As I was looking out over God's great creation, I heard the sound again and looked over to find a welcome guest.
He was bathing and looking at me as if was telling me good morning. "Good morning Donald", I welcomed. I thought about how he does not have a worry in the world. He's not worried or concerned about where he will be finding food this morning, nor was he concerned where he'd be sleeping tonight, nor was he worried about paying an electric bill - God's taking care of it all for him. It made me think back when Jesus shared the parable of the bird "are you not more valuable to God than a duck?". Donald hung out for about a half an hour and decided to go about his day.
I noticed that the sound of bull frogs yelling had dissappered. I thought "maybe they are sleeping! I think I'll do some yelling and wake them up!!". I poured some water in the JetBoil and began to boil some water for coffee. This would be the first time that I had tried the coffee press of the JetBoil. It worked quite well. The only problem I really had with it was that I wanted to get started on some dehydrated eggs but couldn't due to using the canister to drink the coffee from. I noted that a small collapsable cup would be very handy for this reason. I sat in the folding chair and enjoyed the beautiful scene. Since this was my first attempt to eating dehydrated foods, I opened the eggs slowly, concerned for what I might see. Since many of you may not have ever slaved over a JetBoil or prepare dehydrated eggs, I am forcing you to join me in this adventure within itself.
Boiled some water in a 1.5 minutes and poured it into the bag, as the bags describes.
After 5 minutes....(looks like barf, eh?)
And drain... VIOLA!! BonApetit!
I ate the eggs, most of them anyway. They have small bacon bits in them which was tasty, not bad at all, initially that is. The flavor became overwhelming late and I relied on old faithful; what I eat every day, oatmeal. After breakfast, I fetched the jerkey, lantern, and chair, and packed them on the ACE, patting her on the saddle like she was my trusty equine. I took a few snapshots of the hotel before I tore it down and packed in on the back where it belonged.
It was now nearing 8:00am and knew I had to get moving. I packed things accordingly so that I could grab items for the shower quickly. Repacking the GranTour bag made me enjoy it even more; its so practical. Riding to the showers, I inquisitivly looked around to see if the park gained any more campers - no - not a one. I grabbed some quarters and headed in the showers.
It was one of my favorite showers of all time - perfect - water was hot and I didn't want to turn it off but again, I knew I was running a race with time. Just as I had convinced myself to turn the water dial, it shut off automatically. "Good, let's go". Knowing that I laid the trip out for this being the day for mileage, I got dressed and ready to ride. On this day I tried riding with some biking shorts which did seem to help in the long run. "Let's go!"
Departure Time: 08:37
