Official Hobo 2.0 Lifestyle Blog

Grand Canyon and Speed Hitchhiking to NYC

2009-07-05T11:25:00.000-07:00

I wandered about old town Flagstaff anticipating the week ahead of me, camping in Havisupai and what would need to be a brisk hitchhike across the country to New York City in time for the 4th of July.

Some friends connected me with some folks who lived in Flagstaff where I could catch a little sleep. I first grabbed a burger and beer at the brewery, and then headed to their place. I found my way in and met a girl there who'd just got back from traveling over seas and we talked for a while. I never ended up meeting the people who actually lived their, they may have come in while I was passed out on their couch grabbing some sleep before getting a call from Larry sometime after 2am. At that point I wandered down the block where I met Larry and two pickup trucks loaded with people aiming for the grand canyon.

We cruised through the night and arrived at the trail head just sometime after sunrise. There was about 30 of us gathered there, couchsurfers organized by Larry for this trip into Havisupai, we started down the trail.

We went down into the canyon and the trail flattened out, all told it was about a 10 mile hike, give or take. We passed through the village at the bottom, passing that the waterfalls from the creek started to appear. The water was a teal kinda clear blue color. Turning a corner on the last downward part of the trail Havisu Falls itself appeared, a beautiful pool of water below it with people swimming and smiling.

I was ahead of the bunch, I went straight to the pool below the falls, shedding my backpack and shirt emerging myself in the cool, clear water. Eventually I met up with the group as they made their way down the trail, we juggled campsites amidst the scattered and short downpours of rain, the only rain we'd see that trip.

We stayed for three nights all together, climbing behind waterfalls and jumping off, digging through caves and finding quartz crystals, stargazing and eating some great cooking. Mooney falls was 200 feet, we watched as they repaired the bottom that had been wiped out the last season.

On the last full day a group of us hiked to the Colorado River, a 15 mile round trip. It was a great hike, flat at some point, ropes required at others to climb up the rocks. We saw a group of big horned sheep who investigated us from across the creek less than 20 feet away. We also saw a rattle snake and big birds as we hopped down the trail. The best moment was coming up on the Colorado where Havisu creek flows into it. The blue water of the creek met the furocious brown river definitively, instead of fading into it, there was a strict line where one ended and the other began. I stood with one foot in the cold brown river and the other in the teal warm creek.

On the way back we stopped at a 60 foot cliff where another guy jumped off, I followed his lead a minute later and flew through the air leaping off the cliff into the deep pool below. It was one of the great hikes I'd been on, swimming and jumping all along the creek.

The last morning I awoke to people packing up their tents and other gear preparing for the hike back to the village and out of the canyon. A guy Matt and I ran up into a side canyon to do some last minute exploring, we went up a good ways and spotted a line in which we could make our way to the top of the canyon wall, an idea for the next time we may find ourselves back in Havisupai.

On the hike back a few of us stopped at some upper falls, waterfalls that had only been created after some landslides a year ago. I jumped in and washed up in preparation for the hitchhiking I had ahead of myself, I would have to pop straight out of the canyon and start making my way towards NYC if I were to make it in time for the 4th of July and Nathan's hotdog eating contest.

Up at the village we waited as we were flown out by helicopter four or five at a time, something Larry had set up. It was my first time flying like this, a great experience to cap a incredible camping trip.

We drove out of the canyon and towards Flagstaff, I was dropped off at a truck stop to begin my eastbound hitch while the rest continued on to Phoenix, it was mid afternoon.

The particular on ramp I stood at had been hitched from before, I saw a couple dozen notes on the lamp post written with sharpie markers, things like "Rainbow bound '09" and "hitching east '98". Despite the apparent popularity of this hitchhiking spot, I had no luck with rides. Another hitchhiker appeared at the bottom of the ramp, stopping to wait and lay in the grass below when he spotted me. Eventually he walked away, probably tired of waiting. Later still another hitchhiker appeared, also walking towards the gas station upon spotting me occupying the spot.

A total of 3 hours passed with no rides, not the best start, I needed to get about 2500 miles in less than five days. I left the apparently frequented hitchhiking spot and walked up the on ramp and on to the shoulder of the freeway, this turned out to be the right move, a pickup truck pulled over for me fairly quickly.

A mexican woman drove eastbound with her teenage son in front and a small child in the back with me. We didn't talk much other than to say where we each intended to go, she got me an hour or so down the road to Holbrook, AZ at the brink of sunset.

A short wait of thumbing yielded a car with a young Navajo couple. They were interested to hear of my travels, Calvin, the driver, was particularly into it as this lifestyle was a dream of his. They offered me bottled water and leftover pasta with chicken I munched on in the backseat smiling and sharing stories. They offered to let me sleep under the canopy outside their home on the reservation, I accepted and we turned off the freeway at their exit and went a ways down the dirt road to their home.

I met Calvin's mom, brother and dog, he also made me aware of the sheep in the distance, as well as horses and warning of early rising roosters. I got my sleep atop a picnic table in the comfort of my sleeping bag and sure enough, I awoke to a chorus of four roosters at the first hint of daylight in the morning. One of them made a point of shuffling his way right next to the table I laid to cry out a "Cockadoodledo!", I laid out for a while still listening to their continued cries until I sat up, packed up, and waited for Calvin and all to awake.

They let me take a shower after some coffee, then I sat at the table with them as Ashley, his girlfriend, peeled potatoes before he shredded them. They made a mighty breakfast of hashbrowns, eggs, bacon and the fluffiest and tastiest pita bread I've ever had. I talked with them and his mom, and soon his aunt joined us too. His uncle and grandpa were also there, but mostly spoke Navajo.

We soon got on the road, a late start for me given the time frame, but I was happy to have a full belly and a goodie bag of apples and other food and water Ashley made up for me. They dropped me at an on ramp to I-40 somewhere between 11 and noon, I'd have to start making some distance if I wanted to make it to New York in time.

I started down the onramp to the freeway immediately thinking their would be little traffic coming on the entrance, but a cop drove by from the jump warning me to stay on the on ramp if I was hitchhiking. Despite the sparse traffic, I was picked up quickly by a guy who took me just up the ways to the Arizona / New Mexico border.

From this spot I thumbed the traffic hoping to get another quick ride. After some time, I turned behind me to see another figure on the side of the road just behind me with his thumb out. I couldn't figure how he'd sneaked back there, thinking he could clearly see me and wondered why he was trying to hitch this same spot with me. I walked in his direction with the idea to walk down the freeway and give up the spot to him, despite the fact I'd gotten their prior. It was a friendly but oblivious Navajo guy, I told him I'd let him take over the spot and get to walking.

I walked about a mile further around a bend and soon was running up to a car pulling over for me. I opened the door to the car to see a simple smiling blonde girl with a discrete nose ring, "Are you headed to the gathering?", she was referring to the rainbow gathering, a sort of subdued Burning man event where people who loosely fit the various definitions of "hippy" get together in a peaceful setting. I told her I was headed to New York and hopped in, she was going as far as Albuquerque, a good distance away.

She was from santa cruz, she lived in the woods near her campus for a stint, had even built a small tree house for herself. "The one thing I never foresaw was the mold, everything from my blankets to books was covered in it after a while", she told me about it, this was the one downside, other than that she had had it pretty good. She dropped me off in Albuquerque, I showed her my bag of quartz crystals I'd gotten from the grand canyon and let her choose a few to take, then went on my way.

I stood at the on ramp, flash backs of my first long distance hitchhike more than a year ago from California to Oklahoma, Albuquerque was the first place I experienced a long wait for a ride, a few hours or more in the sun despite the heavy traffic that passed me by. This time would not be like that, after just a little bit I heard the honk from a pickup truck at the stop light, a girl my age in the passenger seat waving me over, I hopped in just as the light was changing.

They said they'd just passed me and turned around to pick me up and help me if they could, they were willing to drive me across town to a better spot. It was a mother / daughter combination, they had to make a stop at the pawn shop first. When they dropped me off they left me with a phone number asking that I shoot them a message when I made it to New York.

An old Navy guy picked me up next, he was just going home to the next town, "I live outside of the city so I can smoke my pot", he had a scratchy voice and a smile. He let me out near an on ramp, but I soon found out it was under construction and had to get to walking down the frontage road.

I walked a couple miles or more without finding the next entrance, but someone stopped for me, "jump in quick, the car's over heating!", I sat in the passenger seat with my bag on top of me. I had a short conversation with the guy, he lived in town, but was able to get me a few more miles up to an open freeway entrance. "Snake a beer if you want", he said eyeballing his 30 pack by my feet, I slid one out and into my bag, then headed on to the freeway.

A painter who worked in Albuquerque was my next ride, he drove me a short distance and let me out into the nearing sunset and threat of light rain. I walked down the freeway thumbing rides again, knowing I still had a ways to go and needed to cover a lot more miles tonight. A car stopped ahead and I ran to it, the license plate came into view, Pennsylvania. I got in and the guy asked where I was going, New York City the answer, he laughed in amazement, he said he was going to Philadelphia, "I could use the company and conversation, this is perfect". I thought so too, and as I got settled in the car I saw a giant rainbow that had formed in the distance, it remained visible for more than an hour.

His name was George, originally from Brooklyn and now recently living in Vegas for his job, but his accent was heavy New Yorker. We drove into the night until he couldn't drive any more, we stopped at the first cheap motel in Texas where he got a room with a couple beds and we fell asleep with the TV on.

We got on the road in the morning early and started putting miles behind us. We talked about Vegas, he was excited to start seeing what types of girls were running around, a self described player with stories to verify this. He was also a huge nascar fan and a racer himself, he told me his plan to pitch to the company he worked for to sponsor him and officially become a driver as soon as next year.

We made a short stop in Oklahoma City where he got a money order from his folks so he could cover gas expenses for the rest of the trip. We drove and drove until we were just shy of Indianapolis sometime just after midnight, we pulled into a rest area to sleep in the car with the idea to make the final push after a few hours of rest. I was laid out in the passenger seat for about 5 minutes, all of the sudden he reached in the glove box for some cigarettes and started driving again, I stayed half asleep.

About a half hour later we stopped at a gas station, when he was done filling up we started driving and I perked up. "Change of plans", he said, "I'm gonna stop in Columbus to hook up with queefing girl and catch some sleep there, is that cool?", he was referring to one of the girl's he'd hooked up with a while back. It appeared I wouldn't be going all the way to Philly after all, but I was happy to have gotten the 1,400 mile ride with him.

He dropped me off at a gas station just west of Columbus, OH, it was about 3am. I got to walking down the freeway to get past some major turn offs, loosely thumbing traffic under scattered dim street lights. I came to a bridge that looked like a good place to catch some sleep, I drank my "snaked" beer from the other day and slipped into my sleeping bag listening to the traffic pass by below.

I packed up quickly in the morning and made my way to a decent spot near the closest on ramp hoping to get across Columbus and keep shooting east. I got picked up quickly by a musician, he drove me clear across the city and gave me a yogurt when he dropped me off. I got picked up quickly again after this by a dreaded out guy headed to the doctor, he was originally from Detroit.

A ride after that came from an auto parts delivery guy in a minivan. I went with him into a small town to make a drop off at an auto shop, then he dropped me off up the road at a truck stop. I took a piece of cardboard to make a big "NYC" sign and headed for the on ramp. Someone stopped right away, an older guy with a hard italian edge. He told me how his son was traveling all over, but was more or less "jerking off".

He started ranting about the economy and countries and leaders, "Every one's jerking off, all this war bullshit, we should be working together to get into space and beyond like star trek, but no! They're just jerking off! Who are the people who think they're better than everyone else? Come out and show yourself? No? Then stop jerking off and let's make some progress, let's be human beings!", I did what I could to fuel his rant as we cruised down the road, he was headed to see his daughter in State College, PA.

He went a pinch further to drop me off by I-80, I walked down the freeway until a guy stopped for me, a student at Penn State. He took me to the next big truck stop, I got out and started thumbing cars at the on ramp until deciding to walk up on the freeway. An 18 wheeler saw my thumb and made a wild maneuver across lanes and into the shoulder ahead, I ran for it.

It was young trucker from Ohio, currently Brooklyn bound, my final ride that would complete a 2,500 mile hitch in an even 3 days, time to spare for my 4th of July target. We shared stories back and forth, he was interested in my travels and outlook on things, I was interested in hearing about his family and toys, like his plane and boat. He was doing pretty well for himself trucking, he'd learned from his dad and been going forever. He was about ready to get out though, and had started making some real estate moves to make enough money to leave the truck behind for good to spend more time with his kids and toys.

The New York City skyline showed itself with a pink swirling sunset clouds as it's backdrop, soon I was jumping out of his truck at a red light on to the streets of brooklyn, that's where I hopped on the subway, a familiar N train. I tried making a call to Mark, no answer, I headed for Astoria.

I got off the subway and made the walk up Astoria Blvd, popping into the deli along the way to grab a six pack. The neighbors buzzed me into the apartment building, Mark and Carl weren't home. I found a hidden key and showed myself in. I relaxed the night away waiting for someone to return to the apartment, Sean and Kelly were in San Diego, but I figured Mark or Sean should roll in at some point. Finally the sparse and scattered hours of sleep from camping and hitchhiking caught up with me and I passed out on the futon.

I awoke to excited shouting at 3am, Mark's shouting, Carl's and mine, they'd discovered the hobo sleeping in their place as they stumbled in from the party they'd been at. We immediately cracked into the six pack I'd picked up and got to catching up over a couple beers a piece. The light of the sun shined through the windows by the time we got to sleeping.

It feels good to be back in the amazing city with lifelong friends, and I'm sure it's got nothing but good times in store, including Nathan's Hotdog eating contest and plenty of beer from all over.

Westerns, Model Ts and Crystal Cars, Jackson to Flagstaff by thumb

2009-06-25T11:17:00.000-07:00

I woke up in Jackson with the road ahead, it would be one of my more memorable hitchhiking trips. I got my things together and snagged some sample toothpaste packets from the fancy spa on the lower floor. My mom drove me to Hoback Junction, about a half hour away, this is where I'd begin my thumbing towards what would end up being Flagstaff, Arizona.

There wasn't a lot of traffic, but a pickup truck eventually stopped and I hopped in the back seat, I'd opted for route 189 rather then going back through the busier road to Idaho Falls. The driver was a friendly guy off to work, his son sat in the passenger seat with headphones on, I never heard his voice or saw his face.

He dropped me off a ways down in Daniel, a junction town with a population of 100 odd people. I got picked up by the first car I saw there, a young guy headed to Big Piney just a little ways down the road. He dropped me off at the far edge of the small town and I got to walking for the sake of moving forward. Two cars in a row mirrored my thumb with their middle finger, young guys in flashy pickup trucks.

A state trooper passed my extended thumb, he turned around twice to pull over behind me, got out and asked me the basic questions, taking my drivers license back to his cruiser. He came back with a written warning, the second of I've ever gotten. He told me I couldn't hitchhike in Wyoming, but walking was OK, and if someone happened to stop and offer me a ride I could go for it.

I kept on walking, my thumbing powers disabled, or at least mildly paranoid out of commission. Eventually someone stopped at the site of backpacker trekking through the middle of nowhere, someone always stops. "I've got my guard dog here! Hop on in", I threw my backpack in the bed of the pickup truck and jumped in the passenger seat and met his "guard dog", a tiny pug named Lucy, really his road dog. The guy himself had a slightly scratchy voice and a big presence to him, he was off to his job in Beaver, UT. He offered to take me all the way, I had ideas of stopping in Salt Lake City for the night, but there was plenty of miles to decide what to do.

We cruised down the road talking about things until we stopped at a gas station where he said I could look at a map to decide whether I wanted to get dropped off at the turn off that would lead to Salt Lake, or continue on to Beaver with him. I knew the roads pretty well, but looked at the map anyhow while I thought about it.

I decided to stick it through with him, he said I'd be able to crash in the hotel room he was staying at, paid for by his company, plus it was extra couple hundred miles down the road. While at the gas station he picked up some up some CDs, books on tape, specifically westerns featuring "Smoke Jensen", who he said was "the biggest bad ass the west had ever seen, this guy kicks every one's ass, no bullshit!", he popped it in.

For the rest of the ride we were transported to the old west, Smoke was being forced to defend his land while old rivals came to town along with miners and people chasing the gold rush. He told me he'd listen to a good 15-20 other stories from the same series.

We stopped at a Wendys where he bought me a burger and we kept on going. In the meantime, I got a message from a girl in Cedar City who said I could stay on her couch the night, Cedar City was just less than 60 miles south of Beaver.

When we got close to Beaver we made a quick detour to his work spot so he could drop off the generator he was towing, he was working at a geo thermal site. He explained it to me, they were drilling into an underground volcano where essentially they'd pour down water, this would heat up and create steam, the steam would power turbines that would provide great amount of power, "It's goes along with that, what is that they're always saying... 'green' shit people are always talking out nowadays.", it sounded cool to me. His voice sounded a bit like Smoke Jensen's.

We rolled into Beaver with about an hour or so of daylight left, we were only on CD 4 of 6 in the old western shoot 'em up. A part came up where Smoke put his guns down and fought his rival fist to fist, kicking his ass thoroughly. "I told you!", the driver said, slapping me on the shoulder, "Smoke is no bull shit!". He dropped me off at the gas station on the south end of town, "I'll tell you how it ends, Smoke kicks every one's ass.", I was glad to hear it.

I walked down the on ramp to the shoulder of the freeway looking for my ride to Cedar City, it came quickly. A slick car picked me up, the guy driving had an earring in one ear, a bluetooth headset on the other and sunglasses across his eyes. He was probably about 30, hyped up, he may as well have been coked up, maybe he was. He'd been driving all day, coming from Wisconsin on his way to Vegas where he'd stay for the night before continuing to LA.

He was interested to hear how'd been moving about the past two years and told me about his travels over the years. He dropped me off at a gas station in Cedar City, one that I'd hitched from going north twice before, including just a week or so ago.

Jessi came and met me there, a girl I'd found on couchsurfing who offered me a place to stay for the night. She was a nice girl with an itch to travel, an itch yet to be scratched. She made some grilled cheese for us both and we talked a bit before she went to sleep, she had to be up early in the morning for school and work. I stayed up for a bit, enjoying one of my last two beers from a six pack I'd got in Wyoming.

I was up around 6am in the morning when she got up, she pointed me to the shower. When I got out she had scrambled eggs waiting, we chowed down and hopped in her car. She dropped me off at the mouth of the valley headed east and went her own way towards school.

I stood at a pull out on the road next to a sign that was supposed to say "Falling Rock" but someone had scribbled on to now say "Falling in love rocks". The sun was starting to shine on the valley, but I was still in the shadow of the cliffs next to me. I got to walking down a ways down the road to see what was ahead, but a pickup truck packed with three guys stopped before I got too far, they had me hop in the bed of the truck saying they were headed to Duck Creek.

The drive ahead was unexpected and one of the most amazing rides I'd had, it also showed me how Cedar City got it's name. It was thirty miles of riding through cedar trees in a national forest, wind blowing through my hair, the smell of cedar, whipping through turns along the river and towering cliffs of different shades and shapes. A smile never left my face, at one point we were so high I could look out and see what I thought had to be Zion in the distance.

We at last got to a gas station where they dropped me off and asked where I was from, they were all smiling, I think they'd probably looked back and saw my perm-grin of awe during the whole ride. They told me that what I saw in fact was Zion.

I got to walking down the road, it was still in the national forest, they said I was 10-15 miles from the turn to route 89 which lead to Flagstaff. As I walked I saw old school cars passing me I'd later discover were all Ford Model T's. I guy stopped for me and gave me a ride the 10 miles out to the main road, he'd been a guide at the grand canyon for a while and told me how much he wished it was him going to Havisupai, the falls where I was eventually headed to.

At the gas station there were a dozen of the cars parked, I asked an older couple next to one what the story was, apparently it a national Model-T day of sorts where they all got to caravaning around. I walked down the road a hundred yards, thumbing the southbound traffic and waiving to the northbound Model-T cars, they were driving much slower than the other traffic on the road, I must have seen two hundred during the day.

An older couple picked me up after a long wait, a wait I didn't mind at all with the parade of cars passing me, some honking with their swamp style horns, awooogah, awooogah!

The couple took me to Mt. Carmel Junction where they turned off towards Zion. I stopped in a diner to relax for a minute grabbing a cup of coffee and a half order of biscuits and sausage gravy, then headed to the edge of town to start hitching to the next spot. I stood for a while beginning to feel the effects of the sun burning on me. An older couple in Model T passed me, I recognized them from before as they did me, awoogah! They honked at me as they passed for the second time smiling.

I was on the edge of a golf course where I was standing, a guy working on the course approached me, asking where I was headed. He told me his girlfriend worked at the Thunderbird, a nearby diner, and that if I went there he'd be sure she hooked me up with a free meal, I couldn't turn that down. To add to it, he shoved a $10 bill my way saying hitchhikers gotta help hitchhikers.

I walked to diner and was greeted by the girl, he was in the doorway already having just talked to her. She took me to a table with a menu and a smile. Before long I was sitting in front of a bowl of chili and a chocolate cream pie chowing down. I ate every last bite until I was entirely full, she left me with a to-go cup of water and said I was all set, back to the edge of town I went.

My next ride arrived shortly after, a middle aged guy headed to Kanab, yet another junction town. He worked at a place along the way and said he'd show me around if was interested, of course I was. It was called "Best Friends", a haven for recovering animals. He noted it's relative fame in that it had spurred a show about it's Dog Town on National Geographic and also currently housed Michael Vick's fighting dogs.

We passed dog town, cat town and the bird place where he worked, then went on to a "hidden lake", that's where we got out of the car to check it out. It lived up to the name, it was a small lake mostly under a boulder through a cave entrance. I took note of the location as a cool place to go back to some day and camp.

We drove me through the rest pointing out horses and other things while telling me about everything, apparently many old westerns had been filmed there as well, I wondered how many bullets Smoke Jensen may have fired in these parts.

Kanab split in two directions, both of which lead to Flagstaff, he dropped me off in the direction that would go through Page saying it was a more popular route, seeing what happened next, I'm glad he did.

I stood by the road with an extended thumb, cooking under the sun a bit more. As always, someone stopped in the shoulder ahead, a young couple in a mini van packed with camping and outdoor gear. They made room in the back saying that they'd hitchhiked earlier that day after hiking through Zion to get back to there car. The young guy drove and the red headed dreaded girl sat in the passenger seat with a friendly smile as we swapped hitchhiking and camping stories.

They were going as far as Page, and then splitting off. They intended to go for a swim when they got there, as some more miles went by I became a part of this plan too. We stopped while they picked up some lunch for themselves, I was still filled up from Mt Carmel, and then headed for Lake Powell at Antelope Point. We found the beach area and made our way to the water.

Kristen, the red headed girl, leapt into the water straight out, losing her sun glasses to the bottom of the lake all at once. She tried looking for them, but they were lost. We swam around for a couple hours, they had inflatable fish rafts they floated around on. We decided to hit the road eventually, they had to find a camping site and I had to get down the road, there was still a couple hours of daylight left. They went to a Walmart at the edge of town to get some things, like new sun glasses, I headed up to the road to catch my next ride.

A pickup truck stopped for me full of Navajos, I said Flagstaff and they said they were headed that way, I hopped into the pickup truck bed in the back like I had to start the day, off we went. I watched Lake Powell fade away while the warm air whipped around me. We wound down a road tight on the cliff, I had an incredible view the valley in the impending sunset. They finally pulled into a turn off where there was a group of others packing up there jewelry stand, that was as far as they were going.

Ten minutes later another Navajo guy stopped for me and I was shooting down the road again. This guy had been living in Denver for 15 years working as an inspector for large scale pipes, up until a month ago, he was now living back on the reservation with his family and had gotten a new job with a towing company.

He was headed for Tuba City, he dropped me off a couple hundred yards past his turn to a roadside pull out where there were about a dozen wooden booths used for Navajo jewelery sales, they were all abandoned at this moment. He drove away, the sunlight was dwindling. An empty motorcycle stood in the lot, a couple was sleeping in the booth, each on their own table, the guy looked up at me and I waived.

I thumbed out for rides for a while, eventually the biker couple got on their way wishing me luck. Daylight disappeared quickly without any cars stopping, there wasn't much traffic anyhow. I made myself at home in one of the booths deciding this is where I'd sleep for the night. I pulled out the last beer from my Wyoming six pack and cracked it open. It was easily the warmest beer I'd ever drank, hot really, the unique Lagunitas hoppy taste sizzled on the way down.

I started to sleep the night away, popping my head up every time a car or truck pulled in, people either stopping to take a leak or catch a few hours of sleep themselves in their vehicles, I don't think anyone noticed me there.

I woke up for the final time in the blazing morning sun, blue skies and scatter white clouds. I wiped the sleep from my eyes and lugged my bag to the side of the road and started thumbing the scattered patches of cars passing.

A pickup passed by and I my eyes locked with the woman's at the last moment, I turned my head with the truck as she pulled in to stop for me. "I hope this isn't a mistake", she said, clearing things off the passenger seat, "I'm joking of course, I'm a good judge of character", she laughed, I hopped on in.

