The good folks at the homestead had left me a hearty breakfast in the morning but had set off for their days. Checking my cell phone, which I’d left to charge over night, I realized that once again it was not charging and was just about dead. Upsetting.
Packing everything back up I chatted with Janson a bit in the guest house. I had a good time hanging out with him because it seemed he and I were on a similar quest for peace of mind and what to do with ourselves to be happy. On my way out I stopped in at the house, since Mark had returned home, and said my goodbyes. As I left, walking down the road again, Janson ran out and yelled to me if I needed money. I turned him down but the offer was quite nice.
In Dover I stopped in at the library for a while and did the internet thing. Before I left I chatted with the library girls there who I notice wrote in the ole guestbook. They directed me to a restaurant called the Iron Grill where I sat opposite a guy on crutches who was really into telling me about the ways of the world, as well as his little bottle of Tabasco sauce.
The rest of the day was spent wandering out of Dover about five miles and down the road folks call The Trace. This road lead to what I’d been waiting to see for a while because of its majestic name, The Land Between the Lakes. To my dismay, everyone in the area refused to call it anything other than LBL and actually became confused sometimes when I referred to it by its full proper name.
About a mile after meeting a young family living in a trailer house on The Trace before the park, that was shooting fireworks at their neighbors, I found a campsite despite their discouragement. No one in the family could gather why I was wandering intentionally and as I left they looked forward to seeing my body on the news in a few weeks. I sort of liked them. The site I found was half a mile away and on a hill, but it worked.
Going to bed that night I looked at my elbow which had a few bumps on it that morning. Confirmations were made; I was up for a bout with my old nemesis Poison Ivy for a few days.