Day 96

Overgrown stream
Squirrels just love waking me up. I packed up and left, realizing that there was no way anyone came down here last night. The road (or more presicley, trail) was really bumpy. Plus, a long spiderweb was strewn accross it. I have no clue how I got past it, but at one point I just looked back and there it was at chest level. I must have hit an edge and caused it to fall. The road was nice most of the time- I had a decent shoulder. I passed by a nuclear power plant and some other plants too (I think). I went through a few small towns. I stopped by a sports fan shop, not really expecting much, but hoping they'd know where I could get a postcard. The lady there pointed me toward a pharmacy. Right next door was a thrift shop. I don't think I've ever checked one before today. I looked through all their cards and found two postcards. One was of a sunflower that had nothing really on it except printed in Canada. The other one had Ohio nightlife- well, their eyes anyways. It was a joke postcard. I'm pretty sure I saw the exact one in Kansas, but of course with Kansas instead of Ohio. But it freakin said Ohio so booyaw! I stopped by the pharmacy anyways because they had a blue postal box. I checked- no post cards. This happens a lot. Good think I checked the thrift shop. I left and about 30 seconds down te road, a car driving in the opposite direction stopped and asked me where I was from.
"Alaska, but I started in Montana!"
"Where ya headed?"
"I'm trying to go through every state, so Maine."
All this was like in the middle of the road.
"I envy you." And then he drove off. A few people have said this now, and it feels weird. One of the main reasons why I wanted to do this was to show that it was possible. I thought the main reason why people didn't try stuff like this was because they didn't have enough money, knowledge, time or physical fitness. So I tried to do it for as cheap as possible, buying the cheapest new bike, and buying everything else on Amazon. That eventually didn't work out. I had to get a new tent. Then I realized with my cheap setup, packing up and down took forever. So I pretty much gave up the cheap goal and splurged on paniers and a light backpacking tent. I quickly had to give up the time goal too though. Finding postcards is difficult, as anyone reading this blog has found out. And blogging takes forever too. I probably write way more than anyone wants to read, but I want to make sure I remember a lot of the details. I knew how to change a tire, but that's about it. You don't need loads of knowledge. Most of the stuff I've needed to know I've been able to look up along the way. Bike laws are usually just common sense. Google is at least halfway decent at keeping you off of roads you shouldn't be on. As far as fitness goes, I think I went and biked in the gym exactly 3 times. There's really no way to prepare for biking all day without actually biking all day. Many older people have said there's no way they could so this. I'm sure they could. They'd be slower, but it would sill be possible. Anyways, long story short, this trip is kinda me shouting at the world, "Hey! This is possible!" And I think I can hear the world shouting back, "Hey! We know! We just don't have 4 months to commit to it!" Touché. "But what about cross country trips?"
"We know about those too! And lots of people do that! But again, not everyone has that much time!"
Anyways, that's been on my mind. Begin rant two.
People have said they wish they were doing what I was doing. I feel like if they knew all that I've been through, they wouldn't feel quite the same way. Spiders, ants, animals, trains, running out of water, flats, rain, crazy inclines... Don't get me wrong though. I've told several people that this trip has its ups and downs, but the ups make it worth it. Really though, I think it's the other way around. Not in the joking sense that biking is great when going downhill, but that the challenge I get when I face a tough situation shows me how I can get through just about anything. I can get really frustrated, but I always pull through. It's like how you get a lot more out of a loss that you do from a win. A loss shows you how you can improve.
Rant 3
I kinda hate watching sports. It seems so pointless. I'd much rather be playing. But still, I remember a time, looking back at all the time I've spent playing sports and feeling like a lot of it went to waste. Getting better at a sport really only helps you in that one area. Sure, physical activity is great and blaw blaw blaw, but still. Of course, a lot of sports try to emphasize the other things you can take from sports- teamwork, hard work, etc. I think one of the greatest things this trip has shown me is how much I really took out of sports. I think wrestling really showed me who I am as I person. I only started in 8th grade, so I wasn't as good at the technical stuff as the kids who had been wresting since they could walk. But I found my niche in cradles and I kinda made a name for myself. I pinned kids who were better than me, who were more experienced. This is largely what I am doing now- an amature, out to beat the thousands of experience bike tourists who have always wanted to do this kind of tour but just never got around to it. If my research is correct, I'll be among less than 10 people who have done something like this. In football, we often faced bigger schools with larger teams and bigger kids. We used to say "Let's shock the world." It didn't necessarily make sense, because the world wasn't really watching us, but everyone watching likely had an expectation of the outcome and I found it inspiring to try to prove them wrong. Again, that's what in doing now- many people thought I would have quit by now. But I'm not going to. Unless I break a leg or something. I don't want to just hang out down here for a year to heal and get some muscle back.
