Charlottesville / Remember: it always works out.

Last night I found good camping. I decided against the Family Dollar location because I didn't like the idea of some addled junkie tripping over my tent. It looked like I might have found that sort of a place. I raced another ten miles down the road, and pushed my bicycle into the trees beside a horse farm. It was clearly marked that I wasn't invited, but the light was getting dim and I was confident that I wouldn't be seen. The house seemed about a mile down the driveway.

I drank about 20 fluid ounces out of my 40 available ones, and read some more Steinbeck in my tent. I didn't read far before I put out my light and laid back to enjoy the sound of insects from the safety of my bubble of netting. I enjoyed the dimming light and felt comfortable in my wooded surroundings. This night ended well.

I woke up feeling rested and alert at 6am. I broke camp and got to sneaking out of the woods. The road was busy enough to make me cuss, but happily I was closer to Charlottesville than I thought.

Country ham! Yes, that sounds better than the normal stuff. I had some flat salty slabs of that along with the rest of breakfast. I was fully damp from sweat and a misty morning, but otherwise feeling good. I soon reached the downtown pedestrian mall in Charlottesville, where the sky continued to threaten rain.

Two idiots who turned out to be unfortunate and bigoted smoked me up beside the library. (I have some green hair and a malt liquor patch on my shorts, so they knew I was their type.) At first they seemed friendly, but I was let down when they decided to eagerly confide their prejudices to me. Drugs can be such a chore. I decided to watch a movie, and that gave me plenty of time to lose the low-grade high which I would have smartly declined if not for my endlessly curious nature.

The rest of the day was a waiting game. I had a line on a place to stay, and I was hoping it would pan out. I looked to the sky and hoped it wouldn't open up, and I kept checking my phone for a text. As it got later, I decided that I would need to make a move. If a couch could not be confirmed, I would have to hit the road and secure a place to hide a tent. I was anxious, and it seemed that all aspects of my situation were putting me ill at ease. I knew that drinking lots of beer would help, but I didn't seem to have the desire to implement that simple fix.

The call came through, and I met some wonderful hosts. I was welcomed into their home in time to miss the rain, and I had yet another comfortable place with good people. There are enough truly goodhearted people in the world to make me feel better about the sad human specimens who I met earlier. These were some of the good people. I was happy to meet them, and cancel out my doubts.