Section 3 Summary

The reader is back at the young man's bike trip. He has arrived at Aswell and is talking with an old man at a service station stop while he is resting. They look at a map and trace the route his bike trip will take him. It is seventy miles to his stop in Vermont. He recalls he stayed at a motel in Belton Falls with his parents once, and figures he can make it that far the first day. He plans to spend the night at this motel and make an easy ride the next morning to Rutterburg and his father.

The old man is calling him "Skipper" and questioning him about where he is from, about how long it took him to make the trip to Aswell from Monument. They figure he is making about five miles per hour.

The old...