Anyways... Haha that was a crazy tangent, but it's all been on my mind so I figured it was about time to get it all out. I pedaled for quite a few more miles but my rear tire seemed like it was going flat. I pumped it back up to make sure. It lasted like 30 minutes or so but then was low again. A slow leak. I figured my patch wore out. I took the tube out and pumped it up. It wouldn't even inflate. I found the hole because it was blowing on my nee. A huge hole. Probably from the pothole last night. As I was putting in a new tube, two other bike tourers passed by. They asked if I needed help. I should have asked where they were headed. Oh well. Three flats in three days. I need to start asking for thorn resistent tubes again. Lots more miles and a missed turn later, I was almost to the bridge over into West Virginia when I discovered that it was a toll bridge. Dang. It didn't look like it had shoulders either. I headed south, away from the bike shop I was heading to. I might as well get the wobble checked out and see about my high gear slipping. I called the shop. No thorn resistent tubes. They were out of the way as well. But I figured diagnosing the other stuff shouldn't take long. A headed there. It was super crappy. It was a one way three lane with lots of traffic, so no riding in the road. The sidewalk was crazy at times. I had to be really careful with people pulling off when crossing. I finally got to the bike shop. He took it right back and did a few adjustments to the screws on the derailer- basically what I already tried. He showed me how the chain wasn't lined up at all. Maybe I just didn't do it right. I loaded everything back up and took it outside for a spin- no luck. It still slipped. Well now he knew the problem- I just needed new gears. Which is only like 17 bucks. I was like wow... This has been a big problem for several weeks now, and a little problem for months. That's all I needed to do? He replaced it quickly and also checked out my wobble. After throwing in a missing spring, viola, no wobble. At least it wasn't moving like it was before. So it probably wasn't my fault. It was likely the guys at the other bike shop who replaced my tires, because that's when I started noticing the problem. Ugh. At least it was fixed now. I took it outside for a spin and felt like a rocket ship. I went inside to pay. He only charged me for the part- 21 bucks. He said he likes being nice to bike tourers. I gave him a 10 dollar tip but I instantly felt like I should have given more. I just hate tips. My frugalness and fairness traits collide and make sure I'm never happy afterwards, no matter what. Anyways, the other guy working there said that Walmart had postcards near the customer service desk. As in he knew they had them, he didn't just think they did. I headed over there, it wasn't far. No postcards. Ughhhh. He must have been thinking about a different Walmart. It had started to rain, but after filling up my water there and figuring out where to go next, it stopped. That's my kind of rain. I navigated back through the crazy city, finally stopping at a gas station to stock up. I bought too much food. A girl there saw me eyeing the parfae- she said that she made them and that they were amazing. Well shoot, I have to try it now. It was great, but I had to eat it quickly so that I could get back on the road. Finally I was on my way out. There were quite a few bike signs, so I thought I was golden. But then the paved shoulder became the crappiest shoulder ever. How does anyone bike on this thing? Every once in a while I tried riding on the white line, but there was so much traffic that it was impossible to do for long. I found a shortcut on Google so that I wouldn't be on that crazy road for as long. It took me to the very beginning of the rail trail. Dang. The rail trail really was just a trail. It wasn't too bad. There were two well worn tracks on either side, each well packed. But everything else was covered in grass. I dunno if I can do this for 60 miles. I found out it was after 7, so I needed to find camp soon. I passed by quite a few trailers. Finally I found a spot that seemed like it was away from everyone. I was about to duck into the woods when I luckily saw a fat spider sitting in his web. I didn't want to find a different spot, so I found a way around him and made a mental note to avoid hitting him on the way out. A dog started barking, so I paused for a moment. That's when the other biker went by. I don't think he saw me, but I guess if I saw someone pulled over in the woods, I wouldn't pay them any attention either. Regardless, he had his dog with him. It ran by, but then came back and sniffed around the edge of the woods about 15ft away. It came in the woods enough so that I could see him clearly. Time seemed to slow as I watched him. He paused too, probably listening. Apparently I passed the test. He ran off to his master without barking. I felt so lucky. I continued on into the woods after waiting a bit to make sure the biker and his dog were long gone. I set up my tent with just the small end facing out- it should be hidden enough, I was pretty far into the woods. I climbed inside and hoped for an improving trail tomorrow.