next to him, Gene. Gene is 89 and a retired horse breeder of thirty eight years. He also rode in big rodeos doing calf roping but stayed away from bull riding. He told us rodeo stories that were both scary and funny. One funny story was how his buddies entered him in a barrel riding event. Not having done any barrel riding (it’s a girls event) Gene was surprised on how fast the horse ran and turned. He said he held the saddle horn for dear life after the first turn like a “little girl”. The crowd along with his friends were laughing hysterically as he crossed the finish line. He told us his respect for the women riders increased ten fold.  He had that gentle grandfather demeanor that made you want listen to him for hours. He saw Secretariat run several times and said she was the greatest horse he’d ever seen run. That’s like hearing someone tell you they watched Babe Ruth  play…wow!  Barber, Don cut Paul’s hair, or buzzed it rather, short for low maintenance. After good byes and some hand shaking we left feeling much happier than when we first arrived.  All the while Paul was working the room for a ride back to the trail early the next day, saying things like ‘we’re hoping to get a hitch out to Walker Pass tomorrow morning’.  We left with no takers and then off to the post office to check once more for our wayward resupply box.  No such luck there either.  The rest of the day was spent poolside at the Isabella Motel where we met Tarzan and Assawaggen.  They started way after us and as youngsters do were making great miles each day.  The pool was not heated and worked like an ice bath for both our shins and my knee.  This was a great way to beat the heat of the day. The remaining part of the day was spent repacking for tomorrow and trying to catch up with our blog. Sorry we got behind with blog we didn’t think we would be so tired at the end of the day and were told we would have phone signal most of the trail. Not the case.