Richard Treks: BALM: Week 2 Day 1

Last night a raccoon tried to claw and chew it's way into my tent. I had an apple in the front right corner, right next to my head, that the raccoon must have had a hanker for. Thank goodness the beast lacked determination, it could have been the showdown at the Potawatomi Tent: claws and teeth against a stake hammer! But the raccoon made just one attempt, then sulked away into the night, leaving behind scratches in my tent, which I patched with a tent repair kit.

It also stormed last night. Huge flashes and booms for about an hour, a brief downpour, some big gust of wind, then a relative calm. An insignificant event. The tornado in Oklahoma is the tragedy! But still I woke up thinking it was to rain and storm all day, and more would get wet than our tents, but the day in fact was warm, sunny, and, unfortunately, windy.

Last night, too, I had terrible cramps on the top of my left foot. A few nights ago I had cramps on the top of my right foot, but these on my left foot were worse. I was so thrashing and moaning and rolling about--as if I were fighting a raccoon for an apple--that I woke up Gary, who came over to my tent with two Rolaids. "Chew these," he said. "They take cramps away." Which I did. And the cramps went away. Amazing!

Like I said, after a night of storms, the ride to Green Bay was good weather except for a stiff head wind, so hard at times it was like riding into a wall. But the views were wonderful. People who live on the lake or the bays have views of water. I wonder what a storm rolling in would look like. But I guess those houses so close to the water withstand storms better than houses on ocean beaches.

There were signs of low water. Several piers and docks were on dry land. In Dycksville, a lady was telling us that the water levels were lower than she could remember. It's a low thought that all this water could disappear. Oceans and seas in the past have disappeared. What would all this space look like? Desert? Marsh? Swamp? It's sad to think that the vanishing could be because of us rather than nature.

Our Warmshower hosts, John and Ellen Nowak, are wonderful people. They made us hamburgers, asparagus, cucumber and onion salad, and pasta. They let us spread our tents in the backyard to dry. It's a good world when strangers can trust and welcome strangers.

Oh yes, one of the Bikers for Jesus the other day asked, "What do you do?"

"Teach," I said.

"You must've just turned in grades," she said.

She gets an A..