Phone chat with Paul

Last night, I got a phone call from Paul. We got a chance to catch up a little bit, and I got to hear about how his trip is going. At the time, he was in Kansas. Despite the ridiculous amount of mosquitoes that seemed to gravitate to him, he was relaxing in a beautiful alcove with a rose garden. He seemed really content. Also, he was recently provided with a website that lists various hotels across the nation as well as their status on bedbugs. He could rest soundly, since there were no reports of bedbugs found at that place he was staying last night.

Paul told me that he had to cook dinner on Wednesday, and he was pretty nervous about it. He said that cooking for fourteen people on a budget and with limited supplies is pretty stressful. The last time he was in charge of dinner, the food tasted really good, but was served about an hour and half later than it should have been. This time, he and another biker decided on making taco salad! To Paul's dismay, the recipe required the use of iceberg lettuce. He finally conceded that iceberg lettuce is indeed crunchier than romaine lettuce, which is his lettuce of choice. Sounds like dinner was a big hit, despite the inferiority of the lettuce used. (I apologize because there is really no way that I could accurately convey just how much Paul hates iceberg lettuce and what a huge deal this was to him!)

Another story Paul told me was about how he lost several items on this trip, including his journal, his knife/fork set, and a few other things. While he was staying in Eminence, MO (Paul also told me how cool he thought the name of this town was), the group was staying at a campsite. He had ridden into town, which involved traveling down a hill that was pretty big and had a lot of gravel, so it made for a very bumpy ride. He packed a few things onto the back of his bike and made sure that they were secured. After stopping at a store in town, eating at a pizza shop, and heading back to the campsite, he realized that he was missing one very important item: his camera.

He searched high and low, retraced his steps, biked several miles back and forth from the store to the pizza shop, asked the employees of the stores, searched the road where he had ridden. He even walked part of the way in order to look more closely -- but his camera was no where to be found. Paul had given up hope, and told himself that it was okay, because cameras were pretty annoying anyway. (I seem to remember hearing his theory about cameras a few years ago...if you spend your effort taking a picture of everything around you, then you miss the actual experience.)

Paul returned to the campsite, outwardly nonchalant (but inwardly crushed, I'm sure). He just happened to overhear some of the other bikers talking about a camera found....and suddenly, he felt optimistic again!! So he joined the conversation, and he learned that a local pastor had been walking along the road, found the camera, saw pictures of biking-related things on it, and decided to stop at the camp and ask if any of the bikers had lost a camera. He left his name and phone number in case anyone claimed it.

Paul proceeded to call the pastor, described his camera with perfect detail. The pastor then said to him, "There's one problem....there's something seriously wrong with the camera." And Paul responded, "Ugh, I cracked the screen, don't remind me..." And the pastor said "DING DING DING" -- or something along those lines that signified "I am convinced that this is indeed your camera." Paul provided the pastor with an address in Pittsburg, KS (no "h" on the end!) and the pastor was kind enough to mail Paul his camera.



Another interesting tidbit of information that Paul wanted me to share was that there is a river in Kansas called the "Arkansas River" -- but it is pronounced Ar-Kansas (as in, Paul's current location, with an R in front of it...not like the home state of former President Bill Clinton).


That's all for now!
-Christina