One Of Those Days

Riding Day 34 – 79.3 miles

The campground in Blackwater State Park was excellent, very quiet with good showers. We met some of the other campers and shared our story, and they brought us Klondike Ice Cream Bars in return. I think we got the better end of the deal.

The ride itself started out routinely as we rolled along the by now all-too-familiar shoulders of Highway 90. It was sunny, the trees and flora shimmered in the light, cars whizzed by us impartially, and monotony continued its numbing reign over our psyches. Little did we suspect that this day would soon turn into “one of those days.”

At the first break point we encountered two severely emaciated Rottweilers who were on the other side of the highway, a male and a female. The male was so weak that he could barely cross the road and almost got hit. The female was in slightly better shape, though it appeared she had been used as a breeder in a puppy mill. We had 6 cans of tuna in the OREM, and we gave three each to the dogs, who took about ten seconds to eat all 6 cans. Another car pulled over to help us. Hanna was an off-duty police officer from a nearby town and also a dog lover. She made some calls, and the dogs were eventually picked up and taken to a “no-kill” shelter. They were covered in fleas and had mange, but I think/hope they’ll recover.

Our next planned break would put us in DeFuniak Springs, FL and at the end of map #6. As Odie and I were passing the “Welcome to DeFuniak Springs” sign, something hit me in the lower lip. I saw it coming at the last second, and it was big and dark in color. Within a few seconds of the impact I was in excruciating pain that radiated into the inside of my mouth and all along my lower lip. Odie later said I was screaming in agony as we came to an abrupt stop. I pulled off the small mirror I clip to my glasses so I can see behind us and used it to inspect my lip. There was something sticking out of the impact area, and when I was finally able to extract it, it was a stinger of some sort about a quarter inch in length! The pain started to subside after a few minutes, but as I write my lip is still slightly swollen, and I’m guessing it was probably a hornet or wasp that got me.

After an extended break we got back on Hank and soldiered onward. The wind was playing games with us again, but it wasn’t very strong, and we were making good time despite the unplanned events. I soon spotted The Bob at the next rendezvous point and tuned into a lumpy parking lot. As I was slowing to stop, The Bob pointed to the handlebar bag where I keep tools for roadside repairs, extra innertubes and a patch kit, and also my cellphone and Odie’s and I’s wallets. I’d left the top unzipped and my wallet was close to falling out. I stopped Hank and quickly looked inside the bag. Thankfully everything was there…except my cellphone! The Bob and I went into hyper-mode and threw Hank on the rack in preparation to retrace our route and hopefully find my 4-month-old phone. In the middle of all the commotion, Odie was saying something about using the Find My Phone app, because he and I had set that up prior to starting the trip. The Bob stopped what he was doing and sat down to help Odie use the app. It showed that my phone was close by and probably in the van. I’d already looked in the van, and Odie had tried calling my phone to no avail. But I looked again, this time actually moving the mess inside the OREM to peer into all the crevices that had grown into canyons over the past few weeks…and there it was, wedged between the seat and a backpack at an angle that made it hard to see or hear with the ringer turned down low. Odie the blind guy saves the day yet again.

The rest of the afternoon was uneventful, though we did get chased by two dogs who employed the stealth method of racing after us and withholding their barks until the last second. But at this stage of the game we barely flinch when dogs come for us, and we easily accelerated out of harm’s way. Around 4:15 we called it a day and headed north to Fort Novosel, an army base in Alabama that until very recently was known as Fort Rucker. Odie’s son Cory is stationed there as an Apache Helicopter instructor pilot, and we will be spending two nights with him before making the final push to Saint Augustine, now only 340 miles away. Cory made us a fabulous meal of lasagna and bread, and homemade creme brulee for dessert. It’ll be awesome to just relax for a day, though we have a few resupply tasks to take care of. I’ve been on the verge of passing out the entire time I’ve been writing tonight, so please forgive me for any typos or nonsensical word salad that you might uncover in the above purge of a semi-crazy day. Peace…