Today is my rest day. It could have been a forrest, near lake, on a MT.
Nope in the desert. I must really love the desert or find it homey. At least there are no flying pests. I was welcomed with some morning overcast, which then diluted with the sun's slaughter. Still set in a high over cast the sun has evaded this area of capture now pouring the beams my way. The only reprieve is a windy hand sake greeting my sweating body.
I am perched in a parking lot of some sort of gas exploration. They have pipes stuck in the ground feeding someone's dream. All operating off Americas land by via permit. To bad they can't whisk me away huh?
Not that anyone is going to come out on the holiday weekend. Point of rocks is a gas station. A once thriving community I am sure when the rail road used steam or the settlers used the Overland trail.
Now a truckers haven. The overland trail now a dirt rammed road going now where. All of this lies in the valley with steep banks on each side. Wedged in between is the transcontinental railroad, town, interstate 80, Overland tr, and the old highway which acts a super bikeway. Like marriage they come together when things are tight, then separate as they're allowed.
No shade not even a tree lives here. The shrubs grow about two feet then understand there limitations. No one crowds each other like a battle ground with each root system. Get to close and wither away with a dry mouth. Equally spaced as if I went out and planted.
So here I sit every once in awhile a woosh sound comes from the pipes. A train thunders through a fast moving fence never letting the weather wear it down unlike its stolid friends. The hum of traffic flows like a river. All day long like sheepish white rectangle boxes follow the flock ahead. What is not on the train lies in those containers ready to delivered at 5 dollars a gallon.
I left some oats to steep and now mushy and semi warm I ate lunch with some raisins. Tonight Beef stew rather than cleaning my dish I just threw that in there to steep for the dinner. I am going to have some green beans also. Nice thing about eating all this food is I now am not hauling it. I will have dropped a half a gallon of OJ and milk seven pounds right there. Just because I am in the middle of nowhere doesn't mean I can't enjoy refrigeration. A lot of that is hype. "Refrigerate after opening". Some label to save their ass.
Rest days can be rather boring. Because a rest day in whole means you sit on your ass. If you go do something you have to ride your bike. Even hiking someplace takes energy. We all know you can't camp right outside the doors unless you want to pay for it. So rest days leave you antsy to cycle, yet at the same time your body is telling you to rest. If I get a signal, then the internet is there, but limited in a big way from speed to what you see on the screen. So you end up reading things on the internet with laborious results. So you get prodded to go back to the novel you're reading. I picked up The Rabbit is Rich by John Updike. Crafted in 1979, talking about the gas crunch. Yes complaining about 99 cent gas. How gas guzzlers are dead (suvs?), and how in 2000 oil will be gone ::ha!
On another note he talks about where he lives in Pennsylvania. To which I lived there even thinking I drove on some of those roads. Regional cities usually have similar themes to the street designation. Like Dwight Eisenhower (spelling) or Third street. (Spelled out)
So when he talks about row homes I know all to well about them.
The book is amazing in the literary sense. No flashy characters nor no need to look up every word in the dictionary. Yet he captures the characters in your mind doing normal things. Amazing.
So as I bake in my tent so does my dinner. My tent is not staked so I can keep up with the sun's movements. 14 hours of sunlight seems like an eternity. Whether your in a forest or in a desert. Like a nagging telemarketer, ready to ring your bell and remind of what you need to forget about. Today I slept right through my alarm. Tomorrow I will be up before it can blow its bugle.
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