Celebrity - Day 80: Zanesville, IN

The McCombs were nice enough to let me stay for two nights, so day 80 was also spent with them. They provided me with all sorts of things: for the bike, new pedals, shifters, brakes, and grips, plus a sleeve on my rear brake cable so it wouldn’t continue cutting a channel into the frame. For me, some excellent zucchini bread, muffins, delicious peanut butter “energy bite” balls, and some brownies, in addition to a place to sleep and some excellent dinners while I was there. I have to admit that my bike was in pretty sorry shape, since I beat the crap out of it on singletrack (minimal mountain bike trails) in the hills around Corvallis before even starting on the cross-country trip, not to mention whatever its previous history was when I got it at a bike swap. Rigid mountain bikes aren't even typically used on singletrack. It's just what I had.

That doesn't even mention what I got to see and do while there, besides just hobbling up and down the stairs on damaged knees. The McCombs have two kids and several animals, including a painted turtle and a whole bunch of gigantic hornworms retrieved from their tomato plants. I learned a new game called Sequence, at which their older son and I are currently 2-0 as a team.

I felt like some kind of minor celebrity during my time there. They even know my blog better than I do – several times, I was asked about particular stories where I’d be hazy on the details, and they’d fill me in. I feel bad that I kept them waiting this long to post this entry, actually. I had no idea I was so interesting! The kids were excited to have me around and were even sad to see me go, which was hard to comprehend in the state I was in.

I should also say that I really appreciated staying in a place that wasn’t intensely politically conservative. I’ve been trying to take that on when I can, because I feel it's pretty much the only responsible use of my privilege as someone who won't be directly harmed by the racist, sexist rhetoric that surrounds Donald Trump. More discussion, not less, is what will help bring people back together after this is over, or so I hope. Further, I want to provide an example of a real, human liberal, hopefully in contrast to the images that a lot of people in red states might have. But none of that was necessary here! It was nice to not be met with extreme suspicion, and nicer still to find others that recognize the importance of racial and gender equality in the US.

Apparently I only took one terrible picture of the painted turtle, which is a shame, because the hornworms were also magnificent.