Thunderstorms in Illinois

I jinxed myself with the title of my last blog post.  And by the way, some of my posts are crass, as you have likely realized if you read my blog regularly. This is life, with this in mind, here is my most recent story.

I rode into Carbondale, IL at about 6pm on Saturday. The ride getting into town was a bit gloomy with dark, heavy clouds forming above my head like over-filled water balloons, ready to release inches of water in a pin-prick. Somehow I averted the rain (while riding) and had time to set my tent up in a densely forested park, after finishing a spaghetti dinner. The town reminded me of Tucson considering it was a big, yet small college town, crowded with college students who were rowdy with school pride.

The rain started twenty minutes after I set up my tent and was relentless. Then, came the flashing lightning and deep thunder. I slept soundly throughout the night and woke up to the call of nature and beating of rain on my tent. I put on my rain jacket and exited into the cold. As I made my way through the vegetation, into a dense thicket of shrubbery, my eyes slowly adjusted to the darkness. I was tense, on high alert for snakes, since I had seen a large number as road kill upon entering Indiana and Illinois. As I assumed the position, I was suddenly shocked. Out of my periphery, something about the size of a squirrel startled and aggressively bolted at me. I screamed a humiliating and feminine high-pitched yelp that echoed off of the trees. It must have startled the small creature, considering it immediately made a ninety degree turn into a pile of timber. My heart rate was through the roof. I booked it to my tent where I would rock to-and-fro for the rest of the day calling my family and friends to tell them how much I love them.

I despise leaving my tent in the cold rain so I decided at about noon that I would call Carbondale home for another night. With a bag of almonds and a bottle of water as my only rations, cabin fever set in quickly. My phone was at 9% total battery life and my laptop was completely powerless... just as I was feeling. LIGHT BULB. I needed food yet didn’t want to move. Papa John’s delivery baby, directly to my tent! I used the last bit of charge on my cell phone to request a large cheese pizza and a Vitamin Water. The young lady at the other end of the phone paused for some time when I told her I was in a tent at Parrish Park and that I would be near the soccer goal to meet the driver. Forty minutes later, the driver called a bit confused, asking “Where exactly are you?” To simplify the situation, I decided the distant community center would be the perfect rendezvous point. I slopped my way through rain and small ponds to eventually reach the delivery boy in the parking lot. 

Needless to say, it was the best pizza I have ever eaten.

Monday, 7:30am. I felt like Andy Dufresne in the Shawshank Redemption as I left the park…Morgan Freeman’s narration  was oddly comforting.

Justin