Day 5: Life’s better on a bike

Blythe, CA
Date: 01/06/2013
Distance traveled: 7 miles around town – rest day

The bait shop.

Today was my first day off the bike and to be honest it kinda sucked. Today was the first time in the trip I’ve truly felt lonely and have missed home, Margaret, and all of our friends. Life is better on the bike if at least for no other reason than it’s a good distraction. Thank goodness for good cell reception – I used a good chunk of my time talking to M and my parents which helped make me feel a lot better.

But my body needed the break. I got up late. Mark got us breakfast from Carls Jr./Hardees – biscuits and gravy. A double portion for me. I did laundry. I hung out with Mark, Darcy & Liz. I did some trip planning.

And then I went to get a massage in town – and got more than I asked for in terms of services offered – can you say ‘skeezy’? That’s the first time that’s been offered to me. Quite literally the woman grabbed my junk and asked “do you want me to massage this?” I didn’t quite know what to say besides “no, thank you.”! Really, the only part that pissed me off is that she didn’t give that good of a massage and I /really/ wanted a good massage! After she got shot down she rushed to finish the massage and I was out of there! At least now I know why they charged so much…

Other than that my day hanging out at the bait shop was pretty uneventful. I’m looking forward to getting back on the road tomorrow.

Update: I should emphasize how great the folks at B&B were to me. They are super nice. Darcy went out of her way to be helpful. Liz made sure I didn’t go hungry. Mark provided great company. They also have a great setup here – tables and chairs around a fire every night were people are continually hanging out. They gather a great group of friends around themselves.

Laundry

Sunset over the duck pond at the bait shop.