She was a slender Scottish woman heading for Sedona to work a new job at a gallery in town. She was interesting to talk to, very into crystals and this type of thing. So much so in fact, that she had invented a system with crystals that increased her gas mileage by 20% and had just started to sell it, the truck we were riding in was fitted with the system too. I asked a lot about it and she told me even more, quartz was the crystal she was using, she told me all about the powerful qualities of it and other uses for it, how to program it and so on.

She went on telling me about her thought on the universe in general and how it works, essentially saying that whatever you wished for is what was returned to you, think one thing and it's mirrored back. She went as far as to talk about bending time and connecting with people across the planet.

She dropped me off in Flagstaff, she gave me a card so I could check out her crystal invention some more, the website is aqt4all.com, AQT stands for Advance Quartz Technology, pretty cool stuff with implications greater than just better mileage.

I walked down the road in the direction of down town and made my way to the Flagstaff Brewery, which is also a coffee house. I grabbed a cup and caught up on some things online, also getting in touch with Larry about getting picked up later for the Grand Canyon trip. I easily got talked into a pint of beer, and then another cup of coffee.

I wandered around a bit after that in search of a place to catch some sleep, I found nothing but park and city benches to rest for a bit. I finally settled in a different coffee shop to put off the need to sleep. Later on Larry should be passing through town, around 1 am, and then it's on to Havisupai and the falls in the Grand Canyon. It promises to be good times, then I'm bound for NYC.

Jackson Hole is always a good time

2009-06-25T10:14:00.000-07:00

Jackson Hole, Wyoming was my destination this blue skied morning, beautiful scenery and family in the area was my motivation. I got a phone call from Anthony saying he'd found me a ride part of the way from a guy headed to Yellowstone. Unsure if the ride would come through or not, I headed for the freeway on foot to appease the beautiful day. I said my goodbyes to Kate and Candice, she had an increasingly familiar reluctant smile on her face, as if I'd forgot to say or do something.

I started thumbing by the freeway, another hitchhiker came by who was headed in the opposite direction saying he was having a hell of a time getting out of town. I told him about a spot a couple miles east where I'd gotten out once before headed the way he was going.

My phone buzzed in my pocket before any cars stopped, it was Andrew, the guy Anthony had told me was headed north. He was ready to go, I abandoned my hitchhiking spot and met him at the gas station up the road. We picked up Anthony on the way.

Anthony got dropped off about an hour up the road, he was headed to Logan. Andrew drove me all the way up to Idaho Falls where we parted ways and I got to hitchhiking, much closer to Jackson now. A guy picked me up with slick black hair, his wife in the passenger seat and two babies strapped into car seats in the back with me. He drove me across town to a much better spot.

A little walking and thumbing, then a Mexican guy picked me up with two girls in the back, perhaps his wife and daughter, they didn't talk much other than to translate the occasional word he couldn't say in english. We talked the whole to the junction, two roads that both lead to Jackson.

I stood just before the split, it was a great looking day. A guy in the parking lot nearby came walking over to ask where I was going and offered me a ride that would get me closer. I rode in the back next to another car seated baby, a girl was driving and he rode shotgun and we headed for the Alpine. They were a cool couple of folks, telling me about camping they did in the area. He was also going to jail, I didn't ask what for, but it was some sort of program where he only went on weekends and was then released during the week.

They dropped me off in a nice spot near a gas station as far as they were going, soon enough a car full of people stopped in the road and waived me over, "You don't mind sitting in the trunk, do you?", they laughed and I crammed into the trunk of the station wagon type car. There were five of them, sort of camp counselors all about my age. They'd been in town a couple weeks having a good time and the kids were finally getting into town the next day for the summer.

We laughed the ride away to Hoback Junction, they were planning one more good night before camp started. They dropped me off and my next ride wasn't far behind, a pickup truck with a raft in tow, two guys originally from Montana driving. They were headed into Jackson and said they could give me a lift to the village road. We made one stop at the grocery store where they loaded up on supplies for a barbecue they were going to.

One of the guys had started working at a nuclear power plant and told me as much as he could about it in the time we were driving. He liked it, saying it was the direction the country should go in terms of power. A couple times he cited that someone riding on a plane is exposed to more radiation then he'll ever be working at the plant.

A sunny sky rain shower picked up when he dropped me off, I only had 7 miles to go. I was picked up quickly before the rain even had time to get me too wet, a nice couple who lived just down the road. To my right I saw the biggest rainbow I've ever seen, so big in fact that it had a mirror reflection above it, what they told me was called a "double rainbow", the name made sense.

The man dropped his wife off and then took me the extra few miles to Teton Village where my mom and sister were staying. I made my way up to the room and got a hug from my very happy mother, I went to the balcony to show them the rainbow, but it had disappeared.

We immediately walked down the hill for some food at the Mangy Moose, a Lagunitas IPA and some buffalo meatloaf hit the spot perfect as I caught up with the family. I picked up a six pack of Little Sumpin' Ale, having a couple before calling it a night, sleeping on a bed in a room by myself for a change of pace.

We went into town the next day, I got a new pair of jeans to replace my increasingly torn up pair, holes around the knees and thighs, the bottom part of the right leg mostly missing from getting shredded riding bikes, the bulk of which had occurred during "Tour de Laramie" a month or so back.

We enjoyed cheeseburgers at Billy's in the town square after that, we heard stories of bank robbery in town, a guy had apparently escaped in a silver camero. We headed back to the Village to relax for a bit, took a short hike up the mountain, then relaxed some more at the place before heading out to dinner.

We met up with my aunt and uncle at an italian place just down the road. It was great to catch up with them a bit, they both have a lot of energy and spirit about them no doubt derived from living in Jackson Hole. The mountains are beautiful in every direction, the snake river flows through offering opportunity for good times and the winter brings some of the best skiing conditions you could ask for.

With my stomach filled to capacity, we headed back to the village. I talked with my mom for a while and my sister wandered the village. Soon enough I was the only one awake, enjoying a couple more beers from my six pack before calling it a night. The next day would bring the beginning of a trek southbound towards the grand canyon. The trip to Jackson was a short one, but as always, a good one.

Tripping in Utah

2009-06-22T22:58:00.000-07:00

I woke up in Salt Lake City with tripping on my mind, and that would define the day. The new roommate and a couchsurfer were headed up to Yellowstone and offering me a ride, I declined it after a bit of consideration, I had ideas for some days in Utah still.

Candice went to work at the crystal shop and I tweaked the Trip Hopping site a bit, hours passed and I decided to hop on the bike and bug her at work. I got there and mentioned the magic chocolate I'd been given saying today was the day, she agreed. I left her at work and went to the coffee shop waiting for her shift to end.

She swung by later just to say she had a few things to do, and sure enough she was back about an hour after that ready for a trip. We decided beer was the thing to kick it off, we walked down the block each eating half of the ice cubed sized mushroom chocolate I'd been given while hitchhiking days before.

We had a beer at a bar she'd once worked at, we talked with the waiter she'd once worked with. The chocolate kicked in quicker than expected, we finished the last of our beers and headed for the door, down the street and to our bikes, smiling wide.

We rode back to her place, me slightly ahead of her, glowing and smiling while riding along. We landed in her backyard, her garden, and plopped on the grass staring at the sky. It had been a gray day with fits of rain, but now the skies were blue with giant white fluffy clouds passing by. Kate came into the backyard at one point realizing what was going on and let us be.

We laid in awe at the magnified beauty of it all, laughter and uncontrollable leakage of tears from our eyes. We'd decided that we'd personally sucked up the moisture of the stormy day, this being the reasoning for the sunny skies and our overall moisture coming from seemingly everywhere, eyes, nose, pores, wetness.

We wandered around the yard once we were able to tear ourselves away from the clouds, investigating a wooden box, her garden and the sights and sounds from beyond her yard. The one thing that remained consistent was the smiles on our faces and overwhelming feeling of awe. We found ourselves on the grass a few more times, peering at the vortexes and kaleidoscope effects of the clouds.

We found ourselves near her car, unable to get inside since it was locked, the car had been broken down for months anyhow. All at once I felt a tightness in my stomach and throat, a shortness of breath and a feeling I'd only felt once or twice in my life, as if the end was upon me, death as it were. I walked into the yard to contemplate this before alarming Candice or anyone else, I peeked into the sky again. At that moment death didn't matter as much as it did a second ago, it didn't even mean the same thing. I laid out in the grass again as the feeling continued, a smile was on my face that pushed the limits of my cheek muscles.

As I laid there the feeling of death evaporated leaving me purely with ecstasy. Candice looked over at me from her thoughts to say I looked peaceful and happy. Her blonde hair fell from her knit hat to the side of her face, clean and pure adorned with a simple natural smile, I'd never seen her more beautiful. My eyes were glued to her for a moment, then my head turned back to the sky and my fleeting but extensive thoughts.

Candice mustered up the motion to go to the bathroom and went inside, I wouldn't see her for hours. I laid out for a while with my thoughts until standing up, I wandered inside. I filled up two glasses of water and wandered downstairs, I found Kate watching a movie, smiled and walked into Candice's room. It was dark and smelled like of purposeful scents, candles or incense or some such, no sign of Candice though. I wandered back upstairs and forgot about her, thoughts were racing through my head so quickly that focusing on any one thing became ridiculous and boring.

During the next hours I went through fits of genius and insanity, banging the side of a banjo in between. At times I felt twisted and demented beyond recognition, I imagined I may never come down from my current state and couldn't be happier. My mind scrolled through all the stages of my life in great detail at a rapid pace. I considered many of the people I'd met in my life and projected times yet to be had. A few times I wandered downstairs to find a movie being unwatched, something about a wedding, I contemplated going into Candice's room, her door was now shut. I decided not to disturb her knowing that any number of things could be going through her mind as they were with me.

Later in the night she emerged upstairs, at that moment I was pacing the room still entranced with various thoughts, coming down from the height of it all though. She turned on the lights wanting to use my phone, I dug it up, I'd been ignoring it all day despite the occasional vibrating growl it produced from it's spot buried in my bag.

We shared insights and stories from our various experiences, which were identical in nature and varied only in specifics. Then night calmed down from there, we rested in her room with a movie and eventually found a way to put some food in our stomachs, ending the night with more talk about our thoughts and slowly waning to sleep.

I woke up the next day feeling refreshed. The day went by without much incident, a bike visit to Candice's work, her head hurt. Later we had dinner and beers as some people dropped by to enjoy.

The following day we found ourselves at Peter, Denny and Parker's place. Candice got to cleaning, a big party was in the works. As the night came in, so did people. We all got to drinking and whatnot, eventually Bobby showed up with kegs, he's the brew master at the Bohemian in town. The party raged on, a beer pong table emerged, the cutest girl at the party got paid $40 to punch her boyfriend in the face, things were looking good.

The night finally began to fade as the beer ran out, eventually Peter, Denny, Candice and I were laid out in one of the bedroom's laughing the night away as the sky became bright and the birds got to chirping.

After perhaps an hour of actual sleep, I was up and out the door with Peter and Candice, off to REI where Candice was in search of a cheap sleeping bag. We left her there and made a visit to Cam's place, then came back when she was just checking out. We got some baked goods at the grocery store only to decide that we wanted to go to the Blue Plate Diner. We enjoyed a nice breakfast there, I slammed down a coffee in the wake of drinks, trips and little sleep.

After a brief stop at Candice's we were back at Peter's relaxing, and then finally back at Candice's where I crawled into my sleeping bag for a few hours. I woke up and grabbed a couple slices of toast, then chased Candice down to a brewery a good 20 or 30 minute bike ride away. There was a monthly couchsurfing meet up there, I drank a stout and had some conversation with various folks until it was decided that there was a party worth going to.

I biked the good distance back where I hopped into a car and headed to the party, hosted by a guy Phil who I'd met a time before. I drank beers and cups of jungle juice while sharing some hitchhiking stories with interested people who were traveling though. The night started winding down and Candice and I caught a ride back home where we faded.

I woke up in the morning with the road on my mind, I intended to go up to Jackson Hole, Wyoming to visit my mom and sister. It had been a good trip in Utah, but a packed bag and blue skies always begs for motion.

Back on the road, Surprise to Salt Lake City

2009-06-18T10:48:00.000-07:00

I spent my lasting morning in Arizona wrapping things up, anticipating the road ahead after a long stint of staying put. We grabbed some lunch, Larry, his dad, Trish and I, then they drove me up to the outskirts of the Phoenix area to a spot in Surprise I'd hitched out of before. Larry made me a cardboard sign that said Vegas, I was off to thumbing.

Soon I was in the backseat of a minivan, an attractive blonde driving with her teenage daughter in the front and her young son in the back playing with a godzilla figurine. The kid smiled and laughed while throwing godzilla around and telling me all about how he could breathe fire and these types of things. It became a quiet relaxed ride once he fell asleep, I too went in and out of sleep as headed north.

The family was headed up to Provo, UT, they dropped me off on Las Vegas Blvd just north of Freemont street, right where I needed to be. I gave Shana a call and then met her at her apartment. I caught up a bit and then opted to go get a beer.

I went to the Main Street casino and sat at the bar, popping $10 in the video poker machine with the thought that my beers would be comped by doing so, the beer there was pretty good too. After a draining the beers and my money down the bill came, the waitress told me should couldn't comp the drinks because I wasn't doing the max bet. I emptied out my pockets to pay the bill, leaving with nothing but some loose coins to my name.

I'd already booked a few free nights at the Luxor, part of the comp package included $75 in promo chips, so I wasn't all to concerned with my empty pockets. I wandered back to Shana's place where I'd be crashing the first night in town. Her and her boyfriend were looking to go out and do a little drinking, I decided to go along with them just to get out again, flask in tow.

A joint burned down on the ride to the M, the newest casino on the strip. We went through the night going to a few different spots, I was noticeably out of it, few words escaping my lips. We wound up back at their apartment for a moment and I passed out while they went back into the night.

In the morning I Shana cooked up one of the better omelette's I've had, a good way to kick off the day. I grabbed my backpack and got to walking to the Luxor on my own, a good 5 miles or more away. When I arrived and tried to check in I was told I would need a credit card for the deposit, I had the numbers to one, but they needed a physical card.

I walked to the side to figure things out, a mess of phone calls to people I knew in Vegas and people I knew who may know someone in town who could help, but no dice. The Lakers game was about to start, so I just went to the sports book to watch the game and decided I figure things out after.

The Lakers beat up the Magic and won their 15th championship, something I'd been looking forward to for a while. During this, I was going back in forth sending messages to Kelly, who I'd met in Zion through Molly from Flagstaff, she was considering coming to Vegas, but instead decided she may come the next day.

I got the idea to go to CVS and try to get a Visa gift card or some such to try and check in with, it didn't work out. At last I decided I'd try to check in one more time and see if I could catch some luck, or at least collect the promo chips. The girl I talked to at the desk had some words with her manager and worked things out, she told me they'd let me stay the night, but if I didn't have my friends come with a deposit by the next day I'd have to leave, fine by me.

I went up to the room and plopped down my stuff, happy to have a bed for the night. I immediately went down to the casino to collect the promo chips, and then on to the craps table, a 10 dollar minimum table. I figured I'd just make field bets $10 at a time to see what would happen, a field bet is betting that one of the listed numbers will be rolled on the dice. I hit once, then twice, then missed a few times. At that point I had $20 in real chips, that I could turn into cash, and $15 left in promo chips. I put the rest on the field and the dice rolled, a 12 came up, this is the most unlikely number to come up and pays triple, $45 in one roll giving me $65 all together. I left the table and cashed in my fortune, then promptly got some food in my belly.

I woke up peacefully in the room in the morning unsure what the next move was. I finally got word from Kelly, she was feeling sick and wouldn't be coming, which meant I had to be going too. I checked out before they had a chance to ask me to leave for not having a deposit, I got to walking back up the strip towards the I-15 on ramp near Sahara.

I thumbed out for a little while until a young guy from Brooklyn stopped and I hopped in the backseat. He was only going up to Freemont, but he gave me some junk food before letting me out. I decided I'd catch the bus up close to the speedway like last time, and headed to the bus stop.

A couple street dwellers sat on the bench, one wanted water and I gave him some, he talked to the other guy and then got to walking towards a shelter. The other guy talked to me for a while, he'd been on the streets since his whole life, he wanted to be in Oregon. It seemed like he was stuck in Vegas, I told him how I'd escaped a number of times. The bus came, I got on and he stayed behind.

I got off down the line and got to walking towards the Speedway, loosely thumbing rides as I went. A mini van passed me, then stopped in the shoulder far ahead and backed up towards me. A friendly looking guy popped out with his wife, he had me put my bag in the trunk and I took the front seat while the wife slipped in back. There was no air conditioning he said, so the window would be staying open, I couldn't be happier. The wind rushed across my face and through my fingertips hanging out the window the whole ride.

They took me as far as Saint George, a good ways up the road, the woman gave me a walmart gift card she had as I was getting out, the told me how much they loved helping people, I was grateful for it.

I got picked up pretty quickly from the next spot, a couple guys and a girl about my age just going up the road. He dropped me off in Toquerville, the sun was on it's way down and headlights were turning on. Just before it vanished, I got picked up again. The guy driving this time was a zip line specialist, he'd just been talking to someone about a job giving nature tours along a river, shooting from zip line to zip line while explaining the surrounding nature.

He took me 15 miles past where he was headed to get me into Cedar City, dropping me off at a Chevron gas station and pushing a $20 bill in my direction saying I deserved a good meal. I walked into the gas station all smiles, I grabbed a burrito and a 24oz Pabst thinking I'd likely be camping out. The girl working the counter was cute, she smiled and asked me about my backpack, my answer interested her. I used the microwave to warm up the burrito and took a seat at the counter and she got to asking me more questions - where I sleep, if I get scared, where I've been, where I'm going. She was on the cusp of offering me a place to stay, I was asking her about any wooded areas that may be nearby.

I decided to give the on ramp a quick try, and that's all it was, there was a blind corner and little place for cars to pull over, it was late and dark anyhow. I wandered back to the gas station to use the bathroom and see the girl again. She suggested a few more places I may have luck camping out, she looked at me apologetically as if she wanted to offer her place, but couldn't bring herself to do it.

I got to walking down the road in search for the next on ramp and a place to camp nearby. It was quite a walk, hitting some dead ends along the way. I came across a KOA and talked to a guy outside asking if it cost anything to camp without a trailer, he said $20, too much for me and I kept walking. I soon came close to the next on ramp and saw a really nice patch of trees and a big field, I wandered in and set up my sleeping bag and popped open my beer.

I slept great, a bird chirped above me early in the morning as a wake up call. I got packed up and headed for the on ramp, I made a quick stop for a snack at the gas station first. I thumbed at the on ramp, I'd been in the same spot once before months ago when some traveling sales folks picked me up. In no time a car had pulled in across the street, I didn't realize he was stopping for me at first, but then ran over when he started waving his hand frantically at me.

His car was loaded up with gear and instruments, we made a quick stop at what I think was his folks place and then got on the road. He was an interesting guy, telling me about rainbow gatherings and things like this. Talk of acid and mushrooms came up, he told me about his experiences with this.

Getting closer to Salt Lake City we stopped for a bite, he got me a couple burgers. Before we got on the road he dug through his trunk and handed me an ice cube sized block of chocolate with some special ingredients. He drove me just shy of Salt Lake City telling me to enjoy, dropping me off next to the freeway.

I got picked up right away again by an air force guy in full uniform. He was headed to Ogden, but happy to get me to where I was going. He went out of his way to take me directly to Candice's place in Sugar House, it seems every time I hitch to her place people drop me off at her doorstep.

I went to the door and met Lars who was making pancakes, a couchsurfer who was also staying there. Kate came from around the corner, laughing as she saw my face with a hug, I tend to drop in on the house unannounced and it all works out. Candice was at work at the crystal shop at the time, she didn't know I was coming either. I went downstairs to throw my bag down and discovered Anthony was there, one of the guys I'd drunkenly biked around with in Laramie, Wyoming a month or so ago.

I caught up with everybody and had a pancake. I plugged in my phone to find a voicemail waiting from Candice, she'd called only minutes ago apologizing for never showing in Vegas and saying that I should come visit her in Salt Lake sometime. I laughed at the timing and headed for the bike, riding towards the crystal shop. I rolled up and set my bike against the tree, she'd seen from the window and came at me with a huge smile of surprise and a hug. Her boss stood by with a smile too, Candice had cut her off mid sentence to come running. The woman wandered away and took off, I caught up with Candice for a while in the shop, I told her about the magic chocolate I'd been given on the road.

After a while I headed to the coffee shop to catch up on things and wait for her to get off work. I got in touch with Cameron after a while, he came and picked me up when he got off work. We dropped my bike off at Candice's and went and saw Peter, he'd just gotten back from a camping excursion in California.

Cameron had moved into a new place with his brother and dog who'd moved from the east coast, I went and checked out the new place and we got to playing some beer pong. We soon hit the road and met up with the whole crew at half off sushi night. After I hopped in a car with Candice, Peter and some other folks and we went to a garage party, enjoying just one beer and some relaxing before heading back to Candice's place and calling it a night.

Good times behind and ahead, talk of a big party on Friday and ideas of hitching to Jackson in the future. It should be an interesting week or three ahead.

Trip Hopping in Arizona

2009-06-12T21:08:00.000-07:00

My time in Arizona was all about Trip Hopping, peck peck peck at the keyboard getting things rolling. Trip Hopping is the rideshare and travel site I started with my friend Larry a year or so ago, and an idea that has really been in the works since I first started HoboLifestyle.com a couple years ago when I started traveling.

We had a "Brew" here at Larry's place in Arizona, a solid couple weeks or so of us tweaking the site with some help from volunteers. We ended up getting a lot done, one guy, Mark, flew in from Rochester, NY just to help out. He turned out to be a pretty smart guy and contributed a lot. Check out the site if you're interested in traveling, it's a good way to find rides, hitchhiking tips and keep up to date with your friends' travels, it's a hobo's dream.

In between and in the midst of the 15+ hours sessions of coding away, I enjoyed quite a few brews, good ole' beers to enhance the setting, a Dundee Pale Ale is by my side at the moment. I also got to enjoy a whole lot of basketball playoffs, namely the Lakers rocking through teams and at this moment, one win away from a championship.

We spent one day on the salt river tubing, it was quite a trip. There was 13 of us, volunteers, couchsurfers and Larry's kids. It was a party on the river flooded with people drinking, beautiful girls who likely couldn't show ID offering beer bongs and a never ending marshmallow fight all the way down.

In the mix my phone got wet, not sure why I brought it anyhow, but none the less it got damaged beyond repair. With that, all my stored phone numbers were gone. It was hard to care too much being that there wasn't much to do about it, and luckily Larry had an old phone that I was able to activate. I'll no longer be able to connect my laptop to the phone to get internet anywhere, but perhaps I'll come across a new phone capable of this again down the line.

Vegas, yes Vegas, again, is on the future's list. Candice said she'd meet me there for a day or three of Vegas type things, and then head up to Salt Lake City. Either way, I'll be headed through and likely on to Jackson Hole, WY for a day or two with some family before racing back down to the Grand Canyon to do some camping in Havasupai at the end of the month. Good times, always.

Camping Adventure in Zion

2009-06-05T05:20:00.000-07:00

After a wild Vegas birthday night, I awoke to a quiet morning with a the road to Utah ahead of me. Peter from Salt Lake City had a little camping trip in store. I washed up and got my things together, my ass was bruised purple from the birthday paddle that had got passed around the night before. Shana took a picture of it before I left amongst the shock and laughter of the scattered friends and couchsurfers in the room.

I headed towards the bus stop, I planned to take it as close as it would get me to my favorite hitchhiking spot in Vegas when heading north, the speedway. It turned out to be a decent walk from where it left me off to get to the freeway, around an hour of walking. Water sounded like a good idea during this stroll through the desert, I didn't have much.

I thumbed out for a ride until someone stopped, a guy who worked at the Sahara Casino headed to his home in Loganville, and that's where he dropped me. I got out a little more thirsty than before, I imagined the water bottle I'd find in the next car. A young guy pulled over, barely out of the freeway, I hopped in quick and we got going. Sure enough, he had a water bottle waiting for me and I chugged it down.

He was a poker player who lived in Springdale, which is just about Zion, where I was headed. He stopped once so I could fill up the water bottle again and we kept going. He was an interesting guy, he told me about machines he built to collect pollen and seeds that he was able to sell really easily to make plenty of money.

The idea was to meet Peter in Saint George, Paul, my driver, was happy to take me exactly to where I was supposed to meet them. We stopped first at the grocery store so I could buy a loaf of bread, I had a single $5 bill and some loose change at this point, bread can go a long way.

I got dropped off and found a seat on a nice shady bench to enjoy some slices of bread, fancy cinnamon bread at that. I got in touch with Molly, my host I met in Flagstaff a week earlier, her and her friend were coming to meet us too for a night of camping. They were already in the park and had been hiking more or less all day.

Peter finally arrived, it turned out to be just him and Parker, everyone else had flaked out in one way or another. They got some food at a little cafe, the place was giving out free cupcakes so I ate one of those. We stopped for various supplies and beer and got going towards Springdale to meet up with the girls.

