Day 104- Windy

Last night was not the best. I usually have my bike partially under the vestibule of my tent, but there wasn't much room here, so I just laid it down on the other side of my tent. I kept thinking all night that it was going to get stolen, I even had a dream about it. I checked on it in the middle of the night by crawling halfway out of my tent. Of course it was still there. In the morning, I packed up carefully and waited for the traffic to die down a bit. You'd think this was the middle of a big city. Finally I was on the road again. A few turns and there was a gas station. I restocked. I needed to go through Delaware. I was expecting the rest of the trip to only be about 550 miles, and that's what I was prepared for. Unfortunately, New York/this area of the country has many bridges that bikes aren't allowed on. Every time I tried to route with the bicycle option, it included a ferry. I can't use a ferry, that'd be cheating. I figured out a way to route around, and it added about 200 miles. I was planning on biking down Delaware and back up just a bit so that it wasn't just a hit and run, but now I really had no choice. At least the roads were great- I had a big shoulder the whole time. I couldn't figure out where to stop to look for postcards, so my first stop was a library. They suggested Walgreen's. I've been to one before, with no luck. Maybe different states do things differently though. I was going to check a nearby K-Mart, but there were seriously like 10 people chillin outside. There's not much on my bike to steal, but I hate leaving it right next to people, so I skipped it. There was a Walgreen's across the street, but I skipped that too. I'd have to cross several lanes, then make a left turn again- it wasn't fun the first time. So I continued on and eventually found another Walgreen's. I looked around. I didn't see any postcards, but I asked anyways and the guy assured me they did. I went back and sure enough, in the isle next to the cards, was a rack of postcards. They are hard to find in more ways than one- they are hidden sometimes. It seemed to take forever to find a post office box, but finally I found one. I made my way out of Delaware happily. I hadn't seen a place to camp all day. Pennsylvania had my back though. I headed to a walking/biking trail when it was pretty close to dark. People were leaving when I approached the entrance. Shoot, I hope it's not too busy. I passed by a few more people. I found a sign that said trail closed due to construction or something like that, but they were pulled off to the side like they were no longer relevant. I didn't really have a choice. I headed down to the left, where the sign was parallel with the path, and therefore clearly not in use. Maybe that will prevent other people from walking by. I went a ways and then popped into the forest. I found a perfect spot- nice and level. Much better than last night. Unfortunately there was a small trail leading here. There was a tree blocking the rest of the path. Hopefully no one uses it tonight! I waited for quite a bit just in case. The light slowly faded. On Google, it looked like the main path was just across the stream. No one walked by though. Finally I set up my tent and crawled inside.

Risky camp spot.