Days 9 - 14

I have typed all these up a while ago, and am just now posting these...

Day 9 Wednesday 10-07-09

I waited in the SFO airport all night, and realized I was in the wrong terminal mid way through... Weird. I flew out with Alaskan Airlines provided by American Airlines. So I tried checking in with Alaska, but they made me go to American. I boarded the plane, and fell asleep for a little bit of the hour and a half flight. Then got free wifi with a free trial... Next time I will use another email and get another free trial. I arrived at LAX, and rode a bus to Union Station, then took a MetroLink train all the way to Covina, and was then picked up by my friend Sarah. She took me to her dorm at Azusa Pacific University. I met her a lot of her friends. I went slack line walking with Carmen, but it was difficult with a blister in between my big toe and the toe next to it. I eventually got better. I threw my stuff into her friend Riley's room, he is from Newburg, OR so we talked about Oregon stuff. We then met up with some other people and went to Tooti Fruiti for some frozen yogurt. Then we went to the roof of Trinity Hall and watched Sweeny Todd, then went to get donuts around 3 am, and then watched School of Rock.

Day 10 Thursday 10-08-09

So I went to bed around 5 am and woke up around 6:30... Hooray for little sleep in the last 2 days! I went with Sarah to the Long Beach to pick up her sister Kiara from Salem. I hung out with Kiara while Sarah was in class, and we walked around. I then decided to head out. I missed the bus from Azusa to the MetroLink, so I walked the 2.5 miles to get there. I then took the MetroLink to San Berdarnino, and from their I walked to Colton to I-10 (another 12 miles) to try to get to Slab City, the whole reason I went on this trip. I was meeting people from a group online, everyone hitch hikes, train hops, and travels from place to place. There was a festival starting on the 8th, so I wanted to be there when it started. I tried for a few hours to get out, and then got a call. The call was from a guy named Joe from the group, and he was heading out from Long Beach on Friday. So I decided to head back to MetroLink, this time I took the bus to the MetroLink station, instead pf walking. I went back to Azusa and met up with Riley, Sarah, and Kiara. Riley had to leave, but invited to a YoungLife thing, So Kiara and I went to the YoungLife thing, but it was something looking for leaders for the local area, so it was boring. I then went back to Riley's room, and slept. It was a lot warmer than the night before.

Day 11 Friday 10-09-09

I woke up around 7:30 am, and sat up. My face was all wet, I touched it, and my hand turned all red. I have no idea what happened, but I got a really bad bloody nose. Oh well, I ate breakfast with Riley at the cafe, and we took a lot of food for my travels. I wanted to get to Long Beach by 1:00 pm, but just barely missed the bus, so I had to change my path. I looked on my iPhone and got a route that would get me there at 1:31. Sweet. It took me $5.00 to get to Long Beach, but like 3 hours. I met Joe at the Transit Center, and we walked to his car and met DJ. Then we were off to Slab City.

It took us 6 hours to get to the Slabs, but we got a cool tour of the Palm Desert area by DJ who grew up there. We got there at 7:30, and I met a few people. The place we camped at is an old sewage treatment place, and we slept in the tank. The guy who lives there is named Moth, and he was a crazy dressed guy. He looked like a hippy, but was a total dirty kid (punk squatter) at heart. A group of 20 left for the hot springs, then 50 ft away it was 10 people, then as we got closer it turned to be 5... The water was really hot, it felt relaxing. Then we head back to go to bed.

Day 12 Saturday 10-10-09

In the morning, I was actually able to see people. I met Max, Murt, Wes, Matt, Mike, Whistler, Brendan and a bunch of other people that I have talked to online. There was a ratio of 25 guys to 1 girl. I went to town 3 miles away, and helped fill up the water jugs, and then came back. I stayed in the tank most of the time because it was so hot outside. Some people wanted to go get some food from town, and Joe let max drive his car... Max was driving around, and didn't see a concrete pit, and got the car stuck. It was resting on 3 wheels, and the 4th was hanging over the pit. We had to wait for Builder Bill to come by with his van to pull it out. The car came out fine, which is good because it was my ride home.

Another Matt came by, and he wasn't a part of the online group, but some one put a note on his car to come by. He was a photographer from New York who came out to get his grandmothers car from California, and he heard about the Slabs and decided to come out. He had a blast taking pictures of the group in the tank, with the street art and all sorts of things. I can't wait to get some of the pictures.

