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DAY 177 | Mongolia | How To Move The Stars | A bicycle ride around the world · How To Move The Stars | A bicycle ride twice around the world

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  August 9th, 2013 Hammock gearing in Mongolia.
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  I saw a dozen shooting stars last night, and one of them was
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  truly spectacular, with a long burning tail that stretched from
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  the sky straight above me almost to the horizon.
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  They're the Perseid meteors, the burning remnants of a comet's
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  tail. I actually have a piece of
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  meteorite with me, one of four small rocks that I've brought
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  along as good luck charms. I don't subscribe to the idea of
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  changing my luck with the bag of rocks, but there's no denying
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  that I have them with me. The piece of black meteorite is
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  the size of my thumb tip, a fragment from a 3000 kilogram
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  mass that impacted Algeria 13 years ago.
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  Catalog is N.W.A 869. The alien stone formed 12.5
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  billion years ago, relatively soon after the literal beginning
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  of time and nearly three times the age of the Earth.
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  The meteorite is one of the oldest known artifacts of
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  creation, an ancient explorer traversing the universe.
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  Now the meteorite is along for a tour of the Earth, my home.
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  After such a long life, I hope this time with me stands out as
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  a high point. This morning I had a stomach
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  ache and suspected an ice cream I ate yesterday.
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  Going by appearance, I thought I was buying an orange creamsicle,
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  but that was wishful thinking. I bit into frozen cheese on a
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  stick, similar in flavor to the hard cheese I've been given in
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  the yurts. The texture was a little grainy
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  and the flavor wasn't for me, but I ate the whole thing
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  because I was too hungry not to. I don't know what a cheese
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  popsicle was supposed to taste like, so maybe the milk had gone
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  bad and I didn't even realize. I wasn't feeling social with my
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  stomach hurting, but stopping was impossible without someone
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  coming to see what I was doing. For a place that seemed so
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  empty, I was challenged to be alone while I biked.
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  Anyone within earshot would yell out and wave until I acknowledge
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  them. Even when I passed a man
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  squatting with his pants down as he deprecated on a hillside, he
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  yelled to me and waved. I did wave back but avoided
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  looking in his direction. Late in the day, I found a
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  spring at the top of a hill began to refill my water.
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  The process is slow, one small pump at a time.
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  Takes me an hour to fill the 10 meters of bottles and I'm now
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  carrying. I had just started with three
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  boys, about 12 years old, arrived with an unruly horse.
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  It made me uncomfortable, I was afraid the horse would step on
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  my bike and didn't feel like being watched for the next hour,
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  wanting to be alone, I filled only a single bottle, then left.
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  The next place I crossed the stream was at the bottom of the
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  hill after I had passed 20 yurts and 1000 animals, Too many for
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  me to want to drink the water. I'm going to be thirsty in the
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  morning, but this area is not particularly dry.
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  I'm sure I'll find something to drink tomorrow.
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  I finished the day halfway up a climb toward the next pass.
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  A Grove of trees appeared in the nook of the mountain and I
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  couldn't pass up the chance to hang my hammock.
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  Compared to sleeping on the open land like I have been, I feel
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  well hidden in this little forest.
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  Now I'm lying in my hammock, looking up at the leaves dark
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  sky. The patch of pretty wildflowers
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  next to me fills the air with a sweet scent.
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  I feel tired and happy.