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From the Road: Day 9

June 2, 2010 at 8:30 AM 5 Comments

Day nine. That makes me 90% done with my trip, and with only 40 miles tomorrow I should be able to reach the Lighthouse by 4 pm. I hate to put down a place but the campgrounds we stayed at last night were not the most favorable. The free wi-fi we were promised turned into an empty promise as the only connections were WEP protected. This would not have been an issue had we been given the proper password. During the night the other campers were rather obnoxious and played loud music into the night. As we awoke the next morning we set off in pursuit of bathrooms only to find them locked. Apparently people are only allowed to go during certain hours. After figuring this out we headed out as soon as we could and began the trip again.

Starting from the random spot we stopped at last night provided an extra challenge as I could not determine where it was we stopped last night. This was quickly overcome when we encountered a rather long and steep hill. “The top! That’s right, I was definitely at the top of this hill when we stopped last night.” I exclaimed. Michelle had her doubts as she seemed to think we had stopped near the bottom of the same hill. I eventually won out and started pedaling. For those of you out there, practicing your own unicycling, I want something known. As you get up to the ninth day of unicycling approximately 40 miles, you start to lose all feeling in the spot that has been bothering you up to this point. This greatly sped up my travels today and I ended up going a whopping 45 miles. My grand total to date is 356 miles. As it only says 40 miles to West Quoddy Lighthouse for tomorrow I may have to unicycle around for 4 miles afterwards. Nothing bothers a mathematician quite so much as almost reaching a perfect square. Especially being a perfect square from a perfect square.

I met some rather amazing people on my travels today. People were stopping in front of me and getting out to greet me. They would proceed to tell me how they had seen me on the tv the other night and how I was working for a great cause. Many of them donated on the spot while others offered me water and food. One person remarked that they could help me out by giving me a short lift, “It’d be between no one but you and me,” they said. Well now it’s between you, me, and my reading audience (I declined the offer anyways). As I came across a handful more hills (some bringing me fondly back to New Hampshire) I discovered a great thing: the faster I pedaled up hills, the less time I spend on the hills. With this new found knowledge I was pedaling like a crocodile in the Everglades being chased by a hippopotamus if the crocodile was going 10 mph, and riding a unicycle. 

In Westly, we met up with a charming lady at the Fox and Something Else (I vividly remember the fox part but not the second part, let’s say it was Hill because there was a doozy of a hill right after the store. We spent some time talking with her and learned that she was friends with the writer of the local paper. After getting out information and pictures she sent us on the way with sandwiches and another donation. These people out here are so friendly.

Along route 9 I was watching everything I passed on the side of the road to pass time and the miles. I discovered that there is a whole pile of treasures to be found just for the taking on the road side. Just the highlights of what I saw included: 5 shoes (one with flowers in it, non-matching), 7 flip-flops (2 of them matched), at least $300 in cans and bottles, 13 hubcaps, 4 pairs of jeans, 6 cds/dvds (a couple of them were labeled “Adults Only”), a computer bag, 8 socks (some of them could have been matching), 2 mattresses, 4 chairs, three fenders, about a billion rocks, and no Waldo. Where is he, that sneaky man? Wait you say, what’s this about the dvds? I’m afraid I can say no more about them as I sped quickly away from them when I realized the nature of the beasts. A few years ago I had managed to find a Led Zep album on the side of the road but this was not the case today.

Between the road from Westly to Northfield I started to wonder at what frequency cars passed by me. This was pertinent information because I would be able to predict when I should get to the far right to let cars pass by without worrying about getting hit. After counting the number of cars that passed me in a given time span I quickly deducted that they were distributed in a Poisson manner. I calculated the lambda factor to be 14 as this was not a busy road. Did I mention earlier that I like mathematics?

Tonight looks like it will shape up to be better than last night, as the campground in almost empty and basically quiet (and the bathrooms are unlocked). Happy Reading, and I hope to see you at the coast tomorrow.

-Uni Bates 

comments

1 Dan Russell-Pinson on June 2, 2010 at 8:49 AM Great write-up. I can't believe that your journey is almost over. I've enjoyed reading every word and can't wait to hear how it ends.
2 Doug Q. on June 2, 2010 at 10:39 AM Yes indeed. It is the Fox Hill Store, and that sure is a womper of a hill. My truck struggles to make the top! The blog has been great! You guy's are great! Congratulations on a succesful misson and thank you for the opportunity to find out how incredible, intelligent, and strong the Bates side of the family is. Oh! Did I mention good looking to boot!
3 rebecca p on June 2, 2010 at 11:14 AM So proud of you, Tristan! What an amazing trip this has been.
4 Aunt Sue on June 2, 2010 at 1:12 PM Awesome blog! Tristan you really need to go into professional writing-you are so gifted! You know the old story about the starfish being thrown back and the kid said it made a difference to that one? Well, you surely have made a difference in the world! Congratulations...
5 aunt lisa on June 2, 2010 at 10:07 PM I agree with sue...you have impacted the world and your story will continue long after you get the road weariness behind you...I will truely miss this blog

your encouragement

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