We met them at a gas station, they'd had a trip of a day and told us the story, I drove their car and followed Peter towards some campgrounds to crash for the night. We got there and winded through the bumpy road until we found a sandy spot, there were people almost everywhere being that it was memorial day weekend.

Some beers, some joints and alas, a fire. We all had reasons for feeling spent, but the fire kept us glued together with conversation and relaxation. We burned out when the fire did, the girls in one tent, Peter and Parker in another, and myself under the cloud cover in my bivy sack. A few stars broke out to show themselves, and a few rain drops too.

We woke up in the morning and were rolling in no time. We got to Zion park and caught the shuttle to the base of Angels Landing, a good hike I'd been on once before with Candice and her dad. The five of us made our way to the top and enjoyed the incredible view. On the way down we spotted an interesting hole in the rock and climbed up in it, it lead to a deep crack. We caught it at the perfect time, the 10 minute window of the day where the sun shined through.

We headed all the way down, Peter got my attention at one point asking if I'd seen a guy's glasses who walked past us, I hadn't. We all got on the road, the girls and I followed behind as Peter whipped up through the roads to a spot he had in mind for camping the next couple nights, the scenery was deep, red rocks, wide open spaces, very cool to see.

We got to the spot and got some food in us, we were essentially on top of a plateau in one of six camp sites. I saw what looked like a hell of a view through the trees a couple hundred yards away, we all headed in that direction.

It was an incredible view of a number of plateaus in the distance, popping out of the ground like rigid marshmallows. We all laid out for a while taking it in.

We relaxed back at the campsite later, light rain here and there, and finally a decent down pour that sent some of us into the tent, Parker to his hammock, and Kelly to the car for some sleep. We talked for a while until the girls had to get on the road.

We stayed up for a little while, but the incoming dark and rain made sleep seem like the thing to do. I had my spot in the hammock with a tarp over it, playing my harmonica to match the whipping winds and rain pounding down.

We woke up in the morning at the same time, relaxing with some cereal. We decided to walk further down the dirt road the another view point. We ran into a guy who said he'd been sleeping in his car pulled off the road a bit, but ran off by a ranger for not having a legit camp site. Peter recognized him, he was the guy with the thin glasses he'd pointed out to me on the hike the day before.

We got to talking with him more and told him he could pull into our campsite for the night, he was also up for going on a hike with us. He went to grab his car, we finished a joint in the woods and went back to to the camp spot.

The four of us hopped in two cars and went towards the trail head. The hike was pretty flat at first, a peaceful forest. We at last got to a an opening that looked out on some peaks and the wide open. We ventured down the trail some more and stopped for some food once we hit a shady spot, then continued on.

We got to the flaky slope, indian paint brush flowers growing from the rock. We decided to soldier up to the top, it was steep going. We at last made it, Pete, the older guy, just a pinch behind us. The view from the top was the most amazing geographical sight I've seen. Red rocks of all shapes, scattered greens and it was in all directions. We stayed up there with a celebratory joint, Pete didn't partake, saying he hadn't smoked in years.

In the distance we saw a pyramid looking rock with a flat top and spires in all corners. We were intrigued, after a bit of debate we were set on getting to it. As mountains go, it's tough to say just how far away it was. We started going straight down another face, different from the trail we came in on. It was much steeper and flakier, but we made our way down.

Instead of jumping back on the trail we spotted, we headed along a little valley until deciding to cut up. Before long it was clear we were well off the trails without a clear sense of where one was. The pyramid itself that we were headed for was of questionable location now too. We kept trucking in the general direction.

Parker questioned whether we should turn around or keep going, it wasn't clear which would even be quicker to do. Peter and I were set on adventuring forward, Pete was somewhat indifferent, but clearly wondering what he'd gotten himself into. His water bottle was dwindling, all of our water was, we'd come with just enough for a short hike.

We ventured down the side of the slight hump we were on, down towards the dried up river bed. We came across a human looking footprint in the rock down there and continued on. Parker became a bit frustrated with our situation, water was on his mind. We wandered out of the river bed and up towards a peak. We finally reached the top to realize that we were in fact on top of the pyramid we were looking for in the beginning. It was pretty amazing, like a courtyard on top of the world, a decidedly great camping spot for a later date.

We were still a bit disoriented and off trail, unsure of the way out. We climbed out of the courtyard and winded around a bit more until we found a high point to get a view. Sure enough, we spotted a road in the distance. We were high above, a valley and another small mountain range between us and the road. Peter scouted forward down a crack to see what it looked like as far as getting down, turned out it was a sheer cliff, so no getting down that way.

At this point there were increasing murmurs about the possibility of forced camping out in the wilderness, without water or much, if any, food left. We opted to head for the river and follow it, if we could find it. We curled around the way we came, back through the high pyramid courtyard, down and around a ridge. We found ourselves following animal paths most of the time, seeing all type of cat tracks and droppings we couldn't reliably identify.

After cutting through some pretty thick bush we finally found the river bed and got to rock hopping our way down it. Alas, we came across a small stagnant puddle of water. Parker took out his water filter and him and Pete crouched around it filling up their bottles, Peter and I watched and waited. I still had a few sips left in my camel bak, I figured there'd be more water later.

They drank their slightly tinted water and we continued on. A ways down we came across a whole mess of running water, Peter and I filled up at that point, it was cold and refreshing hitting the spot, we'd been hiking for five hours or more.

We finally came across an actual trail, and then people. "You're almost there!", a group of older guys shouted to us, they were loaded up with gear. We skipped down the trail, it eventually started to go straight up. Pete stopped a few times on this stretch to catch his breath, he'd soldiered through the whole ordeal with us for the most part with no complaints. The steep bit was through and turned to a nice flat home stretch that led us, finally, to a parking lot.

We all headed for the road to get to hitchhiking to get back to the cars. A perky girl called to us from the parking lot and we went over to her, she was drinking a sierra nevada pale ale. She told us her boyfriend would be back in a minute and could shuttle a couple of us up, and that's what he did when he got there.

Parker and I waited while Peter got shuttled up and then came back with his car to take us back to the camp site. We reflected back on the day, estimating between 15-20 miles covered, the sun was just dropping from the sky now. We got some food in us back at camp, then I got a fire going. We sat by that discussing the stars and whatnot until sleep was the thing.

We packed up pretty quick in the morning and got on the road. Outside of the park we stopped at a diner called the Wagon Wheel, Peter picked up my breakfast which was a tasty one. I went into the bathroom and cleaned up a bit, I had to wipe a few days of camping off me in anticipation of hitchhiking to Vegas where Nick was waiting.

Peter and Parker dropped me off at the south end of Saint George and I was on my way. I stood by the on ramp until a pickup truck with an older couple inside picked me up. I sat in the backseat amongst tools and other things they'd just picked up form home depot, they were headed back to their home in mesquite.

My next ride came from a guy who'd been out driving in search for future camping and fishing spots, he lived in Vegas. He got me to the far north end of town and dropped me off near a bus. I barely had enough money, but I hopped a bus, switched to the Deuce, and made my way all the way to and down the strip past Mandalay Bay. I had some time until I had to meet Nick, I scraped up just enough coins to get a burger at McDonalds and sit there for a while with my laptop, left with about 30 cents to my name.

I wandered down the way to what I thought was the shopping center Nick said his friend worked at. I went into the book store there and waited for his call. I shot him a message after a long while, turned out he was and had been 10 yards behind me in the same store for a little while with his friend.

We got on the road and drove all the way to Phoenix, Nick dropped me off at Larry's place somewhere around midnight. It'd been a good week, and now in Phoenix I was ready to put in some time getting Trip Hopping rocking, this would be the story of the weeks to come.

Spanked in Vegas, Court and a Birthday

2009-05-26T14:40:00.000-07:00

Vegas again, with a court date looming I spent my first morning in town relaxing at the coffee shop catching up on things. I wandered over to the bar with Shana worked, the girl with whom I was staying with. She poured me a beer and I drank it down before heading to the Golden Nugget to watch the Lakers game.

Watching games in Vegas is more exciting, the surrounding people have all kinds of agendas other than who wins or loses, but by how much or how many total points are scored in the game. After seeing the Lakers win I headed back to Shana's bar, she poured me another beer and got me a burger that I happily munched into my mostly empty stomach.

She shortly got off work and we sat at the outside bar with one of her friends and did a shot or two of whiskey. She had the idea of taking me around to a few bars, I briefly thought about my lack of money and morning court date, just as quick as I thought of it I forgot it and was ready to see what she had to show me.

Her friend's eyes were lingering and deep, yet glazed over, here and there, everywhere. She came along, the three of us marched down Fremont in search of good times. We stopped into Hogs and Heffers all doing a shot. The bartenders were fiery girls wearing little to cover, shouting into megaphones and dancing on the bar. Shana and her friend got on the bar and danced too, shaking, squeezing, and motor boating away the night away.

We moved on, slightly more buzzed now, arriving at the bar in one casino or another. We all put a bill into the video poker and started playing, we were rewarded with free drinks for doing so. Shots and beers went down, Shana's friend vanished for a while, perhaps to the bathroom.

We headed back to Shana's bar to pick up our things, but the girls got caught up in the live music. They got on stage and even sang and danced a bit. They of course knew the musicians very well and the bar was fairly empty, it was a good time.

We stumbled a few blocks away towards the car and got in. Shana went to go grab something from the apartment, her friend grabbed me from the backseat and a brief drunken make out session ensued while we were alone. We dropped her off down the road though, and continued on with the late night.

We landed in a dark bar attached to a pharmacy you'd never know was there until you were inside. My out-of-towner status was reason enough to get free drinks from the old man behind the bar. Another one of Shana's friends came through and we talked for a while until the night started to fade, we headed back to Shana's.

Shana thought she may know someone who could help me in court the next day, as late or early as it may have been she went through her phone searching for numbers. We ran back into the night to another apartment building and knocked on the door of one of her friends, waking her up to get a phone number. Eventually we would up back her place and had to pass out, my time in court was in a matter of hours and some sleep was in order.

I woke up in the morning in time to shower and throw on my button adorned shirt and some nicer pants borrowed from Larry. Shana woke up around that time and told me I couldn't wear the wrinkly shirt I had on, she grabbed an iron from the closet. She had another couchsurfer who had just arrived at the greyhound station down the street, so she ironed my shirt while I ran to the bus to guide a french girl back to the apartment.

I put the fresher shirt back on and ran out the door and headed to the court house 10 blocks away. I was pointed to a room on the 7th floor and took a seat in the court room. About an hour went by of watching various people getting accused, punished and speaking legal jargon. Finally my name was called and I stepped up alone before the judge.

He mentioned trespassing and asked me what happened, I explained, "I got punched in the face and security guided me off the property, a bit disoriented I came back and went up to my room. At that point they came up and told me I was trespassing and wrote me the violation that brought me here".

"So you were going to your room, you were staying at the hotel?", he asked me, I confirmed this and he continued, "and you came from Connecticut for this?", I told him that was true, my license is from there and it was easier than explaining my current lifestyle. "Case dismissed", the prosecutors agreed, I was out the door and free again.

I jumped down the court house steps into the desert sun of Vegas, happy to be free. I got back to Shana's where she and the french girl were both asleep, I got to doing the same. We all woke up a little later and Shana whipped up a tasty breakfast along with one of her friends who'd come over.

The four of us headed for the Golden Nugget, they had passes to the pool. It was a great pool, a shark tank in the middle and a water slide you could take from up above that actually shot through the shark tank and back into the pool. We relaxed there for a while until heading back.

The I headed back out to Fremont with the French girl, Nelly. This was her first time in Vegas, so I took her down and showed what she wanted to see, we played some penny slots for a while so she could pull the lever and these types of things.

Later that night we caught up with Shana and her boyfriend and were back on Fremont looking for drinks, our first one came free at some casino with Mermaid in the name. We then headed to a brewery in one of the casinos, I got free drinks for putting a five dollar bill in the video poker machine at the bar. I drank stout after stout watching my money go up in the machine.

Shana and her boyfriend decided to turn in, Nelly and I stayed drinking and playing. After a good amount of tasty beer we left, I'd turned my $5 into $35, considering that the $5 was just about all I had it was a pretty good turn around. We stopped in a casino and got dollar hotdogs and deep fried oreos before heading back and passing out.

I woke up the next day, my birthday, getting messages from friends and family to send some good vibes and wishes my way. I relaxed the first part of the day away before heading out to Shana's bar where I was instantly greeted with a birthday Guinness. I sat for a while drinking beers, eating a cheeseburger layered with chicken strips and poking at the video poker machine.

Shana organizes a monthly pub crawl, tonight was the night, the reason she said I should stay for my birthday. She gave me the free pass book for the night, meaning free drinks all night. We headed back when she got off work so she could change, then went back to the bar where people had already started gathering.

Shana got on her megaphone telling people the deal with the pub crawl and also letting everyone know it was my birthday. We stood around drinking and talking a while until it was time to move on to the next bar. A crowd of us herded up the block to the Beauty Bar where we all at once handed the bartender drink tickets. Shana broke out a wooden paddle, there's no telling where she got it from, announcing it was time. Girls in the group took turns smacking my ass with it, pretty tamely at first, but as the night grew on and the drinks went down... things got pretty heavy.

The bartender took a swing with the paddle as I stood on the bar, rewarding me with a free shot of vodka afterwards. We were soon off to the next bar, marching in a pack down Fremont. Beers, spanks, jaeger shots - the night continued. We wound up in Hogs again, the girl behind the bar fed me free beers and shots and took her turn with the paddle as well.

We wound up in a bar next door to Shana's, I was pretty sure my friend Iris worked there. Sure enough I spotted her serving drinks, dressed in pirate garb of sorts. I got her attention and she told me she'd be getting off work in a while and we should grab a drink. After some time at this bar we headed upstairs to a place with a big dance floor and a mechanical bull. I was given a free ride on it which didn't last very long.

Shana soon faded, the night had been long, I gave her the set of keys she'd given me and she headed home. I stayed put, on the dance floor with Nelly and some other girls who'd been on the pub crawl.

Eventually Nelly on sloppily wandered back to Shana's place, Nelly quickly passed out. I grabbed a set of keys and headed back into the night. I sat at a machine in the Golden Nugget until Iris got off work and gave me a call, I met her back at the bar. She bought me a drink at a dark bar nearby and we caught up a bit. We grabbed a beer back at Shana's bar and sat on the patio a while talking about all kinds of everything until the night was coming to a close, she gave me a ride back to the apartment and dropped me off.

The next morning the idea was to head to Utah and meet up with some folks for some camping. It'd been a great Vegas trip and a successful court appearance. As always though, I was excited for the next thing.

Grand Canyon, Flagstaff Fun and Hitchhiking to Vegas

2009-05-18T09:08:00.000-07:00

I woke up Friday and got straight to playing with Trip Hopping, but I had the road on my mind knowing I'd be hitting it later. Larry and I took a quick bike ride for food, then relaxed back at his place a bit . We enjoyed a few beers while we waited for Nick to arrive, he was coming to pick me up and go to Flagstaff for the night.

We got on the road just as the sun was going down, aiming for Flagstaff with thoughts of the Grand Canyon where we'd be hiking the next day, the reason for the trip. We caught up on the ride, sharing ambitions of future travels to places like Australia. Nick had some extra beans, rice and "half a pig" for me, I chowed it down while we rode.

We were greeted in Flagstaff by Molly and her friends and roommates, I'd found Molly on couchsurfing the night before and she was up for hosting us. She was well traveled and had yet another Europe trip in the works coming up soon.

All but Nick and I went to sleep, we decided to head into town so Nick could show me some spots and live music. We first stopped at a corner store that was also a bar, Nick got a root beer and we walked to a bench on the corner, as per his Flagstaff tradition. I spied a beer on tap, Lagunitas Maximus, I took note of it, it's one of my favorite beers and I've never seen it on tap before.

We wandered around town, dipping into different places for a few moments to enjoy live music and take in the different scenes. Flagstaff is a young town and has a real good feel, we were both digging it. Flag Brewing seemed like a great place - beer, coffee, live music, burgers and a generally good feel. We headed back to the place with Maximus to find they were closed, I decided I'd get there another time. We caught a little more music and then headed back to sleep.

In the morning we got on the road to the Grand Canyon. Just outside of town we picked up a hitchhiker, Zane, who was also headed to the canyon. He'd just left his life in the northwest and had an open calendar, he figured Arizona would be a decent place to be. He told us stories about his life, a lot of which spent on the go.

We dropped Zane off at the back country office once we got to the canyon, he was going to look into camping for a while. Nick and I headed to a shuttle that took us further west to a trail we wanted to hike, dripping spring. It was a warm sunny day, and turned hotter as we made our way down into the canyon. We looked out into incredible views of the massive canyon cut through the earth, red rocks and layers, greenery speckled in patches throughout.

After a full day, we climbed out of the canyon bit by bit and hopped another shuttle back to the car and headed back to Flagstaff. We enjoyed good music and the breeze from the open windows. We decided to go to the root beer spot again so I could get myself a pint of Lagunitas Maximus, one sip and life was perfect. Despite my dwindling cash stack, I had little choice but to pick up a six pack of a beer called Modus Hoperandi.

We got back to Molly's and Nick cooked up some soup and potatoes while I enjoyed a couple of my beers, it turned out to be a great choice. We headed out to meet Molly at a friend's place, but she was on her way back already so we just met her back at the house. We talked into the night until sleep was the thing.

In the morning Molly and a group of friends were ready to go to Sedona for a day of swimming. Nick had to get back to Scottsdale, but I gladly accepted the invitation. We piled in a car and headed south, shortly arriving in the incredible scene of Sedona. Red rock spires towered above everything twisting around, we parked along the freeway and got to walking.

We veered into the woods down a steep slope and hopped rocks to cross the creek until we came to a sort of beach. There was a little rope swing into the water, and on the other side was a rock wall about 40 feet high that people could jump from if they were willing to make there way to the top. We had a few beers and cooled off in the water, swinging in and enjoying ourselves.

Another car full of friends showed up, along with other folks coming to enjoy the secluded spot. No one else was up for it, but I ventured into the woods across the creek until I found a good spot to climb up the wall with jumping on the mind. I made my way to the ridge that looked like the best spot while everyone watched below. I launched off and plunged the 40 feet or so into the water below, a pretty awesome feeling that reminded me of good times in West Virginia.

We enjoyed the spot for a while longer until we decided to move on back to the car. One car load of us went to a brewery in town, the prices for food didn't match what I had in pocket, but I managed to cover a beer for myself. I instead munched on a loaf of bread back in the car as we headed back to Flagstaff.

Back at Molly I relaxed the night away, watching the Celtics get beat by the Magic and seeing highlights from the Lakers game, they'd blown out the Rockets in game 7 to move on to the next round against the Nuggets, good times. I had Vegas on my mind now, as that was my next move.

In the morning I had a couple pieces of toast and headed out the door, walking down route 66 towards the I-40 on ramp on the west side of town. I walked two or three miles, a packed car stopped for me before I even made it to the freeway, I knew it would be going a distance before I even got in. The drive was Peter, a guy my age tripping around before going to work at Yosemite for the summer "removing invasive plant life".

At the moment he was headed loosely to San Diego to see some friends, thinking he'd stop at Joshua Tree for a night of camping on the way. We got me as far as Kingman, the halfway point to Vegas. I walked across the little town to the edge and stuck my thumb out until a jeep wrangler stopped for me, a car that reminds me of good times with my brother... and sometimes without him, doing things with his car he'd of killed me for in the moment.

The driver was an older guy who wasn't going way to far, but he was happy to help me out. He had a son who'd hitchhiked a bit in this same direction, he dropped me off at a filling station where he said his son had great luck getting to Vegas. He actually took me off the route I'd originally been on, US-93, I was now on US-68 which he said could be better since trucks were allowed on this road since it avoided the Hoover Dam, and would also avoid the slow moving dam traffic.

I didn't wait long before an old station wagon pulling out of the gas station waived me into the car, a man driving and an old woman who remained silent in the passenger seat. They were headed to Laughlin just over the hill a across the border to Nevada. In fact, we all remained mostly silent that ride accept for the radio. The driver didn't seem too keen on conversation and a bit hard of hearing anyhow, but friendly none the less. I even found myself falling in and out of sleep a bit.

We reached Laughlin and they dropped me off at the turn off to Vegas next to a copper statue of a man who probably had something to do with the town. As I got out of the car, the woman spoke her first and only words, "Be careful".

I walked to a sandy pull out on the road to Vegas and thumbed the cars that came my way. In just 10 minutes or less a pickup truck aimed for me, an older guy at the wheel and a smiling blonde pointing at me in the passenger seat. They pulled up next to me and asked to see my ID, I started to pull it out and asked why, the pumped up blonde said "So we know we're not harboring a minor dude!", she took a look at it and told me to hop in, "You're a baby!", she laughed.

"This is Bob and I'm Jennifer, Bob is awesome!", she was full of energy and had the look of slightly strung out hooker, cuts up and down her arms. Bob told me to take a look at the sticker on his back windshield that read "Highway Patrol", he just looked at me as if to say "so no fucking around", but he was friendly too. Jennifer was overly excited, she stuck her finger in her mouth as they joked about how young I was and stuck it behind my ear, "You're still wet behind the ears!", she laughed and cranked the ACDC on the stereo.

Their story changed a few times, she told me she was on the side of the road like me and got picked up by Bob too. She wanted to stop for a beer and a bathroom break, Bob told her she could use a bathroom, but would have to wait until we got to Searchlight to have a beer. We stopped at a small roadside casino and she ran in, I stood by the truck while Bob smoked a cigarette. "Kids", he said and shook his head smiling. He told me how he used to travel all the time, living in all 48 states for a good amount of time in each learning about different types of people and how they lived.

We hopped back in the car. "I really want that beer, we should stay here.", Jen said.

"We can stay in the backseat, are you gonna pay me here?", that was Bob's reply.

"Well how's this payment gonna work?"

"I have needs you know", Bob's flirty response.

"Well what's your specific need then?"

"I have a whole bunch of needs, should I go down the list?", "Let's just get down the road for now" and we got going, Jen continued her energetic antics, rubbing elbows with us both and jamming to the music. The two of them danced in their seats, Bob playing air guitar to rock music and squeezing her slim giggling body.

We got to Searchlight at a gas station and Jennifer grabbed a couple beers from the back of the truck for herself. A guy walked by and she shouted to him asking about a cigarette, he said he was buying some now, "Menthol!" she shouted back and laughed. "Sexy vato" she said to me about the trucker. She crept into the backseat and began to down her beers. She asked me what I was running from, I didn't have an answer.

The trucker came out empty handed, "They didn't have the kind I like", he came over smiling flirtatiously at Jen.

"Well where are you headed?", Jen mirrored his smile, he said he was going to Miami via I-40. She perked up, she was apparently trying to get to Carlsbad, New Mexico, home perhaps, and asked if he was going near there. He wasn't sure where that way, but said he'd grab a map and would figure it out.

"But who is this guy, I can't be taking you away form your man ya know", referring to me, she assured him I was just a friend. He went off to his truck for a map.

Bob stepped in, "well there's the ride you've been waiting for", she seemed hesitant though, something was calling for her in Vegas. She grabbed Bob's phone to make a call, but accidentally picked up an incoming call from his wife. Drama ensued as she tried to explain who she was facing heavy scrutiny on the other side of the phone call, "Oh my god! Your husband is just helping me out, and that's it! I'm not sleeping with him or anything like that, he's just a good man helping me!", things like this. Bob kept telling her to hang up, she ignored him.

He looked at me mildly frustrated, "Women, they just keep talking and making things worse". The young trucker came back with the map, Bob just ushered him away saying things had changed, he didn't seem to mind and went his way. Bob ushered for me to hop in the car and he started it up, Jen hopped in the car still on the phone. We got to driving and he at last grabbed the phone from her and hung it up. "You just gotta hang up, the more you talk the more information they have to get things twisted and come up with their own ideas. Now they'll call two or three more time and you just gotta let it ring, I'll deal with them later."

She was upset, they argued a bit over the ordeal. She thought he must be shady if they were so suspicious of him, he told her that's just the way they were. Jen pouted for a few minutes looking out the window, but soon the music had her fired up and they seemed to have made up and got back to their air guitar and dancing.

She looked into the mirror and did her makeup. She looked back at me, "You wanna turn out like this?", her mascara lined eyes sadly pleading into mine. "Go home" she whispered, and turned back around.

We stopped at the Railroad Pass casino, the same one I'd hitchhiked from a couple times going the opposite direction. They both had a beer in the parking lot, she ran in for the bathroom again. Bob started telling me more of the story, he said he'd picked Jen up near the Tropicana a week back or so with his wife sensing that she was down on her luck, he told me she'd been tricking around for a while which was no surprise.

He'd been partying with her a bit and putting her up in a casino, but eventually his wife called the casino and somehow got her removed from the room and he'd lost contact with her, and then ran into her again a couple days later closer to Texas of all places. He hadn't told his wife, but after the phone call earlier she'd obviously found out they were back together in one way or another. He said now he was just getting her back to Vegas and she'd offered a few bucks for gas.

She came out of the casino and we got back on the road, the towering casinos soon popped up in the distance. She got on the phone with some guy she was going to see, he started feeding her directions. We got off and headed west on Tropicana, then turned around to go east, and then back west again. Bob got frustrated a bit with the poor directions saying we should just stop where we were and have the guy come to us, she ignored him and demanded he keep going straight, I was happy with this as we were getting closer to the strip.

