Very aimless

First I want to congratulate my cousin Jeff and his new wife Sunshine. Welcome to the family, Sunshine. --> I'd walked as far as Palm Springs by yesterday morning, with a lot of doubling back, covering at least 50 miles twice by foot, before I had to come back to Rancho yet again because my backpack is falling apart. These problems are structural, not cosmetic. I was planning to keep walking east into the vast, unsettled desert, but none of the SoCal REI stores have my backpack in stock. As a result, I'm gonna try to get a ride to wherever I can find a store that has what I need. Or I might just head toward the Gregory factory, which is somewhere in the Bay Area. This is frustrating. Maybe if I can find a store with my backpack in stock somewhere in the west, I'll head back to Palm Springs and resume my hike where I left off. I really feel like I need to challenge myself and disappear
into the brutal desert. --> Those Badgers just can't finish anyone off lately, can they, Badger?