Into the Mystic: A Venture From East to West: Make Way for the Kids

Tony woke me up around 7 as he was leaving for work and I begrudgingly hoisted my body out of the nest in Tony's guest room. I didn't wanna leave this safe haven. Tony went to work and trusted me enough to lock up for him while he was gone. Like I said, Tony is thee man.

I had some cereal and a glass of orange juice and I was out on the road around 830. It felt good to be out early. The heat had calmed down tremendously and there was a lovely breeze that cooled off my sweaty body. I biked through two small towns onto the eventual goal of Wytheville, (pronounced With-ville) another 50 miles or so. It would be in the town of Draper that I would run into a sourpuss by the name of Bruce.

Immediately, I didn't like him. The first sentence out of his mouth was, "You're heading west? Oh, the worst is yet to come."

"Oh yeah Bruce? Fuck off", I thought to myself.

Excuse my french but this guy took the wind right out of my sails. It wasn't two miles before that I started really getting giddy seeing how much milage I'd traversed for the day. I tried to tell him my "Ignorance is bliss"/"one day at a time" philosophy as he proceeded to give me a run-down of his whole shitty experience in the last 6 days. For the next 10 miles, the 62 year old's negative attitude had a dreary drag on my psyche. Now, don't get me wrong, I give the guy madd props for doing a portion of the trail (Kentucky to Yorktown) but don't go spoiling my day because you're old and cranky. Rant concluded.

I stopped shortly down the road at a restaurant for some pick-me-up food. It did the job but the Southern cooking left me bloated for a good hour or so before I could hit the road. While sitting idle recovering from my food coma, I rang the Wytheville Community Center about camping for the night. The woman on the other end told me there was an event in the park tonight but afterward when it concluded around 11, I could camp out. Apparently, they're showing a movie so that should be fun.

I arrived in town around 630 after lackadasically making my way the last 15 miles. I stumbled upon the park by accident because I spotted the park swimming pool. It looked oh-so refreshing. I was a bit thrown off to hear Southern rap blaring from the speakers and seeing a bunch of small children dancing to the explicit lyrics. It was... weird. The pool turned out to be a private party so I spotted the nearest fast food joint and I'm currently eating there.

I need to start eating healthier.

Good evening, my friends.