Written by: Phil Gash
Like the other riders, I woke up this morning with my back on the floor. It was not supposed to have occurred as I had an air mattress. What happened during the night was the air had escaped—for the second time. Well, that means another trip to Walmart.
So we, Becky and I, took a side trip to Walmart to find a leak-proof mattress and upon returning stopped at a local donut shop for coffee and substance. Then we were on the way to Grace’s first rest stop after religiously following the route sheet. I missed a turn and had to make a California U-turn (i.e. middle of the street) to get to Grace’s rest stop.
I had to answer nature’s call there and walked over to the Ranger’s station,where luckily both male and female work so they had two rest rooms. One of the fellows at the Ranger’s station was kind enough to ask if we needed ice and I answered in the affirmative. He returned with two big buckets of ice. We secured ice and took off for rest stop #2.
We saw varying widths of shoulder on our way to rest stop #2, a fire house. The only shade was in front of the building, which housed a fire engine, given the greenery we surmised it would not be a day of forest fires in Louisiana. We set up at the fire house door with the expectation we could clear a way for the engine roaring out of the fire house—luckily that did not occur.
In setting up, we realized we had no regulation-issue 15 gallon garbage bags, and not wanting to be called “litter bugs,” I took off for the nearest service station about 6.7 miles down the road. When I returned with “bags-a plenty,” there were riders-a plenty there in their orange jerseys.
My how time flies for the fast riders and those of us who just putt along to the service stations. And I hope tonight I’ll get to sleep on the “air” above the floor.
