February 6, 2024
Day 18 - By And By
Welp that was a day. Probably the most frustrated I’ve ever been out here. It’s still amazing that I am not going to bed frustrated but also not happy. Been having so many mood swings between frustrated, confused, angry, sad, happy, amazed, annoyed, and just about every other emotion. Feels like it changes every second. Woke up and I found my headlamp. Took me awhile to get going because it was so cold and I needed to put on so many layers. Google maps wasn’t working so I couldn’t figure out where to stay but thankfully Dad sent me a list. Got going and needed a bathroom. My hands and feet both were so frozen. Stopped at a dollar General and then grinded up some hills. Was moving slow and was getting hot so I shedded some layers at the top of a hill when a cop pulled me over. He was just making sure I was ok. Kept going and kept it really easy with my knee. It was bothering me quite a bit at this point. Same thing happened with my chain going up another hill. Talked to Luke while fixing it then it happened again 200 feet later. Then again 50 feet later. I stopped at the top of the hill at an overlook to call dad and get some lunch. He figured out it’s something called chainsuck. Not fun. Kept it really easy the rest of the day and decided I’d only do 60. That sounded really good to me rather than pushing it to get to 100. Just kept a really low effort to not put much strain on my knee. I think it’s patellofemoral pain. Frustrating. When I took it easy I was able to enjoy a lot more. Actually was able to be thankful for making it from Florida instead of confused how it seemed I couldn’t make it another 120 miles. I had one last hill to go down before the church. I saw two boys at the top that were too scared to go down. I told them follow me and eventually they met me at the bottom. Elijah and Matthew. They showed me the church for the night and gave me cold McDonald’s breakfast burritos. I told them come back and I’d make them dinner. They came back 10 minutes later and told me to come with them to Elijah’s grandparents. I found out he was adopted and met his sisters. He didn’t know there names. Elijah brought dinner to me outside but then went inside and left me. Briana (his 5th grade sister he didn’t know her name) asked me “why are you being nice to him?” and I almost started to cry. I found out he just got suspended again from school today and I told her he needs someone to love him. His adopted parents got home and yelled at him for getting suspended again and then we just sat outside. Eventually they yelled at him to get into the car and I told him to meet me at the church and we’d go get some breakfast now that we’re both not in school. Talked to my parents for awhile about the whole interaction and went to bed without pitching my tent to keep me safer from the town and my food safer from dogs. Crazy day today. Might get to John brown on Thursday now.
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Today's ride: 62 miles (100 km)
Total: 1,421 miles (2,287 km)
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9 months ago