Day 41: Teenagers Take Drugs Pt. 1

As I type this, I am camped out at a State Park along the Mississippi River, and the campsite is swelled with Labor Day vacation-folk. I chose a campsite in the back next to a quiet couple in their late teens. I thought they seemed nice, and because of the age similarity… they might be so inclined to talk to me, feed me, or in some way pay attention to me. Shortly after setting up my tent… their 10 friends arrived with guitars and dreadlocks in tow… They are singing Blink 182 songs in a campfire circle. I don’t think I’m necessarily being punished for my past mistakes… but I have yet to come up with another theory… Here’s how the day went:

I wake up at 7:00am and clean up my personal space. Ed and I get ready and hit the road around 8:30. We grab breakfast at a Country Kitchen and I eat A LOT… which is always a good time. We get started on a series of trails that take us along the Mississippi River, through the backwaters and then through this Nature Reserve. It’s a really neat ride. We run into an older couple from Ft Myers, FL who come up every summer to ride the trails in the area. The wife rides a really neat recumbent trike.

Eventually we hit the end of the Trail system in Wisconsin and I say goodbye to Ed who heads back to La Crosse, while I move on to Winona, MN.

I cross the Mississippi River and find a small coffee shop with free wifi… I update my blog quickly, read some news and read some other people’s blogs. I notice on Matt P’s that he got confirmation that Going to the Sun Rd will be closed by the time I get there… I’m pretty bummed out about this and I spend the next 4 hours in a bad mood that is way out of proportion to the bad news. I grab lunch at McDonalds and project my terrible mood upon the town and its inhabitants…. Everyone starts getting on my nerves, and eventually I learn to dislike Winona, MN as much I dislike Winona Ryder’s acting. She seems like a cool person, but she CANNOT act. DO NOT CAST THAT WOMAN.

I ride outta town and put on The Decemberists' Picaresque which I haven’t actually listened to in maybe a year or so… and it’s a real pick me up…. The view is stunning and the weather isn’t too terribly hot…. But still I have a hard time not being angry. I think I’ve blogged before about how moods are hardly ever dictated by the situation… but have a life and a will of their own.

I find John A. Latsch State Park and pull in, even though there is probably another good hour or hour and a half of riding to be done before the sun sets… but I just want to get off the road. Immediately I notice that the Mosquitoes are NUTS in this campground…. Absolutely out of control… I find a nice spot back by some “nice” teenagers and try to build a fire to get rid of the mosquitoes. Well… I spend a half hour gathering kindling, tinder, large logs etc…. and arranging them in such a way to build an impressive fire… but I cannot get ANYTHING to light…. I shove leaves under the wood, old maps, paper, business cards, etc… but nothing will ignite the wood. I give up and start calling friends to complain… I notice that every other campsite has a fire going… My mood is not getting any better…. While on the phone with Eric I light the envelope I was supposed to leave my money in to pay for the campsite…. And the wood caught fire!

I spent 2 hours constantly feeding the fire, but it just barely stayed alive the entire time… I eventually gave up and just resigned myself to not having a fire that night. I quickly ate and set up my tent and was determined to fall asleep fast, and start tomorrow anew with a great new outlook… well… Little did I know that the ten teenagers had other plans in store for me… They are not just insanely loud with their horrible taste in campfire music… but I overhear them talk about the “mushrooms” they all just took… Oh dear… 10 teenagers (with a predisposition towards being loud) tripping on Mushrooms in the middle of the woods about 20 feet from me…. I’m guessing this is going to be a long light…

Unfortunately what was to follow takes place after midnight and falls on day 42….
Stay Tuned!