Day 147: Potluck Preparations
In the morning, we got on a bus to Seattle. In the station, I took a quick pee and when I came out of the bathroom, Mash pointed me towards a wild bearded figure, standing with the others. Squirrel Daddy! What a cosmic coincidence that led us both to be here at the same time. He had finished his hike a day after us and was now heading back down to finish his miles in Oregon. I was slightly jealous that the hiking wasn’t over for him yet. Seeing him again gave me some closure, it would have been awful if our last interaction was him being sick with noro.
We installed ourselves in our AirBnB. All of a sudden, we were just friends hanging out together, thru hikers no longer. It felt comforting to know that our group still worked even outside a hiking context. The activity for the day consisted of preparing the big potluck we were throwing. Yes, after 4.5 months of hiker food and average restaurant meals, we were turning back to cooking real food ourselves!
In the evening, Fitz and IPA went out for drinks and tried to convince the rest of us to accompany them. Andy, our old comrade, was with them. I figured he must have had so many bad jokes stored up inside him after all that time, eager to burst out, so I joined in. I was so glad to see him again. The nostalgia was real.
The following day I spent a good while arguing with airline companies who decided now was a great time to ask me to pay extra for my ticket or cancel it entirely. At least it didn’t happen on trail. Once that was out of the way, I lazed about with everyone. Then it was time for our potluck, which had grown so much that it had to be divided over two days. IPA made fried rice, Lucky Charm risotto, Lavalamp and Fitz made tacos and Merlin, Marble and Half and Half provided dessert (couldn’t get enough of those cinnamon rolls). Mine and Mash’ dishes were saved for tomorrow.
Afterwards, an Uber XL took all of us into the city center. Tonight, we would go partying. A proper night out, not some dirty thru hiker affair. I wore the shirt with the American flag and constitution print I had found in Mount Vernon. Solemate and Pinch joined in too. So many of my favourite people were somehow here at the end of the journey and it felt magical. Pinch was even more Pinch than usual and his energy rubbed off on all of us. By the end of the night, we had cycled through several clubs. I was very drunk and very happy.
The third day was reserved for touristy stuff. First up was Pike’s Place, Seattle’s original farmers market where I tasted Seattle’s famous clam chowder. Then we passed through some street with gum all over the walls. Points for originality I guess.
The final highlight was the Seattle Space Needle, towering over the skyline. Lucky Charm and I paid to go to the top and it was so worth it. We had a 360 degrees view of the city and witnessed the sunset over Puget Sound and the Olympics in the distance.
The day eventually ended and we headed back home. The last evening with everyone together. I cooked my mushroom burgers and Mash finalized the chocolate toothpaste desert (of course it would have a name like that considering it’s Mash) he’d been working on the past 2 days. Andy visited us once more, this time to properly say goodbye to everyone. He might not have been there all the way, but to me he was trail family too.
We fell asleep watching a spiderman movie marathon that was on tv. Tomorrow, we’d part ways.