better than the bathroom floor - 1982: Stories of the Young and Dumb, aka My First Bike Trip - CycleBlaze

better than the bathroom floor

The next day I rode to the outskirts of St. Louis where another college friend, Cheryl Bryant, picked me up. She and her mother lived in Florissant, a suburb, and I stayed with them for the next six days. 

The stop was timely, because I spent the following morning in the bathroom with vomiting and diarrhea. I finally got so tired of going back and forth that I just dragged my sleeping bag into the restroom and fell asleep on the floor. Fortunately, they had two bathrooms. 

Later that morning, I crawled to the recliner and fell asleep. Upon finding me there, Mrs. Bryant asked, 

"How does that chair sleep?  Better than the mattress?"  

"No, but better than the bathroom floor."

I stayed there from 6/19/82 through 6/26/82 and will skip all of the fun things I did because although I had a blast it would be really boring to read about (Gateway Arch, Cardinals baseball game, lots of eating out, etc). 

Since I started this trip, I couldn’t tell you what day of the week it was. Now that my watch battery died, I couldn’t tell you what time it was either (although, you’ll be glad to know that somehow I still managed to document what time I woke up on every single day I was there). I bought a new watch battery the day before I left.

With each passing day it became more difficult to leave. Cheryl’s dad had died less than a year ago and we spent their first Father’s Day without him together. Throughout my time there, I could sense their underlying grief covered with a patina of smiles and practiced laughter.

The inertia was becoming palpable, and I finally decided it was time to leave before I ended up spending the summer at Camp Bryant. They certainly made me feel welcome, but I had more miles to ride....  

....and more adventures down the road. 

picnic on the back porch
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at the Arch
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shadow of the Arch on the Mississippi river
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backlit Arch
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