Today was another loitering day. I woke up early at dawn and took detail pics around the store. The air was so fresh and cool. I even wore my fleece hoodie but my feet got cold really fast. I hung out in the patio with Dudder and some other older guy. It was chill. I decided I wanted to catch the ride to grumpy bear for breakfast so that I can check to see if Meg or Jackie texted me. I hung out with Andy and Laura and this other couple I don't remember their names who live in England now. They were pretty chill. I hadn't actually had much time to spend with them so it was nice to talk with them a bit more. Jackie texted me that will get to km Thursday morning with Nate and Meg. Yay. I'm glad I actually heard from them but it also mean another day of loitering or more if they decide to zero the following day.

Andy, Laura and the guy I can't remember the name of on the way to grumpys.

Pinky, the chihuahua at grumpys that barks at everyone coming in and then begs for food. She's so cute. Basking in the sun.

We headed back to the store and did a bunch of nothing. I found a book to read and tried reading it in my tent but passed out after the first two sentences. I woke up to annoying laughter and headed over to the store. Laura showed me her string to make friendship bracelets but was sad bc I ended up losing my piece I started somewhere along the way. :( Then I basically sat around for hours observing hikers and small talking with those around me. A few hours after lunch time, I figured it was probably time to have some lunch so I ordered an Italian sausage and got an ice cream sandwich from the store. I bought some hand sanitizer and needed sunscreen but all they had was a huge bottle so I ended up just finding a face stick one in the hiker box and I guess that will suffice until my next town. I finally got to talk to the two kids that work at grumpy and at the store. There's one kid who is 14 that is usually running around the store who serves us food and collects the trash. He's so cute and sweet. I asked if he had fun working here and he said yes. And the other one is 16 who does the shuttling between grumpy and the store. It'd be such an interesting experience to help your parents' businesses serving all these dirty thru hikers but I guess we give them most of their business during hiker season.

It felt a bit weird knowing that I was parting ways with the boys today, we have been together for so many weeks. I will probably be about two days behind and even when that happens, you can go for several hundred miles without ever running into each other. Rusty headed out around four and we said our goodbyes. We have no clue when we'll see him again bc he's going straight to vvr. I sat around with GB and then it was his time to leave. I feel bad for leaving him since we've literally been hiking almost everyday together for 500 miles. I think we'll both miss each other but it'll be good to branch off for a bit. I washed a few things in a bucket and am now waiting for it to get cooler so that I can start reading my book. It's still pretty toasty in my tent but I don't wanna go out anymore. I no longer am really friends with anyone here at km. A few acquaintances but rusty and gb were the only ones here I knew well and have spent a lot of time with. I feel alone but also not so much. It's a strange feeling. It's like we're all moving onto another stage in our lives and we won't be able to share and experience the same things so frequently. It'll be really interesting if we ever meet up again and catch up on things. I feel like I'm gonna be this same way once I see Nate and Meg. The entire time I was doing life with these new people, they were not with me.