BENGARLAND!com

January 5, 2007

I woke up early today and left the campground before the sun came up. The ride into Georgetown was hilly, but traffic was light. Around 8:30 am I found the cemetery where my great-grandparents Herman and Thelma Branyan are buried.

The ride across the lake to Eufaula was shorter than I expected. I stopped at a Winn-Dixie grocery to buy some food. Tuna fish, bread, and Castleberry’s brunswick stew in a can. The cashier couldn’t believe that I’m riding across the country and she wants me to call the store when I make it to San Diego.

After stocking up on food, I went to the Burger King for breakfast. I thought they were still having a 75¢ special on their sausage biscuits, but it wasn’t to be. $2.00 later, though, I ate two of them and warm food never tasted so good.

The sights today could be summed up as: abandoned house, trailer, nice house, abandoned gas station, crappy not-abandoned house, abandoned house with a trailer parked out back. Rinse, lather, repeat.

Also it rained like a bitch, for so hard and so long that it wasn’t even worth putting on my rain gear. I got soaked.

I camped on a pine tree farm. It didn’t rain at night, but it might as well have. The morning dew made my tent and sleeping bag all wet. Packing it all up was no fun and I hoped to find somewhere dry to stay soon.

This tent sucks. Needless to say, when I’m done with this tour, Mountain Hard Wear is going to receive a strongly worded letter about the problems I’ve encountered with their product.