Bubbles Day 72 (Tuesday, June 7th, 2016)

We woke up and I was honestly sad to be leaving Maria. I had grown to love this woman in such a short time.  I'll be honest, I love easy and have a big heart, but I truly felt close to this lady.  She reminded me of a grandma that one would always want to be around.  As we sat eating breakfast Maria came out and sat with us.  She told us she didn't want us to leave and we said we didn't want to.  She talked us into taking a zero with her!  I didn't really need to be convinced, I was so excited I could have danced.  We spent the morning with Maria and she let me do her dishes.  She said she normally didn't let hikers do her dishes, but I insisted.  I wanted to do house chores, but Maria said there was nothing to be done . I did hang the sheets on the line outside and then the magic happened.  Maria called her "sweetie" a chipmunk that eats from the palm of her hand.  I was so excited I was squealing like a child.  She let me feed the chipmunk too.  She even tried to pick it up, but said she was still working on that.

Whiskers and the chipmunk

My Maria and her chipmunk

Our friend RockDawg69 showed up at Maria's and we were happy to see him.  We have run into him a few times and he is a nice guy from Georgia who is doing a giant section of the trail.  He needed to get laundry done but Maria wasn't feeling well.  She is taking medication for blood pressure and it is making her dizzy.  She said she didn't feel comfortable driving so I offered to drive thinking she would come along and sit shotgun.  I was wrong.  She handed me the keys and said bye.  She also handed me her bed spreads and asked me to wash them for her.  I was happy to do something for her and would have paid for it, but she wouldn't let me.

When we got back from the laundromat Maria was gone with her grandson. I was thinking, OMG, her grandson is going to think we are taking advantage of his grandmother.  I'm cruising around in her car!!  I was nervous, but when I met Eddie it was all good.  He said one time she let some hikers take her car and they hit a deer.  If I would have heard that story I wouldn't have offered to drive her car!!  Hahahaha, her grandson told us all about the charity work he does.  He works in Mexico building houses and running a children's camp.  He was a great guy and we enjoyed getting to know him.  Tomorrow is going to be hard to leave my Maria. I kept singing Sound of Music's Maria to her and I know that song will be stuck in my head for awhile now.