DAY 125
July 17, 1999
My Gawd, that was the worst storm Ive
seen on this trip. I woke up to a strong, howling wind, that blew my tent on its side and
rolled me over in my sleeping bag. I quickly threw my panniers into my tent to help weigh
it down and staked it down, fighting against the wind. It was starting to rain so I
hurriedly put the rainfly on and crawled back inside. The wind kept testing the integrity
of my tent. I could feel it sneaking under the tent floor and flexing the aluminum tent
poles. While drinking a cup of coffee in the café, the smaller of the two Germans came in for hot chocolate. To my surprise, he sat down at the table with me and attempted conversation with me in broken English. After about 30 minutes of talking, I realized that these guys are alright after all. The reason they had left the other campground was because the camp host had come around to collect the camping fees and they always free camp. Of course, it wont be as much fun now since these guys arent the cold, mean, Germans everybody thinks them to be. I was glad to have this conversation and actually saw this guy smile. The Germans left at 11:00am and I left at noon.
As I walked back through town, I was approached by a group of people shouting something to me. I turned to see the group Id met at Stewarts Crossing walking up to me. We chatted a few minutes and next thing I knew, Barney (the Scot) was buying me a beer in the "Pit". I spent the evening with Barney and Anna (the Australian girl), drinking beer and sharing stories. Anna grew up on a sheep farm in western Australia. By the end of the night I found myself trading addresses with some kewl people Ive encountered on my journey. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention Barney was wearing a kilt, true to his Scottish heritage, and getting a lot of attention. Hmmm, maybe I should have wore my bike clothes. :-) It was very late, or early, in the AM as I walked back to my tent. As I passed one tent I heard a female voice, "The ground is sucking the warmth from my body and I have a rock up my ass", followed by laughter. Today - 58.75 miles |