My sun tan

The sun tan that I've achieved is at comical proportions, and only getting funnier. Not only do I have the permanent socks, it looks as though my gloves never come off, complete with dots on the backs of my hands which line up with holes in my gloves. These are funny but expected. What makes me laugh the most is the four brown ovals across my forehead which match up perfectly with the vents on my helmet. I could see them being used in a CSI to find out what manufacture of helmet I use.

Beer

The most spontaneously nice and funniest moment happened to me. As I was just sweating to the point of dripping, a car flies by and a beer is put out of the window, and the car slows. They had already passed but then pulled off the side of the road. As i pulled up alongside the passenger said i looked like i need a cold beer. I thought that i would love one in another 10 miles but that at this instant it would be a horrible idea. So i said thanks but no thanks then continued up the hill, which was steepening. As they pulled past i had a short conversation between labored breaths. At this point i was straining severely to make it up the hill, and after 90 miles this was no small feat. The conversation consisted of the usual, “where are you coming from?” and “where are you going?”. Then a car began down the hill in the opposite direction, and they had to leave. Through the sweat i chuckled and smiled the rest of the way up the hill. The best thing was this inspired me to buy myself that beer and relax.

Sweat, sweat and more sweat

Taking a hot bath helps to relax my legs as much as anything. Sitting and sweating profusely while reading a book, maybe listening to music can be an amazing experience. Ironic as it is since i spend all day sweating, until the salt builds up on my body like some joke with a salt shaker went awry, wishing i could take a brake in the shade and cool off. If you couldn't guess this is salt on my shirt.

Beautiful Nights

The nights have been clear. So i haven't bothered to set up my bivy. I've always enjoyed sleeping outside, and actually feel safer sleeping without a tent, since the tent doesn't add to my security, and without it i can see the things that go bump in the night. In Illinois I watched as a raccoon ran by in the middle of the night. I feel attuned to my surroundings sleeping out, and it is amazing. Getting up with the sun is much easier as well. I barely use my sleeping bag. Though maybe completely wrong I feel my metabolism has increased to were I've turned into this human heater. With the temperatures in the low 60's, I only use my sleeping bag liner that resembles a sheet sewn into tube. It is great except that it doesn't have a zipper and you have to slide into it from one end. I envy the AT through hiker for the readily available sites to sleep undisturbed in the woods.

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.

Wal-mart

In Bowling Green, KY I bought a new pair of flip flops from Wal-mart for $1.94. earlier that day I was taking to my Dan and he suggested that I should see if they would let me sleep there since they allow RVs and trucks to spend the night in their parking lots. I asked the manager and they had no problem with this idea so I set up my tent out back. It seems kinda odd to sleep in tent a misted large buildings. Other than having the cops called on me, who were annoyed that someone other than Wal-mart would call since as the police officer said “if Wal-mart had a problem then they would have called”. So this is the second time in two weeks that they police have been called on me. This definitely adds to the homeless feeling and makes me wonder how easy I have it in comparison to real homeless people. Since I'm reasonably well educated and have a specific reason for sleeping outside, I'm left alone as soon as I tell people my situation. Were as it must be trying to have no were to go and no quick and easy way to convince people your doing nothing wrong.

Finding the Trail

The brake down of my day has become very Spanish in structure. I've started making my large meal in the afternoon and taking a nap afterwards. I find at the end of the day as it's getting dark I have less ambition to cook and clean up. I think I've found the answer to the picky eating habits of children, exercise. So if junior won't eat, go outside and run until your hungry enough to eat anything put in front of you. I say this cause I've taken to cleaning the very last bit of food from what ever vessel it came in. I lick the pudding cups clean and empty every donut crumb into my mouth. Today is my first real day on the transamerica bike touring route published by adventure cycling. I haven't seen a single person touring on their bike let alone maybe two riding a bicycle at all. So I was a little surprised that I would see five people touring today. They were all east bound. In the first little town I stopped in yesterday, I met the mailman who informed me that I could sleep in the volunteer fire station which was left unlocked for cyclists. I was pretty excited since I hadn't showered in a couple of days and yesterday though only 90 degrees, had a humidity of 85-95 percent. I was drenched by 6:30 am and it continued until I got to Utica. I slept in late and didn't get started riding until almost 12:30. 40 miles went extremely easy were I took my long lunch and hope to make it to the Ohio river, were I'll stay the night. Things have definitely flattened out a bit and since everything is feeling better I hope to start making a few more miles every day.