August 17: I woke cranky. Maybe it was the twenty dollar camping fee I paid last night, the second highest of the trip. Maybe I was bored with canal trails. Most likely I'm just ready to try out the other side of the Mississippi River.
I ran into several bikers and walkers today and the President was on everyone's minds. Mr. Obama is paying a visit to the Quad Cities region. He spoke in Davenport, Iowa yesterday and will give talks in Atkinson and Alpha on the Illinois side today. The sulfurous stench of politics did nothing to curse my sour mood. There are some benefits to rarely seeing a newspaper.
We can rule out the canal trail as the culprit. I've reached Colona and the end of my time astride Hennepin's watery highway. I hit the Dairy Queen to celebrate with an Oreo flurry. Alas, there was no indoor seating and the vast assemblage of flies seemed to enjoy my treat more than I.
Still muttering about my frosty fly soup I stopped at the laundromat and cleaned my limited apparel. Perhaps the lack of vibrant color in my wardrobe has got me down. I put on my brightest orange shirt, but still no improvement.
I crossed the Rock River into Carbon Cliff, finding a Super 8 which I could call home for the night. A night indoors might help and the other options were nil.
My dinner at the adjacent Deerfield restaurant made matters worse. The cuisine could easily been confused with that served at a nursing home. My fellow patrons were of age to make me wonder if I had indeed stumbled into one.
What can possibly pull me out of this funk? Only one thing left to try - cross the river. Maybe I can dump this Eeyore aspect of my personality over the side of the bridge. We need more sunshine and rainbows.
14 miles/1314 total miles
4 comments:
Have you tried drinking? That used to work.
Cheer up, bud! You're almost there!
Hang in there Alastair!
Sorry to hear about the flies trying to bogard your Oreo Blizzard. I can't blame them though, Oreo Blizzards are amazing. Cheers bro!
-Colin
Post a Comment