June 20 (Meet. All. The cyclists!)

I don't know how many cyclists I've passed that have told me that "The wind will be in your favor up ahead." LIARS. The wind is sentient and knows all and sees all. It ensures that NO ONE gets it in in their favor. Today was no exception. Headwinds and crosswinds all day.

Bill PSA:

Speaking as someone with a lot more experience (like four weeks) than past Bill, grow up. The wind in my face that day was nothing much, but it was irritating to have it turn out against me again. And to be straight, by the time of this writing I think I've had 5 days with tailwind - days where the wind was at my back for more than 30 minutes at a time. I think at June 20th I'd had 2 days.

So anyway, let's get the boring stuff out of the way first. There was pretty stuff to see on the road, as always.

 

Onto the people! I passed a huge number of cyclists on today's ride, and all of them in the area where the mosquitos swarm you! There was a couple riding a tandem - trailer combo.

 

An old Aussie who kept calling the mosquitos "mozzies" in between curses as we tried to have a roadside chat.

And a couple from I forget where. Its been a while.

I talked with a few of them at length, and even recorded many of their names, but the notebook where such details were recorded has been lost to the ages due to water damage.

Now the mosquitos I mentioned were hellions. No amount of bug spray would deter them, if you stopped, 15 would land on you at once, and some of those assholes were keeping up with me as I went 13 mph down the road! It was also close to 8 PM – when the bar I was counting on getting dinner from would close – so I was riding hard for a good hour or so.

And I did make it. In fact, when I got to the bar, I met three more cyclists, old pro's at touring as it were. All of them had tablet computers, something I wish I had brought. (I wouldn't be behind on blogs if I had a tablet for one.) Well we were talking over dinner when who should walk through the door but Nate! He was one of the three who pulled that 110 mile day at the bike in the day before I...lost...my wallet. It was great meeting him again, but apparently I won't get to see the siblings. They have been biking like bats out of hell, and passed me days ago. Ah well, I'll live.

 

The four of them were going to camp in an abandoned field (the place was a ghost town), but I opted to press on. There was a near full moon at the time, and I wanted to take advantage of it. And I wanted to get the hell away from the mosquitos. I was planning on getting at least to Muddy Gap, but my head lamp was dying, so I just pulled over at the side of the road halfway and pitched a tent. #HoboStatus

P.S.

I had picked up a flask a few days earlier, I thought it would be fun to have some scotch on hand...not realizing that scotch usually comes in bottles far too large for a flask. So when I arrived at this bar I was willing to spend a little extra just to have some. I won't say how much was spent (too much) for how much alcohol (too little) but the thing that enraged me many days later was that he gave me Jameson. I had thought Jameson wasn't scotch, but I didn't have my glasses on and couldn't read the bottle, and he assured me it was. It's. Irish. Whiskey. The bastard lied to me.