h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Over the past year, after discovering the Hitchhiker trilogy, I've been blessed with the knowledge that whenever I have my towel, I'm going to be okay. At first, I'll admit, it was simply a novelty.

"Hey guys, you know where /your/ towel is?"

"Oh, totally, dude!"

But, as I said, over the past year the fantasy has become a reality of how overwhelmingly useful a towel really is. So much so for me, that I keep a small towel in my satchel at all times, and I always take a nice looking beach towel with me on trips. Here are some of the uses I've found:

-Putting the smaller towel over my head when walking in the wilderness to keep mosquitoes away from my succulent neck. A towel that has just been wetted in cold water can act as a good way to lower body-heat, but beware that it my humidify the air around you as it warms up. Wrapping some ice in a towel to hang around my neck is awesome on a hot summer day.

-Using one as a cushion to keep my head off of the ground when lying down

-Once, my small towel became my savior in an Oregon Cascades forest. I was hiking in the wild and the terrain became very steep. At one point, I had to make a difficult maneuver to get to the next handhold, so I put my towel around a tree and grabbed each end. Then I swung back and forth until I gained enough momentum to let go of one end and make it to the handhold.

There has been much more, but alas it is midnight and my tea is settling, so I'll write more when I can think of them. Mostly, casual use of a towel aides a lot in day-to-day interactions. If you start carrying one with you at all times, it'll become apparent.


GN