I left Gordon this morning and headed up town to fill up with gas, since I hadn’t done that yesterday.

Route 20 has a shoulder and last week whenever traffic came up in back of me, I moved over or least put my one big wheel other side of the rumble strips. Today, I was heading to town and saw a string of cars coming up behind me so I moved over and let them pass. The people at the campsite told me where I could find a gas stations, so as I was coming into town I was looking for it, not realizing that three cars came up in back of me and one was a State Trooper.

I pulled in and the first thing I did is crawl out and check my mileage. I need it for my gas card. Out of the corner of my eye I see someone walking towards me, that happens a lot, but if I don’t get my mileage right away then I forget. I heard someone calling me I looked up and there stood the State Trooper. I never realize he pulled in! He asked me how fast this thing goes and when I told him, he says, “well try to move over when you get a few cars behind you.” I told him that I do and I was looking for this gas station and wasn’t watching my mirrors. He said yeah, I did the same thing I needed gas too.

I couldn’t quite figure him. I tried to hold a conversation with him and I thanked him for his service and he just walked away and filled up his police cruiser and left.

Once the Trooper left, a young station attendant came out and wanted to know what we were all about. He was a veteran did two tours in Iraq. He thanked us and signed the book and said he is putting our information on his FB page. He shared with me that he is struggling with PTS and thought he could handle it himself but just last week went to the VA for help. I’m happy he has reached out for help.

As I was putting up the road, here comes this State Trooper towards me and waves so I guess every thing was cool.

The landscape is starting to change now. I am seeing greener fields and more mountains. As I came through town to Eagle’s Rest campsite, I was glad to get a site. There are a lot of campers here and almost up against each other. If my blinds are open they can see right in to my bedroom!

I jumped on Smiley and went into town and got myself a real short haircut. This will be less maintenance for me. I never had a buzz cut before, but I sure do now! I will keep my hat on when needed. Lol

I am excited about tomorrow because I will be heading up into SD into the Badlands. I know I will be hitting some pretty good hills with an 8 to 10%  grade, so I will be talking to Johnabilt, Rooster and Smiley in the morning we need to stick together and help pull up some of those mountains. This will take some real teamwork. I hear there are shoulders that I can move over to, so that makes the difference it might not be quite as stressful. I hope to get an early start and conquer those mountains one mile at a time.