He'd eventually had it and we pulled into a parking lot near the Hard Rock, she seemed to be fine with this. I hopped out and said my goodbyes, "women and directions, bah", Bob's last words, I got to walking in the direction of downtown.

I shot a message to Shana, who I'd be staying with in Vegas, she told me a bus I could catch. I walked up Paradise until I found a stop and waited for the bus. A woman at the stop spotted me a quarter to pay the $1.75, the bus came quickly and I was on my way.

I jumped out at 4th and Bridger and got directions to Shana's place from there. I spotted her from a block away coming out to find me, we went running for each other laughing as if we were old friends who hadn't seen each other in ages and hugged. This was my first time meeting her though, but I could tell she was going to be awesome.

She had some friends over for dinner, I was just in time for some good food and we all had glasses of Jameson. The group of us talked into the night over whiskey and an interesting cinnamon moonshine from a mason jar. I eventually passed out on an air mattress watching a movie Shana had put in for me.

It's good to be in a different part of Vegas than usual, despite the looming court date. It should be an interesting trip with some good times, we'll see how it goes.

Coding in Arizona

2009-05-15T01:43:00.000-07:00

My time in Phoenix has gone how I could have imagined it, a lot of time pecking at the keyboard writing code for my site Trip Hopping. It's not without excitement of course, the site is growing faster every day and it's fun to make it better with every key stroke.

We've been organizing some volunteers who will be coming from all over to our Trip Hopping Brew in June, helping with various parts of the website to get it going even stronger.

Between Trip Hopping sessions at Larry's kitchen table, I've enjoyed a great meal here and there and watched a lot of basketball, it's the playoffs after all. Larry also put together an impressive pirate ship bed, part of his recent custom kids beds endeavor to get some cash coming in.

This morning I went with Larry to a storage unit to help move things. Him and a guy Jon went to a sort of auction where defaulted storage units were up for grabs, people who hadn't paid for their storage or some such and it was all up for grabs. The doors get opened and people can merely peek in, the auction begins, Larry and Jon had chosen one the day before.

The storage unit revealed the story of a porn addicted sex offender, boxes of junk and papers from court houses and letters to his girlfriend. Home sex vhs tapes with labels like "wrecking the love tunnel" more or less. Categorized porn, dirty mattresses and couches. Nothing much of value, it was basically a bust. Apparently some of the storage units can turn quite a bit of a profit, not this one.

We loaded up the trailer with the sad possessions of a sexually driven pack rat. I wondered where he was at the moment, if he ever thought about the items in his storage unit, what he'd think or even care if he knew they were being ransacked by treasure hunters who'd deemed his cumulative possessions as a failed endeavor. We drove the bulk of it to the salvation army, only a few miscellaneous items were kept to perhaps be sold.

After a quick meal, Larry and I headed to Trish's apartment. The plan was to pack up her stuff, she was moving back to Larry's place. We got there only to find a note on the door, the landlord had changed her locks over some sort of financial dispute.

Back at the house I played with Trip Hopping of course, and then watched the Lakers fall to the Rockets who forced a game 7. Tomorrow there's plans to move on, my friend Nick wants to go to the grand canyon so I'm going along with him. The idea is to spend tomorrow night in Flagstaff and go from there.

After this I have to make my way to Las Vegas, I have a court date for the trespassing incident after I got banned from all MGM casinos. I also confirmed that security did in fact steal or misplace my wallet at the time, despite my drunken adamant attempts to get it back. I know this now because I looked at the ticket the cop wrote me, which has my drivers license number on it, which means they of course had my license when I went in, so I couldn't have lost it before hand.

No matter, I've replaced everything without missing a beat, but soon I'll have to see what the consequences are for that Vegas night. I'm ready for the road again.

1,800 miles of Bikes, Booze, Soccer and near Molestation

2009-05-05T02:21:00.000-07:00

I stood on the east side of Salt Lake City at the entrance of I-80 with my "Denver" sign up and a thumb out awaiting what was next. I starred down the bumper of a car coming my way, it was almost as if I willed it to stop, a guy going towards Park City was at the wheel.

He was an older skier who had a little land just before Park City, he said he usually didn't pick up hitchhikers. The last one he'd picked up didn't have a particular destination and apparently rambled and mumbled too much for his taste, he'd ended up shaking him at a truck stop down the road.

He dropped me off just before town and I walked up the on ramp to the main flow of traffic awaiting my next ride. On my way up a car with two young guys stopped, but said they were just going into town. I walked down the shoulder about 100 yards or so until a car stopped for me, pulling only half way into the shoulder of the road. I hopped in and met the guy about my age wearing an orange beaded necklace with a glass mushroom hanging from it. He took me just across town.

It was a nice day, slightly breezy, I enjoyed thumbing from the next ramp watching the clear cut clouds in the sky. A middle aged woman in a pickup truck stopped for me, saying I looked OK to her. She got fired from her job at the IRS somewhat recently, she went on about how inefficient it was and relived her hatred for her bosses, shouting in the car as she had shouted at the office. She explained when she gotten taken in and told she was being let go, "I slid one badge across the table, 'You can shove this one up your ass', then slid my other security card to my other boss, 'and you can shove this one up your ass', and walked out of the office, everyone could hear me".

She took me just a little ways until she wad to split onto I-84, I walked along in a valley on the shoulder of I-80 as traffic passed me by, chomping on a granola bar from my pack. A car started to slow and pull into the shoulder ahead of me and I went running for it, no sooner than a few steps did I hear the "bloop!" of a siren behind me, I turned to see a police car that was in the process of pulling the car over I'd thought was stopping for me.

I walked ahead and past the cop as he stood by the drivers window, questioning a speeding driver perhaps, I nodded as I walked by, he did the same. Despite the scene, I walked backwards with my thumb out to the cars, and one actually stopped without a care for the cop car flashing away. I ran for it, perhaps even more ridiculous scene - a backpacked guy running from a cop car towards another car - I hopped in.

The driver was my age or younger, bushy brown hair and eyes that looked high. His car was packed, living between Washington and Boulder, right now on his way to a the town of Steamboat Springs, CO. We shared some stories, he eventually rolled a spliff to smoke. We made one stop at the gas station and then he dropped me off when he had to turn off.

My next ride was a pickup truck, one guy in the passenger seat who didn't talk and a driver who was a self-proclaimed hillbilly. He told me a story of some folks he'd spotted in a covered wagon in his town. He'd gone up to them to investigate, learning that they'd come from Nevada in the wagon going anywhere from 12-20 miles a day on route to Texas. A mother and her son, her grandmother or so on had apparently traveled across the country in such a manner when the type of thing was the only option, so it was her dream to experience this as well. The hillbilly couldn't get enough of the story, and it was a pretty good one, he smiled recounting the details.

He dropped me off once he got to his town, the skies were grey, they'd been that way ever since I got to Wyoming. Thumb out again, traffic passing here and again as I walked just a bit, a truck passed, slowed, and stopped 100 yards ahead. I did the backpack dash all the way to truck saying "Laramie for sure!". He was coming around the side by the time I got to the truck with a bit of caution in his step, "This may be a stupid question to ask, but are you honest?", I assured him I was and he let me in his 18 wheeler.

"You looked OK, but you never know, I usually don't pick people up", he turned out to be about my age and had been trucking for a little while. He took a lot of pride in his truck, everything inside was chromed out. He even had a Peterbilt tattoo on his arm, "I told you I loved Peterbilts!", he laughed. He told me saw a hitchhiker almost every day, a lot different than what I usually hear from people. "I'll never, ever pick up a girl though", he explained, "My friend picked one up that seemed OK, when he got to the truck stop there were police waiting. She was going off about how he'd tried to take advantage of her this and that. Turns out she had a record of doing this kind of thing, so nothing happened to him, but I don't even wanna mess with that".

He was headed all the way to New Jersey along I-80, the thought of such a distance tempted me, but Laramie was the scene for now, he let me out a truck stop just after dark. I had a couple reasons for heading in this direction in the first place, Cameron was going to be in Denver for a soccer game and breweries that weekend and Zak and Anthony were going to be traveling through Laramie the next day. They'd got me in touch with a guy Maxim who lived in Laramie that they'd be staying with, once at the truck stop I gave him a call and started walking towards his place.

He met me half way on his bike, a math major at the school in town with a friendly spirit. He'd chained up a bike a little further away and soon we were both on bikes headed to his place. We took it easy there, he had homework to catch up on and I was good on relaxing. He popped out of the kitchen once saying, "I can offer you cheap college food", I gladly enjoyed microwave burritos and pizza.

In the morning he was in and out of class, once home he was trying on capes and goggles and goofy clothes in preparation. This day marked the occasion in which was Zak and Anthony's sole motivation for coming to town, and therefore the reason I was there. It was called "Tour de Laramie", a bar crawl to all 28 bars in town on bikes, which equates to biking to each bar and taking a shot or a cheap beer, costumes apparel apparently encouraged.

Zak and Anthony finally arrived, excited for the festivities in our future. They'd stopped at a thrift store to find ridiculous clothes including MC Hammer type pants. Maxim gave me an american flag colored cape, I put on a bow tie I'd been carrying around since Aaron's wedding in Sacramento, glad that I finally had an excuse to wear it.

We set out on our bikes, six of us at the time. The first bar was right around the corner, we burst in, a few of us wearing capes, a couple with goggles, another with bandannas hanging all over. We went directly to the bar and picked up shots of tequila, held them up, "Tour de Laramie!", and shot 'em down, marching back out the door to our bikes.

We continued in this fashion, occasionally sitting a bit longer when the cheapest drink was a beer. We ran into jello shots, watered down shots designed for folks like us on the tour, heavy shots, good beers and beer beers. At an applebees bar we saw the first group of other bikers on the tour and gave a hoot and a holler. Later we ran into a group of 10 or 20 all in "official" yellow shirts for the tour, as drunk as ourselves, we rolled down the bike in a swarm. Cars that recognized what we were doing gave us honks and shouted out their windows cheering us on.

Somewhere along the way the idea of bowling came up, we found ourselves throwing strikes and gutter balls for a frame enjoying a couple pitchers from the bar. We were off into the night again after that, fuzzily going to bar after bar. We made a quick stop back at Maxim's place where his roommate had some friends over and a small bonfire in the backyard, we fueled up on some food and were out the door again.

At some point I found myself without anyone I'd started with, I think I may have waived them off when they were calling it a night and kept going, I don't know for sure, but either way I managed to find my bike in the mix of other bikes and started going. It occurred to me I needed to be going somewhere, Maxim's house, I somehow recalled the address, but I had no idea where I was at the moment.

I raced around looking for something familiar, asking this person and that person for directions, occasionally getting caught up in conversations with other drunks. I went over a bridge at one point and knew that was either very good or very much the wrong direction. Now either I flagged down a cop, or he stopped me, but it was that point where me and the officer got to talking. He was friendly at first as I asked which way I should head, before he left he seemed upset and told me if he saw me on the bike I'd be going to jail, a DUI type of thing.

I walked the bike down the street until he was out of sight and then jumped back on, sideways at times in small bursts until I came to a side street. I saw a guy walking and asked him which way to go, he told me he wasn't from around here, but that his friend at home was and she would know.

Of course it was the type of hour where most people had been sleeping for a while, she was no exception. The guy had no problem waking her up, a girl about my age who was probably accustomed to this kind of thing. She laid in bed cursing us in a gentle way that sounds more like a sigh of "again... ?", we we're both playfully pestering her for directions, she'd clearly had a few drinks and resigned herself to sleeping it off.

I wound up laying in her bed trying to coax an answer out of her gently massaging her neck, she just laid there whispering, "That feels really good...", I could have fallen in right there, but I was on a mission, I finally coaxed a direction out of her and was out of the bedroom. The guy was in the kitchen at this point and offered me a shot of liquor on the way out, I took it and was back on my bike shooting the way she told me. I eventually made it, passed the house once, looped back and was home, promptly passing out.

I slowly came to in the morning with memories of the night before, rushing through the chilled air on the bike... it's that thought that of being chilled where I came to the realization that I must have left my sweatshirt, rain jacket, warmest shirt, hat and gloves somewhere, essentially the only warm clothes I had.

Zak and Anthony awoke shortly after, all of still laid out, recalling the various stories from the night before. Before I got up, I heard the door open and Keith wandered in, "I'll be back in about 20 minutes, will you be good to go?". Oh yes, I'd forgotten about that, but I'd talked to him about going to breweries between Laramie and Denver hitchhiking, and he was up for going too and was willing to drive.

"Hell yes! I'll be good to go", he was back later than 20 minutes, apparently coaxing a hungover Matt out of bed, one of the six original bikers from the night before. We took a quick trip to what Keith recalled was the last bar we'd been to, we got there to luckily discover my bundle of warm clothes was in a pile awaiting me.

With that, we were headed towards Colorado. Our first stop was New Belgium brewery in Fort Collins, we were too late for the tour, but not for the free samples. They let each of us choose four beers and gave us a 4oz sample of each. Matt stayed out of it, but Keith and I each enjoyed a good spread. Afterwards we popped into a local brewery, literally just popped in through the door and that was it.

We hopped back in the car with Left Hand as our destination in Longmont, 30 minutes south. Matt had no interest in drinking, or even leaving the car at that point. I'd spent just about the last of my money the night before in the biking boozing madness, all but a dollar bill and some change. Once we got to the brewery we just popped in and shared a sample of the Milk Stout, an incredible beer I was happy to try right from the tap.

After that we started headed towards Boulder with the idea of going to a couple more breweries, Boulder Brewing was apparently closed that day which we learned as we got closer, and Matt had about had it, and myself with no money made things less enticing. About 60 miles shy of Denver they decided they should get a move on back towards Laramie and let me out at a good spot so I could hitchhike the rest of the way, Matt threw me a few bucks for future good times and that was that.

A guy blasting hip hop in a an SUV picked me up shortly after, he took me to the edge of downtown Denver. I walked into the thick of it and shot Cam a message to let him know I was in town, but broke and likely not able to partake in the beer night. He called me right away saying he was happy to sponsor me for the night and get me into the soccer game, he was a dozen block away at the Wynkoop brewery at the moment.

I headed that way with a smile, I found him upstairs at a long table with a bunch of drunken soccer fans, including a couple other faces I recognized from Salt Lake. I enjoyed some dark beer and laughter, then we were on to the next brewery, the Great Divide.

We walked over and I talked to the guy in the group who'd organized this little brewery crawl, they'd already been to a few that day, he worked at Squatters Brewery in Utah and we talked beer and brewing, his name was Mark. We were just in time for a tour when we got to Great Divide, Mark, Cam and I got separated from the tour right away when we got talking to a guy filling up his bike tires with his kids, turns out he was the owner. His kids knew plenty about beer, Mark and the Owner could recall the name of a Pale Ale, the young kid shouted out "Scorpion!", he was right.

We all had a pint back at the bar, Hercules Double IPA is what I enjoyed. Soon enough we were piling in a van headed to the soccer game. We tailgated outside the stadium for a bit under the light rain and clouded skies, then headed in.

The game was routy, we were in the small section chanting for Real Salt Lake as little girls cursed us and the team. People in the group had drums, flags and the whole deal, despite all of this, we lost 2-0. As we filed out a girl next to me asked where the after party was, I didn't know so I had her put her number in my phone and told her I'd call her when we got there.

We went to our groups hotel rooms first and dropped off our bags, then grabbed a bite to eat. It didn't seem like everyone was keen on partying still, but Cam and I were still up for beers. I gave the girl a call to meet up, and after some miscommunication about multiple marriots we met her and a couple of her friends at a brew house and enjoyed a good pale ale. Then another, and more after that. Soon enough a shot of jaeger or some such came around.

Somewhere in the mix they mentioned they were driving back to Utah the next day and could give me a ride, going back to Salt Lake wasn't what I'd been thinking of doing, but here was a ride. I grabbed my bag back at the hotel and Cam and I wound up at their hotel down the way where a couple other girls were staying with them.

The drinking and wildness of such a night continued until I was waking up on the bed in the sunlight, Cam was out the door with a couple of the girls getting a ride back to his hotel, he'd be flying back to Salt Lake that night.

Once the girls got back we all piled into their little SUV, the five girls took their seats and I rode with the luggage in the trunk of shame, a 7 hour drive ahead. I mostly caught up on sleep while the girls giggled away vaguely recalling things, sleeping themselves at times.

They were headed to Ogden, so they let me out where I-80 splits into I-84 towards their direction, leaving just 50 miles outside of Salt Lake City, the clouds still grey with occasional light rain. It wasn't long before a car stopped for me, bound for Salt Lake.

An older guy was driving, he'd hitchhiked himself in his day, telling me stories of getting caught in snow storms and making due. He used to live in the hills nearby and pointed out the area to me. He was neighbors with Mrs. Fields at one time, the cookie lady. He told me how she'd tried to convince him to go in on buying a firetruck with her to have some extra protection, after all she did have a house with 27 bedrooms he said.

He was a good guy who clearly loved life from the beginning. He had a heart condition now with a defibrillator built into his body that would shock him something heavy if ever his heart stopped, which he said had happened 9 times so far. He was waiting for a solid year of no incidents, at which point he wanted to move to his land in Texas near a lake off the grid, it just happened to be 150 miles from a hospital though.

We got closer to Salt Lake, on the side of the road I saw a coyote tearing up some road kill, what looked like a deer. He decided to take me right to the house in Salt Lake, I thanked him and wandered to the side door. Cameron was at the table eating across from Candice, she looked at me and sort of smiled and sighed. Cam had just been home for half an hour or so, thoughts of the previous day rushed through but remained mostly unspoken. I took a load off and relaxed for a minute until I remembered I was hungry, I took a bike ride and picked up some ramen noodles to cook up. The night stayed quiet until all were sleeping.

I awoke in the morning and knew it was time to go. I was ready to go when Kate woke up, she said she'd give me a ride to the interstate which would save me a bunch of time and walking. She dropped me of just down the road on I-10 where I walked to the on ramp waiting for my first ride, I'd decided that Larry's by Phoenix was the destination.

A young guy who'd hitchhiked around Maui picked me up and drove me a few exits south, insisting I take $5 for a meal. I walked down the long on ramp I found myself at and waited for the next ride. I missed a call from Candice and listened to a voicemail upset I hadn't left with a goodbye, she was still sleeping when I'd left. I waited longer for rides, and eventually walked down the ramp to give her a call, no response, I walked back to the ramp.

Before I got back to my original spot, a work van stopped, the guy said he was going all the way to Vegas, I threw my bag in the back and hopped in. He was actually going just past Vegas and could take me to Railroad Pass, a spot I'd hitchhiked from before, and probably the best spot for hitching out of Vegas in the direction of Phoenix.

His name was Scott, an electrician working in the Vegas area. He got word of a break-in at a tile place he'd been working on and would possibly have to assess some damage and fix some things along the way, but someone else checked it out and just phone lines were cut, so nothing he had to worry about. We talked beer and sports and beer some more, he was a good guy.

He made one quick stop to put decals and something electrical near the tile place, we did a drive by and saw some damage to the doors that had been kicked in. He drove me all the way down to the Railroad Pass Casino and dropped me off. It's a good spot since it's basically the last spot outside of town, just before the hoover dam.

A light heat was in the air, I couldn't recall the last time I'd felt the dry warmth of a breeze like it. I waited as a good amount of traffic passed by, munching on my dwindling supply of granola type bars from my pack. Alas, an 18 wheeler pumped the breaks and pulled over, another 100 yard backpack dash and I was climbing up the side of the truck and opening the door. At first I thought the big old trucker was naked, but he was in fact wearing a pair of shorts, he said he was going to Phoenix and I took a seat.

He had stringy grey hair, balding from a big oval head, a dumb smile on his face. When he was shifting gears he had his arm draped over the stick shift resting his closed fist on the seat beside my leg. He laughed at the site of me, saying he hadn't seen a hitchhiker in a good long time, and that he used to seem them all the time, he yearned for the old days of trucking in many respects, "Trucking's not what it used to be, we used to help eachother out on the road, nowadays everyone's cutting eachother off and doesn't care about another guy. It used to be fun, now it's just a job". I asked him how long he'd been trucking, 40 years he told me, "I"m just a dumb truck driver, never figured anything else out".

We stopped on the side of the road so he could take a piss, he had me step out of the truck for the sake of his admitted paranoia, "I picked one guy up once and left him in the cab alone, 'stupid', I thought, he could locked all the doors and that would have been it!".

We kept on down the road going a steady 57mph, I asked him what time he thought we'd land in Phoenix, afterall I still hadn't even told Larry I was coming. He said it would be close to midnight and that he'd probably have to stop a couple hours along the way, truck drivers can only legally drive so many hours at a time.

He told me about the old days of trucking, flash floods in the area we were in, he'd even point out specific spots on the road as we drove over them where major accidents had happened. I told him a bit about my lifestyle which amused him, he told me I was crazy for it and that he needed too much structure in his life.

There was something uneasy about him though, his eyes moved up and down on me in breif glances from time to time, he was damn near naked and that hand was right by my side the whole ride. I let it drop though.

We pulled into a small town about 150 miles or more from Phoenix still, he told me he'd buy me a meal at the diner, I was pretty hungry by now too having just the granola bar earlier. I shot Larry a message and let him know I was on my way and getting close. In the diner he got me a big cheeseburger with fries that I chowed down with a cup of coffee.

He was going off about the hoover dam' poor security prior to 9-11, which has since forbid big truck traffic. According to him it would have been easy for a few trucks to drive over filled with explosives and crack it, which would have resulted in all kinds of problems "that would make 9-11 look like nothing". I was just happy filling my belly.

The waitress came around asking about dessert and started talking about pies, he told me to ahead and get something so I got blueberry and she put a scoop of icecream on it for me, it hit the spot. We headed back to the truck and started down the road, he said we'd stop soon to catch a couple hours of sleep. I wasn't too interested in stopping, but I was happy to be getting close with a stimach full of food.

We rolled down the road a little further, I wasn't sure if we were going to stop at all, or just keep on towards Phoenix, but just over 100 miles away he pulled into a dark and dusty parking lot. "You can throw on those shorts, they're clean, you can take the back and I'll take the front."

I hopped into the bed in back and changed into the shorts and laid out, he was scribbling things in his log book. I'd thought by "front" he'd meant the front seat, but apparently he'd meant front end of the bed in back, he got back and laid down beside me shutting out the light. He seemed to be getting closer to me than needed, given the size of the bed, I shifted tight against the wall. He got closer still, I rolled agaisnt the wall until I was pressed up tightly facing it on my side. He eventually rolled over the other way putting some space between us.

I wandered into thoughts of Utah, I owed Candice a phone call that would have to wait until the next day. My mind continued to drift for a while, eventually I shifted my arm slightly from my pressed-against-the-wall position. This seemed to trigger the trucker I'd just about forgotten about, who rolled over placing his hand on my hip. I figured what was going on, but I let it drop as if incidental. He started moving his hand and rolling slightly closer and I rolled away from it, he let it sit. This back and forth went on for a few minutes until I took my hand to move his away saying "sorry dude..."

He put it back a little looser now a minute later, never having rolled away. I took note of where my things were - backpack, shoes, pants and shirt - wondering if this would escalate and I'd have to exit the truck or some such. I moved his hand away a few more time, shifting my body tighter against the wall. Finally as I shifted it away once I again, I sighed saying "i'm not into it". At this I could hear him sit up, breathing as heavy as he had been with his hand still near my hip. He sat for a second and I looked up at him, he got up and went back up front and started up the truck.

I laid for a minute and got my jeans, shirt and shoes back on, it was a warm night now that we were closer to Phoenix. He scribbled a few things in his log book then took a piss out the door. I climbed back into the passenger seat and we started rolling back down the road into the night.

The windows were rolled down and a warm breeze came through hitting me just perfect, a minute or so went by and he rolled them up halfway, "Is the wind OK on you?", I told him I liked it and we kept on rolling.

A little while went by, we'd made it to the interstate 10 and I saw the sign that said "Phoenix 100", we weren't far now. He looked over at me, "I still admire you, it takes guts to do what you're doing, I think it's crazy, but I admire you for it", I thanked him and we kept on down the road.

A few more minutes went by and he spoke again, "Like a square peg in a round hole, you finsihed college and have your degree, you're supposed to start a career, get a girl, move into a house", he smiled, "You're so damn happy, why not be miserable like the rest of us?", still smiling.

"I just do what I like to do and it seems to work out."

"It's too late for me", he said, playing the old man.

"The same sun rises for both of us tomorrow, it's not too late for anything", he thought for a second about what anything could be.

"I'm just a dumb truck driver", repeating his words from earlier, "I don't know what I'd do". I mentioned his earlier wishes of going to Alaska and suggested that, he responded, "It would take a whole lot of planning".

I looked at him questionably, "Just go". He laughed and thought about it, bogging it down with details the way people do when they either can't fathom the simplicity of their goal or are complacent with their stagnency.

Words dropped and I watched the mile markers fly by, we were going a lot faster than earlier, Avondale was soon approaching. We rolled off exit 131 and he let me out at the bottom of the ramp, I thanked him for the ride and told him to go to Alaska, "I'll go this summer" he said, and that was that.

