Fire Flies

Fire flies, I haven't seen them since i was a kid at my grandparents. I didn't expect to see any in Illinois, I guess for no other reason than that is the only other place I've seen them. The state park that I'm spending the night in is not quite as cool, but it does have showers and electricity.
I was worried that I would get lonely and that this would be the biggest challenge on the trip. Up until now the problems have been physical. I guess I overestimated my abilities. There's a first for everything right :) Today at lunch time it was extremely hot and the sun was just unbearable so I stopped into a gas station/food mart and bought a pizza, which I ate at one sitting. I was dehydrated and was glad to be in the AC so I drank a liter of Gatorade and couple of bottles of water while i sat and talked to some local farmers who passed in and out at different times. They told me all of their stories about cyclists coming through and changes to the town the usual. Some thing that made me laugh, is that since I grew up in a suburb I never really was affected by the weather. To were a raincoat or not is not really being affected by the weather. Now it is much more of a concern. Though I can generally find a place to wait it out when I see the clouds coming. My point is that their lively hood revolves around this issue. Of the 9 or so odd farmers who came in and out during my rest everyone of them commented on the fact that rain was for casted and it had not arrived a point that they were all very peeved about. This brings me to the point that until now I've slowly gotten better at striking up conversations with strangers, though being out on my own and needing info such as weather reports, good places to stay, etc. has definitely helped me in this department. I have come to enjoy this rather than dread it as I did when I was a child.