Come As You Are

7-22-08
Elma to Artic
37 miles, 3 hours

Today started off a little late, but for two good causes. First, Jay took me into Elma, where I bought a bivy tent. He made sure that we set it up and told me the ifs and buts about it. The great thing about being stupid is you learn something new every day. Then I made sure to get nine holes of disc golf in, with the new disc Jay sold me. It's a Roc disc, so I wrote "I'm ready to (Roc)!

I set off for Aberdeen and my legs were not happy. It dawned on me that I am riding my bike a long way. In Aberdeen I had my eyes examined by a nice doctore who gave me the contacts I've been missing. I talked to some guys at a music store about Kurt Cobain, since this was his hometown. They told me about the famed bridge he supposedly lived under. There's an idol for you.

After disrupting traffic I made some good headway towards Raymond. There was what seemed to be a 3 miles climb, which I rocked at 6 mph. After taking some pictures I made a 1/2 mile descent before I realized I forgot my helmet... back to 6 mph.

I came to a campsite pretty quick, in Artic, a nice place where you get to pick raspberries out of the owner's garden. I forgot some details about setting up the tent. Jay would have been less proud of me, but I got it up.

I hope I never have kids. I'll be the dad that takes two hours to set up the tent, and all the neighbor kids will make fun of me. Then my children will likely develop insecure identities. I wish I didn't make fun of boy scouts so much when I was little, their children are going to be congressmen.

At night I talked to some campers. Dave and I talked about books forever and Micah gave me one of Jon Krakauer's books. They were both nice guys. Micah was a little too nice thanks to Mr. Beer and it took me a while to get to bed. He shook my hand at least 15 times. We had a good talk though, both of those guys made me feel like I'm doing the right thing with this trip.

Today's back of the bike sign: San Fran or Bust
Quote: Keep the rubber side down - Wade Trimmer