We all scurry around Doug’s cabin getting ready for the day. He offers me a bowl of cereal, which I accept. I am the only one who eats. A hasty but sincere goodbye, and they drive off. Nice to watch someone else go for once, I think.

I drink up the road, singing, “I want to be awash in you…” Hot and humid, I’m soon sweaty in shorts and T-shirt. I take some wrong turns, ride some extra miles. It matters to me not at all.

Dad is home! Always a comfort to talk to him. I mention some of the incredibly liberal, new-age hippie mystical sort of things people said at the party last night. Dad is confounded that they seem to reject so much good science. We guess at the reasons. Fear? Style? Ignorance? It will remain a mystery.

I pull into a closed Ranger station near Troy to eat. I notice I’ve felt good with less food than usual today.

There is a map posted at the station which leads me directly to a nice place to camp on National Forest land. There’s a field, but I choose woods for seclusion and to avoid dew. I notice I have a hole in the floor of my tent.