Last time I left you I was in Des Moines Iowa charging my iPod at a truck stop off the I-80, I had to wait an hour or so standing in an isle where I found an outlet that I was able to reach. I wanted to make sure that I could see my bike at all times since all my stuff was strapped to the back and I wasn't going to take anything off for just an hour or so. So I filled up and got back on the road when I was done, it was dark probably sometime around 8PM if I remember correctly and I would have been on the road so far for a total of 8-10 hours. On the trip across the country there are straight roads that pass through hundreds of miles of fields, from about Elgin IL to Omaha Nebraska the only thing you really see is farm fields on both side, then as soon as you pass Omaha it is the same thing all the way to Colorado. So I am back on the road heading west towards Nebraska, all the way through Iowa is was a full moon and a clear night so the moonlight was making everything around me glow. I don't know where you live but I want tell you the differences between living near cities and living out in the open. City lights and pollution make it nearly impossible to see the stars even on the clearest of nights, you may be able to see the faint twinkle of the brightest stars but other than that you are really missing out. If you live in close to small cities or live in small towns you may think you have a clear view of the sky but you are still not seeing everything. When I was stationed in Iraq I saw more stars then I have ever seen in my life, the sky looked like there were so many start there was no spaces between them. It is the most brilliant awesome thing to see in the sky besides eclipses, and shooting stars. In the midwest there are areas where you can go and see a sky like this, riding though Iowa and Nebraska I got to see beautiful scenes of stars and moonlit landscape.
When you in a car making this drive you can still see similar scenery but it is completly different when your not confined by the inner space of a car, you are open and a part of the land when your riding through it. The only think you can think is "God, thank you for blessing us with such a beautiful earth, and thank you for letting me be a part of it tonight!"Back to the ride we are now getting into Nebraska around Midnight or so, I decide that it is time to pull inside of a rest stop and get some sleep. This is where the story gets fun, I had a budget for my trip and I was trying to make really good time so I made no plans to stay at any hotels. When it came to my resting arrangements I think back to the story of my dad riding across the country, he has his sleeping bag and just sleeps next to his bike when he gets tired. I pull over and park my bike near a street light, I took my helmet stuffed it with any of my valuables and set it on my lap. I didnt have a sleeping bag and it was chilly out so to stay warm I just sat next to my bike and leaned against it. It was not the most comfortable thing but it certainly better than sleeping on hard cold ground. I drifted in and out of sleep for a little while when this stranger came up to me to make a comment about me sleeping the way I was... "hey there, that cant be too comfortable." I was annoyed that this guy came up to me when I was trying to sleep and also became a bit suspicious. "Hey you can sleep in the back of my car if you want, its right over there." I told him thanks but I am just going to tough it out, he insisted that he would leave the door unlocked for me to get in if I wanted. I watched the guy go back to his car, I sat for about 30 min trying to go back to sleep but I have to admit the guy kinda freaked me out so I packed up and got back on the road.
Lets break this dow, a little bit before we come to our conclusion that the guy was evil, first there are good honest people out there who are only looking to do good in the world. But when there is an extreme in one area then there has to be the opposite extreme of people who are evil. If you don't travel enough then talk to a truck driver, rest stops are magnets for people who are looking to rip off innocent travelers, I talked to a truck driver not too long ago who was telling me a story about a lady who had her car and all her belongings in it stolen from her at a truck stop. He had pulled into it after it happened and saw her there standing in the cold, he had given her a packing blanket to stay warm. So whats the verdict? No one will ever know, I like to give people the benefit of the doubt and not make snap judgements but at the same time I am not going to leave myself open to a disaster if I can avoid it, I have seen too many scary movies to be oblivious to certain tells. I rode until it got light out, still in Nebraska (it is a large state) My second rest wasn't much better than the first, I stopped just before light so when I got to sleep people were waking up and going to the bathroom. People can be very rude these days, as I was trying to sleep people figured that I was a sight to be seen by all. The stopped by and just stood there staring at me making comments like "look at that guy there" and "haha thats a crazy motorcyclist" After awhile it was clear that I was not going to be getting to much sleep so I just packed up and hit the road.
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