Oddly Todd and I seem to rise at just about the same time. He crawled out of his bivy first, then slowly I followed. Once I'm out, however, I tend to be up and looking to do something, usually because its cold. After a bit of staring at the ground I started getting some oatmeal going and soon we were eating breakfast having talks about getting moving, and how nice a day it was. The skies were clear, it was starting to really warm up, and visions of wandering twenty miles or so started dancing in my head. Then we decided we really liked this campsite and lay back down again. That took some serious self motivation to pull ourselves out of.
By about 3pm we managed to have the dishes washed, the packs repacked (though mine a bit more top heavy than it had been), and we each popped a 5 hour energy thing like what my friend Karen had given me at my going away party. Those things are darn fine, darn fine indeed. Now full of gusto, well fed, well rested, bright sunny day out, and both of us itching to walk we hit the road with pistons in our step.
Three miles later, and one hour passed, we found ourselves sitting at a picnic table at the local community gas station center, sipping coffee and chatting it up with a guy named Keith. Keith loved the place, and he loved hearing about what we were up to. He would point out places around the gas station to camp then tell us about places nearby up the road to hunker down at. Which roads were good and where the people were nice and where not. It was good talking to Keith, but honestly, I was dying to just keep walking some more.
We had stopped in there with the idea of filling up our water. On the way through the parking lot coffee was tacked on. Once inside, we started chatting with quite a few people, Keith being one of them, and we became the hit spectacle of the day outside. I hadn't anticipated an hour or hour and a half long break three miles into a rather late day. Again, I was brought back to my thoughts of pushing Ingrid and rushing through things.
After about half an hour there I was ready to go. I was bouncing with energy after the coffee on top of all we'd eaten and the 5 hour energy thing. I was enjoying chatting, telling others who would ask about our trip, and Todd was doing a lot of adjustments with his blistering heel. It was just so nice out, and we'd done so little walking on a whole that I really just wanted to see what else was ahead of us. Where is the balance between enjoying a slow pace and just sputtering to a crawl. I must really be an annoying person to do these kinds of travels with. Ingrid, Angie comments? ...Spacey?
Anyway, we finally got going again setting off back down US-50. We made it maybe 200 yards before a cop made a U-turn parking right in front of us. Apparently its illegal to walk on the US highways here which of course merits an ID check in case we're terrorists. He then told us we had to walk back to the road we'd just come from at the gas station and proceeded to follow us in his car to protect us. You'd think he'd at least give us a ride.
So twenty minutes later we found ourselves back on the next picnic table over at that same goddamned gas station. Both of us were now irritated. I was because we were plopped down again having gone no where, and Todd was for the ID check which rightfully that cop had no business checking. Just tell us to get off the road and we will, end of annoyance please. Those sorts of things don't really fuss me too much, though. What was starting to get at me was that Todd was now contemplating the idea of staying at the gas station figuring it as a good place to catch a ride out of.
I half heartedly agreed recognizing that it was indeed a good place to do that, and it was a good place to camp if we didn't catch one, but I just really didn't feel at all like sitting around any more. I was trying to get into the spirit of looking for rides, but I think I came off looking more like a crack head with the shakes at a gas station picnic table. Todd soon also decided the vibe there had shifted and that walking wasn't such a bad idea. I think he also was picking up on my not so subtle agitation at just sitting and waiting. We did know going into it that this would be the challenge between us of finding a balance between methods. He has been anxious to see how I cope with a slow pace, I was curious to see how he'd handle me not wanting to sit at rest stops. Our first test, awww.
The road outta there was beautiful. Not just because we were strolling again, but because it was a small quiet country road lined with trees. Suddenly Todd wasn't near as agitated by being IDed, and I... well, I was walking again. What a geek I am.
We also noted a lesson in that experience. Both of us, when we went walking into the gas station the first time, had wanted to walk that calm country road, but were swayed away when Keith hinted it would pull us way out of our way. Neither of us missed the fact that twenty minutes after steering away from it, despite having walked all day on US-50 yesterday, we were right back in front of it with instructions to take it. The idea of the trip was to go with the gut, and we had stopped listening due to frustration.
We walked the road for maybe another hour through good old fashioned farm country. There were plenty of patches of woods, and after a bit we ducked into one and found a good hide away. Dogs were barking across the land, and Todd was unused to the close proximity of homes on the east coast so we were in a fairly worked up state of paranoia. Once we got dinner in us, though, we set up the bivys and relaxed a bit. He wrote up some posts while I broke out the Nashika and took some more pictures, then returned some birthday calls.
Tomorrow I have a feeling it'll finally be a really good walking day. Only time shall tell, though.
Click here for Todd's perspective.
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