Cops. Last night was the second night I've slept in a public park after calling up the local popo and requesting a safe, legal, and dry place to sleep. I'm not taking back any complaints I've had in the past, but the boys in blue are coming through on this trip. Seriously, if anyone ever finds themselves helpless I wholeheartedly suggest buying a bike and vagabonding from town to town with the same old "I'm biking across America and just need a place to sleep for the night." Be forewarned though, that fires are definitely looked down upon. Other than parks, I've slept in yards (with permission), a boy scout camp (with consent from drunken local landowners completely unafilliated with the boy scouts), and a few other places deemed appropriate by locals.
Other than sleeping and riding, I'm conversing with tons of interesting strangers along the way. Most of the convos have the same general tone. "Dude (obviously paraphrased), what are you doing? Are you serious?" A couple of the notables thus far have been a man who just completely a 600 mile bike touring trip around the Erie canal, a woman who works in the only underground mushroom mine in America, an ex-convict, self-proclaimed hippy who mountain bikes illegally on state game land and believes that America's problems lie in our overcrowded prisons, and yesterday, after getting completely drenched of the night, I spent like an hour chatting at the laundromat while I dried basically everything I owned; It was nice not really having anything to do and time to talk about anything.
I'm currently in the East Palestine, OH public library getting my Led Zeppelin fix for the week before heading off in the rain again. Rain is great, I really love it, but when semis keep driving past covering you with greasy groundspray it gets a little old. I'm super ready for this storm system to vacate the northeast.
As far as the bike goes. I'm really proud of the Merida. She's been a real trooper and is still holding together. The rear shifter and brakes are working great, and the bike tires are looking pretty good. I'm not expecting the rear tire to make it all the way (the front tire better), but it would be great if it could get halfway. As far as the trailer goes, I got my first flat yesterday from a tiny little shard of metal , but it was quickly patched and back in action. I don't have a spare tube for the trailer, but at only 30 psi I'm fairly confident that patches can do the trick (my mountain bike tubes have been patched like three times and they're still going).
Next time will most likely be from Indiana!!
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