That night, we went to The Range, a music venue that Builder Bill built. It was open mic night, and two bands came with our group. Some of the local bands were really awful, but they were like 70+ years old. Builder Bill's group was amazing, and they had a theme song about the slabs. Then Black Sparrow Press played an amazing show, and Joe and DJ did a great show too. Afterward we wondered back through the desert, with no light, all the way back to the tank.

Black Sparrow Press did another set there by the fire, and Murt cooked up some steaks. Great night. I headed to bed.

Day 13 Sunday 10-11-09

In the morning my ride was leaving at 10:30, so I had to pack up, and cram in to the car. There were five full sized guys in the car, Joe, DJ, Wes, Max, and I. About a half mile up the road, we had to stop at a border security check point. The guy looked in the car, asked us where we were coming from, and Joe said the Slabs. The guy asked if he could search the car, and we let him, nothing to hide. Apparently a car before us coming from the slabs had like 2 pounds of weed. The guy brings out a drug dog, and the dog smelled weed in the car, but that could be from a small bag weeks ago. So the border patrol asked us if we had ever been arrested for possesion, we all said no. He asked us if we had anything, we said no. Apparently, a previous owner of my bag had some weed in it, and the dog sensed it. But they didn't find anything, so whatever. It took about half an hour to search, but they packed up the trunk nicely.

We dropped Max off in Palm Desert at his house, and continued on our way (with slightly more room). We went to Santa Ana, and went to DJ's house, and helped them prepare food for Food Not Bombs, and served it in the park. Joe then took Wes and I to Cal State, Long Beach Campus. Where he goes to school. I get on the bus which takes me to the Long Beach Transit center, I get on the Blue Line, switch to the Red Line, and arrive at Union Station. I then get on Gold Line, and get off in Pasadena, and take the 187 bus to Azusa. I get there at 9:30, it took 11 hours to get back.

I hung out with Riley and met a guy named Pete. Pete let me stay in his room on a pull out couch. Sweet. Pete and I went dumpster diving on campus but didn't find anything good. Got to bed at 3 am...ish.

Day 14 Monday 10-12-09

I sat around and did nothing for most of the day, everyone was in class. I went to dinner with the guys hall around 5:30, and got some more fruit for my travels. I then went with the girls hall to go bowling for Jocelin's birthday. I bowled a 67... Then when I got back, I helped Riley figure out how to record his guitar on his Mac. Then went to Taco King with some guys from the hall.

More garage sale items. I have a plane ticket stub from sfo to lax. A bus route flyer for lax to union station, with doodles andy plan on getting to Azusa. A train ticket stub from union station to Covina.

Garage Sale

In order to help raise funds I am going to sell stuff from my journey. This could be really random stuff, but it is all pretty cool.

Right now for sale I have a rail road spike from Roseburg, a peace sign hand made with rusty wires from Sacramento, a marble found in San Jose, a BART pass with $0.25 on it, a BART pass with $0.80 on it, and a used CalTrain ticket.

There will be more things from my journey. Make offers. Enough to cover shipping costs, and a few bucks in my pocket.

Day 8 Tuesday 10-06-09

First ride. I got a ride from Jessica's uncle Marc to the Walnut Creek BART station. He gave me two bananas and $25.

I rode the BART and I got all the way to San Jose for $7.25 with BART and another bus. I got dropped off at the Greyhound station and it was going to be $50 to get to LA. I had $24, and needed $26 in an hour and a half. So I went out, and got $5 by asking around. But I gave up after a while. I started walking down the street to 101, and a guy stopped me and asked for a lighter. I let him use it, and we started talking about traveling, and the economy, and all this stuff. It was good to talk to someone besides myself. I got to the ramp, and it didn't look promising. I looked at prices for flying to LAX and it was close to the price of the bus, but a lot quicker. So I walked to the closest bus stop, got on the bus, went to the CalTrain station, got a ride to the closest BART station, and headed for the airport. While on the trip I asked my dad for some money to be put in my account, and booked my flight. I got to the airport, and they said i couldn't check in until the next day. So I went back out, rode the BART to Pittsburg, and back, which was 3 hours worth. Just killing time so I could come back closer to midnight to get my ticket and check in.

