Rolling up on a sign for Peoria I started to wonder just if I was driving in circles. I needed to get a few supplies and Internet access so I back-tracked. Once in Grand Prairie, I headed for the Walmart. I discovered that I was having a really hard time communicating with the employees about finding an Internet hotspot location. It was early and I was tired. They sure were all smiling and not making any sense. I think someone spiked the Walmart water cooler with some of those roll-back happy pills. It was like a bad comedy.
Smiling zombies are coming to your store - to not help you.
It was just really surreal like waking up in another country.
Ok enough about all that. I hope I haven’t upset any of you reading this that work at Walmart - like I did the K.O.A. campground people. If you’re still listening, why don’t you put a sign at the abandoned trailer park to help people like me with tom-tom GPS units?
Yeah ok, ranting.
On with the story. One of the locals in the parking lot pointed me to a Starbucks just down the street. Thank you God. I got online and updated the blog, emails and maps. It took me until about 11:30, but I finally was up to date and ready to hit the road. Today’s target was Fort Nelson. It was about 400 miles from Grand Prairie. Actually a pretty smooth day. I met a couple of people at mile 0 of the Alaskan Hwy in Dawson Creek that were from New York. They had been on the road 5 days. That’s like 6-700 miles a day. What a shit vacation. Later in the day, at a place called Pink Mountain, I ran into two guys that had only been on the road a week. They had started in the Florida Keys! Now THAT is crazy.
I made good time once I got on the road. About 50 miles outside of Fort Nelson I found what looked like a nice truck and camper that had run off the road and flipped. The camper was just a pile of rubble.
It was about 7:00 pm when I pulled into Fort Nelson. I needed gas so I fueled up and asked about a campground. The girl at the counter pointed me down the road. I was unsure about the directions so I dug out the Milepost magazine and discovered that there was only one show in town. I drove outside of town and found the Tri G Campground Hideaway. Kind of a long name, don’t you think? It doesn’t really roll off the tongue. Anyway, I gave the lady my credit card and drove back to find a spot. I was surprised by how full the tent section was. A lot of motorcycles and one bicycler. I pulled my bike in and unloaded all the gear. Once my tent was set up, everyone started coming over to talk. Two young guys were hitchhikers from New Mexico. One older guy was from Anchorage. One guy was from California, and one was from from Canada.
It was really cool to hear everybody comparing notes on the days travels. The two hitch hikers made about 300 miles a day. The guy on the bicycle made about 70 a day. This guy was awesome to talk to. He was a Canadian that volunteered in the Army for the Vietnam War just for kicks. His name was Dirk. We talked about traveling and he said he traveled through Pakistan and India when he was younger. He was a radiology tech and just retired. He is bicycling to New Mexico. Dirk was 65 and totally wired on life. Each day I find someone crazier. I must say, this is why I really wanted to do this trip. I feel like we all just a wearing path on the floor with our daily routine. To me it's really nice to not know for sure what you will eat or where you will sleep each night. The best part of meeting others is that we are all striking out and sharing the experience. Not bragging like at a party, but just sharing it. It's just too cool. As strange as it sounds, I feel privileged to be able to be here sleeping on the ground in a tent in a thunder storm because it feels real. The funny thing about long distance bike travel is that you just can't plan it. You are at the mercy of weather, fatigue and mechanical problems.
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