Making Good Time...

Have stopped into a computer repairs place for them to have a look at my wireless adapter.
Hopefully now I should not have as many problems. The people here were asking about the usual things, where is that accent from, why do you have sop much gear, basically what are you doing. After explaining again what I was up to they told me to take a seat and use their wireless. they also were to bring me tea, three apples and two bags of fruit and nut mix. Another great start to the day.

After a frosty morning (the coldest yet) the day has turned out perfect. Not a cloud in the sky and little wind makes for a good day of walking. hopefully I can keep my updates more common now that my computer has been seen to by someone with some idea of how computers work, as my knowledge of them is around a solid 2/10. Cheers for now...

16^th October

 I was to wake up nice and early and start off towards the next town, Red Wing. 10am came around and as I said before about timing, I was passing an old country church that was just beginning. I popped in to take a look. Greeted by some really nice people I took a seat up the back and listened to a really good 45 min sermon. As this finished the country folk came from everywhere asking me who I was and what I was doing. We talked over cakes and tea for another 45 minutes and then I had to excuse myself as the day would have gotten away from me. As I was leaving the two people that had greeted me when I entered came up to say bye. As they shook my hand in front of everybody, I felt a piece of paper in it, I looked down to see he had slipped $30 into my hand, as I went to protest he gave my hand a squeeze and gave me a wink as if to say “dont make a scene, no need in protesting, please just enjoy it”! I was very humbled by their generosity and also a little embarrassed. But what great people hey. As I grabbed my cart from outside I also saw that they had put 2 loaves of raisin bread and a loaf of a type of cheese bread in there. Feeling on top of the world and blown away by the kindness that seems to be following me everywhere I go, I headed off down the road again with an extra bounce in my step!

I am now in Red Wing camped on a little hill just of the road I will be following on tomorrow. It has been a good two days having covered around 80kms and still feeling strong. With the forecast looking good for the upcoming  few days, La Crosse, the next small city on my path is seeming close!

15^th October

I am now out of the cities and must tell you, I am happy about it. The cities are too full on for me at the moment, don’t get me wrong, cities have their many good points and when I go back to Colombia or Australia I will live in a city, but when you are trekking across a foreign country with nothing but you backpack on your shoulders and do not know the city, it can be pretty daunting.

This morning  after a good rest we went and checked out my first homecoming parade. After cheering on all the floats done by the students and eating all the lollies and chocolates we could (they were throwing these to the crowd as it is a part of the tradition of homecoming at that uni), Christina and her great friend who I really liked from Texas (sorry I have forgotten your name!!!) were good enough to drive me back to St Paul so I could continue where I had left off.

I talk of negative memories of the cities, but I can say nothing bad about the people I stayed with there, they were a breath of fresh air, all so eager to make my stay as good as could be, so interested and full of questions about the trek and so full of a great energy that was a pleasure to be around. They also filled my pack with food for the next leg which always is a vote in my book!!

I got going at around 11am and to be honest, I was keen to get on the move to knock back the kms, but it was also a little sad to leave such nice people, especially the familiar face of Christina who reminds me of Colombia which is where we met. Thank you so much guys for the breath of fresh air and good time together, you have no idea how nice it was for me whilst I am on the road!

Well after around 20kms the pack was getting heavy around the hilly Hastings area. I had covered some good ground in a short amount of time so when I noticed a farm up ahead that seemed to have a bit of life about it going on, I set my sights on that for my next rest point, and aren’t I glad I did! Upon reaching the farm I was to find out all the commotion was due to the farm being a pumpkin farm, and with Halloween coming up, you can imagine how the USA is starting to look now. Pumpkins are in every house with their evil little faces staring out of every window. People were wheeling their purchased pumpkins to their cars everywhere and on something that caught my eye. They were wheeling them on these little red carts that I thought could hook up to my pack like I did the wheelie bag (but with better results this time lets hope). I went to find the boss and was introduced to a lady. After explaining what I was doing she told me there were not any for sale but I could get one from a local brand shop for about $70. Just as I was saying thanks anyway her husband came up and said hi. He asked if I was after a cart and told me he had one for me if I wanted. Timing is everything hey! One of the bolts was a bit stuffed and they did not want it, so after a little fiddle with it I had it working like new and attached to my pack. What a bloody difference!! So now I am flying again.

I spent the night in Hastings and came face to face with another skunk at about 11pm just as I was getting out of the tent to go to the bathroom. I was crawling out rubbing my eyes and bang.. we saw each other at the same time, we both froze, wondering what was about to happen next, I thought to myself “is he thinking fight or flight”, I hoped to god he was thinking flight as I was backed up against my tent with nowhere to go if he decided to start spraying his love potion. After what felt like 5 seconds I was happy to see the back of him as he turned and scurried off towards the river as fast as his little legs could carry him. I thought later he might have got a wiff of me after all these days and realized I had him beaten!!