Across from the fire station in Oberlin
Head cheese and hogs' eyes are some of the local delicacies as related to us by Phillip the volunteer fireman. We are camped out at the fire station in Oberlin after another easy day of riding. The firemen have been very generous giving us the run of the fire house and keeping us entertained.
The museum in Merryville at dawn
We started the day at the museum in Merryville. At 6:30am the locals put on an enormous spread of biscuits and gravy which got us off to a slow start. The ride of 56 miles took us through sections of forest and farmland, small houses near the road, swollen muddy rivers. It being a Sunday and deer hunting season, about half of the people we saw were dressed in Sunday best and the other half in camouflage.
We got to the Oberlin fire station about 2:30pm. Felix explained that the town name "Oberlin" is German for Old Berlin. We chatted with Lawrence, the fire chief, for a long time then Phillip helped us run errands, shuttling us around in the ambulance. During dinner he explained a lot about local customs, particularly food that can be caught in the surrounding forests and swamps.
His hobby is mud riding (driving 4 wheel drive vehicles in mud). He had a very hard upbringing and didn't get much schooling so the only thing he can reliably spell is "mud riding" (for the purposes of searching on YouTube). He's been laid off from his job driving 18 wheelers for a month now and so is proud of his volunteer work. He feels it is important to work, and although he doesn't have a paying job this gives him a chance to serve his community full time. We know we're in good hands.
Total distance for the trip is now 2070 miles.
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