Sunday, September 25. As I mentioned in the last post, I hung around the campground to let the tent and fly in my towel and other things dry off before packing. While waiting, I saw Darius, who I had met shortly the evening before, taking off down the path and wished him well.
This was the first day we had sun at the campground early in the day and I wanted to take advantage of it. After everything was dry and packed I hit the road.
I stopped for coffee about 10 mi down the road at the second coffee stop. I had seen Darius at the first coffee stop but I bypassed it because of certain idealogical leanings that were too evident. I finished my coffee and headed out again, and there was Darius by the side of the road. He was just checking his packs, but from then on we rode and talked together until just outside of Arcata.
Darius’s story is both interesting and inspirational. He had a brain tumor when he was 15 and his active sporting life was ended in paralysis of his left side Doctors told him he should be happy if he ever even got to walk again. He had to relearn everything. At 32, he’s now on a trip from Canada to Argentina and is looking for sponsors to add to his current ones. When he returns to Germany in 2023 he’ll be giving motivational speeches about himself and his trip. That’s a very short synopsis of Darius’s story. Here’s a link to his blog if you want to learn more: https://www.undtrotzdem.de/?lang=en
The site tonight is a commercial campground and Hendrika negotiated a special hiker bikery for us of $15 each. Best showers we’ve had so far.
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