charlotte NC to greer SC – 91.85 miles

day 11:

it was cloudy for most of the day, i left with doug, tyler, matt and bayla… lost most of them and and then rode with tyler. saw a sign that said ‘god answers knee mail.’ we stopped at johnny’s cafe for food and johnny was there… sittin in the corner by the juke box. after lunch we rode though Gaffeney – where a serial killer was on the loose. it was a sunday, but the town looked abandoned – all the stores were closed and there was not a car on the street. there were some interesting signs and old buildings but i didn’t really feel like hanging around there. while later the sun came out so i decided to pick up the pace (being a red-head, the sun and i are not too friendly with each other). the last 10 miles were the roughest part of the ride: hills, headwind, traffic, malls and chain restaurants. got to the holiday inn at 2:20 and went to the mexican restaurant next door. it is there where i found out that one cannot buy alcohol in south carolina on sundays – - extremely lame.

later that night i was sitting in the hallway with alexander and nick. a man named joe came up to us and was asking for an old hat or bandanna. earlier that day i found a blue bandanna on the side of the road (washed it) so i gave it to him. he started to talk about how his hair was ruined because it was half burnt off, so he was going to shave it – about 12 hours ago he had been sitting in his apartment building on his recliner, watching television and smoking a cigarette. his cat (that he found and adopted about 6 months ago) was rubbing against his legs, asking for attention. he put his cigarette in the ashtray, the cat jumped onto his lap, but in the processed it knocked the ashtray over and the contents went under his couch. in seconds the whole thing was ablaze. joe jumped up and tried to pull the couch out of the door, but it was too late, the flames were spreading quickly and he had to get the rest of the people out of the building. luckily no one was badly hurt, joe even carried one of his elderly neighbors out of the building on his back. after he was finished with the story he just kept talking about how everything he had ever owned was gone, and that he hoped his cat was alright – which he seemed to care about more than all his material possessions.

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~ by ash on July 5, 2009.