Day 154– 5 months!!!!

So I woke up and it was freezing. Like literally. The condensation in my tent had turned to frost. I reached one hand out of my sleeping bag to grab my phone. It was connected to my battery pack. I never leave it connected all night. Must’ve fallen asleep before remembering to unplug it. With my one hand I tried to remove the plug and broke it. That battery pack has been a life saver since Winchester, VA. Now it’s broken 🙁

Not getting off to a good start. Everything was cold and wet, including me. I couldn’t fold my stuff up properly because my fingers were frozen. I had to poop. Like emergency go to the woods right now kind of situation. I did what I had to do to pack up and just get the heck out of there. It was beautiful on the top of the mountain but I wanted to warm up. 
I threw everything in a trash bag and just stuffed all of my stuff into my stroller to deal with later. I was wearing every layer of clothing that I had. I rolled down the steep hill and saw a sign that the next 10 miles were going to be at a 7% grade. Ouch. 
The sun came up and I changed right on the side of the road. Like down to my underwear. I kind of don’t care what people think about me at all anymore. I felt better now that I was warm in a tshirt. This Georgia boy loves the heat. I pounced my way down the hill stopping occasionally to gather strength. It was definitely harder to go up but it wasn’t an easy feat to go down. 
It was beautiful though. I mean stunning. Everywhere I looked could’ve been a puzzle or a postcard. There was a huge ess curve that looked really fun to drive on. There were a group of BMW’s that were racing around the curves and then turning around to do it again and again. Some of them would wave and take pictures as they drove by. It became a pattern. 
I made it down and a few miles past the big steep descent. Rain was coming. I could tell. I was just about to put on my rain gear when I saw a cattle bridge. Just a little underpass under the highway for cattle to pass through. I went down into it to wait out the rain. I took the opportunity to take everything out and reorganize the strollwer. After the rain passed I waited for the sun to dry out my tent and tarps and packed up properly before getting started again.
About a mile later I ran into Mike Williams. Another cross country cyclist. This must be a common route for cyclists. As we were talking I could see more clouds forming and knew I needed to find shelter again as I didn’t feel like getting everything wet after just drying it all off. 
I passed by a DOT property with no one there. The gates were locked but I saw a hole in the fence. I tarped the stroller and ducked under the hole onto the state property that said no trespassing. I stood under a covered building that smelled like crap and plugged my phone in to an outlet while I waited out the huge storm approaching. 
I checked my phone and saw that a news reporter from Denver messaged me saying she was going to cover the story on today’s news. I wouldn’t be able to see it but that’s great. One of the people I ran into yesterday is a photographer for this station and worked  it out for me to get coverage. 
It never rained. I trespassed for no reason. Kept walking and a nice family stopped to say hey. Shortly after a guy from the Chech Republic stopped and told me that he wanted to walk across America too. I told him to do it. 
The last 6 miles of the day were excruciating. I was exhausted and hungry and just ready to eat and sleep. I was heading for a campground. They have full amenities and I figured I’d just order pizza. I have food but I just wanted something good after all that mountain madness. 
I get there and pizza doesn’t deliver and I had to walk way down to get to the campsite. At first I was thinking I made a mistake and should’ve just gotten a hotel. Too late now thiugh. I set up my tent and started snacking on chips that I bought at the office store. The family across from me came over and asked about the walk since they saw my stroller with the signs on the side. 
Very nice people and they invited me to dinner. They have been affected by tragic loss and addiction in the family so we were able to get along with that and with stories of travel. The food was almost as good as the company and it was incredible. We sat around and talked a but after dinner. I had to go to the bathroom really bad so I said thanks and goodnight and went to go end my day the same way it started. 
I’m looking forward to seeing them all again in the morning. Great people. I was very happy and lucky to meet them. They helped me so much tonight. I really needed what they gave me. 
Life is good.