I'm at a crossroads

Looking at the time stamp on my previous two posts it looks as if time here is behaving in the same way as distance and direction. Which is to say, unpredictably. I'm not sure how long it's been for you but for me it's been about fourteen hours since my last post, which makes it about 9 in the morning eastern standard time (which is what my blog is set to) from my perspective.

I was able to sleep in my car last night without incident. I had some time to think about this place before getting to sleep last night and I'm still confused. If I were in a city instead of the countryside I'd suspect I'd wandered into the Empty City, but the landscape although it distorts direction and distance doesn't seem to be in a state of constant change. Also I'm seeing animals here. If it were just birds I'd be worried because of the Convocation but I've also seen a few squirrels and rabbits. As far as I know there is no Fear of cute fuzzy creatures.

I've read of Loops and Labyrinths but this feels different somehow from the way they've been described. Among other things it lacks the feeling of wrongness and menace and again the geography isn't shifting around when I'm not looking.

It certainly isn't the path of black leaves or any other Realm I've heard of.

So this morning I set off, taking with me my duffel bag stuffed with food, water, a smaller first aid kit than the one in my trunk (bought on Proxiehunter's suggestion), binoculars, my multi-tool, a blanket, and some matches. And of course my laptop. I'm also carrying the pepper spray (for all the good it's done me in the past) in my coat pocket and I have the cutlass thrust through my belt in case I need to fight. If I see any evidence I'm back in what passes for the "normal" world I'll hide the sword in my duffel bag again but right now I want it easily accessible. I walked for about an hour, passing that tree with the gauze around it several more times but not my car. Just now I came to a crossroads. There's an old fashioned wooden street sign with arrows pointing all four directions. Back the way I came the arrow reads "Hardship", the way forward reads "Tribulations" to the left "Woe", the arrow pointing right "Ordeal".

I'm saying right now Woe is out. There doesn't seem to be much point going back the way I came either (even given the wacky geography). So I need to choose which way to go, Ordeal or Tribulations?