Day 121

So yesterday I couldn’t get out of bed. I overdid it on Saturday with the 30 miles. That was ok though. Julie, a TAM mom, and her husband Jeff wanted to come meet me and have lunch. I got to hang out with them for a while and it was great. We all could relate to the cause and we all were fans of Mexican food! I really enjoyed the company. I relaxed for a few hours and then Julie, the hotel manager, asked if I wanted to join her and her husband for dinner. So I did. Julie was awesome and so was her husband. We told stories of travel and life and had some awesome dinner that Julie made. I could’ve hung out all night but I wanted to get to bed early to get an early start the next day. 
…the next day…
I was on the road around 5 am. It was still dark.  I was planning on going about 20 miles to Mackville. Julie had called some people to try to find a place for me to sleep. It was kind of a weird day. I was cruising. The wind was blowing 20+ mph from the south. It felt good though. I didn’t even break a sweat. I was in Macksville before 2 pm. 
I stopped at the restaurant and had a great meal. I told them that I was originally planning on staying in town but there was so much time left in the day and the wind was keeping it cool. They told me about a roadside park about 11 miles ahead. I figured I’d go for it. Not like I had anything else to do..
The town of Belpre was 8 miles ahead. I struggled to get there. The afternoon brought the heat that I thought I would be spared from with the wind. I was wrong. There was a shelter that I was definitely not supposed to be under but I went for it anyways. I figured I could stay there for the night and leave early in the morning. It was very unlikely that anyone would see me. 
I laid there for about an hour maybe 2 and just couldn’t relax. It was too hot and about 30 feet from the train tracks. I said eff it. I packed up quickly and looked at the time and at the map. I’d arrive at that roadside park just as the sun would be going down. I hurried up and got back out.
 

It was much cooler outside of that shelter. I guess it held heat in and blocked the wind so the temperature was higher in it. It felt nice on the road in the evening sun. JUST  before I got to the park, a sheriff pulled over to see what was up. I told him where I was planning on setting my tent up and he seemed ok with it. He asked if I wanted a ride there. No way. This will have been my longest day. 31 miles total. It made up for the day off yesterday. 
I got to the roadside drive-off and it had a picnic table under a pavilion and that’s it. That’s all I needed though. I set my tent up next to it and put Lieutenant Dan under the shelter. As I was setting up, the sheriff came back with 2 cold bottles of water. He wanted to make sure I wouldn’t go dying on him overnight haha. He was cool as hell. 
I went right to sleep and slept well.