Miles: 1361.0 | An unplanned zero in Warwick unfolds under oppressive heat, café hopping, iced coffee, and long stretches of waiting it out indoors. Unexpected kindness from a local turns into ice cream, music, chess, and a night off trail at Brian’s place—complete with air conditioning and genuine connection. A late-night visit from my sister brings conversations about weight loss, uncertainty, and what comes next, ending the day reflective, rested, and still searching for clarity beyond the trail.
The Innkeeper stomped around loudly in the morning. She had asked us what time we wanted breakfast the night before, but we told her we had simply planned on sleeping in and weren't going to set an alarm. She wasn't super happy about that, I suppose.
We were up and packed by 8am and breakfast was over by 9am. The Innkeeper drove us back to the town center. It was far too hot to be hiking, so we had planned on hitching back to the trail in the early afternoon.
We headed to the only place we knew, Caffe A La Mode, and had a coffee. They didn't have air conditioning and our legs were sticking to our chairs with sweat. As we were leaving a guy our age saw our backpacks and asked if we were hiking the trail. He told us about the school bus he had bought that he was working on converting into his home! He gave us his number and offered to take us back to the trail in the afternoon.
The locals in this town were so nice! We headed toward Dunkin' Donuts and their free wifi accompanied by air conditioning. I sat and blogged for a while and sipped an iced coffee. Miles played chess, as usual.
Eventually, we got hungry. The day before when we were in the park I had seen a restaurant called Conscious Fork that looked good. We went there and had some delicious vegetarian lunches and, of course, used their free wifi to blog some more.
By now it was 3pm. It was still hot. Bryan said he could pick us up around 4pm. Miles needed new sunglasses so we stopped at a local pharmacy to pick up a new pair.
We stopped by the post office as well to pick up some trekking poles my friend Davey had sent to help me out (thanks Davey!). I had been sharing a tent with miles for a few days after the locks on my poles stopped working. Since I had a tent that was held up by trekking poles I had a hard time setting it up. I also had a hard time walking with them.
Bryan texted us while we were there and offered to let us stay with him for the night! We decided to take him up on the offer and just as we were about to text him back, he pulled into the parking lot in his Dad's Jeep! He told us he'd just finished helping out a neighbor and he could take us with him now if we wanted!
We agreed and we all went to the local creamery to get some ice cream. We sat and talked about life (Bryan used to work in Silicon Valley and quit his tech job), music, and his goals for the future with his school bus. He took us back to his mom's apartment (she had an amazing air conditioner) and we got settled in. Miles and Bryan played a couple games of chess. Bryan told us about how he used to play a lot of chess, he even studied! He played us some music on his guitar for a bit.
My sister was on her way home from Georgia by car and offered to detour to Warwick to come say hi. She wasn't going to get there until midnight but we decided to make it happen. Bryan, Miles, and I stayed up waiting for her. We rarely stayed up past 9 or 10pm so it was a struggle. She arrived right on time and we all went out to greet her and her boyfriend. We sat out in the parking lot of the apartment building talking for a while. She complimented the amount of weight I'd lost. She asked me about my future. I had no idea how to answer her. I didn't know yet what I really wanted my future to be.
I liked writing, I knew. I'm good at planning and research. I like listening to NPR and podcasts. I like news. I thought about trying to get some sort of public radio job. But I knew that wouldn't sustain me to the degree at which I might need with all of the debt I'm in. I considered going back to some sort of political gig, but I just couldn't see myself being happy doing that anymore. I told her I really didn't know. I knew I had to go back to Starbucks for the health insurance for at least a little while. And that was all I knew.
She left about an hour later and hit the road back to Maine. She still had five hours to go. I went back into the apartment and went to bed.