Thursday, October 14, 2004

Evil

Hi,
It's Thursday October 14th and I'm in Chicago, IL. Yes, I am done with the trip. However, I'm about a week behind in emailable stories, so there might be a few more emails coming.
Picking up from where I left off in the last email...
We left Arcata and headed south. Unfortunately for Alex, whenever he has a rest day, his next day on the bike is extremely painful as he gets shooting pains in his legs. Nina and KC went on ahead and I suggested to Alex that we eat at a Thai restaurant to take his mind off the pain. He agreed eagerly and we stopped for an hour in Eureka. Feeling rejuvenated after a great meal, we walked out of the restaurant. I turned the corner, looked at our bikes and thought to myself, "something is wrong." I then pinpointed it when I stared at Alex's bob trailer (Alex has all of his stuff in a little trailer that he drags behind his bike instead of panniers/saddle bags which I use). Inside his trailer was his sleeping bag and running shoes. Gone was his backpack. I quickly looked at my bike and exhaled in relief as all of the important things were there. Then I waited for Alex to come around the corner. He did and I just stared at him, too devastated to actually break the news. He looked past me and quickly realized....that all of his stuff....was stolen. You see, we locked our bikes, however his backpack could be lifted out of the trailer without much struggle. The damage:
Tent. Gone
Sleeping pad. Gone
Cool backpack. Gone
All clothes besides those he was wearing. Gone
All toiletries. Gone
Pots, bowl, silverware. Gone
Towel, flashlight, book. Gone, Gone, Gone
Essentially everything that makes up his life on the road was gone. Still, typical of Alex, he was responding with a "that's ok, it sucks, but it's replaceable" attitude. Until he realized something was gone that couldn't be bought at REI - his disc for his digital camera with his pictures from the first half of the trip. That's when he asked if I minded if he rode around the block by himself for a moment. I said, "of course not, I'll call the girls and tell them what happened and then meet you at that brewpub we passed a few blocks back."
He joined me at the brewpub after a bit and we talked through his options:
1. go back 12 miles to Arcata and buy new gear to continue the trip with us to San Fran
2. fly home
3. rent a car and drive back to Chicago stopping in Moab to mountain bike and hike
After 10 minutes Alex decided to drive to Chicago and I realized then that I better leave in order to meet up with the girls by that evening. We quickly said goodbye and went in opposite directions. The whole ordeal took 30 minutes and then Alex was gone from the trip.

I met up with Nina and KC that night and they both had that "lack of closure" feeling that comes when someone you spend 24-7 with for 1 month suddenly leaves without saying goodbye. But the next morning we woke up and continued to head south.

Over the weeks of the trip, I developed the habit of biking last in our group because I liked it...well that... and the fact that I'm slower than everyone else...by a lot. I also tend to stop a lot and get distracted by things. We determine at the start of the day where we'll meet for lunch in the likely case that we all don't bike together. That day, I was kind of surprised when I got to the little hillside gas station first, but KC and Nina soon joined me. The first thing Nina said was, "KC and I went swimming in the Eel river!" (They asked me that morning if I wanted to go swimming and I said that I wasn't interested - mostly because the "eel river" doesn't sound very appetizing and also because the river was about as deep as my knees. But, before I could respond, a guy with a sunken mouth, stringy shoulder length hair and shifty eyes said, "well, if I were you I'd go rinse off really quick because there is bacteria in the river that could kill you. It kills dogs and sends people to the hospital with seizures." Nina kind of half laughed at the man but shuffled her feet nervously. I then had to admit that I saw a poster inside the gas station that had something on this topic. Nina ran inside where she read "Do NOT go swimming in the Eel river, Keep all dogs and children away from river. There is an ancient blue-green algae that produces Nuerotoxins that are extremely harmful." Both KC and Nina instantly sprinted outside and began to furiously scrub themselves with water from the spigot on the side of the trailer like gas station. The guy behind the counter assured me that if they were going to die, they would would have died already - all of the dogs died within 15 minutes of entering the water. This soothed the pair a little bit after their pseudo cleansing and I encouraged them to call the 1-800 neurotoxin hotline that was on the flyer to ease their minds even more. They finally relaxed once they hung up the phone and confirmed with each other that they did not a. swim through huge pools of algae (only small pools), b. drink large quantities of water, c. or licked their skin once they left the river (that is what did the dogs in).
In summary, in the "evil" column we now have thieves in Eureka and blue-green algae Nero toxins.

I hope everyone is doing well.
cheers,
Leigh

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