Day 12

I woke up early, which was lucky, because again, I had a lot to do. I started with laundry. An older lady there told me how this rv park used to be much better, but now it was under new management. I found out how true that was when I tried out the showers- no hot water. I was in desperate need of one though, so I at least rinsed. Unsatisfied, I checked the shower that was in the bathroom. It had a sign that said not to use it unless the others were full. But this one had hot water! Once I was done, packing my tent was a pain, since it was so windy out, but eventually I was back on the road. I refilled my water at the same gas station as the night before. If I remember correctly, this day was pretty uneventful until just a few hours before sunset. I found a burger place, and I used their bathroom, so I figured the least I could do was buy a burger from them to go. An eternity later, I got my burger and tried to make up some of the time I had lost by just sitting there. Unfortunely, stopping there caused me to forget my turn. I should have realized it, because the sun was In my eyes. It was bad enough that I stopped for a bit to eat my burger. It really wasn't that great. I kept going. My dad was watching me again, and fortunately called me. I turned back around, right as the sun was setting. I added about 2 miles to my trip- no big deal, except that now I wasn't sure if if find a good camping spot. I checked out an animal viewing cite, but I decided against camping there for three reasons. One: there were tons of mosquitoes. Two: I didn't want to be disturbed by people coming and going. Three: I didn't want to flatten the ground of a nice viewing spot. So I kept on going, even though it was only about a half hour from being pitch black. I tried going far enough to avoid the mosquitoes, but I realized I just needed to find a place that was hidden enough. I found such a spot, and sprinted to get my tent set up. In my rush, my sunglasses fell out of my backpack. Luckily, I found them in the morning. After throwing everything in the tent and zipping up the door, I assessed the damage. There was literally a flock of mosquitoes in my tent- I was doomed. I swung a shirt around, hitting them against the tent wall, trying to get as many at once as I could. It took quite a while, but I finally get all but one or two. I relaxed. Not the best day, but not the worst. This was when I tried to charge my phone. I hadn't been able to get it to charge before. It was really hot all day, so I figured the batteries were just acting up. But I couldn't get any of my chargers to work on my phone at all. I was pretty panicked at this point- I only had 3 percent batty life. If anything happened, I wouldn't have even been able to call 911. I didn't know if it was the batteries, the charging cord, or the phone. I decided that I had to go back into the town I was just in to visit the radio shack that I had passed by on the way out. Fearfully, I slowly drifted off to sleep.