(if reading via email, click on tiny type at top or bottom of blog--BLOG-DEBORAH BUROW ART-- to get easy read version)
Somewhere between day 19 and day 20, I've missed a day, the days all run together...bike, find water, find food, read the map, find a campground and talk to new people and see sites and get up and do it all again. Not a bad way to spend a month. I'm very grateful. Even when my body is definitely ready to "be there".
We left Tall Pines Harbor Campground heading toward a State Forest campground. Lots of miles of serene back country roads. Seeing lots of snakes and wetlands and wondering if that's what "bayou" looks like and if alligators could really lurk in those waters, especially as dusk sets in. Definitely NOT venturing outside my tent after dark. (If you want to know how females pee in the night in their tent, you can PM me😊).
The day is like riding in a painting and feeling the fabric of rural Southern America. Simple existence, genuine people, and much poverty. So many collapsed homes next to newer mobile homes. It costs money to tear down old abandoned homes, so they just remain and eventually collapse and become overgrown with forest. And decay back into the earth. I couldn't bring myself to photograph them as often people that lived there were around and I felt like I was documenting their disappointment and struggle. They didn't need someone zipping by on expensive bike equipment adding to the contrast. And even in the midst of broken dreams is incredible beauty.
Tiny, simple churches, were all along the peaceful roads.
Lots of flat, green, farms. Easy riding, though the head wind is a constant companion. No matter what direction you pedal.
I want to remember the simple things, like wild flowers all along the narrow, shallow ditches. Bike riding in the country is a constant reminder of the importance of farming to our nation.
A family resting in their own corn field, in life and in death.
Ah, the sun came out and it changes everything.
Pocomoke, MD, first sign of community in several hours.
On the Eastern Shore everything is nautical.
The first part of today is about open spaces and cows.
When the sun peaks through it brings a burst of energy to tired legs. Today was to be a short day. A couple turns on the map can change all that.
Pocomoke State Forest Park was our camping destination for tonight. 5 miles riding back into the forest on winding roads. Walls of giant tall pines towered on both sides of the road. NOTHING else, nothing. Did Google have me on a wild goose chase? I'd even have been glad to SEE a wild goose. Peaceful, but too desolate for me. Finally, get a text from Dave, he's on the turn off road to the campground , but says not to ride it as it is deep sand, difficult. Later I find him, walking his bike, chain off bike and news that there is only dirt roads with no real place to camp with at least water. If there is no water, then there is no drinking water to start the morning the next day.
So turning back we retraced our ride back out. I was tired but was glad to leave. Google showed another campground about an hour away. Good. The directions were a little sketchy but we were in our way, and sunset was approaching. Not a short day after all.
We ended up at Lake Somerset Campground, Westover, MD. Nice, except for the GIANT slug I found clinging to my tent netting window door when I got back to my tent in the dark- (bike light flash light battery had died in the shower room), I had to put my face practically on it to see it was a slug!!! and the slug had to be removed by hand!!!). It was good to have found a home for the night.