I started walking down Avondale Blvd a couple miles towards Larry's house, it was somewhere between 1 and 2am this point. I sang loudly to myself as I often do when I'm walking, thinking about the past few days and vaguely of the days to come.

I found my way into Larry's house and dropped my bag down in the room, I heard the TV on and went upstairs to find him and his dog Coy passed out. Coy woke up and followed me downstairs, that woke Larry up. I passed out pretty quickly thereafter, it'd been an interesting few days.

Magnets in Salt Lake City

2009-04-30T13:00:00.000-07:00

My last minute decision to go to Salt Lake instead of Berkeley lead me to the route 99 on ramp just outside Chico with daylight dwindling. I had a double sided sign, the side I showed off now said "Reno", I would wait until further down the road to show the "SLC" side. It wasn't long at all before an older woman pulled over and let me in, she took me shy of 20 miles down the road to Oroville.

I waited there with my thumb and Reno sign until Luke pulled over, a young guy headed home to cook some pizza, coming back from seeing his girlfriend. We took the back roads as it turned out, but he assured me it lead to the road I was trying to get to. He told me about his current attempt to quit smoking, and cut back on drinking as well, although he was smoking a skinny cigar at this time.

As we got closer he offered to let me stay on his couch for the night, the sun had fallen, but enough light remained for me to entertain the idea of getting one more ride. We stopped by his house either way, he wanted to given me a bag of pot and get his pizza in the oven. His dog bit the back of my leg coming in, but nothing too bad, and Luke gave me a bottle of water and a baggie larger than I'd expected. We hopped in the car and he drove to the road I needed to be on, close to a gas station.

I picked my spot and thumbed the light traffic under a street light, the day's light quickly went away. After some time I was graced with a pickup truck and a quirky driver headed for Reno. He told me stories of playing slots and tipping with 100 dollar bills. He also had many stories of having 3 and 4 women at a time at the casino hotels after winning big, a mixture of on and off-duty hookers.

I couldn't determine if he'd been drinking or was on something else, perhaps just tired, but he critiqued his own questionable driving apologetically between stories. Just before getting to town he bought me a burrito and a soda, and soon enough he was dropping me off just past Reno in a town called Sparks at the on ramp. A moment after he drove away I saw him running back to me, handing me $5 and wishing for his own good karma in return from the world.

I waited at the on ramp for a short amount of time, it was about 10:30 or later, I didn't expect much, but a cop was the first to come. "We don't do that here", referring to hitchhiking, he told me I couldn't do it anywhere, but my best bet would be to go to the nearby truck stop and try to turn up a ride.

I walked in the opposite direction instead, eventually finding myself walking along the train tracks next to the river, the stars shining down on me. The road twisted through the short mountains far up the bank to my left. Eventually I found myself on the wrong side of the river and still no end in sight. I considered camping out for the night, but being that I was likely trespassing railroad property I decided waking up there in daylight may not be the best thing.

I turned around and walked the walk to the truck stop. Upstairs in the driver's lounge I found a seat at a table to take a look at the map on the computer. Another trucker was sitting there, I asked which was he was going, but he'd just come from Salt Lake and was going the opposite direction. We talked for a while anyhow, him about his trucking through the states and dreams of a wife in China, me about my hitching around and reasons for going to Utah.

I looked at the map, discovering that I could have kept walking down the tracks and hit a small town and fresh on ramp, perhaps un patrolled by the cop who'd turned me away earlier. Either way I figured I was done for the night, and decided the river was a good place to sleep and the morning would decide whether to ask for rides at the truck stop or walk forward.

Before I left, the trucker I'd been talking to dropped a 20 dollar bill next to me insisting I take it and spend it "wisely", this was accompanied by a wink to say "buy beer and have a good time with it".

I headed to the river and got in my sleeping bag, cracking open a beer. At Sierra Nevada I'd bought a six pack for the road, I'd left three with Walter when we split in Chico and three for myself. I slept well.

In the morning I walked past the on ramp I'd been chased off the night before, realizing there was no sign forbidding pedestrians, as there is in most states, I decided I'd walk along the freeway to the next on ramp, and so I did for about 3 miles.

The on ramp I finally go to was occupied by a truck and a flashing police car that had pulled him over. I looked down at what looked like a small mining town and figured I'd walk through town in search of yet another on ramp further down and avoid the eyes of the police.

In a small parking lot just off the road I saw a group of people next to their two minivans, the guy in the group looked at me and smiled, I waived at him and said, "Hey there!... You don't happen to be going east are you?"... "East?"... "Yea, Salt Lake City direction?", he turned to his wife who was visibly nervous, he looked away back at me just as quickly and said, "We're headed that way, sure!", his wife seemed a little more upset and just got in her car, I hopped in the passenger seat of his mini van, he had his four kids in the back ranging from 2 - 9 years old.

We started driving, "She's mad at me... but oh well, no biggie". They were a big mormon family, and after the initial conversation of what my story was, he began telling me the whole mormon story of Joseph Smith and how the religion came to be, I let him go on about it. We made a couple stops at gas stations, and finally we arrived hours down the road in Elko, NV, which was the end of the line for me, they were gonna stay in town a couple hours and visit a relative after lunch.

I found myself an on ramp and walked halfway down it thumbing cars, now using my "SLC" sign. A state trooper stopped to check me out, telling me I couldn't be on the "freeway", but I confirmed with him that I could either walk up to the corner and continue thumbing, or walk down the freeway itself as long as I wasn't thumbing or showing my sign.

I chose the corner, after a half hour I was drawn to the taco bell down the hill from me where I filled my belly, then back up to the corner. Some more time went by without a ride, so I got to walking. Perhaps an hour of walking went by and the town got thinner and behind me, I figured I could start thumbing for rides at that point, and that worked.

A work truck stopped, the driver a white haired lady's man who lived only 10 miles up the road. In that short time he told me how he was growing tired of the small town, having dated every woman the town had to offer without finding a single good one. He was originally from southern california where he said the field was much larger and he'd been with woman from 25 to 50, he was about 50 or so himself. Mississippi is where he wanted to move, "where the woman are nice and well mannered". He left me his phone number and the promise of a couch to sleep on if I didn't find any more rides.

I did find another ride though not too much later, the car pulled up behind me and I smiled big running up to the door, a matching smile greeted me from a big blonde haired guy named John, he seemed purely overjoyed. I packed myself in squeezing between plants by my feet and a stuffed car. He was going all the way through Salt Lake City and down to American Fork.

He had a friendly excitement unlike too many others, thrilled to hear my stories and share the most similar stories of his own he could think of. We stopped at one point for soda and almond joy candy. He told me all about the surroundings, his family had once had ranches in the area around us stretching 50 miles and more at a time, and in addition to that he'd built many of the fences in the area. When I brought up train hopping was a freight passed, he told me how he'd seen guys hanging off the train while building fences and waived to them.

We hit the salt flats as we entered Utah, the mountains came into view just as sunset hit, painting exactly the picture I'd been looking forward to. We rolled into Salt Lake, he'd offered to drop me off exactly where I was going, Candice's door step. He left me with his information for if I was ever in need of a place to stay down the road or anything else, he insisted I take a 10 dollar bill from him and off he went.

I walked up to the side door, my visit here had not been announced. I saw Kate in the kitchen and knocked on the door, she turned and opened it seeing my face, "Really?", she laughed and let me in. No one else was home, Candice was due back any time. Kate and I caught up over a beer, and I wandered downstairs eventually to relax and await Candice, I left my SLC sign outside her door.

I heard her walk in and them come down the stairs, pausing when she saw the sign outside her door and I popped out. She smiled the big smile and gave me a matching hug, it was good to be in Utah.

A couple other people came over, she had Peter's dog to watch for a few days too, we relaxed and caught up over some beers, smoking a bowl later in the night when we realized the calendar had rolled over to April 20th.

In the morning I headed to the coffee house while Candice went to her new job, I met her there later just before she got off, a crystal shop close by. We munched on some magic candies I'd brought from Chico while she laid out some tarot cards on the counter to read me fortune.

Later in Candice's backyard we played in her garden a bit until we got the idea to build a sort of wigwam out of a stick pile, we held it up with hoola hoops and covered the whole thing with cloth and a tarp. We enjoyed some hash oil later along with some good beers, that night we slept peacefully in our wigwam of sticks.

The next day started similarly, me at the coffee shop, Candice at the crystal shop. I met her at the end of her shift again and we decided ice cream made the most sense, we grabbed some along with a couple cones and enjoyed it in the park.

More gardening, shoveling away, uprooting, getting things ready to grow.

That night Peter and Parker came back from their mind expanding experience in the desert, they seemed at peace with themselves and in tune with everything despite their apparent distance, reliving their experience as they described it to us.

Denny came through, a friend of everyone else being mentioned, him, Peter and I took to the night, live music, good music. A great bass player and harmonica player, the whole band had everyone alive and feeding off each other. The crowd begged for one more song at the end, they all got back on stage and fed us another tune before we left.

We got back late, Candice was still up watching conspiracy videos. We planted ourselves in her room and listened to a guy talk about Reptilians and mind control, the basic idea being reptilian like races from other planets who are responsible for our being here on earth, and apparently now living under ground waiting to make themselves known. A good story if nothing else.

We relaxed in the garden the next day, Candice hoola hooping with a smile. Surrounded by a beautiful day, biking was the thing, Candice biked and I walked to a friend's house where I was lent a bike. We biked around until we found a spot for some beer and split a pitcher.

We split up after that, I wanted to grab some ramen at the grocery store, on the way back the bike broke down, the tire had somehow bent into the frame of the bike preventing it from spinning, so I walked the rest of the way back, I wasn't far from the house anyhow.

That night we found ourselves going to a free show in the middle of Salt Lake, Michael Franti was performing. I lost everyone in the crowd in the very beginning, stuck in pack of people in front of the stage, so I jumped around for the whole show and caught up with everyone afterwards. We drove around in Ryan's van, he lives in his van and has a nice setup in the back with his bed and all. He got us both a burrito at a good spot and we cruised back home.

I woke up in the morning to discover an incredible amount of traffic was hitting my site, triphopping.com, and many new members were signing up. I called Larry to find out if he had posted something or if he knew what was going on. As it turns out, a friend of ours had posted a link in an email that was sent out to a ton of couchsurfers about an upcoming event.

Spinning off of this good news, Tim and I walked towards the blue plate, a diner in town, and Candice wasn't far behind us taking a shower then getting on her bike. We stopped in the coffee shop next door, turns out Tim works there, and he got us some food from the Blue Plate brought over.

My thought at the beginning of this particular day was to hitchhike out, towards San Diego most likely, but I'd managed to score some cheap Lakers tickets, they were in town playing the Jazz that night, so I decided to stick around. I spent the afternoon peeking at all the new people coming on Trip Hopping and losing my mind with Candice, her losing hers all the same too.

Parker came over later, the two of us went to the game. It was a great game, but it went Utah's way and they won by 2, it turned out to be the only game the Jazz won that series, falling 4 games to 1. Parker is a big Jazz fan, so loved every moment of it. He dropped me off at Candice's place where I shared a bowl with Peter before getting to sleep.

Kate made me a great breakfast in the morning, I spent the bulk of the day tweaking Trip Hopping in light of all the new people coming, it had dwindled a bit from the day before, but still leaps and bounds above any other day the site's been up. Eventually Candice came home, still unable to find her mind, tequila and beer was the answer, Peter joined us later that night until we were all passed out in Candice's room for good.

More Trip Hopping the next day, going stir crazy once the sun went down and happy to have some people who wanted to get out for some food, I just wanted beer and to go, so hopped along with them. The beer was good and we had a few pints, which always begs for more, so we hit the gas station for supplies and landed at Stephen's house where we enjoyed just a bit more, but some smoke and hash oil had us just about knocked out, so Kate and I headed back to her place and crashed.

Again I woke up with hitchhiking on my mind, my clothes were clean and I got a shower in. Kate had mentioned going south a bit towards Spanish Fork with Stephen and offered me a ride. They were planning on going on a small hike to the hot springs. Just as we were getting in the car Candice pulled in, we said goodbyes, something seemed off, but that was that.

Along the ride I was easily convinced to go along with them on the hike and figure the rest out later. We stopped at Stephen's folks place and piled into his dad's car, and the four of us were off. It was threatening rain and snow, but he got there and started hiking anyhow. It was a little ways of a hike, and the snow got heavy half through, but we finally found ourselves at the hot pots. We stripped down to bathing suits and hopped in to get out of the cold, each with a couple beers. We smoked and took it easy. At one point the snow storm got pretty strong, a white wall came right for us swirling everything around, we loved it.

Soon enough the sun showed it's face and started beating down on us, a man walked by on the path above us and offered us a beer that we all passed around. Minutes after that a couple ladies threw down some oranges, I was grateful for that, I hadn't eaten yet that day.

After a few hours we packed it in and headed back down to the car, and on to Stephen's folks' place again. His mom made a hell of a meal, fried taco shells with tasty seasoned chicken and other good things like this.

We ate and relaxed until it was time to get going, I decided to roll back to Salt Lake after all, leaving my hitchhiking for another day. Candice was surprised to see me walk in the door later that night, happy I was back all the same. We ended up passing out on Cam's bed, Cameron is her roommate who was out of town at the moment. We stayed up for a little bit while she tried to explain her recent fit of craziness, which seemed to be a mixture of stress and new realizations not fully understood. We both fell asleep wrapped in crazy.

In the morning we went to the airport to pick up Cam, he'd had a good old time back in home, but was happy to be back. His main objective for the night was to get hammered, as he intended not to drink for the next month and wanted to have one last hurrah, we were happy to help him with this task.

Before we got to drinking, we grabbed a meal at a place called One World that works off donations, or trading time washing dishes for meals. After this we picked up some beer and a half gallon of Jameson whiskey, which we got to drinking right away.

As a few more people arrived, we were already getting deep. Cameron had the idea of getting some nice clothes on and hitting the town, everyone else was into the idea too. Cam had enough nice clothes to outfit the bulk of us, dress shirts, ties, jackets, the whole deal. The girls got there good clothes out and even put on some wigs that Candice had, then we were out into the night.

First we hit a place called the Red Door, which I slightly recall. Something beckoned me outside the bar and I began to wander, coming across a few guys in suits smoking cigars just down the block. I got to talking to them about one thing or another until I got pulled away by Candice and Peter, we were off to the next thing.

A cab took us one way or another until we were at a place called the sky bar. Peter wasn't happy with the cover charge, but managed to "make a deal" or some such, and we stumbled in to the mostly empty dance floor and bar, as hammered as we could be. Everyone got to dancing and drinking some more, Denny met us out there too. At one point I went down the elevator and got into some discussion with a group of people by the door, and soon enough we were all marching back up to the bar again.

Candice never stopped dancing, Peter never stopped laughing, everyone was having a great time. We finally squeezed into a cab and were dropped off at Candice's place, I promptly passed out on the small couch.

We slowly woke up in the morning, still feeling drunk and retelling the stories from the night. We hopped in a car and headed to the Blue Plate and had a great meal, Peter showed me around the yoga studio he works at across the street. We headed home and I got to messing wit Trip Hopping again, and then Candice and I jumped on bikes and rolled back towards Tim's coffee shop where we sat for a while until she had to go to work at the crystal shop. I went to a different coffee house where I talked with Walter about transfering the site to a more powerful server.

I biked over to the crystal shop just before Candice got off work, then she went to Tim's and I grabbed some ramen to go cook back at her place and called it an easy night.

The next day was nice as far as weather goes, Candice took a quick bike ride to Tim's coffee spot and relaxed for a little bit. Peter came in at one point excited about his friend coming into town, Dr. Jubb, he'd be picking him up at the airport soon. Along with Peter was a friend of his, Scott, this guy was apparently going towards Palm Springs, CA the next day and offered me the ride, which would get me pretty close to San Diego where Walter was.

We biked back to Candice's place and she took some time cleaning her garage and gardening away the afternoon.

Towards the evening we headed to Peter's place where we met he friend Dr. Jubb. He's apparently known to some degree in circles related to his work with "life food". The exact definition escapes me, but more or less it's fruits and vegetables. He showed us, and fed us, one substance he called black gold, which was an oily soil containing over 25 species broken down over time that can be found in various parts of the earth. This, he said, was the healthiest substance in the world, citing that it's the only thing that could cure food poisoning in 20 seconds. It tasted good, although when I ate it was mixed heavily with coconut butter and raw honey, tasted a bit like chocolate.

He gave Denny a massage of sorts, whisking away bad energy with his hands as if he was scraping and throwing it. He had many things to say and enjoyed picking up the guitar, a type of flute, and a djembe in between all of this. His nickname was Happy Face.

He gave us a bit of a demonstration as he made us some food, steamed vegetables with nuts and a really good sauce, sort of thai style. Scott made a guacamole type dip, and then Dr. Jubb made a sort of pudding sauce, then whipped it somemore with ice to make a liquidy ice cream sort of deal, all pretty tasty.

The night went on with Happy Face talking about all kinds of things and answering questions. I asked him about using the black gold substance as a type of fuel, he said he had the capability of taking 90% water and any existing fuel to make it all combustable by using a spinning vortex device and adding things at the right time. He wouldn't get into much more detail, saying he feared the powers-that-be would shut him down in some sense. We headed home and were passed out shortly.

In the morning I threw everything in the washer, Candice woke up and we talked for a while. I hopped in and out of the shower with the road on my mind. I'd decided not to take Scott up on his ride offer to California, instead hitchhiking towards Colorado was my idea. Cam has mentioned a trip he was making there that weekend for some soccer and brew tours, and a couple other of my friends were going to be in the area road tripping.

Candice biked along side me the 2 miles to the on ramp headed east, her hair in golden curls she'd done up that morning. We went through wealthy neighborhoods, we joked about going back grad schools, getting degrees and finding jobs we could work at for 20 years until we could become the boss, and then perhaps retire one day. We of course had no idea who actually lived in these houses, but that's the kick we got on.

The on ramp was a nice long strip, down the road in the distance we could see the buildings of downtown, mountains and blue sky in the other direction. Candice threw her bike in the grass, deciding to smoke a cigarette with me there before we parted ways. The cars started to pass, Candice laughed and stuck her thumb out, I didn't want her too. I knew we'd get a ride in a heartbeat and would then have to explain that she wasn't actually riding, just myself. She did it any ways a few times, sure enough, a white pickup truck started to stop ahead, I grabbed my bag and started to say my goodbyes to her, but the truck took off.

Another guy stopped shortly after who lived nearby that wasn't even really going anywhere, I guess he was just intrigued. He gave us a bottle of fancy sparkling water of some such and turned around back to wherever.

I wanted Candice to come with me, the energy was palpable to the cars coming by, we'd be able to go wherever we wanted in this country or any other, I thought of how easy we'd get rides with her curls and smiling eyes, the beer we'd drink, the people we'd meet, the never ending refrain of good times. I knew she wouldn't, couldn't in her mind, too many ties and magnets to people, things and the town of Salt Lake City. I picture her bare foot, sifting through her garden after a yoga session, dark beer on her mind and a smile on her face, she's where she's supposed to be.

After a hug and a spin I watched her bike down the way and turn the corner back to her life, I faced the future of mine, the steady traffic heading on down the road.

California Tripping between Berkeley and Chico

2009-04-20T10:19:00.000-07:00

My stay at the Couchsurfing base camp was easy, I spent most of my time tweaking the Trip Hopping site, the rest spent with the friendly folks living there and enjoying great meals. I was once again tempted with the idea of helping and traveling with the CS crew, something I can figure out later.

After several days of this it was time to hit the road, destination Chico. Walter and I got a ride from Casey, the house manager there, she dropped us off across town near an on ramp we'd scouted out.

As we walked towards our spot, I told Walter about the racing thoughts I'd had the night before while laying alone in the darkness, thoughts of all the different types of energy in the world and how everyone is affected by all of it. That the actions and thoughts of one person affect one type of energy or another that we all perceive, that everything is in motion and predetermined, not pre-decided or crafted, but just that everything that will ever happen could theoretically be predicted, given that one had all the information, as in every spec of knowledge about science and the history of all events and actions.

With what seemed to be a fit of madness, I continued, offering the idea that mind reading was possible and already happening in that we transmit and perceive subtle patterns in energy, without the need to fully understand how, or that we're in fact doing it. In addition I suggested that we could perceive the future, whether we feel like we were manifesting it or predicting it aside.

We joked about it on the ramp, predicting white mini vans that would pick us up, either way we were putting out positive vibes and were rewarded with Ben, a guy going up to Portland who was happy to give us a ride up the way. The way the roads go, this was an incredible ride, getting us out of the mess of the city, down I-80, the turn off to the 505 far down the road, on to I-5 and finally to Orland, a trip that could have taken us 3 or 4 rides.

Ben was interesting to talk to, I rode shotgun, he told me how he'd run his car on veggie oil, piping out grease behind burger joints early in the morning a couple times. He'd also heard of a guy who'd replaced the radiator in his car with a device that would instead harness the heat to create steam energy to further power the car. These types of things interest me, as having a vehicle might be nice if one didn't have to pay for gas.

Orland is a city along I-5 where we got out, then there's a 30 mile stretch of road that goes to Chico. Walter and I walked across town, not very far to walk, until we found a nice turn out where we could thumb from with out "Chico" sign. The idea of beer came up, with less than 10 dollar bills in my pocket I commented that it would be nice if I had 40 and beer is the first thing I would buy.

We walked just a ways from that spot and soon smiled wider as a car pulled over for us, a guy and his girlfriend headed towards Chico. The girl was talkative and friendly, looking back at us behind sun glasses saying they loved helping people out. As it turned out, she was 15 and her boyfriend 18, they seemed older than this. The senior in high school had a sense of pride that his truck got 6 miles to the gallon, a number that Walter found even more unbelievable later when he converted it to liters. He said the only vehicle he'd found that beat his ride was a fire truck that got less mileage.

They left us with their phone number, offering us a ride back to the bay area in a couple days, and dropped us off right at Donna's house where we'd be staying. We went into her backyard and waited for her to arrive, Donna is a friend of Walter's he'd met while working with Couchsurfing. We enjoyed a beer while we waited, and she at last arrived, a happy hippy grey haired woman that was all smiles and hugs.

The first thing she got to was making candies with weed butter, apparently many people in Chico are growers. After the boiling, mixing and pouring of the treats she got right to cooking dinner for all of us, we enjoyed a great chicken meal with fixings and wine, she's a great cook who loves doing it, and this was the reputation I'd heard she'd had before meeting her.

We all ate a candy and went to the farmer's market in the middle of Chico, it began to kick in at this time while we worked our way through the sea of people buying strawberries, almonds and everything else. Donna seemed to know everybody in Chico, she was always waiving at one person or introducing us to another.

We headed back to her place and started a small bonfire, that became our night, sipping wine in the warmth of the fire looking up at the stars amongst conversation and stories.

Donna made us great breakfast sandwiches in the morning with bacon, eggs and avocado. Soon we were off to the farm where she intended to put Walter and I to work. We met some other folks there and were given shovels, mixing soil mixtures in small boxes for the upcoming growing season. We were at it for hours, getting a work out and acquiring blisters on our hands, a nice break in the middle for pizza. It was a good time in the sun, the guy who owned the farm offered to take us all out for dinner later that night.

We went to shower and then headed into town. Donna gave us money for our work, $40 each, beer was the first thing we got, I remembered my wishes from earlier on the side of the road and smiled at the thought's fruition.

We had steaks for dinner, a tasty and satisfying meal, I felt full, stuffed even, for the first time in a couple weeks or more. Afterwards we went to a hotel bar where we watched some local folks place some Irish music. We later dropped the car back off at home and walked to a friend's house, who wasn't there, but he'd offered us access to his pool table and wine. We drank, we ate candies, and played billiards for an hour or two, then wandered back home with our buzzes.

The next day there was no word from our friend who'd offered us a ride back to the bay area, so hitchhiking was the idea. We still spent the better part of the day in Chico biking around and going through another farmer's market among other things. We even made a stop at the Sierra Nevada brewery and had a sample of all their beers.

Five o'clock or so rolled around, the thought of Candice and Salt Lake City struck me. Donna gave us a ride to hitchhike, but instead of going with Walter back towards the Bay Area, I found myself getting dropped off on the other side of town on my own, a sign with Reno and SLC on it. I said my goodbyes to Walter and Donna, still intending on catching up with Walter after figuring out whatever it was that was pulling me into Utah again.

80 Miles in 26 hours, Sacramento to Berkeley

2009-04-13T11:17:00.000-07:00

Walter and I woke up in Sacramento unsure of where we may go next, but eventually settled on hitchhiking together towards Berkeley. Aaron and Jessica dropped us at a gas station by the west bound on ramp, we were off.

We stood with our thumbs out, sometimes holding a sign that read "SF", sometimes playing with a yoyo, chomping on sun flower seeds as we waited. A car swerved to the shoulder behind us and we hopped in, a guy named Joe wearing a cowboy hat. "I'm from the great state of Dallas in the big country called Texas", he proudly told us. He was on his way to pick up his daughter, he took us just about 10 miles down the road.

