July 25, 1:15 am, Bardstown, KY

What a great party!

Ddogg and I had a huge dinner of garlicked pasta with tomato sauce and a pound of ricotta cheese and drank Smirnoff Ice, and I surpised him with bourbon (although I don't think he was surprised. My cover story when I went and bought it? "Uh, I think I lost my shampoo. You need anything from Wal-Mart?")

Understandably, Ddogg took a nap (as it were). While he was out, this guy Bob at the next campsite invited us over for crawdads. He had five pounds of crawdads. I told him that I was superfull, having had a birthday extravaganza dinner, but thanks for the offer.

We talked about travel, and camping, and crawdads. He was an awesome guy. The following anecdote may make him sound creepy, but he wasn't creepy- he's funny and nice. This one time, having realized that he often used the phrase "Like a chicken without a head" but had never actually seen a chicken without a head, he bought a live chicken and beheaded it. His girlfriend was not amused.

Anyway, he said that in a few hours, he was gonna have some folks from work over, and was going to cook up the crawdads, and that we should come on over.

I said, "Yeah, sure. Thanks!", but I wasn't really all that sure. All that night, I was feeling sick. Not sick flu sick, but sick 8 oz ricotta cheese + Smirnoff Ice + Bourbon + half a chocolate cake sick.

I knew if I went to sleep, I wouldn't wake up. So I took a long, a looooooong shower, and felt somewhat better.

Bob had set up a party for Ddogg! His friends Pat and Marty (husband and wife, respectively) and their son Zach (Zack?) (forgot to ask) were there, and firebaked tomatoes and summer squash, and five pounds of crawdads, and a cake! They even all signed a happy birthday card for Ddogg.

This was without a doubt the best night on the road. Kentucky, I apologize. I wil not hide any poop in your state.