Moral Compromises

I must be honest with everyone. In the course of the last few days, I've been presented with several decisions that have led, unfortunately, to some moral compromises. For days now my conscience has been crying out, and I must come clean with everyone who has been checking up on the progress of this trip. Two matters are at hand.

First, on multiple occasions I have used performance-enhancing drugs over the past week. It started in camp at Broadus, MT when my camping neighbor gave me a free sample of a product that he recommended. Following that introductory usage, I have doped on two additional occasions on back-to-back days, but each of the three uses were of an increasing dosage. I must say it does work- but I am vigilant in quitting. I can happily say that for two days now, I have been clean. It started with a 12oz can of Mountain Dew. Then I bought a 20oz bottle of Mountain Dew. The final use was 20oz of Vault- an even higher caffeine content than "the Dew." I did notice an increase in my average speed by roughly 3-5mph on each day of use. Never again though. I am committed to finishing this trip without any further use of performance-enhancing drugs.

Second, I have broken a longstanding personal pledge. I have purchased bottle water. I have crossed the nation drinking tap water from every place you can imagine: convenience stores, post offices, churches, city hall buildings, residential buildings, restaurants, etc. I found some cities and rural communities to have outstanding water, others downright foul water. No matter the color, odor, or taste, I had always drunk from the public cisterns. Until Jordan, Montana. I passed some cross-country cyclists in southern ALABAMA who specifically warned me about the water in Jordan. They got sick and ended up losing a couple days of travel on a previous bicycle expedition. I didn't want to take the risk- plus several local residents advised that I just purchase a gallon from the grocery. Call me a sell out if you want, because that is indeed what I am.

I do want to mention just a few other things about my stay in Jordan, MT. I arrived in town before 2pm (because of the Vault) and visited the first business I came to in 84 miles- a local restaurant, the Hilltop Cafe. Though I was a salty, smelly mess, one of the waitresses gave me a very warm welcome to town and outstanding directions to every place I may have interest in visiting: the grocery, post office, library, and city park for camping. I think I can count on one hand the number of instances I have received good directions throughout the whole trip. Anyways, I spent a while at the library- mainly trying to sort out the delivery of a new set of tires for the bike since mine have been ridiculously bald for several hundred miles. I went back to the cafe for dinner and met the local newspaper lady who summoned me for an interview and photo session the next morning. I ended up staying in town for almost 24 hours! The hospitality of folks there was overwhelming, and the stories of life in a county the size of Connecticut AND Rhode Island but with a population of 1100 were captivating. By the conclusion of my 24 hours of Jordan, folks had bought me a slice of pie, allowed me to take a shower at their house, and even purchased my breakfast- and to top it all off I might make the front page of next week's newspaper!

I've been having lots of other thoughts, and I figure I'll make a special post as the Fourth of July comes upon us. Also, several folks have very recently asked that comments be turned on. I am new to blogging... we'll see what we can do about that.