Thursday, July 08, 2004
Victims of Efficiency: The Rest of the Story of the Lincoln Vortex
07/08/04
We got into Lincoln, Montana, mid-day on July 5th. I arrived knowing I needed new shoes. After the usual meal, check-in and shower, I checked out town. No hiking shoes here. But you know that.
On the 6th, 10:30 came and went. We were frantically packing up trying to meet our checkout time, be ready when the shoes arrived, and get a ride to the pass before Bob at the Sportsman's Motel had to leave for a distant doctor's appointment. No shoes. As we were sliding out the door, past the cleaning lady trying to get in, Spur checked his PocketMail one last time. He groaned. Ready (his wife) had emailed: Our shoe order arrived at his home.
In Atlanta.
A quick round of problem-solving and phone calls gave us a timeline. We were going to get the shoes forwarded from Ready if she could get them to FedEx by the day's deadline. The alternative was to reorder the shoes from RoadRunner. It was tense there for about 45 minutes, but we finally heard that Ready'd gotten them out.
A quick check with Trudy and Bob, the owners of the Sportsman's Hotel, told us that we could have the same room again, another relief, although we were pretty much packed already. Apple Pie and I were actually overjoyed to have another zero. Yesterday'd felt tight, and there was still a lot we could do. We hugged, and I swung her around in the late morning rain.
We spent the afternoon in the library accessing the Internet. I cleaned up my journal, deleting duplicate entries and sequencing it correctly, made captions for all my photos to date, and deleted junk email by the 100s.
We've also been hanging out with the Otter, who's thru-hiking this year. He's great and full of stories. I read the beginning part of his southbound PCT hike, which is no longer online, but soon available in bookstores. His site is The Otter Den. He's a golf pro from Florida, which is the last thing I would guess by looking at him. We've had several meals with the Otter, and he came over to watch The School of Rock with us. But the Otter is not the vortex. The shoes are the cause of the vortex.
So we spent another night in Lincoln. Apple Pie and I could hear Spur snoring in the next bed, which was a first.
The next morning was full of activity. Even 24 hours after our false start, it felt tight getting everything together by checkout time. We made it out of the room and moved the back porch of the office/manager's house while we waited for the FedEx truck.
But again 10:30 came and went.
I asked Spur if he'd gotten a tracking number from Ready. He hadn't, but soon had it. A disappointing call to FedEx revealed one missing bit of information.
'On-time' delivery in Lincoln, Montana, is 4:30PM.
At this point we were all chomping at the bit to get out of town. We had lunch, then Spur headed to the library. Each time the doorbell rang, I'd run to the front of the hotel. At about 2:15 the memory of the earlier disappointments dissolved when I rounded the corner, saw a FedEx vehicle and a woman with a box from Road Runner.
I'd ordered two pair to make sure I got a pair that worked. I chose the Asics
Gel Trabaco VII because they fit. I sent back the NB 807s, and we were off.
