Day 4
   
   5/1/01
   Mile 448
   San Angelo, TX
   
   Woke at 6:30 and packed up.  Dryer here; no dew.  Stopping at a grocery
   store, I drank a half gallon jug of whole milk at breakfast along with
   my eggs and sausage.
   
   Llano still has a JC Penney catalog store, in a tiny building near
   downtown.  Such things were a part of small towns across America for
   many years, but are a vanishing breed in the Internet age where online
   ordering is a way of life.  I'm surprised it's still in operation,
   especially since Montgomery Ward is out of business.
   
   Last night I dreamt of the Mad Science shop as it should have been.
   Rows of gleaming equipment bristled with electrodes, and all of it
   labeled "Danger, high voltage".  Everything was clearly marked - devices for
   unwisely tampering with the forces of nature in aisle 7, genetic
   resequencers for creating chromosomal nightmares in aisle 4, and neck
   bolts by the bucketful at the checkout counter next to the candy bars.  Even
   real estate was for sale, with photos and surveyor's info on the back
   wall - but the choices were limited to caves and Bavarian Castles.  Off in
   a corner, a thick-spectacled Poindexter-type salesman was demonstrating
   to a prospective customer the benefits of their new radiation 
   suits, which sported a zippered panel that opened up to accommodate
   hunchbacks.  The customer seemed interested.
   
   Of particular note were the deeply discounted molecular transport
   units, which were marked down to closeout pricing after it was
   discovered that they were unable to distinguish human DNA from that of 
   an insect.
  
   Pity.
   
   I stopped briefly at the town of Bugscuttle (I am not making this up,
   but it has merged with the neighboring town under the name Valley
   Spring). Some farmers were seated at the tiny gas stop for their
   morning chat, and began talking about people on bicycles -but they seemed to
   have no interest in speaking directly to me, even though I was within
   earshot.  One farmer spoke, in a typical Texan accent, about a man
   that had biked through there a few years ago on his way to San Francisco.  He
   had said that he wanted to bike across the country one time before he got
   married - and he was meeting his fiancee there to do just that.  He
   was also carrying ashes of his grandparents in small bottles on his
   trailer.
   
   The morning was overcast, which I was glad for.  I'd gotten some sun
   yesterday, and I didn't want any more "ultraviolent" rays.
   
   I passed a ranch of sorts called the Wolf Mountain Boy Scout Ranch.  I
   looked around...did a 360...no mountains anywhere I could see!  Today
   was less hilly than before, and the name didn't fit.  Of course, on
   Day 2 I went through the town of Egypt, and it had none of the landmarks
   you would expect either.  
   
   In the afternoon it got hot again and worst of all, clear.  No amount
   of sunblock-45 seemed to help, and I got more UV, ending up pretty
   red.
   
   The prickly pear cactus continues to increase, along with occasional
   yucca.  Millipedes cross the roads in droves, always towards the
   sunwards side.  The wildflowers have turned this into a Rainbow Road 
   for me for hundreds of miles, and they are just now beginning to thin out.
   
   I ended the day with a new personal record for most miles on a day
   with full packs - 133, although I have done much more with no packs.
   Still, that seems to be about twice the distance I hear most cross-country
   cyclists talk about doing.
   
   Gained another 1000 feet of elevation today.  Tomorrow promises to be
   another scorcher.

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