Woke up in the middle of the night to the sound of a flying monkey coming down to tear me apart. A shrilling CAWlike scream. I couldn’t tell if it was a huge bird or a sasquatch. So flying monkey seemed to be the best fit.
I clapped my hands and yelled ‘GITOUTTAHEER’. Hoping that a deep redneck tone would come across as a little more scary than my usual presence. Thankfully, it worked. I could hear it running away, the loud screaming fading farther and farther away.
I quickly put my pants on, mainly because if it comes back to kill me I wouldn’t want to go out in my underwear, and stepped outside to check things out. I shined my light and saw nothing. I went ahead and took the opportunity to take a leak. I peed around my tent and my cart, marking my territory. I let Domino run around and scare things off too. She darted off and made a few rounds then came back. Job well done.
Got back in my tent and I googled my way to finding out that the flying monkey was actually a fox. Sly little fella. Apparently the song ‘what does the fox say’ was a load of shit and foxes actually say, “AAAAHHHHHH”.
I knew from past research that foxes were scared of humans and no real threat so I figured we were safe and went back to sleep. Just another typical night on a walk across America.
Woke up later on and we all packed up and rolled out. We were feeling refreshed and beat up at the same time. At least we had the refreshed part working for us, for now. We started walking and made decent time in the morning.
We stopped in a roadside cafe for breakfast and were thankful that we did because we didn’t see another service for the rest of the day. We hit some back roads and disappeared into the wild.
We walked all day and it was great. We laughed a lot and enjoyed the scenery and peace and quiet from getting away from route 1. A few people stopped here and there to talk and we would get the occasional honk and wave as the drivers passed by.
We were in the 3/4 section of our day and it was really hot. We had a huge hill that we were about to have to face. A woman was checking her mail stopped to talk to us. She invited us to sit in the shade while she brought us refreshments. It was one of the best stops we’ve ever taken. Chocolate, bananas, and the best popsicle I’ve ever had. Sally was so sweet and we appreciated her hospitality so much. It was exactly what we needed to get us up and over the next big hill.
We made the hill and more then ended at 19 miles. This just so happened to be the 100 mile mark for Jess. We celebrated. I am so proud of her and thankful she is with us. She is busting her ass and it is showing good results already.
We set up our tents and made dinner. Ate up while trying not to get eaten up ourselves by all the bugs. Then we all retreated to our tents early just to get away from the gnats and flies. Another great day!
Almost there! Cool to see your perseverance has paved the way towards the conclusion.