Hi Jolly's Outpost

I wrote yesterday's post from Quartzsite's lone internet "cafe", Hi Jolly's Outpost, best described by my cousin, Kait, who said "it's the little building that looks like you could tie your horse out front" when I asked where to find it. Straight out of Oregon Trail this "cafe" is a tiny, ramshackle house with an espresso machine on the kitchen counter and three tables shoved into what I presume used to be the "living room." I base this assumption on the fake wood walls and ceiling, as well as the carpeted floors. My personal favorite touch was the similarly carpeted porch. I took as an invitation to take off my shoes as I blogged.

Upon arriving after my walk through the hot Arizona sun to get there, I was in the mood for something refreshing and inquired after iced coffee, despite the fact that it wasn't on the five item menu. My response from the 45-year-old, seen better days, "barista" was a blank stare. "It's just ice and coffee," I ventured hopefully. After another awkward moment of her confused expression, she responded. "We don't got ice." Okay then. Hot coffee it is. Which reminds me of another classic response Allie and I encountered today on our walk. We were in search of golf tees for Kait, and after asking one proprieter, he replied (in the most hick accent you can think of): "Here in Arizona we cut the tops off water bottles to use as golf tees." I guess that's a no, then?

I came into this trip with the hope that I would meet a lot of quirky, interesting people, instead of a bunch of burned-out homeless kids, so I was happy to meet two guys last night that were actually worthy of an intellectual conversation. Daniel and Justin are world travelers who decided to do some backpacking around their own country for a change. They're camping here for at least a month where they found work setting up an RV park. It was nice to talk to some guys who also understood how different your outlook on life became after you had traveled outside the country. Daniel had actually spent the last six years in South and Central America and was having a particularly hard time adjusting to things back home. Sitting around the fire trading stories from abroad really got me itching for my backpack again. I have a feeling I'll do everything in my power to get somewhere one more time before I head back to university in the fall.

Some crazy bum joined us around the fire last night, and he had me laughing so hard I was in tears. Apparently he spends all day sitting in his tent listening to AM radio, so he was actually fairly intelligent and certainly knew what was going on around the world. Except that EVERYTHING was a conspiracy theory. Like that Hurricane Katrina was manipulated by the government so that it purposefully destroyed the South. Or that the Rockafeller family eats gold. I also learned about this substance called Ormus (which he tried to explain to me how to make) that makes a scale go up instead of down and disappears when put in a frying pan over an electric stove. I ended up asking him about aliens because I figured he might have been "abducted" or experienced some strange shit, but instead he replied, "Oh, no, no, no, they don't come here no more. It's like this. Most of us don't go to the jungle 'cuz we don't wanna hang out with no monkeys, right? They don't wanna hang out wit us." Possibly the best analogy ever, no?

GRRR. I'm trying to upload photos, but the internet here at the camp is painfully slow . . .