biking and tenting it

3/28
found: stakes for tent (various rusty metal rods/heavy wire), bungee cord, sunglasses, apple snacks (kirkland freeze dried, 5 small pouches), nice leather gloves

i stopped for the night just short of pearlington, MS. i got water and used the rest room in the morning at cajun encounters. nice folks there. the place i set up the tent was near there at an old home where nobody was home. i set up on a soft, oakleaf bed by the driveway. the guy cme through in the morning and i was nervous about there being a confrontation, but when i introduced myself and said 'sorry for disobeying your signs(no trespassing)' he was like, 'i guess it's okay.' and went on with his business. he didn't need any help.
boy was i glad i had the tent because the mosquitoes were big and plentiful there!

3/29

in the morning at the swamp tour place i met an old guy from georgia and his wife. when he walked by me and my bicycle he said, ' i always wished i had done something like that when i was your age.' that made me want to talk to him. we chatted for a while... he has been involved with disaster relief for the past twenty years. said i could stay with him if i came through his area, central georgia. i probably could have gotten a ride with him if i'd wanted to, but decided i wanted to keep riding, or i was suppoed to.

found: glasses, wrenches

at lunch i stopped at CJ's Meat Market. i always find these jems! got some yogurt, a lemon, and a half pound of frozen calf liver. the woman who i checked out with spoek with me on her smoke breaks while i had a leisurely lunch of the sourdough bread i made, cheese, and salami. she gave me a package of awesome vegetable chips! she said she has recently put in her notice because she wants to devote more time to her garden at home! i felt inspired to point her in the direction of the weston a price foundation and gave her my blog url too.
there was beautiful mint growing right there in front of the store. she said i could pick some. i ended up keeping it fairly fresh for a couple days by keeping the stems in water in a plastic bag. i bruise it and put it in my drinking water and even got to make tea with it that night with hot water in the gas station store by where i camped!
this place i camped was just before biloxi. when i was starting to really look for places, i saw a scraggly looking guy crossing the road towards me with his bike. he told me a good place to camp would be right in the woods over yonder. pointed out the path to me which would lead me to the clearing. another relatively soft spot next to big oak trees.
just after i set up my tent a couple guys came walking through, keith and pa. they used to camp here. the homeless folks were having a party tonight they said. they were taking a break from the drunken debauchery. pa used to live in the french quarter. he said, "you used to see people having sex in the street, and people would just walk by. i liked that. you know?" yes. i think i do.

3/30

found: towel, pants (barely to small)

went into the goutier thrift store to buy some swimming shorts. as i was about to leave the owner, carolyn, came out and asked, "what was your name? my friend wanted me to as your name." i had wanted to give her the blog url and here was the opportunity. then she said she wanted to share something with me and to follow her back inside. she told me a story of how she had been kind to some travelers on their way to new orleans, and showed me the post card they had sent her from there. i felt truely touched. this is the hoop, and the economy of generosity, and the hand of god at work. we then chatted for fifteen minutes or so about holistic living topics! the friend of carolyn's who was there helping recieves clothes in exchange. beautiful!

at the border crossing into alabama i sat on a huge cube of granite, on top of which was written in sharpie:
PSALMS 109:10
'let his children be continuously vagabonds, and beg; let them seek their bread also out of their desolate places.'

i'll write more later perhaps on how i relate to this... maybe you have your own ideas.

the landscape changed dramatically as i rode into alabama on 90. instead of a big highway with ocassional strip malls, it was a smaller road with little gas stations and stores more frequently. a smaller town feel. farms interspersed. more of an old feeling. i stopped in one town at a produce stand by the road. a woman who stopped at the same time bought some local strawberries ahead of my purchase of two mississippi cucumbers. this woman pulled over in front of me several miles down the road and offered me some strawberries! her name was anne and she said she would hope that people would do the same for her children if they were in my situation. she also gave me four dollars. thank you mama!
i continued on with increased vigor, popping fresh strawberries one by one from my handlbar bag.

stopped for a break at 'johnny's mama's kitchen' and wished i was stopping for dinner, because it felt like a really good place. the oldtimer there was cool and advised me of a place in mobile to eat, called 'david beaks'. i didn't end up going there though. i got a pound of medium-sized shrimp from a place that i think was called crab king? anyway it was great because they had all the seafood fresh, on ice, right there in front and would take it in back and steam it up for you in a tastey butter sauce. i had them put it in a yogurt container for me, even though they still ended up dirtying a styrofoam tray and plastic bag. i was able to put a couple leaves of collards in there with the hot shrimp and steam them a little. i found a nice oak tree later to enjoy the meal. i think the pound ended up being nearly three dozen individual shrimp! very filling and fun meal, for 5.49.

after the meal i filled water at a nearby gas station and used it back at my camp site to give myself a little bath, using my new towl to dry off well. then i meditated in the tent and went to sleep.

i slept in back of a house i thought was abandoned. rain all night, but i didn't get very wet thanks to the tent. just a couple small leaks. but the rain did interupt my sleep. the tent was upon oak leaves for extra padding again. i burried the shrimp debris under a thick layer of leaves.

3/31

still raining in the morning. i was worried about getting wet. meditated and then ate breakfast in the tent, hoping the rain would cease by the time i was finished. it did!
i rode through the historic oakleigh neighborhood of mobile, where i saw beautiful houses dancing with huge oak trees with limbs almost completely covered in little ferns!