It looked like shit outside, and was definitely going to rain, possibly a lot. In spite of this, I knew it was time to move on. Slowly, I did. I packed up my gear and left a bag of stuff behind to get carted back to Pennsylvania the next time my dad goes up to visit his sister. I watched an old western movie on tee vee. I went to the pool to say goodbye to Bethany. I carted my ass outta there slowly.
The new GPS has several things to bitch and whine about. The biggest problem is that you can not navigate to an intersection unless you know what town/city it is located in. Not cool at all. I very rarely know the town or city, and that stuff is rarely on the cue sheets. Really not cool. My other GPS would search a whole state and give a list of matches and distances for each. I took that for granted. Proll'em two: can't see the screen for shit in the sun. Whoops - didn't even consider that. Proglem nummer 3: battery life sux. Solutions?! Sell this bastard after the trip. It's still nice to have street level info, even if all's not perfect.
When I was moving again, I started having a great ride. My mood was soaring, and I felt strong. My knee is barely bothering me, and I can ride for a long time without feeling like I'm putting out very much effort. Good. Hopefully I can just keep cruising along and enjoying it. I want to juice this trip for every little valuable moment.
Rain started falling, and by the time I was ready to tap out, I found a pavilion in a park. By the time it became a real soaker, I was sitting under a roof. With mosquitos. A shit lotta mosquitos. I have a mosqito netting suit with full head coverage and elastic drawstrings on the waist and hands. I've never needed to use it - even in northern Quebec last year, the area known for mosquitos, the reason I bought this suit. I put it on for the first time. Those bastards were still buzzing in my ears and I felt like they were getting me right through my clothes. Damn! I need some deet paste to smear on my body. I don't like chemicals on my skin. At all. I barely trust soap, honestly. But enough is enough. The rain took a break and I bailed.
Not far from this, I got beer and packed it into my bags. Not far from this I found a place to pull over and look down at a big river. Not long after this, I sat on a rock and drank through a 6'er of PBR and watched the light disappear from the sky while swatting and swiping at mosquitos. Less mosquitos than before. It wasn't comfortable, but I was able to act like a man about it. I laid out the bivy sack on sloping ground with rocks, and had a really shitty sleep. I didn't really care - it didn't bother me. But for the record, the sleep was not good. If you can't zonk out pretty good after bicycling and drinking a six pack - that's probably not so good. I eventually managed to sleep pretty hard and get some wacky realistic dreams. I got up later than perfectly safe out of pure apathy.
I'm hoping to get in contact with known people in Worcester and Boston Massachusetts. I'll be talking about that more then. And apparently right now.
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