Day Twentyfive- Done (Over 1855 miles)

August 14th-

Well, let's just say that I didn't have the best wake up. I'll leave it at that until the book. But, after I got up and going, I said goodbye to Alex and headed out.

I rode up the street until I was further out of town and came across a farmer's stand. Unfortunately, the peach that I wanted to buy cost about two dollars. I don't think it was farmers selling them. Rather, I think it was con-artists. Oh well. The peach was delicious. I rode for a little while further when I saw a cyclist behind me. I didn't know if I should slow down to let her catch up, or keep my pace. I kept my pace and she caught up anyway.

Her name is Julie. I think I called her Julia once on accident and played it off quite horribly. She isn't the type to hold something like that against a person though. She was riding from work to home, which passed through two towns. Lucky for me, they were two of the towns I was heading through that day. So, we rode. We talked. We had about thirty or so miles to occupy. We stopped in one of the towns to fuel up. She offered to buy my food, I refused, and she bought it anyway. After we made it to her town, we high fived goodbye on the bikes. That's when I went into McD's and sat out a small rainstorm.

I had to ride about 35 miles to get to the next town, so I loaded up my water bottles and was fed up (meaning I was full). I started to ride towards the storm. It got worse as I got into it. It didn't stop raining for over two hours. The temperature got down into the 40's and it hailed a little. I couldn't find anywhere to stop, so I just kept riding. My hands started to lock up because they were slowly being frozen, My arms soon followed, along with my legs. I had to stop a couple times to refuel because of the distance I had to travel. It was extremely difficult trying to open up a package with no feeling. I got back on the bike and kept riding.

I made it into the town of Mullberry. The rain had stopped, but it was still in the 40's. So, I was shivering. I asked the hotel how much it was to stay there just out of curiousity. They were charging fifty dollars. How expensive! For a town in the middle of nowhere that made no sense and a world of sense all at the same time.

I camped at their local park which allowed camping and also had hot showers. It was cheap, too. They only charge ten dollars for a site (fifteen if you are using one with electrical outlets) and two dollars for a shower. The campgrounds is where I met David and Debbie (sp?). They passed me early on in the storm when it wasn't so cold. Debbie offered me some of their homemade beef stew, which she accompanied with a banana, butterfinger bar, and ritz crackers. I couldn't turn her down, not because I was trying to be kind, but I was too weak to fight at all. My body took a little over an hour and one increasingly hot shower to recover. The beef stew helped as well.

I set up my tent at one of the sites and was ready to sleep. Right before I was done though, a dog came cowering over. I pet him a little and he started to walk away. Well, atleast that's what I thought. He actually went over to mark the corner of my tent as his territory. "Hey, hey, hey," was all I could think to say. Well, I cleaned off the pee and got ready for sleep.

I don't know if I've ever said what I do inside the tent to get ready for bed, so I'll say it now. I unroll my fleece sleeping bag diagonally in the tent because the tent is the same height as me. I take out my sweats and put them over my clothes. I take the socks I wore that day, and place them over the shoes. I set up my two water bottles next to my waist so that I can grab them for a midnight drink if I wake up. I use my towel as a pillow most of the time, unless it's hot outside, in which case I also use my sweats. I set my alarm on my phone (which will sometimes be the actual time I get up). Then, I lay there thinking about everything that happened that day and all my friends and family. That's about it.

Daily Lesson: Just because you paid for it, doesn't mean someone else won't think it's their land.

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