Big bite outta that apple continued.

I spat three times over my shoulder to try and remove any sort of suggestion of curse I may have come in contact with after having spoken with the old man, and thought of the refrain from Rigoletto, "That old man cursed me." But I did actually feel a little better that his rantings were good advice for one such as him. I felt confident that we were two fundamentally different people, and furthermore knew my crew was not going to be some drunk I had to worry about in the least. Plus I wasn't about to spend anymore time motoring that I absolutely had to after having done 569 miles with another 216 to go.I really hoped the engine was as ready to get the fuck out of this pit as I was.

I woke at 5 a.m. as was my regimen so I could have my little breakfast of warm chocolate milk over cereal and do my clockwork business in the shore side bathroom. This morning I was greeted by the scatterbrained night watchman who was also deficit a few front teeth. He tried to give me some run around about someone else giving me my bathroom key deposit then eventually produced the envelope of cash the proprietor had given him for that purpose. This confusion after the night before he tried to accuse me of not returning the keys to the courtesy car, then later found them on the forklift he was driving at the time I returned them. I had to forgive these lapses of memory however when I learned he was diving long distances between his nightly watch to be with his father who was dying of "prospect"cancer. " Make sure you takes care of your prospect, as you get on in years." He said. It was truly sad to hear of his hardship but it became tedious as he was intent on detaining me with all the bad news of the surrounding area. He told me of how someone he knew who was diabetic was fond of staying up all night playing dominoes and drinking gin fell asleep at the wheel of his Lincoln and drove it through the living room of another friend of his. He stopped me from having my shave to tell me about some bank robbers in some town he couldn't remember.

I was waiting at the chandlery at opening time as the bleary eyed employees rolled up. I got a little anxious as there was some confusion about where the keys to the shop were. As soon as the fluorescent lights flickered on I had my two new anchors on the counter and my plastic ready, and almost ran down the dock with my purchase to avoid any further delay. I was very happy that by 6:30 that morning I was leaving Demopolis in my wake.