ROADSIDE TREASURES

OCTOBER 30, 2011  - Willow Springs, rode 59 miles, wind against me 10-20 mph, hills all day long half mile to mile long hills but not too awfully steep   5 - 7% +or-.

Met with Van Buren Ambulance Co. this morning next to fire department.  Crew member took me to breakfast.  I demonstrated the SIRAD monitors and 60-second cards to three people.  Reception seemed good.

   Met Eddie today who grew up in a small Missouri town.  He's about 45 and said he was never interested in basket ball in high school because he was too busy poaching.   Really he said he tried mostly to get the game warden to chase him and would spend hours hunting him down then drive by and go down the road a ways and fire off his gun and then drive in difficult areas where the game warden couldn't follow.  He said he would tie fishing line in places where the game warden parked so he could tell how recently he'd been there.

   It was a very hard riding day because it was so windy against me and all hills.  I went up so many hills so slowly today I started to look for roadside treasures among the usual garbage people throw along the highway.  I found a  very nice hunting knife which I kept and a big crescent wrench which I put by a post where someone would be sure to find it.  I found a current driver license which I turned in to the highway patrol.  I tried to make a game out of spoting unusual things including insects.  A black widow crawled across my path.   It was a big one and had the red hour glass on its belly.  I left it alone.  The road today was all four lane divided highway, open access.  I had the breakdown lane all to myself which was nice but the road tends to be boring as it almost all looks the same.  I won't be on it much longer.

   Yesterday I played Russian Roulette with Amtrak, not the train but my trip.  I passed an Amtrak station in Poplar Bluffs and thought if there was a train within the next hour or two I'd just get on it and end my trip.  The train did not come until about midnight and three in the morning so I just rode off thinking I can do the same with a bus.    I thought about it for awhile and realized that I really want to continue with this ride and I don't want to end it.

   So far Grafton West VA, Ashland and Greenville Kentucky have requested the SIRAD monitors for their first responders.  This is actually a good response so far.   There will be more coming as some departments take several weeks even months to respond.  Grafton is ordering the monitors for all first responders in the entire county, about 500.  Greenville appears to be doing the same.