I was too wet to consider putting on the rainsuit, I just said to heck with it
and rode on under grey skies.
"We talked of...
"Mansions and mobile homes, the crops the farmers raised,
"How Walmart killed the hardware stores, and our younger days.
"Guys he knew with motorbikes, who traveled just like me,
"The rain had slacked and soon I'm back, on track to EKIII."
In the dark I made it to Mayville KY, with Ohio right across the river. Wet and weary I got a room for the night,
unpacked my gym bag and found that although the cloth portions were water resistant as claimed, the zipper wasn't
and rain had dampened all but one shirt and a pair of pants beyond comfortable wearability. The stuff sack had
kept my sleeping bag dry except for the small opening where the drawstring was.
The next morning I dried my boots and a pair of socks with the hair dryer in the bathroom, walked to the grocery
nearby and bought garbage and ziplock bags, unloaded my belongings at a laundromat, dried out the sleeping bag
and washed and dried the clothes. This time everything got wrapped up in plastic before being strapped back on
the bike. It was noon before I got out of Mayville and clouds were again threatening. I put the rainsuit on and
headed for Highway 22 to cut across Ohio.
"And I saw...
"Mansions and mobile homes, a little town's parade,
"Rusted trucks, tobacco barns and daylight start to fade.
"A deer dart out then double back, headed for the trees,
"Street signs in my headlight, on the road to EKIII."
22 took me to 9, and when I got around Salem I decided to forgo traveling up 534 in the dark, choosing to find 11
instead hoping for traffic to run block for me in case any wild critters cared to cross the road in my path. I got
lost around Youngstown, got on a toll road and had to pay 50 cents to get directions out of town. I went south on
11 and had to turn around. Once I finally made it northward, I had to wait out another storm under an overpass.
By the time I got to Jefferson it was after midnight, I bought a 12 pack at a convenience store and found Buccaneer
Campground amid the drizzle. The office was closed. TL had said "just show up!" and I had, but I saw no bikes after
circling twice around what I could navigate of the gravel road in what I could see of the campground. I resigned
myself to sleeping in front of the office until it opened (9AM said the sign on the door), so I covered the bike
and put my beer in the folding cooler I had brought.