Day 71

Woke up by a train passing by very early in the morning. The sun was just rising. I stayed in the warm confinement of my sleeping bag until the sun rose a little more and then got up to stretch and move around. Domino stayed in her little nook.

I looked up and saw the top of the silo and a ladder leading up to it. It had to be at least 100 feet high easily. I had to climb it…

I went up and made it to the top. It was a very sketchy ladder and if you have even the slightest fear of heights then it was not a climb that I would recommend. I loved it though. At the top I took in the view of the early morning peeking over the horizon. I did some stretches and took my morning piss off the top. Why the hell not!? It seemed like the right thing to do haha. Total freedom.

I got back down and Chris was up and moving. We needed to let everything dry out from the dew that collected on everything overnight. We helped each other lay our gear out in the sun and then went on to eat breakfast. Once everything was dry we set off for Salem. A town that we set as our destination that was 16 miles away.

Around 5 miles into it we came across a gas station and had a break and ate lunch there. It was a store that catered to travelers and Chris and I both said how nice it would be to have stores like this across the whole country.

We walked on and took some pictures of each other and of a few sights as we passed by. We saw an old tavern from the early 1800s. Used mostly by travelers passing through on the Vincennes-St. Louis Trail. That trail eventually was turned into hwy 50 on this segment. It was cool to be walking in the footsteps of such courageous adventurers over 200 years ago.

We finally made it to Salem and walked through town to the west side where our hotel was. We checked in and it was a great rate and even better because we split the costs. We did laundry and went out to mexican for dinner. We both ordered seconds haha. Before dinner I had taken a shower with Domino and we were both happy to be clean.

After dinner I was done. I flopped into bed and that was that. As soon as I finish this sentence I will probably be asleep………..