Day 161

I’m so glad that I took those last 2 days off. It was expensive but worth the value of being refreshed. I had 12 miles of uphill to start my day. And then 10 miles downhill to get to a campsite that I wanted to reach. That was my goal for the day. 
I set off uphill and felt great. I had music playing in my headphones to distract me from traffic. I had a wife shoulder so it was fairly safe. I had to keep my eyes opened but nothing too extreme. I was cruising right along. No rush. Just enjoying the views and the piece of mind. 
It started to get pretty rough near the top. It got steeper and the shoulder got more narrow. I had about 6 inches between my wheel and the white line. There were two lanes for traffic though so that helped. Everyone was being nice and moving over for me. 
One small white car was approaching and showing no signs of moving over. It’s not they have to or anything but it’s just a small courtesy that goes a long way to someone walking on a highway. He obviously didn’t care. I put my hands out in a “can you not see me?” gesture. He flew by me with less than 3 feet between his wheels and mine. I turned around to flick him off and I noticed that he was doing the same to me. 
I turned back around and kept going, shaking my head. I turned back just to see and sure enough, he was pulled over trying to be a badass. I slammed my stroller brakes on and flung around with my hands out and was waving for him to come get some. 
He turned around. Oh shit. Haha. I figured if I keep acting like a crazy person than I’d be alright. He turned his car directly in my direction and sped towards me. I stepped to him like I wasn’t scared at all. Hands out ready to go. He swerved and pulled up next to me. Stupid on his part. From this position I had him under control if things turned violent. I could kick the door closed if he tried to get out and I could wail on him through the open window while he couldn’t swing on me. All that went through my head in seconds. 

He said, “what the fuck is your problem?”

“What’s yours?” I said back.

“I’m just driving along here.”

I looked out at the road at waved my hand out and said, “you couldn’t give me a little space?”
He drove off. It was weird. He had 2 women with him and they were totally scared. I wanted him to stay longer so I could talk him into learning something about life. Oh well. He grinded a gear while he u-turned back around. I laughed on the inside. 
I breathed out and shook it off pretty easily. I got back into my zone with my music and acted like it never happened. 
At the top of the hill was a gas station. I stopped in for a sandwich and a gatorade. While I was parking my cart and getting my stuff together to go inside, a couple pulled up and the guy asked about the walk. He was moved. He’s had a rough couple of months with losing people. Not necessarily to drugs specifically, but understood the grief of losing a sibling. 
We talked for a while and the clerk inside also recently lost her sister to suicide from addiction related struggles. We all had a moment and swapped info to stay in touch. The clerk offered some snacks and the couple offered for me to smoke a joint with them lol. I had to refuse that one. They gave me some money before they left though. They wanted to help. 
I sat on the top of that mountain for a while and took in the moments of the day before getting up to go downhill for the next 4 hours or so. The second half of the day sucked. 
The wind picked up intensely and was blowing right at me. Traffic had picked up too. Or maybe I was just noticing it more after the asshole from earlier. I was angry for some reason. It was beautiful but I couldn’t get in the right mood. I kept pushing though. My legs were on fire. 
I finally made it to the campground. I laid on top of the picnic table getting eaten up by bugs and didn’t care. I decompressed and felt better. Some nice people came over to say hey throughout the evening. I set up my tent and made dinner. While I was boiling water, I grabbed the handle of the pot to take it off the stove and it burned me. I spilt boiling water all over my phone. 
Thankfully I have a water resistant phone and it stood true to the test. My fingers didn’t though. It wasn’t a bad burn. Nothing to worry about, but it definitely singed my skin and hurt like hell. I grabbed my bandana this time and continued cooking. 
That’s about it. A few hiccups but a good day overall. I’m even done with my blog before eating. Now I can eat and then pack my stuff for the night, then lay down and read until I fall asleep. Boom!