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Published: October 28th 2006
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Shawne and Jo say...
Day 24
Mileage Today: 27.8
Total Mileage: 920.4
Flats Today: 0
Total Flats: 27
I woke around 4:30 a.m. to find that Jo couldn't sleep well. She told me of these strange dreams she'd been having all night. One was of a mutant mouse with a three foot long tail that made a terrible hissing sound. In her dream, I would tell her, "Stop making that noise, Jo. You are depressed! You need some medication!" Then she had a dream that she was standing outside our tent and saw a man in a white hooded sweatshirt standing in the brush on the other side of the river. When he noticed her, he would disappear into the bushes. Jo said she had these dreams over and over throughout the night.
She said that at some point in the night, she heard footsteps down in the riverbed-someone running through the water. Whatever it was sounded large as it sloshed in the water fifty feet from our tent. I asked her if she dreamed that, too, and she said she didn't think so.
She was creeping me out with the descriptions of her dreams. Suddenly, a blood-curdling scream echoed
through the campground. Three times, the sound of a woman shrieking came from far down the river.
"What the hell was that?" I asked Jo. Just then, she flinched and looked down one side of the tent, then quickly looked toward the other side. "Why did you do that? What's going on?" I whispered nervously.
"Nothing...I thought I saw a shadow outside the tent," Jo replied.
Now I was REALLY freaking out. I grabbed my bear mace and my flashlight, and slowly exited the tent. I scanned the area for homicidal manics but found none. There was an eerie glow on the horizon on all sides of us. It was not city lights, nor the rising moon, and we could not explain it. It was bright enough to cast shadows on the tent and slightly illuminate the campground. I lit the campfire for extra light as normal outdoor sounds became evildoers lurking in the shadows in my mind. Moisture from the storm dripped from the trees and made rustling sounds as it fell.
Since I was on patrol outside, Jo felt safe enough to fall asleep. I stood with my back to the fire, watching the road that led further
down the state park when the screaming seemed to have come from. There was only one other person camping that we knew of, and I could see his van a few sites down.
After half an hour of looking for screaming people in white hooded sweatshirts walking in the river, sleepiness got the best of me and I laid back down with Jo.
A few hours later we got up, made breakfast, and got back on the road. We never did figure out what all the screaming was about. Jo's dad said it may have been a mountain lion.
Money is coming to T or C. People have been buying property with mobile homes on it, hauling away the mobile home, and building huge, fancy adobe-style homes on the property. It made for interesting neighborhoods...five or six mobile homes which have been falling apart for years...overgrown yards with broken down cars...then BAM!!!...a big beautiful, well-kept brand new house with a three car garage and a shop out back!
We were hungry again by the time we reached T or C, so we ate at the same restaurant as the day before. On the way out of town, we stopped at
The new BOB trailer...
It slices! It dices! It hauls a bundle of wood! a gas station to use the restroom. A heavyset young lady stopped and asked us about our ride...
"Why ya got all that stuff on the back of yer bikes for?" she asked. We explained the logistics of a cross country bicycle tour to her. ""Y'all rode your bicycles all the way from San Diego to here? Maybe I should do that..." she said. We told her that everyone should do it. She wished us luck and went inside.
We made our way past familiar landscape down the same road back to Caballo Reservoir. We even stayed in the exact same campsite as two nights before (space #31). This time, however, we had running water. It was a fairly uneventful day. We decided T or C isn't really the hot spot we imagined. Even though it cost us a couple of days to check it out, we feel it was worth it. Our curiosity would have killed us if we hadn't.
We searched the shoreline for driftwood and loaded our empty trailers to capacity. Then we enjoyed a wonder fire and flame-broiled hotdogs.
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Jo's dad
non-member comment
wood
I hope you left enough wood for the next guy.