Day 24,
Good morning.
Today I was half asleep the whole night, so when someone left the house at
around
I packed up
the sleeping bag and the tent, loaded all this to the bicycle and headed to the
road. The house was quite and no one was on the porch, so I couldn’t wave
good-bye to anyone. As a matter of fact, the lady was saying something about it
yesterday that she will be leaving early and I can just leave whenever was
convenient for me. Nice of them to offer the place for the tent, but I realized
that I would rather sleep and camp on no one’s property, such as governments forests,
meadows river shores etc. J
I continued
north east on Hwy 95.
In about an
hour and a half, I was riding by the town called Midvale, and since it was
pretty hot and I was somehow low on energy, I decided to stop and get some rest
here. I stopped by the grocery store and got a bottle of cold milk with some
cookies. Then went to the post office and mailed few post card.
The library,
across the street (most public facilities were on one block, library, post
office, grocery store, and I think a gas station) was open. Library consisted
of about 2 and a half little rooms with two computers.
It was quite there and cool from the air conditioner.
I looked at maps and browsed through the book shelves then spent about an hour
on the internet. When I finally was ready to leave, it was already about 1 or 2
pm. The lady was very friendly and when she found out that I am heading north,
she said there was going to be a dinner at her Mormon church tonight and that I
was invited. The church was located in a little town called
Actually, I
was very lazy today and had no energy to pedal much further.
In a good
mood, since there was little riding ahead, I pedaled the 8 miles and arrived in
They were
intending to set up their tents near the hotel. I told them about the barbeque
near the church and that there should be some free food, but the guys didn’t
seem to be interested. They actually looked very silent pretty up-tight. J
After this, I
rode further by side roads to explore the town. Behind the school on the edge
of town, I found a tap and took a nice refreshing shower.
By the time
the barbeque was supposed to start, I rode to the church and saw many people
talking and walking in the lawn near the building. Some kids were playing
around. I parked the bike near the building and went towards the crowd. There I
saw the lady from the library and she introduced me to some people around,
which asked few usual questions about the bike trip. Then everybody went inside
to the big gym and a pastor gave a speech through the microphone in front of
the people. I don’t remember what was all this about, but maybe people just
wanted to some reason to meet in the evening and socialize. Then at the table
where people ate the hamburgers that were cooked outside on the grill (really
good) someone started a deep conversation with me and when the person found out
I was not familiar with Mormons traditions, she called the pastor and I was educated
on the history of Mormons church. It was pretty amusing, but when someone
brought a heavy book to take with me, I had to honestly reject the offer, which
somewhat shocked the person who was trying to give me the book. I explained
that I was not able to carry it with me on the bike and that I could always get
more information on the internet. I think someone appreciated the honesty and I
of course didn’t want to take the book and get rid of it in the next town just
to please some one. J
People
started getting ready to go home by about
There I
stopped a little peaceful bridge and then rode a mile or so to some abundant farm.
Here I watched the sunset but decided to go back to town and put the tent in
the park, on the lawn, as people in the church suggested. They said that this
is a usual place where cyclists camp while riding through
The park was
across from the church with outside bathroom, bench with table and a water tap.
When it was
completely dark, I came to the park and not hurrying set up the tent. Few
minutes spent sitting at the table enjoying a snack and then got in the tent
for there was nothing else to do in the dark.
Well, in
about 15 minutes, cars and loud trucks arrived to the park parking lot and a
group of about 10 teenagers gathered at the near by benches. They talked about
their trucks, laughed, smoked and all this other usual stuff. Music was playing
in one of the vehicles. Needless to say, I wasn’t going to sleep with such a
company near by. But then a very unexpectedly one of them said, “-Hey, there is a
guy in the tent trying to sleep. Let’s go to school’s parking lot. Aight man...” Then someone else added “Sorry for being so
loud”. And they left, at least most of them, because one car, which probably
had the music playing, had a weak battery and couldn’t start the engine. After
few attempts, it managed to start and also left.
Besides these
guys, there was another thing that wouldn’t let me sleep – the wind. It became
extremely strong so that I was afraid for the tent fabric to be ripped and had taken it down. I wrapped myself in the tent as in the sleeping bag
and spent the rest of the night till the sunrise like that, occasionally looking out
at the water tower 30 meters away, that was making weird noise, shaked by the strong
wind. The trees were also bending threatening, right above my “tent”.
Good night. J
Today – 35 miles
and one of the worst nights so far.
Return to Day 23 Today's Pictures Continue to Day 25