Yesterday was a tough day, my body and mind was still recovering from the trip down to Pennsylvania. 53 miles riden and nearly four hours driving, while pleasant left me with a feeling of malease most of yesterday. My mind was consumed with my thoughts of what I saw in Penna, the parks, the small towns and rundown farms with their stinky blackened burn barrels and livestock, the gun stores, churches, Trump and Jesus signs. And that Dummies Guide to Cannabis e-book I’m listening to about smoking pot, which mostly a story about being a Debbie Downer and all the pitfalls of being a stoner when the federal government doesn’t like that despite that elderly man in the White House that is supposedly better than the alternative.

I won’t say all of yesterday was a Debbie Downer but somehow that malease just dominated the day, 🤮 I didn’t want to do much of anything. And it’s not like I smoked or drunk much after coming back from Penna. I was too tired and I only had one beer 🍻 left. I just was so exhausted and my mind processing trying to figure out who I am and what I believe. I mean, I love God, Guns and Old Glory but also Acid, Amesty and Abortion. 🇺🇸 I think all my liberal friends are sure I’m conservative and a Trump supporter who burns his garbage 🔥 and owns several guns, 🔫 while my conservatives think I’m a lazy pot smoking hippie 🪴 who likes the Grateful Dead and Peter Paul and Mary, and Jason Aldean and Oliver Anthony is a vegetarian who likes tofu fried with his Mariaville farmed bacon and zucchini. 🥓 Did you ever have to make up your mind, pick up on one and leave the other behind? It’s not often easy, it’s not often kind. Or so the Loving Spoonful sing on the radio 📻.

Yesterday was the laziest of lazy days. 😁 Eventually I ended up driving down to the Wood Lane Park 🏞 in Ithaca and riding up to Buttermilk Falls State Park and swimming 🏊 for a bit but it wasn’t until later in the afternoon, well after lunch time. Got ice 🧊 and more alcohol 🍻 and milk and eggs. 🥚 The milk I brought from home spoiled as that cooler got too warm, which is always a problem during summer vacation 🏖. I wanted to get clams 🦪 but the seafood counter closed early at Wegmans and Tops is gone from the strip. Skipped getting sweet corn 🌽 at that stand in T-burg because why get it without clams? I’ll get more fresh later in the week. Rode 12 miles around the city, 🚲 and then down to Cayuga Lake which like usual stinks from the sewage treatment plants, blue green algea and nutrient pollution. 👃 Those swings along the lake and you do get used to the smell. Humans have a natural distaste for sulfuric compounds but after a bit of exposure they grow to like them, such as with the case with silage and cattle. 🐮 Also did a brief visit to Ithaca Falls but did not stay long as the lazy day went by too quickly.

Like usual I got back to camp around 9 pm,  🏕 ended up frying up onions breaded eggs with cornmeal and turmeric and served with Greek yogurt and hot sauce and probably too much beer 🍻 and maybe a puff or two of the Critical Thinking while listening to that Debbie Downer Dummies Guide to Cannabis. 🚲 And then I hopped on my mountain bike and rode several miles on dirt roads and back country trails to God knows where, ending up at Foster Pond 🐸 looking up at stars ✨ seeing mostly clouds ☁️ and one shooting star 💫 and listening to the frogs. Then I came back to camp, had a rip roaring fire 🔥 laid in the hammock, relaxed but paying attention listening to the Grateful Dead 🔊 until well after midnight, nice loud because it’s just me and the cows 🐮 here in the wilderness. Maybe I was paranoid about a Schuyler County cop 👮 stopping me for DUI on a mountain bike on a back country trail but I realized that was stupid, I would be more likely to break a bone or be trampled by cattle 🦵all alone in the wilderness without a clue of the world around me.

Thunderstorm ⛈ are coming this afternoon, but this morning is pretty decent but humid 😰. I am heading down to Watkins Glen in a bit, to ride the Cayuta Valley Trail. 🚲 I think I will inflate the tube ⭕ and go for a float on Seneca Lake when the thunderstorms aren’t pouring around and lightening is not close. ⚡ Then during the bad thunderstorms, go to the Watkins Glen library 🖥 and create that IOICODE and complete that data request I got yesterday. Then maybe ice cream 🍦 at Glen Dairy Bar. I figure the Watkins Glen Pool is a no go for today, because one clap of thunder and that is done. And maybe try to get clams at Tops. 🦪 Tomorrow will probably be a stay in the National Forest day, as it looks wet and stormy ☔ but that won’t keep me from riding 🚲 and exploring the back country. It would be a good day for clams and sweet corn, especially drinking the clam and beer broth when I’m cold and wet. 😋