Pontiac Reprisal - Day Off

Today was our first day off from biking and building since Providence! I slept in until 10am, and stumbled sleepily over to eat brunch with Lindsey, Kate, Jess, and Marita at my table (There were 2 other tables with B&Bers). I had 2 breakfasts ... short stack of pancakes, 2 eggs, and hashbrowns with 2 cups of tea. Golden.

We did normal day off things such as watching a movie! I recommend "Wall-E". It was actually a bit disturbing as a child's movie, as it shows a rather dystopic future society, but it has a lot of cute moments that aren't just slapstick humor.

After the movie, I passed out for 3 hours! It wasn't even really conscious decision. My body just pretty much shut down and refused to perform any functions more complex than beta-wave level brain activity. It's true that even riding in the van isn't actually all that restful because we end up helping to load/unload the trailer of dense duffel bags more frequently than other times.

My dad stopped by in Pontiac again today. So, I've actually been having a lot of trouble with my right toe going numb since the Roscoe ride. Jamie was kind enough to ask his mom to give me a ride to the orginal Dick's sporting goods store, but they didn't carry any bike shoe specific inserts. All the bike stores I've been to did not carry them. I had ordered the Specialized BG shoe insert from Turin, but that order got really confused because the mail drop in Ohio got cancelled. I asked them to ship it to Indiana in stead, but they misunderstood it to be 3 addresses from Ohio. My dad was able to pick it up and deliver it to me in Gilman, but I must have some really bad shoe karma built up, because it was way too big for my shoes. After discussing it with my dad a bit, he ended up buying new shoes and inserts for me and dropped them off. My feet have been swelling up a bit from the extensive riding, and the sides of the shoes had always been a bit snug, so he got me some slightly larger shoes. Let's hope this nonsense can stop now.

So some thoughts about America as I've seen it so far. Country towns are very quaint for the most part. Most of them seem just very tired. Oftentimes, industry built up the town, but then left, or the young people seem to have left for school or big cities. Some of our hosts are about the most energetic people I have ever met, as they are the ones fighting the town's atrophy. They are incredibly different from the small country towns in France that we drove through. These towns are newer, but also look more worn down. They're often built of less durable materials, so it makes sense. It's very strange to me.

Tomorrow we continue through Illinois. Soon, I will be on uncharted territory though, as I've been to St. Louis and Salt Lake City, but nowhere else yet west of the Mississippi River. Get excited :)