Hi. (that was hard?)

I could have kicked myself yesterday. I left on my bike around 4:30 in the afternoon to catch the end of a beautiful day down at Clifton Beach. I tend to gravitate toward this part of the area because it's just far enough away from the hustle and bustle of Palm Cove touirist action. I always feel perfectly removed. I can see the tourism walking the beach but there aren't apartments and restaurants staring me down. So my favorite part of day approaches, 5:30ish. Don't ask me why, I could list a few reasons but none will be able to explain the feeling. It's just before the sun starts its decent into evening. The whitewash foam of the sea turns a bright white, almost blue. There isnt any pink in the sky yet and it only lasts for about thirty minutes but it's magic. It feels fresh and no matter whats going on in those few moments of my day, mark my words I will smile. See right there, I grinned just thinking about it.
It was about this time that I saw a man in the distance. As he approached I noticed he was a true backpacker, around 30 give or take. Boots, boardshorts and an enormous monstrosity of a backpack. As he approached I gave a half ass smile, one of those that just gets you away with not being rude. But as he passed me I couldn't help but completely stare. It wasnt that he was some rediculously attractively guy, but he looked like he had a story. As I contemplated where the hell this kid was going he totally turned around, oops he caught me, awkward! Oops, aw shit I did it again. He must have turned around five times after he passed me sprawled out in the sand. I was so curious, but by now he was too far down the beach for me to say anything. Geese, missed opportunity number five-thousand. I just wanted to know where the hell he was going, and/or coming from. Is one bag all he's had with him, how long has he been gone? Do you speak english?
Oh well, so long Mr.Backpacker I'll never meet, Im sure you had an amazing story. Wish I had the balls to splurt out a hello. I will next time. . . . Imagine if you talked to everyone you sat next to at the bus stop or were waiting in line behind etc. etc. Some would probably really suck and not want to say much but there would always be those few, the one's you could share some common ground with, maybe even a new friend. It's never too late to start saying hi, two letters thats all. It takes longer to blink.