The morning light called for breakfast and the town of Paterson was there to supply it just three miles away. A short morning walk and I found myself in a quaint little general store/café with a cup of coffee and a fine club sandwich.
As I ate I wrote a bit there since the juke box would come and go with songs on the occasion, then I chatted some with the girl working there. I didn’t linger too long, though, hoping to use the library in Prosser 27 miles up the road, and was off by 9:40.
Ye road to Prosser was one that lay long and straight heading due north under the brooding sun. A taste for the sweat was needed that day I can say. The plain I crossed over the open road was through an area called Horse Heaven Hills. I’m assuming it was named so because of the wide open fields a horse would merrily gallop through and the hills that lingered around them would be a grand push as well for a muscular beast like that. Despite concerns, my water held, though with the aid of a young lad who donated a frozen bottle midway, but by Prosser it was coming close.
The final stretch of the Prosser road jagged west then north and west again around a hill. This treated me for the last few miles in, as I chatted with my friend Rob back in New York, to an open view of the Yakima River valley and its towns cradled about it as I descended the switchbacks down the hill. I got into Prosser by 7:40 and had already forsaken any hope of library interaction in town. I simply hoped to find a grocery store in time to by some snacks and get out of town before the sun set so I could treat myself from the hot day’s work.
By 8 I was in a store picking out fruit, due to mother’s concerns over my diet, and then a pint of ice cream and a $.25 can of strawberry soda for my own sugar satisfaction. At the register I stirred a bit of a general interest in my doings and handed out some cards then was able to get some water for my bottles. By 8:30 I was following my directions back to the state highway out of town.
It was a bit of a stretch as I watched dusk close in on me, but slowly suburbia tapered off, although I didn’t quite escape it fully. I settled for a patch of dried grass by a small irrigation canal, more out of concern for my melting peanut butter swirl fudge chunk ice cream rather than the fading light. Darkness doesn’t faze me as much as the loss of a sweet treat. Never underestimate indulgence. I wasn’t sure if I was on private property or not, but at that point I cared not.
I popped the tent and in I nestled over my creamy goodness guaranteed to upset the old belly by its end. It was well worth the ache. For compensation I then had two of my four bananas and an apple. I read for a spell longer as digestion took over but didn’t make it far, conking out about ten pages into it.