The Second Day

The whole crew headed back to DC on the second day after recording a farewell voice message on my fancy digital voice recorder and showering me with hugs. Meredith and Adam joined me for the first 20 or so miles that day which was great to not be left completely alone after having been with some of my favorite pals the whole day before. When they had to head back to Harper's Ferry we recorded a dramatic parting scene on Adam's camera which I'm sure will be put online sooner or later of me riding off into the distance and Meredith desperately trying to come to terms with our separation. I learned later that they had their own adventure on the way home including a flat bike tire and melted inner tubes (feel free to post that story!!) I on the other hand had smooth sailing to my first night destination--a hiker/biker campsite on the C & O.


The Ghost of the Old Hitch-Hiker
Now, you may think I am such a brave person to be going on this bike trip all by myself--and indeed, I am. That does not mean however that I can escape my true fears when I'm all by myself, at night, completely, utterly alone in the pitch black in a tent in the middle of the woods. But I am not afraid of potentially real things however, being murdered, being robbed...

I went to sleep before it got dark that first night, sensibly. I awoke in the middle of the night, 3 am or so, and immediately began to freak myself out by thinking of the scariest thing I could imagine: the ghost of the old hitchhiker. That to me is the epitome of scary. Some old drifter coming up to my tent on the towpath while I lay innocently sleeping. Just writing about this gives me the willies.

But it also is a great defense mechanism because honestly, where do I come up with this stuff? From those stupid Scary Stories and Scary Stories II books I used to freak myself out with as a kid--the one about the hook or the dismembered hand in the closet or however it goes. Upon further reflection the archetype of the old hitchhiker is pretty hilarious rather than scary.

Since that first night I have only thought about the old hitchhiker in the daytime and haven't freaked myself out at night since.

Dirty Socks
I'm sharing some personal information, not my own, in order to get a laugh from my audience so sorry Gina. Once Gina thought it might be a good idea to not wash her hair anymore and let her hair go through it's own natural process of taking care of itself. The thing was that she would have to have disgusting, oily hair for like 6 weeks before nature would kick in and take care of business. Phil, her soon to be hubbie, told her her hair would look like "dirty socks" if she went through with this plan. I thought of this on my second night on the road when my hair appeared to be forming dreadlocks from not having washed it for two days, not combing it, and wearing a helmet all day. In fact, I didn't wash my hair until I got to Frostburg about 2 days later and I could see what Phil meant.

Self Awareness in Animals
This weirds me out. Have you ever thought about animals understanding their own existence? I swear to God these horses totally stared me down my third day on the C & O. I was on some country roads following a detour from the towpath. I stopped for a break in front of a farm and these two horses appeared out of nowhere at the top of the hill and stared at me until I left.

Later, geese hissed at me, and these kamakazi squirrels kept running right in front of my front tire. I think groundhogs are the most self aware, and bunny rabbits are the least self aware. I base my opinion on the fact that groundhogs hear you coming down the trail and 50 feet in front of you scurry out of the way. Bunnies (the cutest word in the world, btw) on the other hand turn right, turn left, freak out, obviously can't see or hear a thing, and barely escape your tires as you pass.