Day 10

The suns warmth woke me up today. It was 8 something, so I thought great, I can get a bunch of stuff done this morning and still have time to get some miles in. However, by the time I was up and packed and I had called places for a new tent, it was almost 11. I was heading to a sporting goods store, but I saw a Safeway along the way, so I bought one of those gigantic sandwiches that only cost 6 bucks. Then I saw a department store on the way, so I stopped there. They didn't have small tents with a full rain fly, so I had to go with an 8 pound monster. At least this one would be better quality. I also bought a knife, just in case, and a gel seat cover- sitting down all day for a week can make your butt pretty sore. Repacking everything took a while- I had to undo everything so that I could throw away the old, broken tent and tarp. The new tent strapped to the front of my bike easily.
By now, it was after 12, so the temperature was around 80 degrees. I was a bit worried because I knew it was supposed to get above 90 that day, and I wouldn't be in the mountains, where it is cooler. But I pressed on.
I saw a rest stop sign, and the sign below it said "next rest stop: 75 miles." Well, then I'm definitely taking advantage of this one. It was nice to get out of the shade for a bit. I finished all of the sandwich except for a small bit there, and refilled one water bottle. I also dunked my head under the sink to get my hair wet- anything extra to cool me down is a good idea.
After a bunch more miles, I finally found a store, so I went in and bought a pint of icecream. The clerk noticed my bike and asked where I was headed. She mentioned that there are no towns south of the store for about 120 miles- so no place to fill up water. So I also bought a gallon of water. I hated the fact that I was adding about 5 pounds to my pack because of the tent and 8 pounds because of the water, but I would much rather be safe than sorry. I actually didn't even notice the extra weight, but I'm pretty sure this is because I didn't have any crazy mountains to climb- only small rolling hills. After finishing the icecream in under 10 minutes, I wanted to find another way to cool off during the ride. There was a sprinkler not too far way, so I took off my shirt and got it soked. It ended up being a lot colder than I thought it would be, but that's all for the better. Putting it back on was difficult- I hate the cold. However, it was very effective at cooling me down.
Once I was a less than a mile down the road, I got a phone call. My dad noticed that I missed a turn before I did. He had just checked the Find My iPhone app and knew where I was going. I'm glad, because that probably would have been a lot of extra miles.
I got really excited when I checked how far I had gone- about 70 miles. Even with the late start and the heat, I knew that I would still manage to get 80 miles in. Which means only 80 miles to go. After the sun went down and I was losing light quickly, I found a tiny town, with apparent a population of 3. It had a motel, a cafe, and an rv park. The motel didn't look like anyone had stayed there in years, so I went the 30 feet over to the rv park. There was one rv there, and no signs or anything anywhere to tell you what to do. I figured it was probably too late anyways, so I decided to set up camp and pay up in the morning. I found out that my tent was waaaay too big- it seems like a 5 or 6 person tent to me. Hopefully I can trade it or something for a smaller and lighter one later. On the plus side, I can probably fit my whole bike inside and still have room to sleep.
When I started to take the second to last item off my bike, a guy came out and yelled, "Well what in the hell is this?" Shit.
"Isn't this an rv park?" I asked.
"No, we don't do that."
"Then you should probably take down the rv park sign."
"Yeah."
The conversation was a bit longer than that, and included the guy telling me to get my head out of my ass for some reason, but long story short, I had to completely pack up everything again, while it was really starting to get dark, and find a place down the road to camp. Now that the tent was packed in differently, the spokes were hitting it. I wasn't going very far though, so I didn't worry about it too much. My main concerns now were to get as far away from that place as reasonable, to find cell service (because for the last hour or so, I had none), and to find a decent place to camp before there was only moonlight. Luckily, I only had to go for about a half mile or so before I finally found service again. Only 1 bar, but it would do. I texted home to let them know I was fine. Since felt weird after this whole experience, I decided that I didn't want anyone to see me setting up camp. When cars came, I would cover my lights and duck down. It didn't take long (I had done it about 30 mins before).
As I lay here in my tent, I realize that I am actually pretty lucky, all things considered. I didn't have service back at that rv park. I didn't intend on getting water at that store, but I wouldn't have enough for tomorrow if I hadn't bought it. (I'm sure I could have found water somewhere, there are cows here and there, they have to drink too, right?) I went plenty of miles (at least I hope so. My iPhone indicated that I had gone more than 70 miles, but there was a sign outside the rv park that said Burns was only 56 miles away). I dont hear any coyotes, and the wind isn't too crazy. Hopefully I can leave earlier tomorrow and get to a city quickly- I haven't done laundry in a while.