November 2

A hot day, but I covered some ground. From Hawthorne to Gainsville I rode on a paved rail-to-trail. Took an hour and a half to ride through Gainsville where I hoped to find, but never did, the 42nd St. Deli, that two girls who had been jogging on the trail told me about. I finally settled for a convenience store lunch on the edge of town. Rode from there to High Springs where I hit a supermarket for supper goods. As I was leaving the parking lot a woman asked me if I needed a home. I laughed and said, "No. But thanks for the offer." Rode from there to the Ichetucknee State Park, expecting a State Campground. There wasn't one, but there was a very pretty, deserted private one. I tried calling the office with my cell phone while standing in front of it, and a lady answered but she couldn't hear me. So I tried the door, and it opened into a bar with three pool tables, and nobody around. Above the bar were living quarters, which I hailed, and got no response. Nobody out back either. I started to leave, but I met a woman on a bicycle on the road, who said the campground ought to be open. Her name is Linda, and she is a neighbor of Olive, who owns the campground. We went back to the campground and she hollered for Olive but got no response. She suggested that I set up camp, and pay Olive when she showed up, which I did. By the time I went to bed I still had seen nothing of Olive, but a truck came in and unloaded six canoes. The guys in it waved when they came in and waved when they left, and there was still nobody asking me to pay for my campsite. The next morning I got everything packed up, tried the office once more, and was about to ride away when Olive hailed me. She was on a balcony of the living quarters, wearing a towel. She said the doctors had told her to stay in bed, which is why she didn't answer me the night before. We talked about Mexico, where she wants to retire. She didn't charge me anything for the campsite.