Day 11: Across the Universe

By Nate Stroempl

If I were not a teacher but an administrator, and had skills as a businessman and practical genius to make crazy ideas a reality I think one of the things I would do is attempt to found a nomadic university.  No dorms, no college campus, but a university that is always moving to different place and learning new things in every new place.  This trip so far has taught me something new each day in every different place I visit and in the faces of all of the different people I have met.  I digress.

Today we left Meridian and embarked on an 80 mile ride to Brandon, a small town just East of Jackson.  It was a pretty easy ride.  There weren’t that many hills and it was a cloudy day so we weren’t stuck in blistering 100 degree weather like most days.  Today I decided to ride with Alex.  Alex and I are deep thinkers and as we travelled across the state of Mississippi, we also travelled across the universe in our intellectual banter.  Sometimes it had to be cut short by a car or dogs without leashes (one of them was a German Shepherd.  Not gonna lie, I was pretty scared).   But, all in all, it made for very pleasant and enjoyable ride. 

During the last mile or so, as the clouds were breaking up, it started raining down hard on us.  It felt so good to have my sweaty body washed away by a cool and cleansing spray from nature.   A nice little greeting right before our next destination.  There were also some really cool cloud formations that I snapped some photos of.  Today different people from the Church were kind enough to take the riders into their own homes so that they could shower.  There I met a great grandmother named Linda.  She shared with us some really interesting stories about her life experiences.  Although I was very intrigued by her stories, I was having trouble not nodding off.  At the end of a ride, all I want to do is crash!   More and more, I’ve been finding myself taking a nap after a hard day’s work or riding.  However, all this exhaustion at the end of the day sure makes sleeping on a church floor a lot easier.  I think I fall asleep before my head even hits the pillow!

And the moral of the story is to keep your dog on a leash.  Oyee!