What a storm we had last night! Lenny’s alarm went off, but none of us responded. I was the first one up at 6:45. It was dry in the tent! I couldn’t believe it. I guess Lenny’s idea for putting the tarp over the tent worked. Though, he had to thank Nigel, since he had been the one to suggest it himself. I need to remember to have a tarp on the next trip I do.
Though much of our stuff was still wet, we had to pack up quickly and leave before the ranger’s did their rounds. We hadn’t paid for the site, so we were on borrowed time. I washed some dishes and helped pack up the tent with Lenny. Lee went off to take a shower – what a mensch, taking a shower at a camp we didn’t pay at. I, on the other hand, wanted to go another day at least before washing off my man scent.
We rode out to the beach that morning to have ourselves some breakfast. I enjoyed a cucumber, oil, and cheese sandwich as well as a peanut butter and raspberry rhubarb jelly sandwich. Both were delicious – however, I had only one roll versus the guys two since I had binged the day before. The breakfast left me still a bit hungry, but I got to take a bit of a nap while the guys did various things to get ready, so I was able to recharge my energy that way. I also wrote a bit in my journal. We all sat in the sunlight, right next to the water on the lake. It was grass right up to the water, which was neat. It was a beautiful place to enjoy our meal.
We rode out of Baker Natural Reserve, but not before getting directions to the nearest town where we picked up two necessities – bug spray and denatured alcohol. I couldn’t find a sports store or a good water bottle, so those are still on the list. We took 19 south out of town and picked up the trail again. Today was going to be a riding day.
Unfortunately, the storm had really blown stuff up. We had to ford many fallen trees. I myself had the grand idea right outside of Watertown to go full pace at one of the barriers, hoping to clear it. I didn’t and scraped up my ankle good. Luckily, it is healing just fine The guys had offered to put a spongebob bandaid on it for me, but I just squirted some water on it and sad it would be fine. “Badass,” said Lenny, perhaps a bit sarcastically.
We stopped in Watertown for some groceries. We enjoyed a cream soda together while shopping for lunch and dinner. We bought mozzerella cheese, liverwurst, red onion, blue cheese, foccacia bread, and alfafa sprouts for lunch. I couldn't probably pronounce Foccacia or ghergens (I kept calling them capers) and the guys made fun of me for it. For a snack, we bought some yogurt and granola, which we downed right outside the store while sitting on some kitty litter boxes. I talked about the night out with the girls and told the guys that the only variable missing was three guys to match the three girls. We also got to finish the strawberries and enjoy more of our flax seeds which the guys had bought in Minneapolis. Oh, and there was free coffee.
We rode out of Watertown and 10 miles later, found ourselves in Winsted. The trail disappeared, so we had to check for directions to where the trail picked up again. We stopped at a creamery that wasn’t really a creamery and got our directions.
We rode until Lenny got hungry and stopped on a farm, though there wasn’t a spot any of us were really happy with. There were, however, a group of horses that we approached and began to pet a lot. We tried to feed them baby carrots, which turned out to be a real struggle, since horses can’t see what they are eating. One of the horses nipped the other one in the butt to send him running away. They all left and we waved goodbye. They were very sweet horses. I think I would really like to get one to ride around when I have the money. After petting the horses, we found a puppy with a chew toy who wanted to play with us. We threw the chew toy and hugged and pet the dog. It looked like his older brother came out or father and so we pet and hugged him too, even though he was a lot noisier and barked a lot more. We were like the animal whisperers.
We rode until we hit the town of silver lake. The guys were looking to eat right on the side of the trail, but I urged them to ride in town and eat on the lake. Once we found a good spot, with the help of Lee, I jumped into the lake to cool off. The guys waited patiently while I refreshed and as I got out of the water, I grabbed the rest of my food and joined the circle for our lunch sandwiches. They were delicious and quite filling.
We stopped at the local American legion to fill up on waters. I thought about getting a beer, but we figured we had a bit more riding ahead of us before that. Lee suggested taking 7 to Cosmos instead of the trail since it would be smoother riding and we all went with that plan.
The riding was slow and difficult – we were facing strong headwinds and a steady uphill the whole way. Lee was behind mostly due to his high wind resistance as well as his undergeared machine. We did about 64 miles though that day before landing ourselves in Cosmos. And what a funny town we had found – we stopped to fill up waters at the American Legion on East Astro boulevard and south venus way.
Lenny made the suggestion that we have a few beers and ask to camp out behind the Legion that night. We liked the idea and smiled at ourselves on our way in. When we entered, we saw a sign that said “all you can eat pizza buffet,” which piqued our interests even further. We sat down to large pizza and a pitcher of beer. The guys asked around for a spot and we learned we could camp at a few places free of charge.
We ordered our pizzas with the young lady in the back – her name was Krysie. She was very pretty – I wish I could have hung out with her more, another girl about to go to college.
A guy at the Legion offered his house to us and we accepted. We rode along and I was worried he might be a cereal killer, telling the guys that the people with the American Legion seem to be on the rough side, but they just laughed it off, said he was a nice guy, and all my fears turned out incorrect. He offered us his “man cave” to sleep in which came complete with a refrigerator, microwave, ac, and sleeping pads. It also happened to be the place where he prepared and cut meet, so it smelled like a meat shop. The fridge also had soda and food for us for when we woke up and some frozen pizzas if we got hungry. We were hooked up.
We went inside for showers and internet use. I sent an email to the DMV. I couldn’t believe the kindness we were receiving. “Expect that from bikers,” said the wife of the man who had invited us. Such kindness.
After we all took showers and our host had gone to sleep, we went in for the night. We all had one more beer each and Lenny and Lee smoked. We stayed up and joked some more – they teased me about the guy cutting us up and eating us that night, since I had been scared in the beginning. We also joked about really horrible ways of being chopped up with the “would you rather” game.
We slept fairly well. I’m really pleased that we got to enjoy another luxurious night on this trip.
Michael
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