Around 4am I was awakened by the light pitter pat of rain coming through the screen windows of my tent. I jumped up and threw the tarp up and all of that then crawled back into bed. At 6am, the rain had stopped and I was awake so I broke camp and left by 8am.
I walked about five miles straight into Jackson. I figured there had to be some place good to eat there and I could do some laundry and those things while it was still early. Puttin’ along I saw a place called Woodard’s that had a sign for a $3.99 breakfast buffet. There was a guy working on something in a front yard so I asked him if it was any good and with a shrug gave me the go ahead.
Inside I dropped my pack, ordered some coffee from a darling waitress, then proceeded to load up a plate to the brink of over flowing. As I sat to eat another waitress came up to me and took my check back saying it was covered. I was completely baffled.
Going over these little stories of the trip there are lots of examples of people buying me lunch, breakfast, dinner, whichever, but they’re always people I’d talked to and told them what I was doing. I hadn’t really talked to anyone inside. I asked who it was and she said not to worry about it and left it at that. The niceties just get nicer as I move along.
I stayed for about an hour and a half filling myself with coffee and stuffing my belly full. When I left I figured I should at least leave a good tip if I’m not paying for my meal so I left $4 on a $5 bill. Suiting up an older couple got to questioning me and I gave them the scoop. When I turned around there was my darling waitress with the $4 telling me that it was unnecessary and she wouldn’t accept it. I told her to keep it and then a second waitress backed her up by grabbing the money and shoving it in my bedroll. Seeing I was beaten at handing out any money that day I conceded and thanked them. They retreated to the kitchen so I pulled the money from my bedroll and threw it on the table then ran out of there. It reminded me of an old bartender I was friends with back in New York and the way I had to tip him.
From there I went to the library again and spent another three hours uploading pictures since the camera was almost full. Then I set off out of town at about five hoping to get some mileage in before the sun met the horizon again.
About eight miles out, I was nearing a town called Millersville. I’d heard there was a store there and was looking forward to a soda when a guy yelled to me from the other side of the street offering water. My left eye had been really annoying me the whole afternoon so I took him up on it and asked if he knew of a way to get sun block out of my eye.
This here is a perfect example of how I see things happening on this trip. My eye was being horribly irritating and who was this guy and his wife but two nurses. They got to work on me dropping saline and things of that sort flushing my eye out and soon I was feeling fine chatting away with a place to bed down, a shower, and some supper.
Scott was his name and his son, Damien, I spent a lot of time talking with about his truck. He was really into fixing it up and entering it in shows so I got to know the ins and outs of what that entailed. After supper we all watched TV then I crashed out in their backyard for the night.