Our horrible night and crappy morning

Last night, we couldn't find anywhere to camp. We were outside of High Point North Carolina in a rural/wooded section of back roads. It was getting dark and looking stormy. We asked a man on a very large tractor/lawn mower if he knew of anywhere in the area to camp and he directed us down to the "new lake" which was just the damned up river. We got down there and found a spot on a rough road going back into the woods. It started to rain just as we arrived, so we quickly rushed to set up the tent and cover the bikes. It had been a hard riding day. I strained my left knee riding in the mountains and it's been pretty hard riding on it for the past couple of days so I was short of temper. We didn't have time to set up the tent before jumping int, so stuff was all over. Ira was wet and we were both just frustrated with everything. We finally got stuff things situated, cooked on our stomaches, elbows and knees everywhere. With dinner ate, we had nothing else to do but off to bed. The rain was on and off until about 1 am when it started to pour buckets for 6 hours straight. My god it rains down here. Although we were on high ground, the earth was mushy and our tent was sinking in the ground due to the weight of us laying in it Somewhere in the middle of the night, we realized the whole floor of our tent was wet, with standing water in places. My shoes and rain coat where both soaked through. I only got three hours of sleep. I laid there all night allowing everything negative in my life to expand to 10 times their importance. I kept thinking about all bad things I've done to others, things others have done to me. I imagined all the people who didn't like me or currently hold grudges against me being realy happy at how absolutely miserable I was. Well, in the morning it got worse. I put on all my wet clothes, wet socks and wet shoes and got up to face the day. As we were getting on the road, I realized my front tire was flat.



We stood in the rain as we tried to repair it. We realized we had no new tubes, only four old ones we couldn't patch, (why don't we throw them away you ask...i don't know) Finally Ira was able to patch one and put my tire back on. We were both wet through, with wet rain gear on. I had to ride 7 1/2 hours today with wet feet. The rest of my can be wet but as long as my feet are dry, I'm ok. Today wasn't ok. I am so glad it is over. We're in Chapel Hill in a nice dry warm apartment and I am totally happy again.