and the heat is on...

Almost 2 weeks now with temps of 95 or higher. I am wilting, and my clothes stink lol. My kingdom for a laundromat.
Glad to have Knoxville in my rear-view mirror now. Nothing against Knoxville...nice town, and it would have been fun to spend a few days exploring it, but it is so big area-wise.

Not a whole lot to talk about really. Last time I was in Jefferson City. I left the library and decided to splurge for lunch at Burger King, since I have only had 4 hot meals on this journey, and 2 were at Brad's house. The cashier told me doing a Gump was cool. A few big redneck guys thought it was cool. One of them bought me a bacon sundae...that thing is the bomb! Get one while you can!
Loaded up on food at Dollar General, and as soon as I got all packed up a severe storm hit. Power was out in minutes. I had to wait about 3 hours. A guy came up and talked to me. Said he had a heart attack and a stroke, so he couldn't tell me anything about the road I was going on (as far as what lay ahead). He said he did not use his oxygen tanks (he was chain-smoking lol) because God came to him in his coma and told him to do whatever he wanted to do. It was ok. He kind of creeped me out a bit. Finally he walked away, and he was replaced by a flamer from Indiana who kept complaining about the heat wilting his queen skin. I finally said the heck with it and started walking in the rain.

Was talking to a guy the next morning outside a gas station while we had coffee. He was homeless and got turned around. Now he owns his own business and does a "wheat patch" ministry, delivering food to homeless people around Knoxville. He was a great guy to talk to...as real as it gets. He asked if I had enough food and water because he wanted to help me but didn't have any cash on him.
Later that day a lady pulled over and gave me 2 bottles of cold water. She asked if I wanted "one with ice" and the accent when she said ice made me burst out laughing. She just gave them to me and sped off. A guy did the same thing the next day. Just handed me 2 bottles, smiled, and drove away. So, I got some notecards, and I am going to write down what I am doing and the blog address on them and give them out to the people that do random acts of kindness for me and speed away too quickly. I will make a thread just for them to respond to. Very interested in hearing their side of what happened.

So far people in TN are very nice, and they take things in stride. When I tell them what I am doing, they think it's cool, but they are very non-chalant about it, like it's no big deal. Compared to people in NC, who looked at me like I was crazy. And every road seems to look the same. Lots of fields and pastures, not many clumps of trees, low hilly terrain, and mountains in the distance.

I almost stepped on a queen snake this morning. Gave me quite a jolt. Tried to get a decent picture of it.

Hurt myself yesterday morning trying to leave camp. Trying to stand up from flat ground with my pack is like watching a turtle on its back trying to get upright. I grabbed a smallish tree and tried to pull up and the tree came down on my head pretty hard. Many bad words came out of my mouth.
Still looking for that hiking stick, but nothing so far.

Sorry this is so boring, but the last few days have been boring...just walking and sweating.