BENGARLAND!com

January 8, 2007

I made good time and arrived at Lauren’s around 2 pm. She left out a towel, some newfangled “protein water”, and a sweet note telling me that I could take a shower and do whatever I needed to do before she got home from class. What a warm welcome! I aired out my tent and sleeping bag in the back yard, did some laundry, and checked my email.

Lauren got home around 5 pm, we talked for a while, and then she treated me to dinner at Jerry’s Cajun Cafe. Afterwards we went to Wal-Mart (aka hell) to stock up on trail mix and tuna. Neither one of us could figure out why there were 10,000 people at Wal-Mart at 6:30 pm on a Monday night. When we got back to her place we shared pictures and travel stories and then watched most of the OSU vs. UFL football game. I fell asleep on the couch.

The next morning, I ate leftovers from Jerry’s for breakfast. Lauren had to get to class (she bikes!) so we took a few pics and said a quick goodbye. She’s such a great person and it really raised my spirits to be able to stay with her for a night. Hopefully we’ll run into one another again in the future, probably in another country. She’s a travel friend and a travel fiend.

Last but not least, the new tent from REI arrived. It’s 100 times better than the previous tent, which I mailed back home. Good riddance!