Steak and Rum!!!!

The speedy little group that we scared along the trail were nice enough to give us a ride to Mather Campground, where I would try to contact my owl friend Bill. It was already midnight, and I had a feeling that I wouldn't get a response. I found the warmth of the bathrooms, THEY FLUSH!!! and sent a text. I eyeballed the handicap stall which looked surprisingly clean... and warm. It seemed a bit too epic to say I slept in a bathroom stall after the hike, and I wasn't keen on people walking in on to do their business. I wondered back to the little hiker's camping spot with no sign of Bill, and began looking for a sheltered hollow under tree limbs.

They must clean the trees well there, because they all looked too proper and nicely trimmed up. Who cares. William looked at me a bit horrified and offered to build a fire. "I'm too tired to even watch you build a fire, I'm alright." He noticed that the neighbors already had a nice fire going, it couldn't hurt to ask.

As soon as we spoke up, the couple happily invited us to join the campfire, and had poured me a cup of pure iced rum before I got two words in. Sounds GREAT!! They were from New York, they had to look at each other and agree upon it, "Yeah, Manhattan, New York." Originally we are from Korea though.

"Have you eaten?" I was too tired to eat, but he was persistent. "We have steak." My eyes got huge, and glistened like a starving animal. He put a few pieces on before I could say a word, and there was no way that I was going to argue. They were Korean prepared with teriyaki sauce and sesame seeds, medium rare. The best steak I've ever had in my life!!!

We chit chatted about this and that, I was over empowered by endorphins and exhaustion to remember what. They casually insisted that I not sleep out by the fire, and stay in their tent instead. It was supposively a 4 person tent, and I was just so happy to be off the ground. In less than two seconds, I had my sleepingbag rolled out in the corner of the tent and was fast asleep. There was a couple of time that I woke up, once to realize that it was certainly not a 4 person tent, and that I somehow got snuggled in with this couple (???). but again, too tired to care. and once more to notice the Koreans lighting a stove in the middle of the tent because they were cold. I glanced up at the top of the tent- it was mesh, and hid deeper in my bag just in case they burned up all the oxygen in the tent. It even ran through my mind that the whole tent might burn down... but I was too tired to care.