My brother and I were day-hiking through Harriman State Park in southern New York on a warm June day. We were motoring along, enjoying the pleasant forest, when we passed a young female section hiker going north. My brother was a minute or two ahead of me (I was just strollin' that day), so he got the low-down on where she was coming from (somewhere in NJ), how long she had been out (about 2 weeks), where was she going (Bear Mountain Bridge), and why the hell was she lugging a big, yellow steel Tonka dump truck in one hand??!?
Turns out she had stopped by a flea market a few days back and found this big honkin' Tonka truck that reminded her of one she used to have when she was a kid. She wanted to give it to her 3-year old nephew and was bound and determined to get it home. The thing looked like it could have weighed 10 pounds. She had tried to lash it to her pack (I would have loved to see that!) but it bounced around too much and threw her off balance. Since she would reach her destination that afternoon, I didn't have the heart to suggest that she stash it in the woods by a road crossing and come back to pick it up on the way home. Talk about dedicated!