"Do you wanna know how to make God laugh? Tell him your plans."

Day 15:
*Our first day off. We spent it in a town called Idyllwild. We did our shopping, ate a ridiculous amount of food at local restaurants, and hung around with some of our new hiking buddies. While sitting around at the coffee shop, we met an older gentleman and his wife. Turns out the 96 year old man was an old jazz singer and an actor in western movies. Herb Jeffries is his name. He kept us laughing for at leasat an hour with all his stories and jokes. We got to see some YouTube videos of him singing with Louie Armstrong and Duke Ellington. He also made us promise to come back to town some day and hike his trail that was dedicated to him a few years back. The title of this entry was a quote from Herb when I popped back into the coffee shop to say goodnight to him. Oh, and one other thing, Ben still can't remember his ATM pin. I think he's resorting to pushing random numbers now.

*What is a raven party? When 6-7 massive, black ravens triangulate your camp at Mt. San Jacinto State Park and kaw and chuckle and kaw and fly from the tree above your tent to the picnic table beside your tent and then perch on the ground right next to your tent. All at 6 in the morning, on your day off from hiking. What's more, they left almost immediately after we awoke. Game 1 goes to the ravens. But, we've got our eyes on you ravens, we've got our eyes on you.

Day 16:
*Things to remember when leaving town to re-enter the wilderness: 1.) Your lunches for the coming week: 2 summer sausages and 1 block of cheese innocently waiting back in the hotel room frigerator. Luckely, Ben gave Paul a pity slice of sausage and cheese for lunch. 2.) Leaving your lunch is about the most ridiculous thing to leave behind. I've got nothing else

*It was 3 days worth of summer sausage and cheese. I couldn't think about anything else other than food all day long. Ben's act of kindness actually made me miss it even more.