We waited at another on ramp, still in Sacramento, until a cop informed us we couldn't be on the on ramp. We looked around for better places to stand, but nothing was too suitable. We walked down the road to the next on ramp, We stood by it for just a little while until we decided it was not that great of a spot.

We walked another mile or more to the next one, passing some public transit on the way. We stood by the gas station with our sign, I asked a handful of people filling up their tanks which way they were headed, but no luck there. After standing at one of the two west on ramp together for a good while we decided to split off, so Walter went across the street to the other ramp to see if we'd have better luck individually.

No such luck, we waived to each other and decided to head to the light rail to get as far across town as possible. From the 13th street stop we walked to the very last on ramp before the river to test it out. We stood together for a bit, I walked up the ramp only to discover the absence of space for cars to pull over, and came back down the ramp.

Once again we decided to try going one by one, so I hid behind the bridge while Walter stood on his own thumbing the cars with the sign. I thought I saw someone waive at me from a passing car, 5 minutes later when I came from hiding to talk to Walter and he was gone, turns out he was the one waiving. As it went, he got a ride all the way to Berkeley with some Asian folks who didn't speak english.

I took his place on the ramp thumbing cars, found some paper and made a new sign. I waited close to two hours getting nothing more than a smile here and there, and mostly funny looks.

I walked up to an on ramp further north, only to discover another hitchhiker who'd be waiting in the spot all day. "Two thumbs are better than one!", he said, I joined him for a moment, but the situation seemed grim. He pointed out a foot bridge that wasn't too far away, I walked to it and over the Sacramento River, the sun all but out of sight.

Lot's more walking lead me to another on ramp where I stood under the street light. No luck there either after some waiting, I continued the pattern of walking a great deal, trying a ramp, and continuing to the next one. Soon it was close to midnight, so I found some bushes and passed out in my sleeping bag for the night.

I was up early in the morning, watching the sun rise from the other end of the freeway, my thumb exposed to the cars that emerged from the brightness. After an hour or more a car pulled over, a cop car. He got out and motioned me towards him, "Do you read English?", smart ass remarks loomed in my head, "yes" came out instead. He pointed to the sign that forbid pedestrians on the freeway and asked more questions, like what I was doing and where I was going. He's demeanor changed to a more friendly one after some back and forth, and told me I just had to stay at the bottom or walk along the bike path.

I waited at the bottom for a good while with light traffic at best before opting for the bike path. The path went along the freeway and over the causeway bridge, what felt like a 3 mile stretch or more. It let me out at perhaps one of the more desolate looking on ramps I've seen, the road in fact called "Country Road". I waited for a minute or more there, mostly just to rest my shoulders, then continued on.

More miles went by on foot before I discovered a great looking ramp, but an hour or more there proved otherwise... back to the bike path, many more miles of walking. Water was on my mind, I found myself walking through a residential area that eventually let out to the freeway again. I saw an In-N-Out burger where I intended to get a sip of water, it was closed for Easter. I walked across the street to the ramp, and the second car that came actually stopped for me, I threw my bag in the back and hopped in after 17 or 18 total miles of walking.

The driver was an architecture student from Iran, heading just shy of Berkeley. Half way to where he was going he decided he didn't mind driving me all the way to town, I was grateful for it.

He dropped me right downtown, and I walked from there to the CS basecamp house not too far away. I ringed the bell with no answer, so waited on the porch a few hours until someone came home, Andrew, a CS techie I met in Alaska, was getting back from the slopes in Reno.

I relaxed the night away as familiar faces and new alike, including Walter's, slowly filtered in. I had a great lasagna for dinner, a much needed meal, and finally passed out on an empty futon.

It's not certain what the next move is, perhaps Chico, but we'll see what the days bring.

Drunk, Punched and Banned from Vegas

2009-04-10T23:44:00.000-07:00

Larry dropped me off the very edge of the Phoenix Metro area, I stuck my thumb out and held a sign that read "VEGAS", an hour later I was in a pickup truck going all the way there. The driver told me stories of his days as a vagabond in Myrtle Beach and good rides he'd gotten while hitchhiking, his son was in the passenger seat and remained mostly quiet the whole ride.

Some how Texas came up, and he mentioned he didn't like Houston at all, "Too many Mondays there. You know what a Monday is? Another word for nigger, because nobody likes Mondays".

We hit the drive thru at a Burger King and he bought the three of us chocolate shakes, it hit the spot. Once we got to the Hoover Dam we hit some heavy tourist traffic, but after the big delay we hit the home stretch and were in Vegas in no time, he dropped me off a few miles from the strip and I got to walking, still daylight.

I grabbed some food at the McDonalds on the strip, thinking of where I may stay that night and looking forward to meeting up with Walter. It occurred to me that I had more complimentary room offers sitting in my email, I called the MGM and booked a room. I knew they would need a room deposit for incidental charges, but I headed there anyhow and sat in there business center on my laptop catching up on things assuming I'd figure that out later.

Jacob called from New Mexico, when he heard I had a room already he started driving towards Vegas, he had a credit card, deposit issue solved. Some time after midnight Walter called, his plane had landed and a bus took him to the Sahara casino, about 3 miles down the strip, he said he'd get to walking towards the MGM.

I decided I'd try to meet him half way, close to an hour later I was damn near the Sahara and hadn't seen him, Jacob rolled into town and picked me up and we headed back to the MGM where I'd originally told Walter we should meet, in the sportsbook. We connected there, checked in, and the three of us went up to the room, Walter was tired from 24 hours of travel, starting in London.

None the less we caught up, a shallow flask made it's way around the room twice, and soon we passed out.

In the morning we made our way across the street to THEhotel at Mandalay Bay and checked in. Shortly after we went to the Hooters Casino where we thought we could score a deal signing up for their Players Club card, we played the slots on their dime which totalled in pennies of real dollars, during this my friend Mandy came through, a Vegas local, I gave her and her boyfriend keys to Mandalay Bay so they could use the well known pool there.

We had our wings and a couple cups of beer, Jacob, Walter and I, then more or less made our way through another casino and back to THEhotel where Aaron and Jessica had just arrived, coming in from San Diego.

They had a 30 pack of beer in tow, along with a handle of vodka and water bottle of vodka as well, an apparent gift from Christa for me, she's a girl in San Diego I'd met a handful of times who'd went to school there with Jessica.

I'd put money on the Wizards/Cavs game, so after some drinking in the room we headed to the sports book to catch the second half, I won my money in a close call towards the end, some excited drunken fun that propelled us into my most memorable Vegas night, which I ironically enough, don't remember all the details of.

We headed to the Bellagio where an open bar was that Jacob had heard of, Aaron and Jessica decided to get food along the way and were to meet us there. Once at the door of the club, Jacob and I were turned away, me for having open shoes and shorts, Jacob just for open shoes. The three of us turned to the penny slots to get our drinks and waited for Aaron and Jessica.

Aaron had the proper dress code when he arrived, so him and Walter headed in for free glasses of wine while the rest of us laughed at the slots, Jacob with a beer, myself a martini that became a double when Jessica turned down the drink that should have been Walter's had he not left.

We did a clothing switcharoo in the bathroom after the guys had their fix, it was Jacob, Jessica and my turn to drink the free wine. We drank three glasses a piece in the span of the 15 minutes left of the open bar and stumbled out, I spilled wine on my shirt and went to the bathroom to throw some water on it. Things get foggier after this, but I've managed to piece together the rest, more or less.

I believe the next step was going to the sports book again to watch the games that Aaron and Jessica had bet on, including the ball game that own them money all in the 8th and 9th inning with 5 or 6 runs scored out of nowhere.

Next thing, we were back in the room drinking more beers, myself "out of control" on all other accounts. I had it in me to go the craps table, apparently dumping the majority of my cash, which at that point was about 30 or 40 dollars. We headed back up to the room, but once at our floor I remained on the elevator on my own and slipped back to the casino level on my own.

As drunk as I get, I wandered to the poker table looking for some action, it was around 4am at this point, one table was being played at. I perused the table and starting fishing through my little bag for money, perhaps forgetting all but some stray ones remained.

Apparently it was at this time that I got to talking. Whatever words I chained together formed thoughts that at the very least one guy didn't like so much, because before I knew it there was a fist in my face and I stumbled back on the ground. I recall standing up with some blood dripping on my shirt, a dumb smile on face, security swarming in.

Next thing I was in some back hallway lit brightly with fluorescent lights, sitting in a chair. They were telling me I had said some pretty upsetting things about the guy's girlfriend. They asked me if I wanted to press charged against him, I declined. They told me I was being banned from not only Mandalay Bay, but all MGM properties in Las Vegas, which fairly encompasses the bulk of the strip.

I questioned them, curious why myself, the one punched in the face was being banned, they told me the puncher would be as well, I didn't care too much for his fate though. I never did discover or remember what words I said to deserve it, but being punched and banned has to mean something.

They led me to the cashier cage where I turned a sole blue chip in for a dollar, I suppose from the earlier craps game, then guided me up to the room where I was to collect my things. I grabbed my backpack and they guided me off the property, assuring me that if I came back, "you will be going to jail".

I wandered into the night, then back into the lights of the strip, a few drops of blood still on my shirt and shorts.

Some time went by and I decided to throw on my nathans hotdog hat and attempt to wander in the back entrance directly to the elevator banks to sneak back up to the room and get some sleep. I made it inside, up the elevator, to the room, took off my backpack, the phone rang. I picked it up amongst the darkness and slumber of four friends, at this same time heavy knocks came to the door. The voice on the phone simply said to go to the door, I did.

There were the security guards from before, even more upset then when I'd last seen them, "What did I tell you? If you came back, you're going to jail", I asked if I could grab my bag on the way out, they said no, cuffed me behind my back, and off to the elevators we went.

I found myself in somewhat of a cell, a young hooker cuffed beside me, it wasn't her first time. She assured me I wouldn't be going to jail, that a trooper would come down and just write me a ticket and that I'd perhaps eventually have to pay a fine. The cop came in and did just that, write me a ticket with a court date he said I'd likely not have to attend if I instead chose to pay a yet to be determined amount over the phone.

A couple of the security guards brought me back to my room to collect my bag. Somewhere in the mix my little blue bag went missing, which is essentially my wallet. I was sure that they'd took it out of my pockets when they brought me to the cell, but they said that wasn't the case. I never did find it, and still believe it's in there somewhere.

They once again guided me off the property warning me again not to come back, the sky was just showing signs of the incoming sun. I went as far as the MGM casino itself just down the road and wandered in despite their warnings, I figured news couldn't travel too fast to the other properties, and I headed for the hidden nook of the business center undetected. There I sat falling in and out of sleep until sometime in the late morning.

I called Aaron, the four of them weren't exactly pleased with me, and still in the dark really. I met them there and explained what had happened, they had gone to security as well to inquire. They were still going to be allowed to stay in the room another night, but I wouldn't be able to check into the Luxor the next night seeing as I was forbidden from that property now as well.

They parked the car in the lot of the Tropicana, a safe zone casino, and I slept off what I could while they headed for the pool and so on. I woke up and wandered away for the strip in search of cheap food, I had only less then 10 dollars now. A gas station burrito did the trick.

Some more wandering and the day went by until I met up with Aaron and Jessica again, after some debating we landed at the Rio where we all placed bets on various games, I put five bucks on the Lakers game leaving myself with a single dollar bill, and two half of a dollar that had been ripped in half.

We then went to downtown Vegas, specifically the Golden Nugget. Aaron paid for the three of us at a buffet, then they played craps while I watched the game for which my life savings rode on. Before it ended Walter and Jacob met up with us and we all watched as the Lakers covered the 8.5 point spread against the Nuggets and set me back in the high life.

We watched the Freemont light show and a simple street magician, then headed back to the Rio to collect our winnings, $9.50 for myself. I cocooned myself in the backseat with blankets covering the windows and they left the car at the Luxor for me to sleep, and hopefully be undetected by security, they walked back to the suite at THEhotel.

I slept the night away, careful not to move around too much and be discovered, I wasn't, and in the morning they met me at the car and we drove off after a quick donut stop. Jacob had gone on his way, but Aaron, Jessica, Walter and I rode out the 8 hour or so ride to Sacramento. We listened and laughed a few times as Jessica retold the story to various people on the phone along the way.

We got back and I took the first hot shower I'd had in over a couple weeks, I never got a chance in Vegas and the weeks prior to that I was at Larry's where he didn't have hot water at the time. We closed the night with pizza, beer and a movie.

Tomorrow or the next day the idea is to hitchhike, Walter is likely aiming for Berkeley, and I've yet to decide on a direction. I have a couple ideas, but the best one will surface when the moment comes.

Tripping in Phoenix

2009-04-07T00:42:00.000-07:00

I came to Phoenix to get my website by back online, Trip Hopping, mission acomplished. Other than that's it's been a typical Phoenix visit - beers, jokes, Popos mexican food and riding around in the sprawled out area that is Phoenix Metro.

The first day, however, I made a trip to the Grand Canyon with Larry's brother and some other folk's in town. This made up for the last time I visted, where I arrived in the dark due to some poor sun management on the behalf of the couchsurfers I was riding with who wanted to see every look out point and attraction along the way.

I caught up with Jacob too, he was my couchsurfing host in Charleston, WV when I was hitchhiking through last month with Hoang-Chau on the NYC>Dallas>San Diego trip. Word is he'll be staying with me in Vegas tomorrow. That's where I'm headed, Vegas, again, hitchhiking. This should be a good one, Walter is flying and Aaron & Jessica are driving in. I met Walter in Alaska working for Couchsurfing and hitchhiked with him from there to Vancouver, he lives in Holland if he lives anywhere. I went to school with Aaron in Orlando and last saw him when he married Jessica in Sacramento.

I am pumped to have Trip Hopping back up, if travel is built into your lifestyle you'll love it. Party hard, see you in Vegas.

Vegas in Between

2009-03-25T11:17:00.000-07:00

Going to Vegas on a whim always makes sense, and Kate was a good person to be cruising with. She moves around typically living in a city for around 6 months or so before getting bored and going to the next one, so now Salt Lake City was the place, and at the moment Vegas was calling both of our names.

We talked about our reasons for being on the move, hippies, her on-again-off-again boyfriend and our general excitement for getting to Vegas. We came close to running out of gas at one point, but filled up near the Cove Fort where I-70 and I-15 meet. Later, with about 50 miles left, her check engine light started blinking and we may or may not have smelled something funny. She made some calls to and decided to pull over and pour some oil in the engine, the light stopped blinking, but remained solid, we drove on anyhow and she decided she'd get it checked out before leaving town.

A room key was waiting for us at the Flamingo, her friends had a room and were out eating. She did the makeup thing in the mirror while I got to work on the vodka that remained from the weekend's camping trip. When she was ready we headed to the casino where we sat at the penny slots until a cocktail waitress brought us some beers, then headed across the street to the Belagio where I showed her their seasonal display of flowers and the fountain show out front. Her friends picked her up there to go clubing, something I didn't have the money or interest for.

I kept the room key and headed to the craps table at the Mirage with my remaining money, I left most of it there after an hour of rolling dice and knocking back Guinness. On my way out a couple guys asked me I wanted some yayo, I asked if they were cops and told them I had next to nothing as far as money. They insisted on giving me some bumps, I took a few and started to walk away saying it wasn't real, it was legit, I just didn't have much money to be spending on such things. They began to follow me so I turned and asked how much $5 could get me, it began to kick in anyhow, we exchanged and I kept walking until I hit a bathroom in Harrahs to sniff the rest.

Fired up, I took another swig of vodka and headed back on the strip where I saw one of them again and he offered more. I had four loose bills in my pocket and offered him those, he gave me much more than that should have afforded, mostly because I kept saying he wasn't giving me enough and I didn't want it that bad anyhow, none the less I walked away with a napkin full of powder and headed back up to the room, more interested in my vodka than the napkin.

Right behind me came Kate and her friend Mikey, drunk with stories of her friend Chad hooking up with "some fatty", she hopped in bed and Mikey the other, and soon enough Chad and the not so fat "fatty" blonde girl busted through the door. They recalled a drunken night of dancing and we all passed out.

Chad took the girl home, or somewhere in the morning. Kate decided one night was enough and planned to head back to Utah, I had two complimentary nights booked at THEhotel and had no intention of heading back to Utah anyhow. We headed to her car to discover the battery was dead, I decided to walk down the strip instead of waiting for that, it was only a mile or so anyhow to where I was going, so I said my goodbyes there.

Down the strip at Mandalay Bay I tried to check in, but they required a credit card to have on file for incidental charges, like if I were to raid the mini bar or some such. It was either that or a $200 cash deposit, I didn't have either. I tried calling some friends in town, but eventually had luck by calling family and scribbling down a card number, finally I was able to check in and headed up to the room.

The room itself was a suite like the one I'd stayed in before, a big bedroom and master bathroom, then a living room with another bathroom. I passed out pretty quick and slept through the day, waking up after the sun went down to discover a voicemail from my couchsurfing host in West Virgina, apparently he was in town. He was a great beer bar a ways away, but it would be too late for me to get there and a bit of a walk.

I realized I hadn't eaten all day, anything, so I went down to the casino and picked up some winnings, I'd put just about my last $10 on the Lakers game, they beat the spread and I now had around $20, I used some of it at McDonalds across the street to fill my belly. Back at the room I enjoyed the tub and passed out again.

I woke up early the next morning feeling like I'd caught up on all kinds of sleep, I took a lap around the pool, or "The Beach" as they call it, then filled up at McDonalds again. I wandered around my room and relaxed a lot of the day away, pondering my days spent and days to come. Eventually hunger came again, I headed towards the Luxor for a toasty sandwich, but the price tag deterred me. Oddly enough I wandered towards a place with a far higher tag, the Burger Bar. I'd been there once before and had an interesting experience, I thought it made sense. They have a big beer selection and over priced burgers, I got an IPA and a mozzarella bacon burger.

I left the spot with empty pockets and a full belly, off to my little piece of Vegas in THEhotel. Before passing out I made a sign that read "PHX" in anticipation for the next day's hitch. My bag was packed tightly and my head hit the pillow.

I woke up, in and out of the shower, out the door I went. A guy got on the elevator after me, "That's quite a backpack you have", he laughed.

"Yeah, I take it all over, going to Phoenix today", I held up my PHX sign.

"Does it work?", he laughed again, the door opened on the first floor.

"Like a charm", I replied, and was on my way to prove that once again. I caught a local bus across town to what I thought looked like a good spot to hitch from. The wind was whipping with hurricane proportions, blowing me back a bit, my sign pressed against my chest by itself as if it was glued there, my thumb extended, my eyes on the traffic, a smile on my face. Without much delay I saw a pickup truck making it's way to me, he pulled over and I opened the door, "What's in Phoenix?", he asked. I told him I was seeing a friend, he introduced himself as Cody and I hopped in.

He stopped at a gas station to fill up and grabbed a couple bombers of Blue Moon and gave me one, he'd already cracked a big can of Budweiser earlier in the ride. Later he stopped again and bought a couple more bombers, Pacifico this time. Once we were near Phoenix he went a bit out of his way to drop me closer, he dropped me off and Larry came to pick me up, it was one of the quicker trips to Phoenix I'd ever had, and I'd hitched in 5 or more times in the past couple years.

I did some driving around with Larry and wound up at his place and met a couchsurfer he had staying with him. We went out to dinner at Popos, a great mexican place I'd been to almost every time I'd been in town, we met up with a few more surfers who were staying with him. Back at the place we had some beers and hung out.

It should be a good time in Phoenix, a lot of it will be dedicated to getting our site, Trip Hopping, back online and running smoothly. I already have a couple nights in Vegas booked in April when Walter comes to town, but until then, good times.

Desert Camping and Leaving Utah

2009-03-23T13:04:00.000-07:00

The day finally rolled around for the Wild Yogi desert camping trip, we were all pretty excited. Peter, a yoga instructor and a friend of Candice's, had organized this with Tim, who fits the previous description as well. After some running around the grocery store and gas stations, we were on the road, one more stop for s'mores supplies, then a couple hours into the West Desert we went.

We rolled into a camp spot deep into valley after many miles of dirt road. It was a good spot near a dried up river bed with plenty of grassy spots surrounded by cedar, juniper and sage. With the fire ripping I had some beers, joints and s'mores into the night, there was around 10 of us or so. I passed out in my sleeping bag next to the fire.

The next afternoon we headed to a grassy spot down the way a bit and Tim conducted a yoga session. The lot of us went through the various poses and ended with several minutes of silence staring up at the clouds all in our own head space.

Back at camp a few of us decided to hike up to one of the taller peaks nearby, a couple shots of vodka and we were off. We made it to the top pretty quickly and were able to look out on a lot of the valley. Tim used to take teens around this area, a wilderness program for delinquents, the kind I'd met in Provo when I was younger in a similar program, just not in the wilderness.

Back down at camp I carved away at a small piece of wood by the fire, eventually I jumped up on my own and climbed into the hills behind camp. I found a cliff looking out on to the valley and blew into my harmonica for a while before coming back down.

The group had retreated down into the dried up river bed, having created a new fire ring away from the wind that had now picked up considerably. We sat around a while, some instruments got passed around as well as stories, people slowly started disappearing into the night to sleep. Before long just myself and a few others remained, then just Cam and I. We gathered more fire wood and kept it roaring, had a couple more s'mores and plenty of beer, we decided it was our duty to finish all the beer. We dug out beds on either side of the fire in the dirt, comfy spots with plenty of warmth.

I woke up well rested in the morning, everyone had begun to pack up. We shot out of the desert at a fast pace, kicking up dirt the whole way until we got to paved roads again, soon enough we were back in Salt Lake. I gave Candice a massage and we both promptly passed out on the floor for a while. I took the rest of the night easy, I had the idea of hitchhiking to Vegas in the morning.

I woke up to see the snow falling, I figured I'd wait a day or more for my hitch to Vegas. Candice woke up feeling sick, but all smiles, she's always smiling. We had a quick meal and she went off to get some medicine and see a friend.

Kate, the new roommate, was on her phone a friend in Vegas, I was at my computer and she asked me to look up the cost of flights, expensive. Her friend was pressing her to come, I told her she should drive and I'd come with her, she was in. We packed our bags and waited for Candice to get back to say some goodbyes. We asked her if she wanted to come, she didn't. Kate ran to the car and I hugged Candice one last time. Her eyes gazed at mine as if she was searching for something, it reminded me of the last time I'd left Salt Lake when she dropped me off on the freeway. Spinning all the same as then, I ran outside and jumped into the car and Kate hit it, off we went towards Vegas.

I got a call from Candice before we made it to the freeway, in the mix I'd left my sleeping bag, we turned around to get it. I ran in to find Candice on the couch, kissed her a few times without saying much, ran to the basement for my sleeping bag, and finally we were off to Vegas.

Another Week in Salt Lake City

2009-03-19T08:56:00.000-07:00

I've been in Utah for some time now, the days have been all together relaxing. On Saturday, Pi Day (3.14), a group of us went down to the Bohemian Brewery again to see Bobby and enjoy some beers. We got pitcher after pitcher and a whole mess of food, then Bobby, the brew master, took us all on another tour. We ran into the owner along the way, he bought us all beer and made us laugh the night away with stories of losing her virginity in a tree and the like, Ingrid had pains in her stomach from laughing so much. He was a Czech guy who said everything he thought and hit on the two girls the way only a happy old married man can.

The next couple days were simple. We drank dry-hopped beers in the backyard, I attempted headstands during impromptu yoga sessions. One night was spent at Candice's land lords place drinking wine, spilling back to her place with more drinks and routy laughter, then quiet chatter and chuckles until the sun came up.

Come Saint Patricks day Ingrid flew back to Vegas. We made a stop at Home Depot again for supplies to make hoola hoops, we'd gone there a day or so before to make didgeridoos out of pvc pipe. I took my first sip of Guinness for the day and started putting hoops together with Candice and her new roommate Kate, she moved in just a couple days before.

The day crept on, strung together by beers and banjo strumming, then we headed out to Bobby's house where he was having a party with seemingly endless beer from his brewery. I played a couple games of beer pong with Cameron and then disappeared up stairs where the rest of the group had gone to, smoking a joint enjoying some peace away from the party. We talked to Bobby up there for a while and eventually headed home for some late night food and some sleep after some talking for a bit.

I held the banjo for a while the next day, mostly alone in the house. The sun was out and the backyard was nice, Candice was out working on her garden. After getting some tacos with Kate, Cameron came home and we decided to squeeze a hike in, it was late, but we figured we could get up the mountain in time for the sunset across the valley.

We sped up the mountain, Cameron was quick, we saw some about eight Elk and later a moose carcass as well. Towards the top the snow got thicker, we just made it to a ridge towards the top as the sun was setting and watched it go down in just less than a minute. I didn't have socks on, my toes had lost feeling, we smoked a bowl and looked out on everything a few more minutes.

Down we headed, trudging through the sometimes knee deep snow until we got past the thick of it. "This turned into an adventure", Cameron said, we turned on our headlamps, I rubbed my feet, they went from cold to numb to stinging at this point, but I was high, so kept walking and wiggling my toes without much concern, eventually feeling came back.

It was dark now, we stopped at one point to let the elk pass away from the trail, and a couple more times we stopped just to peek at the stars and listen to the sounds of water and animals around us. We managed our way down back to the car, both feeling pretty good after a race up to the sun and the adventure back down.

