//location:

Rocket Diner

somewhere along WA-104, Wash.

//time: 10:35 am

//mile: too lazy to go outside and check my cyclometer (170something?)

//from where I write:

When the waitress went to the back to deliver my order (The Universe Scramble), she yelled, "She wants the universe! No meat!" and I smiled at that.

~W O W~

I must document how happy I am right now. My hands + arms are so tired from this morning's ride but I am just gonna suck it up and write about this cause I just--

I AM SO HAPPY. ok cool now how do I even make this make sense. Let's see.

well, first of all, I'm at a diner. A diner. A DINER. WHICH MEANS EGGS. 'DINER' AND 'EGGS' ARE SYNONYMS IM NOT SURE IF YOU KNEW BUT THEY ARE.

Ok.

And I'm extra happy here because I only had two peaches for bfast this morning (picked em up at a cool lil Mexican fruit stand in south bend that also sold me some excellent $2 shrimp tacos) at the camp site (bruceport county park) because it was misting/tree-raining* when I woke up and my tent had collapsed on my face so I woke up in a bit of a little OMGIMDYING fit, and just packed up all my stuff as fast as possible and peaced out.

[*tree-raining (v.): when moisture condenses so much on the trees that any subtle gust causes the water to rain down, and you think it's actually raining, but it's just** tree-rain.

**sometimes it's still actually raining though, and you get excited and cocky like "oh cool nah it's just tree rain," then you go out in the open and it's still raining and you're like, "shit."]

And then this morning's ride was...it was kinda rough. Long, gradual climbs. Lots of logging trucks carrying tiny forests. Lots of mist. Good thing I've got these water repellant pants.

I thought about a lot of things over the hills today. I thought about New York, and what that'll be like, and what it's always like, and how I always love it, and what will happen when I no longer love it, and if I will ever no longer love it. I thought about a past love and how I realized that's what it was only when it was too late (though I don't think there ever was or will be a "right time" to realize this). I wondered what he's doing and if I'll ever see him again. I thought about the calamari we ate at 4am that one night, and how silly that was. And about the extra sauce I ordered and how it wasn't all that good, but was at the time because everything was good at the time.

I went back to thinking 20 feet in front of me. No nails, none, none, good. Avoid that little rock thing. This sounds like a big truck coming up.

Alright, and another logging lot. These make me sad. But I guess this is where all the paper and stuff I use comes from. And Christmas trees, too, I suppose. I wonder who will get that one. Dude, what if all these trees grew pre-decorated. Like, they genetically engineered a Fir varietal to do that. No, actually these ones are probably for paper. Why did they leave that one tree standing like that? Just one little guy? Is that the ocean over there?

This one's a logging truck, I'm calling it now.

Niiiiice.

One of the long, long, gradual climbs of the morning. Not sure if this photo portrays it well. Do you feel tired looking at this? I feel freaking tired looking at this.

I'm hungry. I'm hungry. I'm hungry. I definitely do not have enough energy in me to be doing these climbs right now. But the one time I did stop to retrieve snacks from my bag, I just looked at the rain cover over my panniers and the contraption of bungee cord web over it, decided it wasn't worth it and forged forward.

So, when 101 (what I was traveling on) hit 104 and I saw a little fork+knife symbol with "<--5 mi." written below, I was like OH HELL YES. Those five miles flew by out of sheer excitement. And I don't even know what the name of this place I'm in right now is called because all I saw was the DINER sign and the blinking OPEN sign and I just pulled right over and practically leaped inside.

I saw Parker's bike leaned up by the door, too, and smiled to myself. Parker is an older man I'd met at the campground last night; he was my neighbor and we hung out for a while, shared a bottle of wine and chatted touring stuff. He got into touring early last year and said he did around 3,000 miles by the end of the year, and right now he's on his way home to Portland from Vancouver. I want to bike to Canada.

He's got a real sweet setup. I should've taken a photo. Very minimal, but quality stuff. I think he's probably in his 60s and seems very healthy. Though last night when we were chatting, he went through two cigarettes and I'm not sure how good that is for the whole breathing component of biking--and life--but Parker's just doing Parker and seems like a pretty cool life he's living, so go you, man.

Funny to run into him here at the diner, though. He left about half an hour before me. He just came over and we talked a bit while I was waiting for my food; turns out he averages 10mph touring, which is the same as me so far! That made me feel pretty good. He said a lot of other touring cyclists average that-abouts, too. Yay.

I'm eating (though I'm sure most would call this inhaling) this breakfast bidniss now and it's so so good I don't even know what more I could want in life.

The other diners in here now seem like regulars. They're known by name, and talk about the Atkins diet, crying tomatoes and one man just learned that "transparent" means "see-through."

Very warm hospitality and cold water.

Also, I looked at myself this morning in the camp bathroom mirror -- like really took a good look at myself -- for the first time in a couple days. I just hadn't really stared at my face like that in a while I guess. I have a lot of freckles. I mean, I always knew I had a few, but did I always have this many? Were these guys from the last couple of days biking? Is my face going to be covered in freckles by the time I get to San Francisco? I could deal with that. I also think my eyes are sunburnt, if that's a thing. I don't know if that's a thing. It probably is. And my dad's probably going to freak out about that when he reads it. It's ok, Dad, I can still see. My left eye is just kind of pink and soupy. Ew that's disgusting.

This breakfast is amazing.