//------------------------------//
// Day 66 
// Story: The Winding Northward Road 
// by Rambling Writer 
//------------------------------//

Been slowly feeling better as I travel, going farther every day.

Met a herd of buffalo today around noon, right around lunch.  Never knew how BIG they are.  Even their foals (is that the right term or do they have something else?  Dunno) are as big as me.  They looked real intimidating but acted plenty nice.  Even said I could stampede with them to a town called Appleloosa if I could keep up.  But I checked my map, and it was too far north, so I said thanks, but no thanks.  Not sure if I could keep up with them anyway; still a bit sore, and buffalo are a lot faster than they look.  It’s like, they’re so big, you’d think they’d be lumbering, but they’re pretty spry for being the size of a train.

Unexpected benefit of eating with them: you get a LOT of food.  Because they’re so much bigger, they need a lot more food, so their portions are larger.  I could eat a whole meal from just their scraps.  Don’t know what was in it, but it tasted fine enough.  Very filling.  Kinda mushy, though, and visually unappealing.  Brown slop.  Do visuals matter that much in food?  You’d think they wouldn’t, since it’s taste that matters in food, but sometimes you just see something and just go “ugh” and you don’t want to eat it.  Wonder where that came from.  And if it means anything.

Buffaloes (I think the plural’s just “buffalo”.)  Buffalo are completely nomadic, I noticed.  It’s weird.  They just travel EVERYWHERE and live off the land.  Don’t think I could do that.  Sure, I’ve been doing it for the past two months or so, but it’s been pretty off and on.  Stay in the wilderness for a week, stay in a hotel or a friendly someone’s house for a night, stay in the wilderness for a week, and so on.  And there’s nothing wrong with doing that, but it’s definitely not me.  I like beds, and I’ll be happy to get home.  Even if I could do it, I definitely wouldn’t be doing it out here.  Way too bland.

Nomads.  They go through the land
All together in one big band.
They support one another,
Each father and mother,
And the siblings, wherever they stand.

It’s a somewhat risky way to live life;
You can always encounter some strife
Wherever you are.
It’s rather bizarre
To have danger be so rife.

It definitely isn’t for me.
I’m really grounded, you see.
I stay right where I am
For as long as I can;
I live right where I want to be.

You know, pure nomadism (is that a word?) might not be THAT dangerous, especially out here, and especially since buffalo are so big.  They ought to be able to defend themselves pretty well.  Way better than I could, at least.