Travel Karma

I forgot a couple of anecdotes from the BoatParty and the Florida camping trip that I think have something in common.  The night before the cruise, there was a meet-and-greet at which word spread that, although beer and wine were contraband, we were permitted to carry one bottle of wine on board.  Because I had walked by a liquor store on the way from the metro stop to the hotel, and because I was in a good mood, after leaving the party I went back to the liquor store with a couple of friends I had made at the party and we bought, between us, about a dozen bottles of wine; some for us, and the rest to give away on the bus from the hotel to the cruise terminal.  It ended up being surprisingly difficult to give away free wine to complete strangers, but it eventually worked out.  Then throughout the cruise, it paid dividends when people I didn't remember walked up and said thanks, including one guy who bought me a beer in gratitude.  It looks like somebody came up with "drink it forward" already, dang it.

Then, on the hike through Torreya state park, my special lady friend and I encountered a man and his boy-scout son hiking the trail in the opposite direction.  We were happy to stop and take a picture of them and trade snake sightings.  Then later on the same hike, we passed them again (I never quite figured out the logistics of this, but it happened).  This was right after one of our boots began falling apart, so the dad was kind enough to give us the length of duct tape he had wrapped around his hiking pole, which stabilized things a bit and let us get back to camp faster.

I don't actually believe in karma or have any big takeaway from this, other than that there's no harm in being decent even if you're dealing with people you'll never see again.