So far today I’ve had two interesting encounters with people.
The first was a elderly man bringing bikes into a consinment store. I had stopped near the enterance of the driveway to check my maps. He asked me where I was going and offered me help with directions. All I really needed was to make sure I still on track, and to know how far it was to my next turn, but he insisted on showing me “better” ways to go. He kept trying to tell me to take route 27, a four lane divided highway, because it would be shorter. He went on to comment that he thought it was marked for bikes because it had a white line marked on the side, and that in Florida it is illeagle to drive on the other side of it, a.k.a. driving in the breakdown lane.
Hoping that he hadn’t learned this piece of information from experiance, I politely thanked him for his help and started to try to put some distance between us. He seemed offended that I choose not to use his directions, and as I started to ride off he says, somewhat resentfully, “You tell me you don’t even want to go to the Keys, all there is there is hippies, drugs, and raising hell!”
Confused by him saying that I told him that instead of saying “If you ask me” and the conflicting report of what Key West is like, I shrugged my shoulders and rode off. I can see the hippies and drugs coinciding with everyone else’s report of Key West being the most laid back place ever, but the raising hell part through me for a loop. Either way hearing this old man yell this at me was pretty strange.
The next person that kind of freaked me out was a lady I met while making a peanut butter roll-up in front of the library before taking my nap. The car she was in parked in front of the bunch I was sitting on, and as soon as she got out of the car she started walking in direction yelling, “Do you want some jelly with that?”. I looked up and saw her approaching me with three little packets of jelly, like you would find at a dinner. She turned anound to the other people with her and stated that she had taken them from the resaurant. It seemed like an honest enough offer but was just too strange to take up.
I kind of feel bad posting these stories because both of these people were really just trying to be nice and helful, but really they just weirded me out.
I think I’m going to take nap two right now at a pavilion for a hiking spot. The place is fenced in, I’m guessing to keep aligators out, and has a nice breeze. It also has nice picnic tables to sleep on, which are awesome because you get a breeze going both over and under you to help keep you cool.