Day 16

I woke up to the sound of a dog barking and a man yelling- the latter walking the former, I presume. When I got out of my tent, I found out that I wasn't quite as consealed as I would have liked. Oh well, I'll just pack up and get out of here. The ballpark had an outhouse. The pump guy was waiting for me when I got out- awkward. My plan was to try to get back on the highway at the latest point possible. Unfortunately, no shoulder. After peddling in circles around Spark for a bit, I finally gave in. I would have to take the long way- 60 some miles instead of 30. It showed only a bit of dirt road... I guess I'm stupider than a lot of people think. After some decent dirt road, it turned into the same stuff as yesterday- rocky, sandy and impossible. Plus, it was a constant incline. This time, however, I could see the paved road I would eventually catch up with- high above, but achievable. It took a while, and I thought about how I wish I hadn't asked for the ride back- I'd be a lot closer to my destination now, if I survived the night, that is. Eventually the road got much better and I was able to peddle out to the paved road- with basically no shoulder. Shit. I thought that technically it's ok, but I hate slowing people down and just hoping that people are paying attention. Not too far down the road, two cyclists passed me going the other way- yay! Then I saw a sign that said "Share the Road" and it had a picture of a bicycle. Awesome. I relaxed a bit after that. It took forever because it was so steep but I eventually reached my highest summit yet. This is part of what really made the past sucky day fly out of my mind. From the summit, you could see part of a double rainbow and beautiful mountains. As I sped down the other side, the rainbow really seemed like it was right there, touching the ground. They always seem like they are so far away- not this time. As soon as I rounded some curves and lost elevation, I saw another rainbow behind a mountain. That image is almost getting old- I've seen so many so far. I eventually pulled into Virginia city and realized I had actually missed the turn. But that ended up being a good thing. For one, I didn't have much food left. For two, I would completely avoid dirt roads by going this way. I found the rv park, but there were no signs or anything telling you how to reserve a spot after hours- I left with the intention of grabbing something to eat and then finding a place to camp while heading down the mountain. The pizza took forever- but it tasted amazing. The place was called the Red Dog Saloon- which is funny because there is a boat named the Red Dog at Offshore Systems Kenai, where I worked for several summer and winter breaks. By the time I finished gobbling down the pizza, it was dark enough that I didn't want to risk it. I headed back to the rv park and was greeted by two small yapping dogs. I decided to camp in an rv spot, since I couldn't find the tent spots and I needed to charge my stuff anyways. I asked a guy if there was a place to sign up after hours. There wasn't, but the guy, Glenn, ended up being the nicest person in the world. He assured me that I could just talk to the owners in the morning to get things worked out. Then another guy came over. He knew the owners personally, and told me to tell them that I talked with Jim and Jess. Jim was certainly a talker. I had to set up my tent in semi-dark. I wanted to do laundry, but the laundry room was closed from 7pm to 8am. I didn't want to stay that late. I also wanted to shower, but both Glenn and Jim had told me the difficult to remember passcode (just open the door). Something just didn't feel right. Glenn brought me a ziplock full of peaches, plums and poppy seed bread. I know he was just being nice, but it was late and I didn't want to risk anything being stollen, so I just used the bathroom. It was rediculously nice for an rv park- there were about 6 rooms, all with their own sink, toilet and shower. Oh well. I wanted to charge my phone and batteries all night, but I didn't want to risk leaving it out. I kept my eye on it for a bit, then retrieved it and quickly crashed afterwards.