{"id":535,"date":"2021-08-09T18:27:16","date_gmt":"2021-08-09T22:27:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/acrossthemapwithmatt.com\/?p=535"},"modified":"2021-08-09T18:27:55","modified_gmt":"2021-08-09T22:27:55","slug":"back-roads","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/acrossthemapwithmatt.com\/?p=535","title":{"rendered":"Back roads"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I slept until 6:30 today which for me is kind of late. Damp gear was the price i had to pay for sleeping over a creek on such a foggy night. I loaded up and went back to the same pavilion where I hid from the rain yesterday. It was a clear morning. I spread my down sleeping bag and everything else out in the sun to dry. The pavilions had electricity so I plugged in my battery pack that I usually charge with my bike wheel. Every night I charge my phone, bike computer and rear bike lights if I have been riding on the road. I use a good sized portable power bank that I usually charge all day when I’m riding. Its 20000 mAh. I need to ride about 40 miles a day to replace the amount of electricity i use. Its always nice to top off the power bank without having to pedal. So while the gear was drying and things charging, I made some coffee caught up on my blog and did some maintenance on my bike. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Improvised bike work stand.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I didn’t get on the road until after 11. It was a relaxing morning. I needed to resupply but after looking at a map decided to wait until tomorrow. Ill pass a grocery store and even a Wal-Mart. The next 20 miles or so were all on roads and through farms. The hills seemed bad today but I was probably just tired. It was hot and humid. I regretted my late start and missed riding in the coolness of early morning. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Rest stop<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Storm clouds were building up to the west of me. I was hoping they would pass but they did not. It started raining so hard I had to stop. Water was running off my helmet and over my glasses so I could not see. As I stood there in the torrential downpour an old pick up truck came to a stop and the driver motioned me in. Even though I could not get any wetter I jumped in the cab. The driver, a thin old man sat hunched over the steering wheel. A much worn greasy International tractor hat was perched at an odd angle on his head. I knew without asking he was a farmer. I assumed he had been out checking his fields. After I was inside the cab he asked, think it might rain? I replied I wasn’t sure but with the way the clouds were building up I thought there was a good chance. Not good for biking is it? No I said, but probably good for your crops. He said yes, it had been pretty dry.. We both were quiet after that for a while. It was a comfortable silence though. You can come back to the house if you want Marge will fix you something to eat, he offered. I declined. He was going in the direction I had come from and I was already soaked. Also I didn’t know how far away he lived. We sat there about a half hour until the rain stopped. Then I was on my way once more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Storm clouds over a field of sunflowers.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The sun came back out and caused steam to rise from the asphalt. It was hot. Cornfields on each side of me blocked whatever breeze there may have been. Down a long tree lined lane was a fire and rescue training facility and by the road they had placed a cooler of bottled water for cyclist. Equally appreciated were the large Norway Spruce trees and the circle of damp shade they provided. After 1 bottle of Gatorade and 2 bottles of water I rolled on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Thank you Wayne County fire and rescue!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I made camp along a cornfield and an edge of a woods. There was a creek to filter water from and I was well concield from any passerby on the road. It was early for a stealth camp, only 5pm but it looked like more rain was coming and I was tired. I don’t think more then 3 cars had gone by in the past hour anyway. I hung my hammock, filtered water and boiled the rest of my rice with a beef bullion cube for dinner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was fighting to stay awake by 8 pm. The quiet rustle of corn stalks in the gentle evening breeze provided a background of white noise. After dozeing off 3 times on the same page of the book I am reading I gave up and allowed sleep to prevail. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I slept until 6:30 today which for me is kind of late. Damp gear was the price i had to … Continue reading Back roads<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/acrossthemapwithmatt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/acrossthemapwithmatt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/acrossthemapwithmatt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acrossthemapwithmatt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acrossthemapwithmatt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=535"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/acrossthemapwithmatt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/535\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":544,"href":"https:\/\/acrossthemapwithmatt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/535\/revisions\/544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/acrossthemapwithmatt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acrossthemapwithmatt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acrossthemapwithmatt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}