We were all up and about by around 8 or 9 in the morning. After some loitering about we managed to organize ourselves and all go out to breakfast at the other diner option I had, the Town & Country Café. Going in there it seemed Don and Carol knew pretty much everyone, which didn’t surprise me, and I got many introductions before the food arrived. Hankered down with pancakes, ham and eggs, sausage, and coffee Carol and I continued to go on and on about something while Don interjected every now and again.
Getting back home I brought down my pack and we started the process of filtering water to refill my jugs with. This took about another forty five minutes to an hour while I repacked things as well and Carol tried to figure out exactly how much food I could carry with me so I could clear out some of her pantry. By 11 I waved goodbye and was back on the road again.
There was not much going on back on the old black top. Long rolling little hills bopped along off into the horizon, and after reaching the top of each one I’d see more off in the distance. A few cars stopped offering rides but I didn’t chat long with any of them. I rested by a silo and on the porch of an abandoned house in a little rail side town called Reager that had no one in it.
Finally I reached Norcatur, which is a little town of about 200 people or so. I figured I could refuel my water there then go a couple more miles before bedding down. I started down a dirt road and met a guy in a tractor going the other way. He told me everything in town was closed but there was a guy in the first house I’d come to who’d be willing to give me some water. I stopped in at this house and the man seemed a bit wary about me being on his porch. He gave me a jug of water telling me to just take it, I refilled quickly, left the jug, and rested back at 36 behind a thresher.
Five miles past there the sun was touching the ground. I decided the folks out here were nice enough so I set up my tent next to a cornfield near a railroad track completely out in the open. The road was raised a bit due to the tracks and the field so the headlights weren’t hitting me, but I was certainly not tucked away in woods like normally have been.
I was starting to feel like crunch time was setting in like at the end of a school year. My shoes were wearing thin so I duct taped them up, water was becoming much more of an issue now so I’d have to reevaluate cooking and carrying things. Basically everything I’d seen and learned over the past 1,500 miles or so I had to now really apply seriously because towns were going to start being 25 to 35 miles apart with absolutely nothing, not even creeks, in between. All of that I thought about over my twisty pasta as I tried to get rid of the last of my dinners and it excited me endlessly. After, I fell asleep soundly under the canopy of stars.