The next day we relaxed, Candice working on her garden and hoola hoops, me wandering around, drinking some beers with Peter. We took the night to some live music and drank some beers while playing pool.

The weekend would bring some camping in the desert, more on that next time.

Alaska and Canada Photos

2009-03-16T18:54:00.000-07:00

I finally put up some photos from the hitch down from Alaska through Canada with Walter and Mandie. Here's some I like, or check out the whole album.

From Leaving Alaska Through Canada

Hikes, Boats, Beer and Hitchhikers in Utah and Arizona

2009-03-14T14:00:00.000-07:00

My first few days in Salt Lake City were relaxing, Candice and I schemed about plans for the future. We went to the planetarium one day and 3D IMAX another, and had a couple beers in between.

We spent a lot of time looking at vans and eventually buses we could convert to run on veggie and travel around and live in. Plans for this are still up in the air.

Candice had a yard sale on Saturday morning, plenty of people showed up to buy what she no longer wanted, the end result was a nice chunk of change in her pocket. That same day we hopped in her car and drove a few hundred miles south to see her parents in Saint George.

We spent the next day in Zion with her dad hiking around a couple trails, great views and good times. We hiked again the next day too, a place called snow canyon that was red and orange rocks and sand, we climbed all over it.

A day later we were in a car again, headed towards Lake Powell to stay on a house boat with Candice's friend Matt and his dad and brother. The house boat was pretty big, we sped around a smaller boat scouting out a spot and whipping around until we settled on a small sandy peninsula. We gathered a bunch of logs and fire wood to get a bonfire going later.

Once the house boat was all tied down Matt started cooking. He gave me a lighter and told me where a 6 gallon gas jug was to get the fire going. I walked up the beach and poured a little fuel on the fire and lit it up, about half of it got going pretty good. I though the other half could use some help doused some more fuel on the fire, this of course made the flame trail back to the jug I was holding and created a huge fireball as I tossed it and ran, a puddle of gas and plastic went up in flames and smoke. I came back in the boat and told Matt I owed him a new gas jug, everyone looked out the window to see the two fires going and laughed saying I was lucky I still had hair and wasn't burned up.

We later went and stood around the bonfire until late in the night, at that point I was able to put out the little gas fire. There was a full moon that night, we enjoyed that and the stars we were able to see, it was a beautiful spot to be in.

In the morning we headed back to the docks, Matt, Candice and I took the speed boat and explored a bit in between. Once back at the dock we enjoyed the sun and even did some yoga on the roof of the boat.

The time came to hit the road and Candice I walked back up to the car after saying our goodbyes. The drive between there and Saint George is a nice one, always some red rocks and good things to look at.

We saw a dark figure walking down the side of the freeway, we got closer, a thumb popped out, we smiled. For once I was in the car pulling into the shoulder, looking in the side mirror watching someone else do the backpack dash for the car, the 17 year old Navajo kid popped in the backseat and we were off. He was also heading for Saint George, it's a great feeling to hear a driver say they're going all the way to your destination, I shared his relief.

He said he'd been walking since 6am, it was around 2pm now, and a hot day at that. We gave him juice and he relaxed. He began talking about different herbal remedies he'd come to know growing up, stories about taming wild horses, ceremonies and hunting after scrubbing himself in mud and leaves match the smell of his surroundings.

Talk of picking beads of the cedar trees led us to a stop on the side of the road at one point, the three of us got out of the car and marched through the bushes towards the trees until we found one in bloom, Candice and I began picking the beads. I really had no use for such beads, but picking them was the thing and I assumed I'd give them to Candice later who had better plans for them, necklaces and whatnot.

The kid asked if we had any bud, we did, I went to the car and got that and some juice. He rigged an empty can to smoke out of when the joint failed, Candice kept picking away at the beads and collecting bark from the tree now too. On our way out he dropped part of the can on the ground and said about it, "Whitey picks this stuff up, not us, on the rez we just throw stuff wherever".

We all hopped back in the car headed towards Saint George. He got a little quieter in the back seat and mumbled a bit more when he spoke. We pulled into a gas station to fill up, Candice and I got out. She gave me a look with a hint of confusion and a hint of a smile, I glanced in the car, he had his head down and it looked like he was asleep, but a moment later he opened the door handing the crushed can to out to be thrown away.

We jumped back in the car, Candice asked if he was tired, "No, let's just get out of here he said, head still down", he mumbled something about too many people around and we started to pull out. Just at the corner the car stopped.

Candice looked back at him, "I'm sorry, but this as far as I can take you, I just got a really bad feeling, I'm sorry but you have to get out...", I don't me or the kid saw that coming, he asked why, Candice more or less repeated herself and he kept mumbling "fuck that... fuck no... I can't hitchhike...", I heard a little whimper. I wasn't exactly sure why his ride was getting cut short, but I offered some confidence that I'd hitched this road before and he'd likely get a ride.

The car turned off and Candice got out, I got out too, she opened his door and reluctantly gathered his bag and got out, hoodie up over his head. I looked at him, his face was twisted in confusion and worry with reddening eyes tearing up. I pointed to the stop sign on the corner and said it would be his best bet for getting a ride, at least it's where I would have thumbed from in that spot.

Back in the car we rolled away leaving the Navajo kid behind, Candice apologetically began explaining what had just happened. She said she started getting a weird vibe starting back at the cedar tree, then felt a bit uneasy on the drive away seeing him in the backseat leaned over a bit doing something with his hands a bit out of sight, and that was part of the reasoning for getting gas to take a quick breather. She said when she got back in the car after filling she got an overwhelmingly negative feeling about the whole thing and that prompted the hitchhikers exile.

To me it seemed the negative vibes she was getting started right after he smoked, I suggested he was perhaps acting paranoid and strange because of the bud which led him to be nervous and act a bit a funny which might have sent the wrong message. The whole deal got to Candice, confused about whether her decision was the right one, defaulting that overall it was better to let me out rather than be on edge the whole drive.

We drove past the beauty of southern Utah and pieces or Arizona, the energy in the car was hollowed by the incident with the hitchhiker. We got back to Saint George and met up with one of Candice's friends briefly and then to her grand parents house before heading back to her folk's place. We took it easy, took some showers, talked about the day, and sleep overtook.

In the morning her folks were gone with a note about being at the hospital with Candice's grandmother, we got on the road back to Salt Lake City. We were both tired, I enjoyed the peace of the ride and we cruised straight back into town, we stopped at Bohemian Brewery before anything else. She knew a guy Bobby who works there, we had some drinks and fries then headed into the back where he gave us a tour and some more beer, he even gave Candice two big zip lock bags of barley, one fresh, one used.

We both promptly passed out when back at her house, eventually meeting up with Peter, a yoga instructor and one of Candice's friends we'd been hanging out with a lot. Later that night we went to the airport and picked up Ingrid who'd flown in from Vegas, that's where I met her when we were all partying around Thanksgiving. We used the rest of the night talking and laughing about one thing or another.

The next day we got to look at the green monster, a bus we'd found on craigslist that already ran on veggie oil, one tank goes 1,500 miles on oil you can get for free at most thai, chinese and other restaurants. It's a full sized bus we could live out of, it may be used for Peter's new yoga deal he's getting started too. Candice drove it like a pro, the guy who owns it said he'd hold on to it until we could come up with the cash.

We enjoyed some beers the rest of the day, Bobby came over later that day with a growler from the Bohemian as well, a really good bock. Ingrid cooked a great meal and we relaxed the night away.

It's another Saturday as I write this, as relaxing as anything else. This morning we went to a diner for coffee and whatnot, Candice and Ingrid enjoyed some yoga in the sun.

The future is unclear, cluttered with options and general directions, unknown as usual. Next weekend Peter is leading a group of friends into the desert for yoga and that type of thing. My friend Walter is coming to the states in a couple weeks too, and my free Vegas nights are piling up. Costa Rica is shouting louder. Candice has had money on her mind and scheming ways to pull some in. Zak, another guy who lives in Salt Lake, is taking off on a long excursion heading first towards the northwest and through Vancouver in April, another thought. No shortage of possible good times, but I look forward to the next beer, a sure thing.

Hitching from San Diego to Salt Lake with a stop in Vegas

2009-03-09T22:00:00.000-07:00

I was thinking of leaving San Diego (good times there) without a particular destination, just hopping on the road and seeing where my rides would take me, but a call from Candice gave me a destination, Salt Lake City. That's where I met Candice around Thanksgiving when I surfed her couch a couple nights on the way to Wyoming.

Andy dropped me off on the freeway near Qualcom in San Diego, I'd stayed at his place just over a week. I felt as I usually do when I'm standing by the on ramp, free. The sun beat down and a car stopped, jump in. A long haired hitchhiker from the past picked me up. One of his better stories involved him hitchhiking with a buddy riding along in some guy's car headed west when a cop siren went off and they pulled over. The driver said to the hitchhikers, "Don't worry, I'll just say I picked you up and everything will be cool", which is what happened, but he continued to inform them that he had a gun under his seat and would "take care of the pig". They promptly exited the car at that point and briefly explained to the cop they were hitchhikers who'd gotten as far as they needed and walked up the road.

He dropped me off near Escondido, Stone Brewery crossed my mind, I walked down to the freeway and entertained the cars, one stopped in the shoulder. Out popped two folks my age, a friendly guy and a perky girl happy to pick me up, they'd passed me once and looped back to do so. They made some room and I hopped in front, the back was loaded with chairs they were trying to sell for some extra cash. They only drove me a little way and through a town a bit to unsuccessfully unload the chairs and dropped me back by the freeway.

My next ride came from a Mexican couple in a minivan, we talked about mexico and california, they drove me a good ways up near San Bernadino. He left me at a truck stop he thought would be a good spot, but it was a mile or so off the freeway and right by I-10 instead. I got some food with the 4 dollar bills he gave me then started hiking back towards the freeway, only to find I'd walked down a dead end, turned around, and walked the other way until I found an on ramp. All of this took an hour or so.

I waited a bit until a local tow truck scooped me up, taking me through a town or two and dropped me off, a guy was selling fruit and laughed at me, I laughed at him and smiled up the on ramp until a car stopped for me, a middle aged guy going up the road to Apple Valley about 30 minutes up the road. He dropped me off and it was dark, a big shopping area.

I stood in the brightest spot I could on the on ramp, few cars passed and I can't be sure that they all even saw me, none stopped. I decided to walk through town on the frontage road to see if the next on ramp was better lit or if some bar or anything else would catch my eye. It turned out to be a little ways away, maybe 3 miles. It was as poorly lit as the last, but one of the very first cars stopped and a guy got out and stumbled around to the passenger side to try and make room, his car was packed with everything he owned. He tossed a box of MREs into the bushes to make space, he was a Marine who'd just gotten out. Before I got in he told me he'd been drinking and asked if that was OK, I hopped in.

We cruised up the road, he handed me a beer, he had a jack and coke for himself. He told me stories about being a Marine, his wife he'd split up with, and all of his drunken tales in between. He'd gone on more than his fair share of week long binges ending in blackouts and occasional hospital visits.

Vegas was my stop, I had two free nights on the strip and intended to hang out until getting back on the road to Salt Lake City. He dropped me off in the parking lot next to the Excalibur, handing me yet another beer to go. I wandered up to the check in area double fisting cans of bud lights and got my room key, soon enough I was passed out in my room on the first floor.

In the morning I wandered, armed with an infusion of cash wired to me from some folks in California. I won some money at the craps table and enjoyed the buffet all day long. They'd given me two free game tickets for the carnival type games downstairs, I wandered that way. I tossed a ball in a cup with the first one and won a stuffed flower that said "#1 Mom", the only prize available. Next I won a wizard hat by catapulting a rubber turtle into a bucket with a mallet.

In the morning I was ready to go, I checked out. I walked down the strip towards an on ramp near the Sahara I'd had luck with the last time, a few miles away. I waited on the on ramp until a big guy picked me up who was headed a few exits down, but he helped me out by going further to the speedway exit which is on the very edge of town. He was a friendly guy, he told me he went to Provo Canyon School, a school I'd gone to as well and I told him as much. He told me about his time there, 10 years before I'd gone, then dropped me off.

I waited up on the freeway until the next ride came, a pirate from Vegas. He went to renaissance festivals and was the captain of his ship, meeting with his guild on a regular basis. He loved it, drinking lightly during the day entertaining the boring folk, then night came and he broke out the good stuff and got wild with his pirate kin and anyone else who had lingered behind. He drove me a long ways all to Cedar City.

It was windy on the road, cars rushed past as did the tumble weeds. It wasn't long until a cop car came from the on ramp and pulled into the grass, smashing a bottle with their tire that sprayed liquid all over the road, we laughed at each other through the windshield and I waited for her to say whatever she was saying in the radio until she got out and asked what my deal way. She scanned my license quickly and asked me to just walk up the on ramp off the freeway, I did that.

I thumbed cars from my new spot until a couple pulled up, they were traveling selling souvenirs to gift shops and whatnot, they were headed all the way to Salt Lake City. They were both friendly, we stopped at a TA truck stop along the way so they could check inventory and we kept it moving after that. Once we got into Salt Lake they decided they could take me right to where I was going and let me out right in front of Candice's house.

Cameron was home, her roommate I'd met the last time, we talked a bit and eventually Candice came home. A few of us relaxed and caught up for a bit until sleep overtook us. I slept well, happy to be in Salt Lake with good people and a simple three ride hitch from Vegas.

Sunny San Diego

2009-02-26T13:06:00.000-08:00

Waking up in San Diego felt right, sun beams gently landing on me when I stepped outside from my temporary room in my friend Andy's garage. The garage itself is more of a fun house, equipped with a pool table, fooseball, darts and, my favorite part, Andy's home brewed beer on tap.

I took the first day pretty casual, relaxing for the most part. I took a walk through the nearby Balboa park, getting lost on the golf course and inadvertently wandering on to the driving range at one point. The next day Andy and Laurie, his wife, hosted a Sunday brunch, a few of their friends stopped in and we all enjoyed mimosas and fancy breakfast foods, later Andy and I played some frisbee golf in Balboa park. That night a few more friends stopped by, I got a call later from Mark and Sean who's just flown into town.

I met up with my Astorian friends the next morning, Mark, Sean, Kelly and I all went to the beach. Mark and I got briefly distracted at a liquor store on the walk over, making a mental wish list from the variety of beers. After some wandering of the beach we fulfilled some of that list with Stone's Levitation Ale, Laguntias Red and a bomber of Hemp Ale from Humboldt. We made an obligatory stop at In-N-Out burger and then enjoyed our beers with cigars at Kelly's place.

We later went out so they could rent a bass guitar for the show they intended to play later that week, we stopped for a pitcher of Anchor Steam beer along the way as well. The bartender offered a free pitcher for the first round of beer pong if we could find the supplies, bit the CVS across the street failed to provide the ping pong balls.

Back at Kelly's folks' place we had some great tacos before Sean dropped Mark and I off back at Andy's house, he was beginning to brew beer when we got there. We grabbed some fresh beers and enjoyed some of his past home brewed beer as well before passing out.

We went to a nearby diner in the morning, Mark and I, where Sean and Kelly met us. From there we went straight up to Escondido to Stone Brewery, something I'd been looking forward to for over a year.

Stone brews some of the best beers going. There brewery included a beer garden where we initially relaxed with some beers, Mark and Sean got Ruinations, arguably my favorite beer, I tried the pale ale which I'd never had until then. The tour was incredible, highlighting the current adventure of their popular IPA which was being brewed at that moment. Afterwards we were treated to the taps serving us up with their great beers, we asked loads of questions which resulted in admiration fro the tour guides, this rewarding us with insight and extra tastes of premium beers.

We were on the road back to san diego after we got our share. After relaxing at the family place for a bit Mark and I were dropped off back at Andy's place. We had some sushi, then the night was started. First was a place called the Whistle Stop, a bar with decent beers and a ton of games. First was darts, Mark and I lost by a bulls eye. Mario Cart for super nintendo was projected on the wall, I challenged and defeated all comers.

After this we went to Hamilton's, a tavern well known for their beer selection for good reason, we all got great beers and ate someone else's leftover sandwich left on a table. We played shuffle board and drank more beers thick with laughter and smiles, the culmination of one of the best days in memory. We eventually marched home and passed out after some more stories.

The next day was pretty relaxed, I took a quick bike ride through the park and had another beer at Hamiltons on my way back, Green Flash Imperial IPA. The next day I met up with the Astorians again, we went back to Kelly's place and sat out in the backyard mostly and finished making some CDs for Mark and Sean's show.

Then the show, we headed to Lestats where they were to play, although they didn't know what time or if at all things were getting started. We had some pizza and beer down the street and later found they'd be playing at 11, it was earlier than that. We had some more beers down the street in the meantime, I was happy to catch the Lakers game.

We caught some of the acts before they went on, all but 4 people in the audience filed out by the time Mark and Sean were set on stage, 6 if you include myself and Kelly. During the second song the G string on Mark's guitar broke, they kept playing for another 20 minutes or more. Mark grimaced at points at the sound of his guitar, but all and all they made due and it was one of my favorite shows.

The four of us hit the beach the day after and had some fish tacos, very good, and I had a beer called Hop Hound Amber Wheat which hit the spot. We convinced the Kelly Sean combo to stop at Bev Mo where Mark and I analyzed the immense beer selection for perfection, we landed on a a six pack of Kona Pipeline Porter and a bomber of Sam Adams Chocolate Bock. We went to Kelly's place and enjoyed our selection, both beers were incredible, the chocolate bock was the stand out. They gave me a ride home and said our goodbyes, they'd be flying back to NYC the next day. I tried Andy's new wheat beer that was now ready to drink, very good with a hint of root beer.

The next day was my last full day in San Diego, four of us went out driving around seeing the sites, starting with the beach on Coronado, then point loma, and ocean beach to snack on some food. We made a stop in La Jolla at a small brewery for a beer, then went to the Firehouse Brewery. There we went on a tour and enjoyed some beers before heading back to Andy's place.

That night we went to an Art Gallery where Andy had "VIP" status he'd won in a raffle more or less, by association we were both able to drink free. The show itself was pretty good, various rooms and an outdoor area with artwork and performances throughout. I talked to a guy in a van being used for the lighting board at the moment, apparently it was his show. He told me he had parties like this all the time and was interested in hearing a bit about my travels.

One way or another I ended up in a bar a little ways away with Andy's roommate and his friend, we had a drink and wandered home. Andy was still up playing Quake, capture the flag with weapons online, we played for a while until sleep was the thing.

The next day Andy took me out to the freeway, I-15 North was the road. I'll get the details on that and beyond in the next post, a little shindig through Vegas and on to Salt Lake City and so on from there for some great times.

NYC to San Diego mostly by Thumb, Good Times Between

2009-02-11T11:47:00.000-08:00

Yes, this is a long one, I hitchhiked from NYC to San Diego and had to write and post this all at once due to lack of time along the way, good times will do that. So starting with Superbowl Sunday in NYC...

Tasting our homebrew amongst a crowd was great, everyone seemed to like it, my mind was on the road ahead by the end of the night. Amidst the drinking and football on that Sunday night, a few messages flew back and forth between myself and a couchsurfer from Dallas whose couch I requested. Turns out he was in NYC as well at the moment without a determined way of getting back to Texas, so it was decided we'd hitchhike together.

That aside, I met my little brother at Grand Central the next day, he had two tickets to the Lakers game with him. We headed to the Garden and watched what ended up being an historic game, Kobe Bryant got 61 points, breaking a Madison Square Garden record set back in 1984 by Bernard King who had 60 then. The Lakers won of course, a great last night in the city. My brother made his way back to Connecticut, I found my way back to quiet dark apartment in Astoria. Mark later came back from work and shared a beer.

In the morning I headed for the bus station, Mark set me up with a bagel and a coffee along the way. Outside Penn Station I met Hoang-Chau (pronounced like "Woncho"), my new friend from Dallas who I'd be hitchhiking with. He managed to get himself a 50 cent bus ticket to Washington as well. We shared some stories on the bus and got to know each other a bit, then let our own music and thoughts fill our respective heads as we rolled down the road.

We wandered a bit in Washington until I split off to meet my cousin, Hoang-Chau had someone else to stay with the night and we planned to meet in the morning to begin heading west. My cousin caught me up on his current job and life as it was, that night he took me out for beer and a big meal with his boyfriend in Arlington.

I slept well that night and woke early, out the door with my cousin on his way to work, flurries were in the air, he went to work and I waited for Hoang-Chau at the coffee shop. When we met up we rode the subway as far as it would go, emerged and headed for the closest on ramp to I-66 heading west.

I wasn't sure what kind of luck to expect hitchhiking as two guys, although I'd hitched with another girl, two girl, a girl and a guy, and of course just by myself. Before long a pickup truck pulled over for us, bags in the back, me in the backseat and Hoang-Chau riding shotgun, driving was a big old man who apparently was known by the name Uncle Mike, he was thrilled to have found some hitchhikers. "So where yall boys headed anyhow?", we told him, "Charleston, Charleston! You boys are hitchhiking, old ducks!"

He'd apparently done his share of hitching back in the day, he told us a story of how he'd run from the law and hitched to California only to find he hadn't been in trouble anyhow and then come back. He had a son he tried to get to try the road out, but only lasted 8 months and came home, so now he was working his grandson and even had a VW van and a nice motorcycle lined up.

After a little drive up the road he dropped us off at another on ramp where we waited for our next ride. Another older guy picked us up and drove us a ways, just shy of the split where we'd be getting on interstate 81 to head south, right by the gas station. Inside we got some cardboard for making a sign. As we were walking out a guy with a smile asked if we were hitchhiking, he was thrilled to hear the answer. He tried to offer us a ride, but his car was truly packed and it wouldn't have been possible. He left us with $5 and a said to find a guy named Roadblock in a place called the Empty Glass in Charleston.

We walked up to the on ramp were soon picked up by a trucker named Larry who was headed to Roanoke loaded up with milk. We rode with him as far as the split where we needed to hop on I-64, he let us out there on the side of the road.

After getting to a good spot we got picked up pretty quick, a guy with some skis in the back of his car and happy to have some passengers. He was a chef and a very friendly person. After driving us a good ways he let us out on the road with a box of leftovers, a good portion of fries and fish which we started munching on as we waited for our next ride.

A cop car pulled into the side of the road, each of us with a mouthful of fries. He asked if we saw the the sign, we hadn't, he asked us to get down off the freeway to the on ramp instead after running our IDs, he buzzed Hoang-Chau with the siren when he took a picture of his car.

We walked down the ramp and saw the sign, literally a thumb with a cross over it. At the base of the on ramp we got a ride in no time, a guy our age happy to give us a ride. Where he let us out was pretty cold, my ears instantly started stinging, my cheeks doing the same with every gust of wind.

We luckily scored a ride after 30 minutes or less from a woman in a pickup. She drove us a ways until we waived goodbye and headed into the gas station in Alta, West Virginia. I used the bathroom and then waited by the door for Hoang-Chau to do his thing. A few girls were grouped together behind the counter in the adjacent restaurant looking in my direction, they coaxed a few smiles out of me, I assumed they didn't get too many guys wandering in with backpacks.

We headed back out into the cold snowy evening, the freeway was just a quarter mile away at best, and by the time we got to it the last bit of daylight had subsided. We held up our "Charleston" sign anyhow, the cars couldn't see it, couldn't see us. We each chugged a beer, Stellas. I mentioned the three girls, we headed back to the restaurant with the idea of getting coffee and seeing if anything could come of it.

Walking back up the on ramp a pair of headlights slowed down and pulled over, we thought we were lucky as hell, we ran up to it with the excitement of getting a ride, but as we got right up to it we could make out the siren on top. I opened the passenger door and spoke with a friendly cop who was wondering what we were doing, he said we should head back to the gas station, which is what were doing, wished us good luck, and we were back on our way.

We sat down at the counter asking for coffees, the girls were interested to hear what our story was, we told them where were headed and where we'd come from. The tallest one smiled and seemed interested, the other two listened and chimed in a bit here and there with questions. "So where do you sleep?" one asked.

"Tonight... unless we get a ride or something else we'll be camping out somewhere outside, we've got sleeping bags and whatnot", my reply was met by a blank stare. It was about 7 degrees outside with snow dumping, but this was our option at the moment. We continued drinking our coffees, they even gave us crayons to color with.

A man who overheard our story laid a 10 dollar bill on the counter, "I'm going the other way, just came from Charleston, would give you a ride if I could, hope this helps", we thanked him and he was on his way.

Finally, and a bit reluctantly, one of the girls said she could give us a ride to the truck stop just up the road that was a little bit bigger. "You guys aren't murders are you? Because I will shoot you. I have a gun in my car, and I'm strong for a girl, and we're redneck around here, we will shoot.", we laughed it off, she was serious, "and she's gonna follow in case anything gets funny. There's bears out there too, I'll cover you in honey and leave you out for them!"

"Sure! Thanks! No need to worry about us, we'd love a ride.", we continued to joke, she stayed stone cold serious about the matter. Really the ride didn't seem all that beneficial, the truck stop was just 5 or so miles up, and would be closed by the time we got there, same as the one we were at, but the idea of riding with fearful gun toting plain jane from the country was hard to turn down.

