Space to Breathe.

Well, I took a little vacation from my vacation. Utrecht was a 13 hour flight and I just spent that whole week bursting with happiness and delight. Martijn and I visited sites around the Netherlands, went camping in a friend’s camper, spent a lot of time with his family. I don’t know if maybe thruhiking alters my perspective a little bit and everything feels very fresh and alive. It was harder to leave than I expected. I flew to San Francisco and stayed in a hostel downtown, then took the 5 hour bus ride to Fresno and Stone picked me up. He and his girlfriend Chris loved on me for a day and a half and I absolutely loved hanging out at their absolutely gorgeous home in the hills north of Fresno. Stone could drive me to the Sierra High Route southern terminus on Wednesday, his day off, so I had an extra day in Fresno which ended up being extremely useful-I downloaded a ton of Gaia maps onto my phone and also set up the InReach satellite beacon/navigation device and learned how to use it. Unfortunately, I have a history of developing painful Bartholins cysts and one decided to show up last night, developing over several hours. Not great timing. Sometimes they go away on their own, but if not, they have to be lanced, and I am not excited about the prospect of trying to find an MD who can do that for me while I’m away from home. So we’ll just have to see what happens.