I felt fine as I awoke that morning, although I was a bit hungry. Feeling water was necessary I soaked myself in the shower for a while then dressed and headed down to the city again. I figured since I walked it the day before I could just take the bus in. It was an Ozone day so the bus was merely a quarter. Hot dog!
Back in the funky neighborhood again I thought of going to the Cup and Saucer, but I remembered Nick had said they served food until 2 or 3 and it was about 3:30 or 4 so I figured I’d check out this Garret’s Market I kept hearing about. As I walked up to the outside seating of the place I saw Leslie colleting chairs. She informed me I knew they worked there since they’d told me last night. Maybe I did, I didn’t know, it all seemed like a nice coincidence to me. Joseph was working as well in the kitchen so I got a sandwich and drink and sat down with my trusty notebook for a good long while. A guitar wielding singer came in with folksongs for a while and all was pleasant and nice as I wrote and wrote for hours in my notebook.
Eventually they started closing up and Joseph was of the first ones out. We walked over to the Cup and Saucer and each had a beer as we waited for Leslie to finish up. It was strange because as I entered people knew me like a local. I said my hellos and met more people as we sat at the bar then out on the sidewalk. Eventually Leslie came by and then one of their friends, so we all hung out over a few drinks.
Leslie was quite anxious for some salsa dancing, though, which we’d heard about the night before, so after a bit we packed up in the car and the three of us headed over. Here’s where it got a bit weird. First, the salsa was Motown, which I actually preferred. Second, I knew a few of the people in the bar, one of which was the girl from the last bar of the night before, Rachel. I sat by her and we talked some more. She was heading off to a place playing some funk music, which I figured would be salsa, and I thought of heading off with her, but then figured I’d stay with those who brought me since we’d just gotten there and I had a tab going. From there I then ended up talking to another girl who was very wrapped up in a flower arrangement she’d gotten off a table. It was actually an interesting conversation that I got into. We got up to dance and I soon realized this was going nowhere with an insulting comment that was made and the rest of the night fell into a strange funk for me.
I danced a bit more on my own, then with others, then had more drinks, then we were all leaving. We’d met some folks, including the girl I’d been talking with, and decided to head back to Joseph’s place. I rode with the girl and tried to see what her deal was, but after talking some more decided I didn’t care. At Joseph’s everyone seemed to couple up save for me and another guy so we ended up chatting a lot. He was a cool guy as well, but by then I was not in the mood to do anything. After a while everyone left and I was not feeling right and wanted to go as well. I debated out loud with Joseph and Leslie about walking home and they told me that was a very bad idea since it was quite far to my hotel. They passed out and I tried to sleep but then figured I need a good walk, so I left and walked home.
The walk was precisely what I needed. I was already not happy about having to take so much time off from walking being in Kansas City (despite my findings that the town was actually quite cool) and then almost another week back east. Walking from 3:45am until 6:30am was nice and got a lot of thinking done that I needed to do. When I got back to the hotel I’d gotten a box of Cheez-Its so I ate half of those and passed out.