Monday Night, June 15th

There are four things I hate on a 30 day motorcycle trip: (1) Mosquitos. They may move down from number one when the experience of zillions of them attacking me as I camped near the Mississippi River fades in my memory and the 100 plus bites that I have quit itching. (2) thunder storms with incredibly high winds, lots of lightning just looking for a motorcycle rider to strike, and more rain in 30 minutes than comes out of a fire hose. (3) Truck drivers that are in a hurry; they all are, and are driving way faster than I am. (4) High winds that make riding motorcycles a lot of high-tension work, and a new one gets added to the list, (5) bees and yellow jackets that go up the sleeve of your coat and sting you right when you are in heavy traffic. Ohhhhhhhhhhh that hurts!

Well, here I am at my camp spot for the day. The owner isn't here so I am sitting in the shade texting this blog waiting for him. Rode 350 miles today. Good weather all the way. Pleasant day of riding on back roads at 55 mph with very few trucks. I asked a lady camped here if there were mosquitos and she said no, but they do have zillions of little black gnats that bite read hard. Oh, no! Now I will have to add one more thing to the list of things I hate.

A sad thing happened today. I stopped for gas and a diet coke. I went in after filling up and paid my bill and drank the coke and then came out, got on my bike and took off the way I had just come from. I went about 10 miles and noticed a street I had seen before I stopped for gas. It was named "Dee's Street." When I saw it the second time I thought, "Wow, two streets by that name." And then the thought popped into my head, "You aren't going the way you just came from, are you?" Na, I couldn't do that! Then I saw a church I had noticed earlier, so I turned around and thought, "They probably shouldn't let senile old guys like me out on a trip by themselves. They could get lost and never come home!"

I stopped for gas today and it was in a "pretty back-woodsy" place, or whatever they call them in Georgia. Anyway, the gas nozzles didn't have automatic shutoff on them. I started pumping and about then some "good ole boy" started talking to me. I forgot what I was doing and pretty soon he yelled and I looked down and gas was running everywhere. Ooooooooh was the old lady in the store mad. Ruined my mileage figures for that tank.

I decided today that riding motorcycles and life are a lot alike. Almost everything is trying to knock you over. You just have to figure out how to cope with the "knocker downers" using God's wisdom and strength. To cope with the mosquitos I bought some really strong mosquito repellent. I brought some with me that a doctor recommended because it wouldn't cause skin cancer. The only trouble is it kept the mosquitos off about as good as spit. Good old fashioned 100% deet may give me skin cancer but it keeps those critters off.

At the end of today, Monday the 15th, I have 4725 miles. That is 315 miles per day; 9730 miles is the total miles for my charted trip. That means it will take me another 16 days to get home. Close to half way. :-)

This place I am staying at tonight is interesting. Almost everybody is a permanent resident in RVs here, working on some major gas pipe line going in nearby. The kids have been over looking at my motorcycle and asking questions. The parents are a little dubious of a guy that is off galavanting around the country and not working. My beef stroganof is about ready. Just pour in the hot water and it's ready to be enjoyed!

A fellow just walked by and asked if my tent kept out snakes because there are a lot of them. I assured him that it did. (I hope it does!) A little kid came over as I was boiling my water for my freeze dried dinner. He asked what I was having. I told him beef stroganof. He said, "Sounds good. Save me some, I will be back." And off he pedaled. I maybe should get out the flaxseed and oatmeal and give him some of that.

The kid never came back but the groundskeeper came by and asked what I was eating. He pointed to a group barbequeing and said they were having rattlesnake. I asked if he was joking and he said no, they catch one just about every day and clean it and bbq it. I told him I would stick with my freeze dried dinner. He also said that there was an alligator in the pond that my tent is next to. He said nobody knows how he got in there. After one of the floods they had recently he just showed up. Said nobody has seen him up on the land yet. Hope he stays put tonight.

The reason that it takes 8 hours to go 300 miles is because in staying almost exclusively off of freeways I drive through a lot of little towns like Jefferson. You slow down to 30mph and have either a triffic light or a stop sign. In this part of the country there is a little town at least every 10 miles. I enjoy the scenery and the culture doing it this way, but it is much slower than charging along on the freeways. Saw a big ole tortise in the road today. Must have been 18 inches across.

Praying for you! Please pray for me. Dee