A Living Magazine - Day 192 - Homecoming - Just Writing and Planning

Not much to say about this day--didn't even take any pictures. I woke having slept better than the night before. I packed up my stuff and then realized a great friend had donated enough money for a third night. This was a GOOD thing and I immediately paid for another night, then went across the street and bought a few groceries with what was left.

This would be another very rainy day. So, the plan was to get caught up on blog posts and make sure I knew something about the way to Anderson, South Carolina.

It looked like it would be a matter of first taking Olympic Drive out of Athens (the same road the post office was on--I had a tarp to pick up there the next day) and that was also Route 72; my first major stretch. Then, near Comer I would have to switch from 72 over to Route 127 (via 98, for two miles) and follow that all the way to Hartwell. From there, it would be Route 29 across the Georgia/South Carolina border, and onto Anderson.

Zooming in a bit closer on Google Maps, I was pleased to see some other small towns along the way where I could hopefully get stuff to drink and eat; including Hull, Colbert, Comer, and Bowman. I'd have to decide the next day (Thursday, 12/31) whether to camp in East Athens (I had spent the last two weeks in West Athens), when I got to the post office.

Definitely a straightforward day. By late afternoon I decided that since I had over sixty miles to hike in the next few days, that I might as well just relax a bit, switched on the TV and became mindless for a few hours. The only stations I like are the Travel Channel and the Food Network. In this case they were pretty much on the same page. It was "Man vs. Food", "Bizarre Foods", "Barefoot Contessa", and "Giada At Home", among others.

I used to enjoy the National Geographic Channel. But this day it was all some kind of COPS clone show: catching drug runners or some stupid shit. Something about the melodramatic tone of the narrator and the music, and the over-the-top bias toward law enforcement as the saviors of mankind.

It's just crap. It really is. With the stern voice saying, "This drug criminal didn't get away this time! They searched his vehicle, but found nothing," (and, they really tore the thing apart too!) "but in his pocket was a picture of [whomever the "drug lord" guy was]! Drug trafficking criminals keep a picture of this guy, so that they are taken seriously by other dangerous drug pushing, trafficking guys." [Okay, yes, sorry, I paraphrase!]

In essence, they pulled the poor bastard over for a missing headlight or something, saw he was Mexican American, which became the pretext to detaining him, apparently. Even though they destroyed his truck looking for evil drugs, and found none, he was arrested for having a picture in his pocket. I thought National Geographic was traveling the world reporting on foreign cultures and global events. I guess not now. How the mighty have fallen. Well, don't get me started. Ha!

No "Anthony Bourdain - Parts Unknown" (my favorite) though, but one takes what one can get. And, considering that it was all mostly commercials anyway, even my mindless state became even more unconscious. I fell asleep at some point, then got up, got undressed, turned out the light and went to bed--not sleeping so well this time.

_______________________________________________________________________

PLEASE CLICK ON OUR SPONSOR ADS BELOW FOR GREAT DEALS!

_______________________________________________________________________