MAY 9: BRP IN THE STATE OF NC

I'm sitting out the rain in the somewhere of NC. Luckily the bathrooms are unlocked so I used the hand dryers to give the damp gear a good going over. I'm the keeper of the toilet!

I have a bit of coffee left, the bags of course are keeping everything dry no problem, just need some hot water, cold if you like with the Sterno.

Set up at a rest area

It's 11:30 and this place is kind of coming alive. I've been here since 9:30. Steady rain and I don't feel like fooling with it. Let it run its course. I hear tomorrow is more of the same. Who and where I heard that I couldn't tell you.

To fill you in, I'm at a rest step. I took another slow day in the valley and on the ridges. I have a small remaining bit of BRP and I'll be done, but it's dark, it's raining and I'm going no farther. I'm going to stay right here at this rest area.

I took a hike around on the paved trails, eyed the scenes of both sides of this cresting ridge I'm standing on. I think this maybe the highest spot on the Parkway. Highest lowest no big deal, I'm out here enjoying and absorbing every bit of it. I may be bad with names, landmarks and whatever but I know when I like something. Maybe I subconsciously make it fleeting for myself as if I return to a spot I've been it's going to be different than the rest. All that remains the same is the geological location on Mother Earth. I'll think differently, perceive differently, see something different at 'this' same location so therefore it is not the same. I have a state of consciousness and so does this land. It lives and breaths as I do. Only difference is without this Earth, I would not exist. Without me, Earth still exists. Maybe? Maybe this is all a dream and I'm so far away from this trip that it is incomprehensible. I doubt it but I don't. Who knows? I sure as shit don't. I don't know what I'm going to be doing in the next hour. Ha, I do. Hanging here at this rest stop.

I'll leave my mind to rest from these goofball thoughts and pitch the tent. This cubby leading to the bathroom door is starting to feel confining and I'd rather be stretched out. The Feds are building some new building out here. Probably to sell junk with a picture of a road on it as a commemorative keep sake. My memory is my commemorative keepsake. I don't need a plastic trinket made in China for a US roadway to remind me, I live it. What more do you need? It will end up in a box, a dog will chew on it or a kid will swallow it.

Yours truly squatting

I throw up the tent by a pile of lumber. Ha, this is great, a tent at a rest stop out in the wide open like I don't care. Do? No, or I wouldn't have done it. I'm broadcasting to the world here. People are pulling in and abruptly leaving. I think it is in regards to the tent. Some vagrant took up house at the rest area. This is great. They are afraid of the reality and live in the 'supposed to be'. What is the supposed to be? I don't know, they don't know, you don't know. Live is all it comes down to and don't hurt others. Simple, time to chill and read.

The wind is really whipping up here on this high spot. The rain is pelting. The fog is thick. I'm in a tent in a parking lot. Ha. More people come and go, only a couple have actually stopped and used the johns.

I wake up, it's not raining, but I read and drift back asleep. I wake up, eat a bar of granola and get in motion to gear up when the rain starts again. I go back asleep. 

An engine right behind me stops and I hear 2 doors. I hear a man talking a conversation but there are no replies. He's talking about the building being erected all proud like.

'Look at that tent.' I hear the man, obviously pointing my abode out to his companion.

I might as well get up. I put on pants and my water sox and step out.

'You can't do that!' The man says looking at me crawling out of the tent. 

He's a younger black man, has a couple years on me a smile on his face. He's wearing the colors of the Forest Service but he's no Ranger or Law Enforcement, he's maintenance. He has some dopey white kid with him that doesn't care one way or the other about anything. Blank, looking at the ground. It appears they're up here to collect trash and most likely to clean the toilets. The kid just looks at the ground. I bet the kid is a juvey, sent here to be taught a lesson about consequences.

'They'll give you a ticket for that!' he tells me.

I'm relieved to hear him say 'They'. He's not going to issue me one.

'I know. I've gotten them before.' I say with a smile, thinking of Finger Lakes NF.

'It was raining and dark when I got here last night, I wasn't going any farther.' I say.

'That's cool, the other side is a bit tricky in the dark. See ya.' the maintenance man finishes. Dopey white kid shuffles by looking at the ground with an empty trash bag in hand.

Right on, no hassle.

The rain subsided but looks like it could go again at any minute. My gear is damp and of course the tent gets drenched wadding it up. All packed I head down the last bit of the BRP and go into Waynesville. 

I'm wet and I cruise through town and find myself at a motel. I stop and talk to the manager and ask how cheap of a room I can get. He tells me a few options and I tell him I just need the cheapest he has.

'For you, $38.' trying to make me feel like a king.

'Anything cheaper?' I ask. 'Have a closet? I don't need much.' which he smiles at.

'No, that's the most affordable.' he informs and I take it. I smell curry being brewed behind the plexiglass, and I daydream of swimming in the stuff. I start guessing the color of dish and what all they may be putting in the concoction. I'm hungry.

He writes up the bill and I pay. We talk for a moment and are disturbed by some tweeker that screeched in the parking lot and hopped out of the still moving car containing all his junk and some chick. I say goodbye to the proprietor and wish him luck with his new arrival.

A spontaneous splurge.

I get inside my room of nicotine covered red and beige paisley and unpack all my damp gear and cover the room with it to dry out. Cool, the bathroom has one of those hamburger warmers for a light. More stuff goes in there. I go back to the office and ask about a laundromat and I'm pointed down the street about a half a mile. I hope on Bike with my blanket, sleeping back and the couple of pieces of clothing. I find the place, even closer than told. I grab a couple of quarters out of the tank bags and toss all the stuff in a dryer and go next door to the gas station for a couple of tall boys. Never one to wait on stuff at the laundromat, I head back to the hotel and to finish whatever it is I'm doing. About this time Sun is shining without any hinderance, go figure. It's early afternoon and all is well. I'm going to chill here. Go back, get my dried stuff at the laundromat, get back to the motel and drink my beer, sit outside and watch a bit of the boobtube.