I took my sweet time going about things in the morning again. Rolled up my tent, brushed my teeth, then headed over to My Place, where I’d eaten the night before, and had some breakfast. The same girl was working so I had a familiar face pouring my coffee. After breakfast I went to the post office and sent my camp stove and pots ahead since I decided its too much water to cook at night and I might need more room to carry more water as I go through desolation ahead.
There were some shenanigans about fitting the right box and the legality of mailing my empty fuel tank for the stove, but all worked out and I hit the library afterward. I stayed there for a while updating and checking things, then was about to leave when I thought why rush out lets finish that book once and for all. So I found my book and read the last few pages and was happy.
The rest of the day I spent wandering back on to US-36 and going down toward McDonald 18 miles away. I was unusually peppy which may have been due to the winds, or to my resting places I found which were excellent. My new favorite spots are in rain tunnels that go under the highway. I suppose they’re to regulate flooding, but they’re tall and wide enough that at first I thought they were tunnels for the cattle to go under the roads through. I’d sit in there on cool shaded cement as the wind would blow through lightly.
About nine miles from the tiny town of McDonald a guy stopped to offer me a ride. When I turned him down he told me he owned a bar in town on the highway and that I should stop in when I get there and he’d give me a drink. Well, three hours or so later I did stop in and walked into an excellent night. There was a gaggle of people sitting around a table drinking beer or whiskey and water chatting it up about anything. The owner, Garold, yelled over about me finally making it and soon there was a beer before me. By the end of the beer I was a regular and got myself a pot of coffee for the night and a cheeseburger.
The night wore on and the conversations were really interesting and in depth. One guy, Rex, and I talked at length about evolution and religion, meaning of life and all of that. Another guy, Frank, talked with me about running businesses, drifting around life, as he used to while following trout, and other such things. Garold gave me a rattle from a rattlesnake when he heard I hadn’t really seen any snakes on the trip. He then decided why settle for that, let’s eat the snake it come from, so he went home, got it out of his fridge and cooked the sucker up for us all. Never had rattle snake before, but it was interesting, a bit too many bones, like fish, for me though.
By the end of the night it was just me, Rex, and Frank, as Garold would come and go while he cleaned up the place. It was about 2 or 3 in the morning and it was raining again. I had told someone earlier at the table that I’d make it rain for them like I did in Mankato, and I’m starting to think I really can do that. Garold said I could crash on his couch, or more accurately said “I’m taking you home”, so the night wound down and we all went home.
I slept on the couch as Garold slept in the easy chair next to me. I think he was kicked out of the bed for snoring perhaps, cause he was good at it. He put the TV on Black Hawk Down so I drifted off watching that.