06-25-11 - I'm Only Sleeping

06-25-11
Please, don't wake me, no, don't shake me
Leave me where I am - I'm only sleeping
23.4 Miles
Winona
I get up late. The sun is out but it’s a little overcast.
I go to the post office to get the mail sent to me c/o General Delivery.
It’s there.
As I’m going thru it a local hails me.
“You from California?”
Yes.
What part?
I tell him.
“I had a girlfriend who moved there!”
She had green hair and was named “Tarantula”
OK!
I get loose and drive off to explore the town.
First Stop! Betty Jo Byolowski! (though everyone knows it as “Nancy!”.)
It’s a burger and beer joint a block from the Riverbank.
It’s toney.
I’d have liked to have had a burger & beer there.
Those sorts of things are not in my capacity.
I’m lucky to by a loasf of French bread for $1.49 and make it last for 4 days with the help of cheap spinach & artichoke hummus.
I can take pictures of the places I go to but can’t enter, explore them.
I can leave Mischa in the car for only so long. Less time in extremes of temperature. And then there’s the “Admission” issue as well. I prefer to go to places where Mischa can accompany. But there are some places I’d like to go if I could have a safe place to lave her where she would feel comfortable and relaxed without me being around. That’s only happened a few times…when I’ve been hosted. And that has happened all to infrequently during this Journey. (Though, to be fair, I’ve been much less productive during those visits!)
I explored about all I can figure out to see of interest in Winona in just an hour or so. I decide to take the big bridge over the Mississippi into Wisconsin. There is question as to how much further this road will go. I may be an optimist, but I’m also a realist. I drive across the border just to say I’ve made it that far.
24th state.
Half the distance.
I’ve crossed the Mississippi at least 7 times before this and this is the most beautiful crossing so far. The high hillsides, the deep soundings, the greenery all around, the wind over the water, the traffic passing below. It is poetic. It is tactile. It is supernatural in it’s imagery.
A short distance along the drive into Wisconsin, it comes to a “T” intersection. I go south (right) for about 9 miles and decide I’m wasting gas I’ll want tomorrow. I turn back and go back to camp.
In camp. I’m trying to write the past days notes and figure out finances. What I’ll need to get thru the Kickstarter Funding period and how to generate enough interest in 26 days to successfully fund the completion of the journey.
I start to fall asleep.
The woman camping behind me (Gail) who helped me identify an open space last night and has a small dog like mine brings be over a bowl of munchie mix saying “It’s a lot easier to work when you’re munching” and leaves it for me. I thank her as she walks off into the park.
I start slowly but soon realize…I’m hungry! I haven’t been eating and this is great!
I actually perked up for about an hour or so.
Then it started to drizzle.
Just a few drops.
But it was not ignorable.
And a few more.
Enough that it was annoying.
I moved into the tent.
And it became more constant.
Not ever heavy.
A light drizzle to a slight misty rain.
But all day.
From 2 pm untill I finally went to sleep.
I tried to write.
I kept fuzzing out.
Played my audio book
Kept falling asleep…finding the last place if was conscious of…
And falling asleep.
I was going in and out of sleep all day.
I never could rally.
I gave up around 9pm
I don’t know why I was so lethargic.
Road weariness?
Aversion to thinking about my situation?
Tick bite?
Whatever the cause
My remedy:
They call it sleep.