Plans? Who Need 'Em!

Plans: as in knowing where we'd be sleeping that night (which we didn't), much-less which town we'd end up in.

The knee had been popping all day and in return I was popping pills like Anna Nicole Smith. By 3:45 that afternoon my body had had enough of the day's adventure. 4.6 miles before we'd passed though Thomaston, Maine, placing us in, well, the middle of nowhere obviously. We had pulled over on the side of the road a few hundred yards beyond a Baptist church. We were all in the mood for a break, "Yeah, &$^% these hills". Steve's adamant disposition put a smile on my face. I pulled out my droid and opened Google Maps; yup 4.6 beyond Thomaston and 7 miles North of the itty bitty town of Warren, Maine and there were 6 homes and that church within sight. Used Google Maps to call the church- no answer; so we hobbled back onto our bike seats and began looking for the next car in a driveway.

Didn't take that long. The second trailer on the left wasn't too far down and there were huge pine trees protecting a decent sized yard, seemed like a decent home to prospect.

We drug ourselves on to their gravel driveway and I hopped off my bike and explained I wasn't going to approach... I wanted to see what the boys could do. Steve and Adam stared at one another for a while before Steve stepped up to the plate, we waited just long enough for the homeowner inside to reach his front steps before Steve could even reach his porch. The man gave us a good stare-down, but that didn't hold Steve back: Pretty Boy Floyd jumped right in there. It went something like this...

HI. MY NAME'S STEVE. WE'RE BICYCLING ACROSS AMERICA AND WE NEED A PLACE TO SLEEP TONIGHT. CAN WE STAY IN YOUR YARD.
...

The man just stared at him. "Maybe you know of somebody" Steve finished.

The man scratched his head, "Nope. Sorry. Can't help ya."

       **Cue awkward silence

I looked at Adam; I didn't even need to speak it, he could see my eyes saying, "shit".

So we jumped back on our bikes, well Steve stomped around for a bit through the gravel, then he and Adam awkwardly drug their bikes/trailers in a U-turn through the gravel. We'd crossed traffic in order to knock on that last door, so indeed we did the same thing so we could ride on the right-hand side of the road and wouldn't have to chalk up "head-on collision" to our rough day. (It's difficult not to laugh out loud when I think about this next moment) I'm pretty sure Steve was already ready to stab somebody...

Then as he was crossing the road, Steve was nearly impaled by an oversized pickup truck. She slammed on her brakes and slammed on her horn... peeling out once Steve got out of her way. Sorry Steve, but I couldn't help but laugh knowing how pissed you were :)

And then there she was, the next house on the left. A home. A BIG yard. A CAR! I looked back at Steve and Adam for approval and saw them adamantly waving me on. I threw my bike down and waddled up to their back door.

Mary answered the door. I gave my approach and she just stood there, "uhhh I need to go ask my husband" (never heard that one before), so we stood, and we waited...