Day 94

One lane road
I heard digging nearby. Meh. Probably some small animal. It also sounded like it was raining. I guess it's a good time to catch up on sleep. Once I finally got up, nothing was wet. I have no clue what was making the sound of rain. I was on my way down the one lane road again. Quickly I got to turn onto a regular road, then a road with bike lanes! It's crazy how money gets distributed. I mean, there was also enough open space for houses to be on both sides, so maybe that had something to do with it, but still. I checked out another town. I found a place with postcards! Unfortunately, it was closed. It was a tourist place, closed on a Saturday. Isn't that when most people have time off work and so they pack up the car for the weekend and go exploring? Whatever. I left, having spent way too much time looking. I had 20 miles of highway until I got to West Virginia. I passed by a post office and realized I had to finally send another lame blank post card. I wrote it and sent it off. As I was getting into the last city, I passed a sign for Walmart. I've had luck with them before, and they are really easy to call. Apparently I got connected with the guy in the jewelry department, who just happened to have a small basket of postcards in front of him. Well that was lucky. It was a tad out of the way, but it looked like it would be easy to find a way back without adding more than a mile. So I headed up the steep road to Walmart. I had to walk all around the store to find the jewelry department, so I got another bike tube just in case. Sure enough, the post cards were there. I think they were supposed to be on clearance, but they were a buck each. I don't think I've ever paid that much but I didn't care- I finally had a Kentucky postcard. I left, hoping to find a shortcut back. I went to the back of Walmart and got a great view, but unfortunately the terrain was way to steep to try anything. There was a small dirt trail, but I didn't want to get down it only to find that it ended on a cliff. So my only choice was I get back on the highway. I read the map wrong though- you can't turn right to get on the other road I wanted. The highway went over it. I pedaled past it, hoping to find another way down. No luck. Finally I figured out that I just needed to cross the highway and take the exit on the other side. There were blasting warnings everywhere, telling people to turn off their cell phones. That's kinda scary. I feel like we need to use technology that isn't going to blow up just because someone with a cell phone went by. I was finally back on track. I went through the city, over the bridge, and into West Virginia. These small states are flying by! 500ft later, I got a flat tire. Dang, I was doing so good! It was my back tire too, which was supposed to be thorn resistent. I pulled the big staple out of the tire. Hopefully I can patch it. I flipped my bike over and set to work. I was pumping up the tube to make sure I knew where the hole was when a couple on a golf cart came by. They asked if I needed something to blow up the tube with... While I literally had a pump in my hands. They had an air compressor, but I didn't want to overinflate the tire. Soon I was back on the road again. After a mile or so I checked the back tire again. It was a tad low, which was basically how I had left it because I was sick of pumping. I decided to give it more air- and it got less inflated the more I pumped. Sure enough, after taking the tube out again, the air had worked its way past the patch. I thought about throwing another patch on there but I didn't want to keep stopping. I was so mad though because I bet if I hadn't stopped and put more air in, the patch would have hardened more and likely would have been fine. Oh well. I put a normal tube in and finally was off again. Good think I bought another tube less than an hour before. It was after 7, so I needed to find camp soon. I was on a small one way road for a bit, but it widened out and connected to a highway with fantastic shoulders. I looked around for a while as I pedalled. Most places were not good for a tent. Either I'd be visible and on flat ground or hidden but practically on a cliff. It got dark enough that I just had to choose. My spot was hidden enough and it looked like it was not too sloped. But then I set up my tent. It was pretty bad. I was slipping down all night.