It was a good bet to take to settle in at that point the night before because it was nice and cool in the morning. I was noticing this to be the trend more and more in these flat lands, or at least as the heat got more oppressive in the afternoons. I walked about five miles and found a nice gas station to sit and read the paper in over a bowl of beef stew and some coffee, I also chatted some with the cashier there for a bit who gave me a bag of chips.
The paper was a local one, so I didn’t expect to find much, but in it was a great three page article of a local guy who had served in Korea. It was the 50th anniversary of the truce so he had written in several stories of his time over there with pictures he’d taken. That kept me busy most of the time I was there.
I shoved off after a bit and kept on down the road. Again, it was another none-to-eventful day but more laden with thoughts about that veteran’s tour, more ideas on relationships, and other such things. All of this kept me going for about ten or eleven more miles until I hit Pittsville. The cashier at the first gas station had given me a full run down on where gas stations would be found along the road, and this one she’d said was perfect for the end of the day because they had ice cream. A perfect conclusion indeed.
Inside this wondrous station of icee delights I found a family of five sitting inside struggling with the joys of a breakdown while moving. I had gone through the same thing not more than three years ago only a few more miles up the road so I was very sympathetic to there situation. I got a sundae and some coffee then sat down and had a good old chat with them for about an hour. They had already been there anywhere between two and five hours (I got varying reports from each) so they had plenty to share as we sat out of the heat. In fact they had a cousin who had walked from the Everglades in Florida to the Northwest Territories in Canada and written a book on it then did another trek going east to west like mine and wrote a book on that as well. I think they said it was called 10,000 Steps and then 10,000 More. So much reading to catch up on.
Finally their help came and off they went, so I decided to wrap up my business and off I went. It was again over 100 degrees. 105 I believe it was. I made it about three more miles then found a nice freshly mown and cared for bit of woods along the side of the road. I wasn’t sure if anyone would be coming through there since it was so well manicured, but at that point I didn’t care and set up for the night.
It was around five in the evening, which is very early for me, leaving me about four and a half hours of sunlight to do what ever with. With my natural light I mostly sat up writing and eating. When the sun finally did set I was ready to as well and went to bed with it.