MAY 1, 1993

JEREMY

When I got into Newkirk, Oklahoma, I stopped at the police station to see if they knew of a minister that might open their church to me. I was told by the officer on duty that he didn't know of anybody but I was given permission to camp out in the park. I was sort of leary to camp out because I had heard on the radio that a tornado earlier in the day had touched down in the Ponca City area about thirteen miles away but the officer assured me that the bad weather had passed through the area and it would be a clear night tonight.

At the park, I found a young boy around eleven years old and two other kids who were several years younger. It turns out that the boy's name was Jeremy and he was sort of baby-sitting the other two kids. Jeremy asked a lot of questions and he helped me set up camp. I guess I was his first cycle tourist that he had ever met.

Before Jeremy and the two other kids went home, Jeremy asked me what I was going to do for dinner. I told him that I didn't have a stove with me to cook and that I would probably eat a couple of cold sandwiches and other things off the bike. This probably didn't go well with him because about fifteen minutes later he came back on his bicycle. Jeremy had with him a large sack filled with food that had a glass mason jar filled with hot soup, several sandwiches, a carton of milk, and some other things. He said that he had told his mom about him and asked if he could get some food for me. This was great and it helped suppliment what food I had on the bike.