After 46 boring miles of riding today, through uninspiring scenery, I had to acknowledge that I was tired and lonely. This felt like a dangerous admission, considering that I still had a very long way to go. I briefly allowed my doubts and fatigue to take the upper hand, and I considered ways in which I might make an honorable exit from this venture, one for which no reasonable person could reproach me.
Maybe my money would run out? Maybe my bicycle would break down and I’d be unable to afford to fix it? Maybe I’d fall and break a limb?
Money was a constant concern. I was about on schedule as far as expenditures went, unless the trip took me seven (or more) days longer than three months, which it certainly would if I continued at my present sluggish average pace of 45 miles/day. AND, the projected expenses did not include money for my return trip cross-country, which in a best case scenario would be on an airplane, and in a worst case scenario on a Greyhound bus. I cashed another $20 American Express traveler’s check today, bringing my total cashed to $50 for the week. This bill has to last me through Wednesday, and today is Monday.
There were small things that made a day tolerable. Finding letters from friends and family at my designated mail stops provided a temporary emotional life line. Because it was Sunday when I passed through Radford, I had to leave a note for the postmaster, asking him to forward any accumulated mail. Next mail stop: Elkhorn City, Kentucky.
Putting a keen edge on my loneliness was the fact that I felt less simpatico with the people in the Blue Ridge Mountain South than I did with those further east. I hesitated to brand the folks in these parts as rednecks, but they certainly conveyed less interest in, and sympathy for, my undertaking. Anecdotes fro other riders suggested that the people in Kentucky aren’t much different.
I again slept like a log, turning in about 10 p.m., glad to be adjusting my sleep cycle to get up and on the road earlier. Last night’s campground was crowded, but this one proved vast and empty. Paradoxically, my aloneness here made me feel stronger and more self-sufficient.