52 night in the woods - chatting with the hiker and germ at the food donkey

Dear Readers,

I went in to Video Outpost "Too" to see Angus. When I saw his co-worker I remembered he was out of town. She didn't have anything else to say from the last time I spoke to her. I thought of poor Gregg, at work and all sore on this wet day with no Angus. I explored this part of town more before going to see him.

At Millers, the Smelters fans were still at it! They admitted they were wet and cold but then stood strong as the Smelters themselves play in any weather! Always Smelter weather!

Outside the Snack Falcon a guy with a backpack and hat asked me directions to the park store. I said he just missed it. I asked him where he was from and he said Russia. I asked him how he ended up all the way out here and he said he was hiking the Great Eastern Deciduous Trail. I asked him "Oh wow. How is that?" and he said it was hard, but beautiful. I told him I couldn't imagine walking that far, through 6 states. He asked again about the park store and I told him it was gone. It used to be right here where the Snack Falcon is now. He asked where he could find supplies and I highlighted the Snack Falcon again. He said he supposed he could find stuff in there but it was probably all perishable. I said isn't everything perishable? Bit of an awkward pause to this! Then I said they probably had granola bars. He said "Spasibo!" or thanks, when I asked him what that meant. Nice guy :) especially nice to put up with my questions!

I was now able to freely visit the Food Donkey! I moseyed over and met Germ standing outside! I asked him what he was doin' and he said nothin', that he was hanging out with a "couple crusties". I was like what? and he said they were crust punks, or traveller kids. He said they knew we didn't have much cops. I said I missed out on all the cool stuff. He said one of them had a dog and they mostly had dogs. One time he saw one of them missing a foot. I asked what happened and he said it happened from an accident on trains, jumping between cars and falling and stuff. I said it was intense and he listed some other body parts that were missing by them. I told him we found an arm the other day and asked if he thought it was from a Crusty. He said naw, but then said he didn't know.

He said he was here a lot of days and then said he had to go now. I said bye and he walked to the left, right into the friggin' steps! Where did he go? I couldn't go that way!

I went back to the Snack Falcon part of town and climbed up to see the newspaper reader at the window again. I asked them what was in the news and they mentioned the sinkhole that appeared. They said one of these days the "whole town's gonna get swallered up." Yikes...

With that grim thought on this grim day, I went into the Snack Falcon to see Gregg.