Day 7 Monday 10-05-09

I woke up at about 6:30, to a lot of noise and loud Mexican music. I sat up, and saw some Mexicans sitting right on the other side of the concrete blocks from me. I sort of spooked them. One was like "Hey man, we won't mess with you, we're just waitin for work. That's all". But figuring I wouldn't likely be able to go back to sleep I packed up and headed for the cafe. I got a small order of pancakes, 2 HUGE pancakes later I was full. I headed off for the on ramp. A lady stopped and handed me her coffee money for the week, and I pinky promised to use it on food (I actually did use it on food).

First ride. At 8:30 I got a ride from a guy who buys cars at auctions and resells them for a living. He took me to the Sacremento airport. Where there were already some hitchers.

I walked up to them, and they told me that I should head up closer to the airport to get a ride for one guy. I guess I walked to close the airport because as soon as my sign was out, the cops were out of their car. They asked if I had any warrants or if I was ever arrested. No. They asked if I had drugs or weapons. Showed them my pocket knife. They asked if they could search me and I let them, I've got nothing to hide. Then I was free to go. I walked back past the hitchers, and they were just smiling... Jerks. I walked the other way down the road, and waited for them to get a ride. I then walked to the ramp and waited.

Second ride. I got picked up by Salvidor, who invited me to a speaker down the road a ways that night at 7. I declined, because I had a full days worth of traveling. But he prayed for me, and let me off at a truck stop.

There I waited for 2 hours, realizing I wasn't at the best exit about 1.5 hours into that. I found some rusty wire and made a piece sign out of it.

Third ride. As soon as I finished the piece sign, I got a ride from a guy. They guy hardly said a word, and had the crappiest car I have ever seen. He was kind of creepy, until I realized his left leg didn't work well, and his arms were really weak, so I figured I would win in a fight.He dropped me off at Vacaville.

Fourth ride. I got picked up after about 30 minutes waiting. The guy was a school teacher, 6th grade. He couldn't find his digital camera anywhere, and figured a kid stole it from him. That's too bad. He gave me a ride to Fairfield, next to the mall. I was there so long that I started talking to myself, which is not a good sign.

Fifth ride. I was there for 4 hours, and it started to get dark. The cops said I couldn't be at either ramp... so What could I do? I called up Jessica, and she called her uncle to see if he would pick me up. He picked me up, and had a place to sleep. Washed my clothes and took a shower.

Day 6 Sunday 10-04-09

I woke up at 7:30 to head out to the ramp. I was there for quite a while, returning to Jack In THe Box a few times to charge my phone. I was at the on ramp, and Hurricane went to the off ramp, with a sign saying "Traveling, Broke, & Ugly" he got a few food kick downs, and a few small kick downs. Then all of a sudden up the off ramp, a girl's front tires go out, and she spins off the road, with dust everywhere. She was alright, just a little shooken up. Hurricane gets some fruit cups, and we split them. He then got a $20 bill and decided that his luck was up for the day, and heads off.

First ride. I got a ride, maybe after 4 hours of waiting. I got picked up by three kids from Minnisota, and they go Walmart to Walmart spanging, and get a decent amount. Well, they drop me off in Willows, where the only things there is the Walmart, a Cafe, and an airport.

I was there from 2pm, until in started getting dark. I got some money kickdowns, and a Big Mac, fries, and a drink. I then went to the cafe to get some warm food, and ordered a side of corn bread for $1.95. They gave me a $8 burger and fries, and a drink for FREE! Best cornbread I have ever had. A drunk guy in the cafe walked up to my table handed me $10 and told me that he wished me the best of luck. I then went to Walmart with some of the money and bought a pair of thermals to keep my legs warm. I went back towards the cafe and slept underneath a revolving light tower for the airport.

Day 5 Saturday 10-03-09

I left Traveler and Cory, and walked from camp to the I-5 south ramp. It was a long walk, but I did it nonstop. Then I kept on going down the road. I walked for another mile or so, in the rain, and got picked up.

First ride. I got picked up by a guy, seemed to me like he was in his early to mid twenties. He said that he always pickes up hitchhikers to help his Karma. He had to stop in town to do some errands, like drop off groceries at his parents house. His dad told me to come on in, so I went on it... He made me a huge 3/4 pound burger, and it was delicious. The son had just bought a brand new pair of shoe laces to replace his dirty white ones, I just broke a pair of shoe laces. Bingo! I got new shoelaces! Then the father said that I would need food for the road, so they took me to the store and bought me 2 bags of jerky, a loaf of bread, a thing of drink mix, and some apples.

