Day 20: I Am a Vicious Mother Bear!

When I eat, I am always on guard, ready to defend my bike at a moments notice. I always sit by the window facing it as it sits chained to a post like candy to a evil thieving child. I imagine a conspiracy of street toughs, lying in wait, for me to forget myself for just a second. Slowly, carefully, I consume my Bacon Turkey Bravo at a Panera Bread Co. in Poland, OH... one eye always on my bike, whom I have not yet named.

So... I guess it's time for me to catch you up on everything, huh? Well...

Matt left town, and I spent a few days taking care of some "personal-business matters". It took longer than I had expected it to, and so now it looks as if Matt and I are too far off schedule to meet up again. So from here on out.... I am going at it alone. I'm a little nervous, but optimistic nonetheless. I am comfortable riding alone, but stealth camping is going to be difficult. I'm much too nervous of an individual to deal with my paranoia alone. Luckily I have a cell phone and friends who stay up til all hours. Expect calls.... To start out, I contacted Peg and Frank from the Warmshowers web site, and will be camping in their backyard tonight. Apparently they did their own cross country tour a few years back; I am excited to talk to them about it. It goes without saying that I am very grateful for the donation of their backyard for the evening. But to end this topic of conversation... I want to wish Matt the best of luck, and safe travels, and urge everyone to keep up with his blog. He will be taking over our crazyguyonabike blog, and I will be starting my own.
In other news.... during my "hiatus", I was able to sell my laptop and a few personal items, which freed up the funds to buy an ultra-portable IBM Thinkpad laptop, in whom I am well pleased. So this should enable me to blog much more consistently. No more fascist librarians for this guy! When the revolution comes, all the librarians will be the first against the wall. But seriously.... this laptop is amazing. Here's hoping I don't destroy it in a crash.


Last Night Mike, Brandy and I went to Chili's and then played board games until The Soup came on. It was a pretty great way to say goodbye, though I never got to show Mike all of Twitch City. Leaving Pittsburgh wasn't too hard, until about 30 miles outside the city.... it got rather scary... narrow lanes with walls on both sides, and not enough room for cars to pass. So I collected a good deal of traffic behind me for about 5 minutes. They were fuming, and I didn't know quite how to give the proper hand gesture for 'I'm sorry.... this was not my intention". I took a wrong turn at one point and ended up in some dying little Meth-town. Two police officers stopped me to chat, and they were really nice. Afterwards, they seemed to follow me for a while, every time they passed they would honk, wave and give me a thumbs up.

I rode surprisingly fast today. I started at 9am and had arrived in Poland, OH by 2:30pm... 65 miles (give or take a few). Tomorrow, I am going to ride all the way to the Great Lakes (though I forget which one)... but i'm excited. I have to get a late start though. I need to swing by a bike shop in Poland to get my seatpost clamp replaced. My sit sinks about 3 inches every 20 minutes. It's really irritating. I'll be riding much better once I get that fixed.

It's been a good day... though it was surprisingly tough to find Wi-Fi. Starbucks didn't have it, nor did the Public Library, or Barnes and Noble. Hopefully this won't be too common a problem.

I'm back, and I'll be blogging much more often... Sorry about the "Lost Week", it won't happen again.

Someone sat down in a chair by the window and is blocking my view of my bike... Not unlike a mother bear defending her cub, I shall now hover near the intruder until he gets uncomfortable and leaves. He just fucked with the wrong guy!

Today's Playlist:
1. The Broken String by Bishop Allen
2. Boxer by The National
3. Let's Get out of This Country by Camera Obscura
4. The Soft Bulletin by The Flaming Lips
5. The Sophtware Slump by Grandaddy
6. Neon Bible by Arcade Fire
7. Zen Arcade by Husker Du
8. Mix CD for Allison by Steven Slovacek

Money Spent today: $13 (water, lunch, snack, soda)


PS - Rural America is strange mix of Meth and Piety.