Day 70

Coons
Last night's visitors kept me up for a bit. I believe the first was the same as the one in Colorado- a weird wining sound and almost like a purr after. I'm fairly certain that was a racoon. However, I'm also pretty sure there was something else- deep snorts like a deer would make, but it seemed slightly different- it hung around a bit longer that usual. I was sure it was a bear at the time, but considering it didn't try to get at anything in my tent, I don't think it was. Maybe it was a wild boar, but more likely just another deer. Regardless, since it didn't seem to go away, I started yelling at it. "Hey! Get out of here..." It didn't seem to work. I had to repeat it several times. Sticks fell on my tent, like something was climbing a tree. This is the most freaked out I've been in a while. I think I really need to get a game cam and put it facing my tent. I really wanna know what these animals are.
This was a pretty short day. Once I got on the road, it went from dirt to paved to sort again several times as usual. I'm getting good at talking to cows. They sometimes run away when they see me, but once I moo at them they just stop and stare as if to say "Wow, a cow stuck in a mans body!" I got chased by more dogs. Eventually I was put on a pretty scary highway. I tried to look for a way around, but there weren't any good ones. I decided to try to take them anyways. When I got to the first one, I decided to skip it. It looked more dangerous than the road I was on. It had no shoulder and it was very steep and curvy. The next turn off was the same way. Finally I found a light to turn at. I followed the last car- and of course the light turned yellow right as I entered the intersection. This isn't a problem for cars, but I go really slow. I just pumped as hard as I could. I got to a sidewalk and relaxed. Soon I arrived at the bike path that pretty much led directly to where I was headed- my next host. My friend Lacee got me in touch with her sister, Kristal. Since I knew where I'd be a few days in advance, I finally had the opportunity to buy some external battery packs from Amazon. I bought two, and each have more capacity than everything else I have combined. So with them, I should be able to last about 3 weeks or so. I don't know if I want to go that long without a shower yet. We will see. Anyways, it was only 3 short miles. Right before their house, I had to go up the craziest hill. I think I might have been able to make it, but there were leaves. I just imagined my tire slipped on them and decided to get off and push. That wasn't much better. I inched my way up the hill. I'm sure it was the steepest part of my trip so far. Exhausted, I finally made it to the top. I made my way to their house. I wasn't totally sure which one it was. Many houses had their garage doors open and were hanging out. No one ushered me over. Finally a guy came out and looked at me with an "ah, there he is" kinda face, and I knew I was in the right place. His name was Josh- Kristal's boyfriend. They both invited me in. I got some nice freezing cold water. I won't go into too much detail here, but it was really nice being here- I felt like I already knew them. We talked a lot and ate delicious burgers for dinner. I slept with their cat- much more cuddly than the mosquitos and spiders that I was used to.