Day 70

Woke up and it had rained pretty hard last night because the outside of the tent was wet. So was everything else outside of the tent. We packed up the best we could and sat under the canopy of the front of the church until while we organized stuff, ate breakfast, and planned out our route.

We took off with a light drizzle but knowing that sunshine was to be coming soon. We had a great road to walk on for the first part of the day. A side road with little traffic. We made it about 7 miles or so into our first and only “big” town of the day. A big town means they actually have a restaurant and/or a gas station. We chose the gas station because the only restaurant opened was dairy queen and it had no lobby to sit in. Just a drive thru.

We got lunch from the gas station and found a patio table at a restaurant that was closed nearby. We ate there and took a long 2 hour break. Just relaxing and taking in the sunlight that was finally breaking through the clouds. We laid out all of our wet gear to dry while we sat there.

We packed up and right across the street was an old B&O Railroad depot turned into a museum. I walked along the old B&O railroad back in Ohio on the north bend rail trail. Before that I thought it was a fictitious Monopoly name of a railroad.

We finally set way again and this time in the pretty sunlight. After the town of Flora, we hit the country farmlands again. Wide open air with views for miles. The sky was vivid blue with puffy white clouds and the greens and yellows of the farmlands contrasted perfectly. We put the radio that I have on and all I could get was a country station. How fitting. We listened and it wasn’t that bad at all.

We turned down some small roads and went into a small town (no resources whatsoever) named Xenia. After realizing that there weren’t any stores I asked a lady who was sitting on her porch if I could top off all of my water bottles. She was nice and let me do so.

We ran into a police officer as we were leaving town and he checked in on us. We told him what was up and he seemed ok with it. Took him a minute but he finally opened up to us. He tried to get intel on where we were headed but I told him that we would be somewhere west between 5 and 15 miles from here. I knew that we were going to be stealth camping tonight and didn’t want to give too much info out. He looked like the type that would give us trouble if we let him.

We moved on and passed a nice couple who had some water bottles waiting for us. We talked and told stories for a while. When they asked what our political views were I knew it was time to go. They were obviously Trumpers and I personally have never cared and I never will care who the president is. It doesn’t really affect my lifestyle much. I just like to be nice to people. All people. Every size, shape, color, and gender.

I don’t want to get into all that. The couple was very nice. I enjoyed speaking with them very much. Chris and both realized that we picked the wrong year to walk across America as we walked away from them haha.

We kept going and hit a dirt road. I had domino off the leash and that always attracts dogs. We had one dog who walked with us for a couple of miles. I kept trying to get it to go back home because it was getting so far away and it was also getting domino all riled up. After a while and a deep breath I just gave up and let them both have fun. I figured the dog would go back home at some point. It did.

Not much longer after that, we came up to our planned camping spot. It’s a place with a bunch of grain silos that we can hide behind and be out of sight from the main highway. There is a small road that can see us but no one would care much. While looking for a spot we saw some raccoons. We set up camp anyways but knowing that we had to hang our food up tonight.

We set up and then made dinner and ate. Then watched the sunset as we hung all of our food up from the raccoons. I hope they won’t be to much of an annoyance tonight. The sunset was beautiful!  We sat and enjoyed that and then took to our tents. Chris and I both are sleeping without our rain flys on so that we can see out of our tents. The sky is pretty and the weather is good. I even saw a few lightning bugs while typing this blog.

We have an easy 15 miles tomorrow and we’ll get a hotel and be able to do some laundry and get some good rest in a bed. I need it! Domino needs a bath and so do I haha.

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