End of day 4

Well, today was easily the most strenuous day yet.

Last night before bed I cooked myself some quinoa using my portable stove (which my girlfriend bought me for this trip).

It's an Esbit stove, it's pretty awesome and folds up pocket size. You do need to get special fuel cubes to really get the most out of it, but they're cheap and they do have some benefits, such as, burning really hot (1400 degrees is advertised), and they dont produce smoke; burning away into practically nothing but a black spot on the empty stove.

As I left the campsite, just before hopping on the highway I saw a turtle chilling in the middle of the street. He almost got hit by a car so I thought I'd help him before another came by and squished him.

Apparently he's camera shy...



Those yellow glasses are my Gunnars, they don't darken, only tint. The yellow increases contrast and improves depth perception. When it's morning, or just really overcast I opt to wear those instead of my cheap $10 sunglasses.

Once I was on the highway, I immediately dreaded what I saw... Some locals I was chatting with at the campsite mentioned that route 35 was a bit hilly, and they weren't wrong.

This went on nonstop for 31 miles until I had an option to get onto some back roads. If each of these hills were their own instance, they'd be fine. But once you go up and down continuously for 45 minutes, your legs start crying. It ultimately took me almost 4 hours to make this stretch because my breaks needed to be more and more frequent.

Once I finally got off that awful road, I got into some real country back roads. Lots of farms and meadows for a while.

Here's a closer look of that field on the right, those yellow flowers dotting it's entirety really stuck out to me!



Eventually, I turned off into this really backwoods road that just went through the forest.



I had a few incidents at this part... 2 of them were dog related. One involved my phone; but I'll get to that later.

While driving on that road, I suddenly heard a whole pack of dogs barking and running around. Two dogs jumped out of the woods and charged me. I quickly stopped my bike and stared them down. When you break chase and stare at them without showing fear, that's a sign of dominance and it will most often break their immersion in the chase and stop them dead in their tracks. We stared each other down for a few minutes, pepper spray in one hand just in case, and one of them went back into the woods. The other, however, just sat there looking almost sedated. All of a sudden, he tipped over, and just lied there for a minute... He then drunkenly stumbled back to his feet, and wobbled back into the woods. I called the local ASPCA and told them my location, in case the dog was bitten by something. And they said they'd take care of it. So I was on my way again.

Maybe about a mile up the road, I'm driving by a house and a rottweiler bolts from the yard at me. I did the same thing, bring my bike to a dead stop quickly, and stare that dog down. He stopped dead in his tracks, but continue to slowly try to circle me. Keeping my bike inbetween us I circled him back and we had a standoff for a good few minutes before the dog finally decided I was too tough and wandered back into his yard. As I drove away, the neighbors who saw the whole thing called me over and congratulated me for showing that dog, which apparently has a reputation, whose boss. And they offered me a frosty cold water bottle from their cooler, which was fantastic!

At the end of that road, I hopped back onto another highway, and finally reached my destination, Magee.

I go to pull out my phone to check for the hotel location, since we'll be having real bad thunderstorms tomorrow, but it was gone!

Luckily, I had my bluetooth headset on me, which knows my phone and can pair with a single button press. So I spent a good hour slowly backtracking my progress, attempting to pair my headset every 200 feet. Finally, and I had almost given up, my headset informs me that it paired! I then spent a good 15 minutes searching that vicinity for my phone, using the headset to determine where it was based on range. I eventually found it in a ditch on the side of the road, completely not visible even when looking carefully... I was ecstatic I found it, but...



Looks like the impact cracked the touch glass... It still works which is what's important, but it's still a bit of a bummer.

On my way back to Magee, I encountered a new set of dogs. This time there was 5 of them, in someone's yard, unleashed. They all charged me and I did the staredown again so I wouldn't instigate a chase and encourage agression. But, this time there was enough of them to circle in opposite direcions. Luckily, the owner came running out of the trailer and started screaming at them to get the hell away from me, which they did!

So, here I am at a hotel in Magee. They're saying this storm tomorrow could cause tornados, though not as bad as last week. I think I've committed to taking a day off tomorrow and ride out the storm indoors. And depending on how fast it moves out I may be staying here saturday night as well. If I was in a more congested area I could brave the storm and get to the next city to dry off. But if I leave here in the rain I'm pretty much guaranteed to end my day in the middle of the forest, wet and cold. No thank you.