As it went she didn't end up taking us, apparently she was sticking around town to spend the night, her mom didn't want her driving on the slick roads, that's what she told us anyhow. The restaurant closed at 9, but the gas station remained open until 11. We took turns going in and out with our sign and asking the few people getting gas where they were headed. The man working at the gas station, a tall gray haired guy with a mustache, said for $20 he'd drive us to Charleston after they closed. I told him we were short on cash, but the road had given us a total of $15 throughout the day and we could give him that much. He didn't seem to like that idea.

We waited more, enjoying the heat of the inside while we had it. The gas station man made some more offers, to drive us halfway and such, all of it still meant sleeping in the snow and hitching more in the morning, we passed on this. At last he said "Can I trust you boys?", we assured him of such, and he offered to let us crash at his place, we gladly accepted.

We waited until for closing time to come, a trucker came in at one point saying how bad the roads were between there and Charleston, "practically shutdown". We talked to him for a bit, he told us some tall tale about walking from Oklahoma City to Louisville in just a couple days, we let him tell it.

It was cold outside as we waited for the man to close the shop, various locals came through asking what we were doing looking at us like we were nuts. Eventually the man pulled his car around and let us sit in the warmth while he finished closing, and soon enough we were driving down the back roads towards his cabin. We went through a couple gates where he had to get out and unlatch them, then arrived as his spot in the middle of the woods.

He showed us the outhouse for shits, "but piss anywhere of course", then we headed inside. The first room where he was sleeping had a space heater, then there was the kitchen with a wood burning stove, and in the back a room with bunk beds, the place was designed by his dad as a hunting cabin. He got the fire going and we set up our sleeping bags right next to it.

We talked for a bit, he seemed like a lonely man, he left his wife in Ohio because of her gambling issues and other problems. He talked about his dreams a bit, and went on to say "I don't think we have total control, there's something beyond us that controls everything we do", I suggested aliens, he agreed.

In the morning we all arose at once, a nice sleep by the fire did us well. We heated up some beef stew and he dropped us off down the road on the freeway, at the truck stop the girl had offered to drop us off at the night before. We waited where the on ramp met the freeway, cars whizzing by ever so frequently. To occupy time we named off movies starting with A, then B, and so on. Shortly after we'd exhausted Z a car pulled over for us, we hopped in.

The guy driving was about 40, going down the road in search of a new job. He told us of a previous one, he was a salesman for various beers, and had done a good job. We all went through our lists of beers, favorite beers, styles, beers from different parts of the world, his favorite beer was called Blanche De Namur, I name I may not have remembered if not for what happened a little later.

He dropped us off up on the freeway just before where he was turning off, still a little ways to go to Charleston. We stuck out our thumbs to the oncoming traffic. I tired to recall the name of the beer when mentioning it again to Hoang-Chau, neither of us could remember. I looked behind as I often do to see if any of the passing cars had stopped, and sure enough there was a car backing up towards us in the shoulder, we ran for it. It was our beer friend from just a moment ago, he handed me a piece of paper, "I forgot to write it down, here ya go!", he sped off, I opened the paper that read "Blanche De Numur". Just as we were waiving goodbye for the second time a pickup truck pulled into the shoulder, our ride to Charleston.

The woman driving was named Joyce, headed to Charleston to deal with her bi-polar husband. He'd been put in jail and possible a mental hospital. One day he was at home and thought he heard intruders and was shooting into his backyard, the cops came and heard shots, assumed they were being fired at, and stormed the house and arrested him, trashing everything in the process. Joyce planned to take legal action against the police for that as well denying her husband meds.

Her father was a coal miner who caught a case of black lung and was receiving benefits until one day the powers that be asked for all the money back, he shot himself knowing he couldn't pay it back. The uproar resulted in changes, people with black lung would continue to receive benefits without the need to ever pay anything back.

Joyce continued to drive us until we reached our exit in Charleston. Her eyes watered up without threat of tears as she gave us both a hug goodbye. We walked down the street towards the capitol building in the direction of Jacob's apartment, a couchsurfing host we'd be staying with, he met us outside and we went up to his apartment. He was an interesting guy with a big interest in beers, a fridge full of good stuff and we all had a glass. He'd drove hours to Michigan to get a case of his particular favorite called Hopslam.

After a couple pints we headed out, he showed us some cool viewpoints of the city and eventually we ended up at a wings place. I got the hottest wings they had which required signing a waiver, apparently my name will show up on the wall for finishing my plate, and they were pretty hot. Back at his apartment we had more beers, and then headed out to a bar to catch the last bit of the Lakers game, we got to the bar just in time to see the game go into overtime, and then watched them beat the Celtics. We had a few more beers at the apartment into the night telling stories and listening to good music until we finally crashed.

In the morning I was beat, a bit of an ache from sleeping funny and somewhat of a fever slowing me down, a bit hungover too. We had some pancakes and then hopped in the car, Jacob drove us about an hour down the road just past Huntington to give us a good head start on our hitch to Louisville, I slept most of that ride and felt pretty good after.

Thumbs out on the freeway with a new sign that said "Louisville", we caught a ride from a pickup truck driven by Ron. He was an interesting guy on his way to Tennessee, we talked about all kinds of things, hunting came up a lot, he'd had all kinds of different meat, his favorite was turtle. He drove us as far as Elizabethtown, about 40 minutes south of Louisville.

It took a good bit of walking down the freeway and trying different spots, an hour or more into it the sun went down. We finally got picked up though, a younger guy and girl headed to a bar in Louisville. They dropped us off right at the couchsurfers spot where we met the folks we'd be staying with. I intended to go to Kurt's show, the musician I'd met and traveled a bit with from OKC to Kansas and Denver months before, but I ended up calling it an early night to rest up, I never did end up meeting up with Kurt in Louisville.

The next day we drove around the city with Dwight, the boyfriend of one of the girls we were staying with. Hoang-Chau went to the Louisville slugger spot and got some mini bats, we also checked out a 200 year old tree that had toppled in the ice storm about a week before. There were fallen trees and debris everywhere still from the storm. That night we filled up a couple growlers of beer at the Cumberland brewery where one of the girls worked. Some friends came over and we drank and played games until sleep came.

In the morning we grabbed some free subs across the street for signing up as "members", then Dwight gave us a ride to a rest area outside of town a little ways in the the direction of Nashville, our next stop. We got a ride in pretty good time, two guys headed back to Atlanta from a job north of Louisville. They had a sign that said "Flash Us", whenever they saw a cute girl they'd drive up beside them and hold up the sign. The girls would either laugh or look disgusted, then they'd hold up the other sign that said "sorry". No one flashed us.

One car full of girls looked pretty upset, and we sped away. They caught up to us with a camera, we assumed they were taking pictures of the plates, we sped up more to escape and eventually veered off an exit to a gas station, throwing away the signs in case they called the cops. Nothing ever came of it. The guys bought us both a gatorade.

We kept on towards Nashville, they showed us a tiny gun they had, a deringer, it wasn't loaded. Hoang-Chau took a few pictures with him holding it. He took a lot of pictures the whole trip, camera constantly flashing no matter what we were doing. He also took notes the whole way, pecking away at his blackberry journaling the events of our trip as they were happening.

The guys dropped us off in Nashville, Hoang-Chau had them sign his travel book beforehand, he had everyone who gave us a ride sign the book, and other people we met along the way too. We walked over the bridge into downtown, I contacted Chris, our couchsurfing host who said he'd pick us up in an hour or so. We made our way to the broadway where we passed plenty of tourist looking bars, and eventually ended up in the Big River brewery each getting the sampler of about 7 of their beers, most pretty good.

Chris picked us up soon enough, an outgoing college student of about 20, we met his girlfriend and another girl over some coffee, and Chris showed us around his school a bit. His roommate made some mexican food for all of us, then the two of them headed to a frat meeting. We talked some more later and finished off a growler of pale ale we'd hauled from Louisville before heading to sleep.

We grabbed a quick bite in the morning and Chris dropped us off on the interstate. We had to walk a ways to find a better spot, eventually settling on a decent looking spot. One blonde woman stopped, not to give us a ride, but slipped a couple bucks out the window and wished us luck.

We eventually got picked up. The guy was interested in our travels and drove us just a little ways up the road.

We waited at our new spot on the freeway for over an hour with no rides. After longer than that I thought it could be a good idea if I split off and walked ahead, and thought maybe we'd have luck getting picked up individually. Off I went, hiking down the shoulder of the road, cars and trucks whipping by. After a couple miles I laid in the grass for a few minutes resting up, then continued walking some more without any sign of another exit even. A pickup truck finally came stopping behind me, when it got close enough I could see Hoang-Chau in the passenger seat, he'd got picked up and convinced the guy to stop for me too, and just our luck the guy was going straight through Little Rock, our next stop.

The guy was retired from the Army, he spent a great deal of time talking about it and more or less trying to recruit us from every angle. He thought we were pretty sad individuals on a path to nowhere, I pegged him as short sighted and stubborn, not the type of person worth proving anything too, so we let him talk about everything he had to say pulling useful nuggets out where we could. He went a bit out of his way to drop us off across the street from the apartment complex of our next Couchsurfing host, under an overhang where we could stay out of the rain while we waited for her to get home. He was the only person who declined signing Hoang-Chau's travel book.

Sophie, the girls we'd be staying with there, gave us a call when she got home and told us to head over. We made our way across the street in the gentle rain. I looked up to see a white pickup truck zooming right for me, in an instant it crossed my mind that they thought I was someone else who'd done them wrong, they smashed into me, my left knee smacked into the grill of the car and my head slammed down on the hood, I rolled off the truck and hit the ground, looking up to see the door opening. I was dizzy, Hoang -Chau started running over shouting "What the fuck man?!", I could hear the fight in his voice, we were unsure what just happened.

The guy started apoligizing immediately, it had been an accident. My head hurt, my hand and elbow scraped up from hitting the ground, I felt blood on my head, but it was just the rain. Hoang-Chau snapped a picture of the license plate and the guy, Patrick, gave us his phone number in case anything was needed and drove off. All and all I was fine, just a bump and some scrapes, the dizziness stuck with me for another few minutes as we walked to Sophie's place, laughing about it knowing it could have been worse.

I got cleaned up and grabbed some band aids and settled in, Sophie's place was simple and clean, she was a real nice girl from France working there in Little Rock. We talked a while then met one of her friends from nearby, a french guy who worked with her, they did work with private planes. She cooked a great pasta dinner, we all watched a movie and faded to sleep.

She was gone in the morning, off to work. We showered and gathered our stuff, then started hiking across town towards the interstate to start making our way to Dallas, Hoang-Chau's home. We ended up taking a public bus cross town to the interstate, the rain was coming down off and on. In a break in the rain we got on the freeway with our new "Dallas" cardboard sign, but were quickly greeted by a cop, he didn't get out, just spoke through his loud speaker telling us to get off the freeway.

We walked up a little more towards the next on ramp to see if we'd find a better spot, we came across a gas station along the way, Hoang-Chau went in while I waited outside. A man came up to me, "I've been there before man, I can get you a ride up just a little ways." I ran inside and told Hoang-Chau we had a ride, in a minute we were both laying in the bed of the pickup truck rolling down the freeway, wind blowing through everything. I love those rides, it was Hoang-Chau's first in a pickup like that, I hadn't had one in a while, tough to beat.

The guy and his son dropped us off about 20 miles up the road, it seemed we were in the clear as far as rain goes. We thumbed out for a while on the freeway awaiting our next ride, we made a mad dash for a Penske truck that stopped up the road, but it turned out they'd stopped for reasons unrelated to picking up us hitchhikers.

An RV drove by eventually and managed to stop in about the same spot the Penske truck had earlier, but this time it was for us. We hopped in and met a young guy driving, we was a middle man between a repo guys and auctions, constantly driving things like RVs to deliver them, seemed like a sweet gig, and he was headed all the way through Dallas to Fort Worth.

We relaxed and joked with the guy, trading off between the front seat, the couch, bed in the back, and the recliner chair. He stopped half way and latched a boat on to the back, another repo job, it meant double pay for him. A little more down the road we stopped at a Braums and Hoang-Chau got us some burgers and shakes.

As we got closer to Dallas the rain started coming down heavier and the winds picked up, we could feel the RV sway especially when going under and out of overpasses. It settled down by the time we reached Dallas, we were dropped off at a gas station in town where a couple of Hoang-Chau's friends picked us up and we headed back to where he was staying, Will's place.

We relaxed that night, and took it easy the next day too. I wandered a community college campus and caught up on the computer a bit, then we wandered the mall. That night we went out for good beers, I had a decent IPA and Hoang-Chau had his first taste of Stone's Aarogant Bastard, I finished what he couldn't. We then hung around a club nearby until well after closing waiting for Will to collect a check from the owner for some design work he'd done for them.

The next day we met Anthony, a guy Hoang-Chau had got in touch with learn some more about Parkour, which is like urban jungle gyming - flips, climbing on roofs, jumping gaps, that type of thing. We both watched as Anthony ran around the apartment complex getting on top of every roof until we decided to go back to the college campus and see what kinds of obstacles it had in store.

He jumped all over everything, ran up walls into back flips, and even did a little damage to a floor that wasn't quite a floor near the library. When that was exausted we headed to the mall, Anthony had the idea to run through the mall in Parkour style until he could attract security or police to chase him. We wandered the mall but he never ran for anything, and we headed back to the apartment.

Anthony accelerated quickly and drove fast, weaving through whatever he could, whether it was a parking lot of the freeway, it made for fun rides in all the in betweens. He raced his car through the apartment complex, drifting and skidding as we pulled near the apartment narrowly missing two parked cars, then slided into a spot with menaiacle laughter. Three guys stood by the spot looking amazed at what they'd just seen, as it turns out they were couchsurfers waiting for Hoang-Chau, who had forgotten Wiwwwabout them coming, but here they were.

Will's apartment was controled by the school, he wasn't supposed to have people stay overnight and was already on thin ice because of getting caught with guests not too long ago, but Hoang-Chau knew a friend where they could likely stay with the night. A few other people started filtering into the apartment with talks of drinking. Before long a poker game started with myself, Anthony, and the three couchsurfers from Quebec, a $5 buy-in. I was the last one standing and walked away with the money, the girls and everyone else long past ready to go out drinking, the time was near 2am.

We headed to a bar that was just fixing to close, a tiny old woman behind the bar still gave us a beer each and a 10 minute warning, we fit in a game of pool and left the place. As it turned out the whole lot of us headed to a girl's house with the intention to drink more and pass out, and that's what we did.

In the morning Anthony drove Hoang-Chau and I north in the direction of Denton with the idea of dropping me off on the freeway so I could hitchhike up to Oklahoma City on my path to San Diego. On the way there Anthony drove as usual, cutting off a lady in a red car pretty close. He had reason to think she'd called the cops and was a bit paranoid about it. After a late start and some stops here and there we didn't get to Denton until 3 or so, Anthony said his buddy would have a party that night and we should just stay in town. We wandered around another mall, and then went to a pizza spot.

Around this time I got a message from Jeanie, a girl who'd picked me up hitchhiking around that area a while back on my way to OKC, she was in town and knew of another party going on, she told us to come later. We headed to Anthony's friend's place and met him, Matt. He had no intention of having a party as Anthony said, but had plenty of beer and intended to get more. The four of us headed to a construction site right as night hit, Matt was also into Parkour and they wanted to poach this particular spot. They climbed and leaped around until that was done, then decided to head to the square to see if they could flip around some sort of crowd. There wasn't much of a crowd, but they both flipped off walls and ran around a bit.

We picked up some more beer and headed back to Matt's place, I drank some beers I hadn't had, Shiner Blonde and and Shiner Bock, both fairly good. A couple other people came over and played some Halo and Rockband. I got a text from Jeanie and a few of us headed her way towards the party.

We got there and I found her and caught up a bit. She'd gone out of her way to pick me up back when she did, drove me 45 minutes or more up the road into Oklahoma, and has sent me messages ever since wondering where I was and what I was up to in my travels. Her boyfriend hovered closely, my interest turned to the huge inflated slide in the yard, I slid up and down a few times and circulated through the party some more. We noticed another party raging across the street and strolled in to see the situation, a band playing and general drunkeness in two houses and a bit of a courtyard in between.

Through the night we drank and wandered between the two parties, Anthony did some flips of course when he could, a cute girl introduced herself to him but he didn't seem to have anything to say to her, she walked away. I talked to Jeanie some more, she told me her plans to travel and go to more schools abroad if she could get in for free. The cops showed up eventually, just checking in really, but unwarranted paranoia caused enough people to scatter and the domino effect drained the party, we were gone too, stumbling into Matt's place and passing out.

The next day I found myself jumping out of Anthony's car at a red light with my backpack and heading up the on ramp, on my own and looking for my next ride. It was a couple from the area and there son in the back seat playing with an electronic toy game, he may have been 7 or 8. They drove me just a little ways up the road and loaded me up with a couple cheeseburgers from mcdonalds before letting me out on the road.

I walked a good ways seeking a better spot, many cars passed, but none were stopping. The clouds threatened rain, at one point they fired on me with pellets of ice, better than rain I thought. After what seemed like a good while a pickup truck stopped for me, a local guy driving who said he'd hitchhiked a decent amount growing up. We passed some traffic heading to a casino, he told me about his current girlfriend who was always blowing her paychecks in the slot machines. As he was going on about this his phone rang, it was her asking him to pick up lotto tickets on the way home.

The rain picked up pretty heavy, I figured my pack was getting good and wet, he let me out a truck stop and I went inside to stay dry. I stayed put at a table by the truckers lounge waiting out the rain. Another trucker overheard me on the phone talking about hitchhiking and asked where I was headed, he wasn't going anywhere for a day or so though.

The rain finally broke and I booked it for the freeway to see if I could catch a ride before it started up again. Just as a drizzle started a truck pulled off into the shoulder ahead and I ran for it all smiles. The trucker was headed for North Dakota, so that meant Oklahoma City for me. He was a felon of sorts, busted for stealing and selling four wheelers, did some time for that, and also got caught stealing tools from Peterbilt, but got away with other things like selling and trafficing cocaine for a few months.

He dropped me off along the freeway where I-35 met I-40, the road I'd be taking west. It was dark now, valentines day as it were, I hadn't a place to stay in town, but it was fairly warm and I camped in OKC a number of times. I hiked clear across town, it was further than I thought, maybe 10 or 15 miles. My intention was to relax in a starbucks until it closed, but I got there as they were shutting their doors for the night. I walked a little further to a Texas Roadhouse, I nursed a beer and went through a couple buckets of peanuts at the bar.

I walked further up still running along the freeway and set up camp in a field close to the truck stop, a field I'd camped in the first time I was in Oklahoma after my first long hitchhiking trip back when. The air was cool, but my sleeping bag did the trick and I slept through the night more or less, heading to the truck stop in the morning to clean up a bit.

From there I was on the I-40 greeting the west bound traffic in hope of a long ride. I saw sirens go off, a cop was pulling a car over for speeding or some such, they decided to pull over directly in front of me. The cop hardly gave me a glance, and I kept thumbing the cars. I'm not sure what passers by thought was going on, dude in a backpack hitchhiking next to a flashing police car, the people in the car pulled over also seemed perplexed.

I started walking up the freeway, hitching by the cop car wasn't working out. Soon enough I was in a car with a guy headed to work at the oil fields in Elk City. He told me about his take on the economy and his job security, then put on the comedy channel for a while until we got to his exit. He dropped me off at a McDonalds and four dollar bills to use for food. I filled up my stomach and headed to the freeway yet again.

A young guy stopped for me just as I was walking up the ramp, the very first car to pass. There was a girl in front, I hopped in the back. He said at first he thought I was someone else, a hitchhiker he'd given a few rides to, some guy who parties back and forth between OKC and Amarillo, TX. He had some beer in the back and offered me one, a Bud Light. I finished that and he offered me another one just miles before he dropped me off, I had to chug it down, luckily Bud Lights go down like water.

My next ride came soon enough, this guy was coming from Illinois on his way to Phoenix to see his ex-girlfriends kids, he was sort of like a dad to them and there mom was drugged out of the picture from their lives. After that he planned to go to Vegas and drink like a fish. I was only going as far as Albuquerque, but Phoenix would be my next stop. He told me all about his trips to whore houses in Vegas and the situation with his ex-girlfriend along the way. We stopped at a gas station where he got me a sandwich, and soon enough he dropped me off in Albuquerque where I waited at the coffee shop for Codie, my couchsurfing host there.

She picked me up and we headed to her place, we made a quick trip to the grocery store. Back at her place she cut up some peppers to let me taste the differences between red, green, orange and yellow, I liked yellow the best, she made a sandwich with all of them. It was an easy night and she had a guest room, I slept in a comfy bed compared to my grassy nook the night before in Oklahoma.

She dropped me off on the road the next day, Phoenix was my new destination. An hour went by a car stopped, I tossed my backpack in the trunk and hopped in, booming bible speak was coming out of the speakers, a clean cut native guy was driving. He immediately launched into a brief life story of a troubled past of drugs and whatnot, but god was showing him the way now into his current aspirations of becoming a succesful insurance agent. He drove me as far as Laguna and let me out.

I walked about a mile up the freeway to a rest area and tossed my bag down waiting for my next ride. After a while of waiting I put my sweatshirt on to begin walking further down to seek out a better spot, but right then a car pulled over and I hopped in. It was a mexican guy heading to Vegas to work on the City Center in the middle of the strip, he was a real nice guy and the ride would get me as far as Flagstaff.

It was a good long ride and we talked about a lot, he filled up his tank in Flagstaff and got me some food and drink before dropping me off at I-17, the road that would take me south to Phoenix. Darkness was just kicking in, by the time I walked over the bridge and made it to a good spot darkness was there to stay, but I found a decent streetlight to stand under, my feet in the snow.

Sure enough, someone spotted me and stopped, a massage therapist working in Flagstaff and living in Cottonwood, a small town down the road about 90 miles from Phoenix. She offered to let me crash at her place, it was too dark to hope for any more rides so I gladly agreed to stay. She had one roommate, she was cooking when we walked in, I enjoyed some chicken watched some TV with them before finally passing out on the floor in my sleeping bag.

In the morning she drove me back to I-17 with a hug, off again on the road. On my way down the on ramp to the freeway a cop decided to check me out. He asked where I was going, Phoenix, where I was coming from, New York, then took my license back to his car. He started filling out some paperwork, asked me how much I weigh, I guessed it was written warning or something. He just handed me my license and wished me good luck though, off he went with documentation about my weight and whatever else.

I had a new ride in no time, two natives of a tribe whose name was never mentioned, a guy driving and his 92 year old father who never spoke, likely sleeping. The guy driving, Walter, told me his dad was a code talker back in the war dealing with Japan. He had plenty to say about a freaky girl he knew in Avondale, a suburb of Phoenix which is specifically where I was headed. He dropped me off down the road in Phoenix where I-17 meets I-10.

I wandered to I-10 and stuck my thumb out for a bit, but the spot wasn't suitable for any cars to stop and none did. I walked a ways and eventually hopped on a series of buses for a buck and a quarter, did some more walking, and finally arrived at Larry's place, the door was locked and he wasn't home, he didn't have a phone paid for at the moment so I waited for him to come back.

A girl Erika stopped by before he did, another couchsurfer who was also waiting for him to arrive. Trish came next, she lives nearby and I've hung out with her too everytime I've been in town, the three of us decided to head out and get some food and left a note for Larry. By the time we got back, he was home.

The next night we went to a bar downtown, Larry bought me a beer, Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA. We had some food and more drinks a little into the night. My friend Nick came too, he'd just moved to Scottsdale, I'd met him up in Alaska at Couchsurfing collective and seen him a couple time when he was living in Vegas.

The next day I was pumped to get some new footwear, Keens again, I could toss my boots away. Keens are like sandals with a toe, my last pair had lasted me a while until they stunk out and got destroyed in an attmept to clean them right there in phoenix. Erika and I went on a hike up Squaw peak in time to see the whole valley at sunset, then climbed back down and met up with everyone else for pizza and beer.

Larry and I headed back to his place and watched some basketball before going to sleep, another loss for the Celtics. The next day I hopped in the car with Erika, she was heading to California going through San Diego.

The drive was nice, I took time to write a decent amount of these words and enjoy the scenary as it passed, rocks, dunes and lot's of green as we got closer to san diego. Erika dropped me off at Andy's place, he wasn't home, but his roomate and wife were. After hanging out a bit we headed out to a beer bar where I got a great hoppy beer. From there we headed to a wine bar... where I had wine, Andy eventually met up with us too, he'd been playing night golf. I went with him and his roomate Dan to a friends house and laughed through a movie over beers before heading back to his place and passing out.

There's a whole lot of San Diego left to go, but the road here was full of good times.

Beer a Night Early

2009-02-01T11:56:00.000-08:00

From Drop BoxWe decided to try the beer a night early, yet it was past midnight so still on Superbowl Sunday. Carl has to work during the game, so would have missed the initial tasting, so the three of us each cracked a bottle and enjoyed the beautiful hiss of carbonation, we have made beer.

It's a beautiful refreshing IPA unlike any other, not only have we made beer, but we made good beer. Mark has dubbed it the Hobo IPA. More to drink today at halftime. Brilliant.