"You, aah, been hiking?" The woman stares at me from behind the front desk at the inn. I am distracted, staring outside at the thunderstorm brewing.
"huh?"
"I just...get the feeling, I mean, you look like....your hair, is" she circumscribes a vague halo over her head, "crazy."
I turn my attention back to the desk. The woman is middle aged, Asian, strong accent. I get the feeling she is bored with her job, but she is earnest. I smile. As I fill out the information form for a room, I think a bit wistfully on my last 7 days. I have had one of the best weeks of my life.....
"You been hiking alone?" She seems more curious than concerned. I affirm this. I tell her I've been to six national parks in seven days.
There's a long pause. "I just..." she stares at me. "You don't seem crazy-energy-hyper enough, you so calm."
At that, I have to laugh.
****
I finally showered. I was loathe to do it. Gone is that sweet smell of sun, and wind, and salt. That smell of the open. Gone is the desert from my skin and hair, the dust of the Puebloan, the Gunnison River, the Rocky Mountains.
Ahead of me are the plains and finally the East Coast, a very different sort of adventure.