Second ride. After I got dropped off, I walked about a mile, and got picked up. This guy, Uncle Marlin, was a retired guy who has had many jobs, spanning many fields. Now he owns a head shop up in Oregon with a friends son, just for extra income. He said he grew up by the train tracks, and once hopped a train, and got stuck in the middle of Nevada for a week. He told me to always bring at least 2 gallons of water, and enough food for at least 2 days. He took me all the way to Corning, CA about 45 minutes past Redding. He dropped me off at the truck stop.

At the truck stop, I ran into a guy named Hurricane (aka Micheal), who has been through 8 hurricanes. He told me where a good place to sleep would be. I slept in the middle of a field next to the truck stop, and no one owned the property, so no one would be mad.

Day 4 Friday 10-02-09

At 5 am I heard a train approaching from the North, and woke Cory up, we shoved our sleeping bags into their bags, and waited. At 6 we decided to lay back down, and used my sleeping bag to keep ourselves warm. The train was stopped at the station, and wasn't going to be heading out anytime soon. We ate, and walked back. The shop that is by where we slept started opening, and we helped Bruce (the owner) out by moving stuff to the parking lot. It was like a big garage sale, with complete crap. He gave us $10 for helping him. We then saw the guy who yelled at us the night before, we learned that his name was Traveler, and he lives down by the tracks. We hung out with him for a while, Cory was out of smoking tabacco (doesn't drink of do drugs, just smokes tabacco from a pipe), so we walked 5 miles round trip to the tabacco shop. Traveler took us to his "house", and we met Bill and Mary his neighbors. They said that they saw Cory and I dancing on the side of the road.

Traveler's girlfriend showed up at camp, and took us to her son's house, and we helped him pack up because he is being evicted. We got to sleep at his house, and shower. Cory and Traveler decided that they would travel together, and head out on Wednesday.

Day 3 Thursday 10-01-09

I woke up at 7:30, and got Cory up. It was a cold morning, and we had a hard time warming up. We sat at the rest stop for about 4 hours asking for rides. One guy who drove in front of an oversized load vehicle said that the guy was going to Mexico, and we could get a ride with him to LA. We even made a few bucks spanging before the hippies woke up, we weren't really even asking for money, just Cory said "Chance" like "Change"...

First ride. Eventually, we gave up on the idea of getting to LA, and got a ride with a girl to Roseburg. We talked about how her friends hitchhiked for a spring break trip, and she was bummed she missed it.

We then tried to get out of Roseburg for a while, even trying out dance routine again... no luck. So we went back up to town, and got batteries at Fred Meyer for Cory's GPS. We spanged a little there, and met a guy who told us a bit about Roseburg, he was homeless, but got a job up in Boise and was headed out. Eventually Cory decided he wanted a lighter pack, and we went to a thirft store, and he got a small messanger bag, I got his old internal frame pack (for $50), and we gave the rest of our stuff, away to the mission. We lightned our loads, and helped others out. We ate at the mission, and a guy told us we could get out of Roseburg if we hopped on the train that leaves everynight at 11pm. So Cory and I head for the tracks.

As we were walking down to a hidden spot by the tracks, a guy walked down the hill and yelled at us. Scaring us pretty bad, he then walked down the tracks away from the station. We waited at the tracks from 8:20 pm to 2:30 am with out sleeping. We then were too cold to try to stay up, and got in our sleeping bags.

Day 2 Wednesday 09-30-09

I woke up at about 10:30, bad time to start. I then walked from campus to Glennwood exit, about 4 miles. I waited in the rain for an hour and then decided to walk.

First ride. After about a half mile, a couple that was on the Northbound saw me in the rain, turned around and gave me a ride to Cottage Grove. Great...

This time I met a guy, who like myself, doesn't drink, or do drugs, he isn't
homeless, just wants to explore and travel. His name is Cory Watkins, and is part of YWAM. We became partners. After eating at McDonalds, we head out. Instead of trying our luck at the ramp, we decide to walk. We walked for hours, starting and stopping. Danced on the side of the road to lure people to pick us up. A cop stopped and told us that another group was doing the same thing up the road. Haha. Then he told us to stop...

Second ride. We walked some more, and finally got picked up by a short bus converted to an RV by a young hippy couple. Their daughter Cassidy kept messing with me and Cory. We stopped at a rest stop in Rice Hill, OR. The hippy family goes rest stop to rest stop, and spange (spare change), for a few days at each place. They gave us a few cans of food, and we went and found a place to sleep for the night.

We set up camp behind the rest stop, by the tree line. Covered ourselves with a tarp and called it good.