Yeah...

Last year on the trip, as I was coming back from Ohio I took the long way around. Forecast maps were showing around 10 days of dry weather and I figured I would probably end up getting home the evening before the rain hit. Other than one evening I had had dry weather for the entire trip...couldn't have ask for better no matter how hard I tried.

I had just gotten into town after being delayed thanks to a fatal car accident and resulting traffic jam on US11 around Hagarstown, MD. I got in Shippensburg and grabbed supper and was looking on Google Earth for a place to spend the night. I found a nice ball park on the east side of town that didn't have many houses sitting close by. I knew it would be a good spot...I just need to wait until after dark to head on out to the campsite. I was busy checking up on email and finishing typing an email to some friends of mine when I noticed something. I missed the hot flash but the cold sweat was impossible to miss. I knew I was in trouble. It was 10:15PM, I'm in the middle of basically nowhere...UGH!!! I didn't like the scenario at all. The more the stomach started churning on me the less I liked it. I finally walked out of the McDonalds where I surfing the web and I knew there was a couple of spots real close by that I had looked at earlier. The one in potential, two doors down from the McDonalds was a Sheetz gas station that was open 24/7. I knew given the situation I wanted to play it safe and stick around someplace open around the clock. The McDonalds drive thru was 24/7 but the indoors wasn't. I walked over to the gas station and looked more closely at the spot right beside the building. From a view point it was pretty remote but if one of the workers came out the side door I knew I was going to be busted in a split second and the cops would show up. I didn't care. I didn't ask either. I just set up the tent and headed off to bed with the stomach grumbling big time. About midnight...Thursday night/Friday morning a commotion arose outside the tent. Yes, Shippensburg is a college town. I didn't understand what Thursday night and college town meant...now I understand Heck, the guys who were smoking something, even shook the tent before the walked away. Around 2AM I heard voices clear out on the highway in front of the gas station. Same thing...this is Thursday night...OOP About 4AM, long after I finally puked my guts out around 2:15AM or so, I heard the door open. I knew the cops were coming...I didn't care. About 15 minutes later I saw headlights. I knew it was the cops...I didn't care. They ended up having me move all of about 20 feet to the other spot I had actually looked at but decided not to go with.

In the morning I was in a quandary...what do I do? Do I stick with my original plans and ride 100+ miles for the day or just ride up to Carlisle and grab a hotel room for the night and hopefully have this darn thing finally leave my body alone. Breakfast didn't stay down for more than maybe 2 hours. I finally decided to ride the 20-25 miles up to Carlisle and grab the hotel room for the night. After keeping supper down the next morning I got up and rode the rest of the way across PA to East Stroudsburg...over 140 miles. Yeah, I'm a glutten for punishment. I hope I don't ever find myself doing something that crazy ever again.