Day 26 - New Vineyard

June 29, 2009

It sure does like to rain around here.
I left the campsite this morning and crossed over the bridge to head south on route 201A.
Somehow, I manage to view a DHL van, a UPS truck and a FedEx truck all in the same day. Don't look now, but I think this might mean that I'm on the verge of civilization. Maybe?
At least is 'seems' hopeful.
I made such good time, I decided to go ahead and follow route 234 west all of the way to New Vineyard.
This proved to be slightly strenuous. The end of my twenty mile day found me sitting on the front steps of a town building, tending to a HUGE blister on my right heel, while trying to stay out of the rain.
This was the tricky part. It was after hours and the building was closed. New Vineyard would be extremely flattered if I referred to it as a 'small' town. And, I had nowhere else to go.
So, there I was, at not yet 5 pm without a soul to be seen anywhere.
That's when I finally had to give up and reserve myself to the idea of finding the nearest church down the street and camping out somewhere on their property.
After all, if I'm going to get in trouble using someone's property, it might as well be a church, right?
But on my way to the church I noticed that the town office/library had a car in the parking lot. So, as a last ditch effort, I walked in hoping to gain some useful advice on where to spend the night.
I entered to find not one, but two ladies, at the front counter. They were both intrigued by my appearance and asked about my journey. As I told them what I was doing and why I was doing it, the customer lady (Dinah) became very interested.
It turns out that her and her family are very active in the local churches and her daughter was even recently involved in a Creation Ministry class.
Here's the fun part.
She thought it would be fun to take me up the street and introduce me to her daughter and son-in-law in hopes that they might let me stay there for the night. So, with nothing else to do, I gladly tagged along for the ride.
Their names are Chip and Kathy. Chip had just left for the evening to go to the movies with some friends and Kathy was just about to leave on some errands of her own.
But, before she left, the three of us sat out on the wrap-around porch and talked ministry as they continued to pump tasty food and warm fluids into my system.
Kathy thought it would be better if I stayed on the porch until Chip got home and I was a-okay with that. It gave me the opportunity to get in out of the rain and get my tent and equipment dried out as well.
So, with a few hours to kill, I put together a quick little update video and crawled inside of my rapidly drying tent for a quick nap.
Once Chip arrived, he invited me in and set up the downstairs room for me. I was finally able to get a warm shower and, afterward, when Kathy returned, the three of us hung out and talked for a while.
All in all, it was a productive and interesting day.
But, as I'm learning on this journey, that's par for the course.