011909

                                                                                                             Santa Maria, CA

Monday January 19, 2009

     5:46am  I woke up around five with seven hours of sleep. I slept great on this top bunk. I slept in my sleeping bag. These people are cool. I met this eighty-five year old lady Mickey who works here. She tells me she goes and works out at the YMCA all the time. I told her she's ageless. She's a real nice lady. I gave her a hug. I woke up early and nobody else is up. I packed up all my stuff and rolled a cigarette and came outside to this smoking porch they have here. I took a hit of weed dust. Hmm, I could leave my big heavy pack and walk around Santa Maria. I might do that. The shelter reopens at 4:30pm.

     6:15am  Bob was nice enough to give me a cigarette at the smoking porch here.

     6:30am  I just picked up a book to read from their bookshelf here. It's called Into Thin Air, by Jon Krakauer. A Personal Account of the Mount Everest Disaster. There's a quote right at the beginning of the book that I like. "Men play at tragedy because they do not believe in the reality of the tragedy which is actually being staged in the civilized world." Jose Ortega y Gasset

     8:18am  I should probably make an update. I already left from the shelter. I am able to stash my bag there safely. I figure I'll just walk around Santa Maria for a day. It all depends on how the storytelling goes..and marijuana. I've got ten bucks.

     8:25am  I came to the 7-11 here on Broadway. I tried giving these girls my website and one was all, "No, no, no!" That's right, be afraid. Be afraid. You good little slave. 6fvv384, California plates. Nobody wants world peace! I should've asked her if she had always been that ignorant.

                  Today is Martin Luther King Day, by the way. I walked over by the mall.

                  Oh yeah, I went in this thrift store that was open, surprisingly. Right when I walked in this clown wig caught my eye. It was on a display and not for sale. I asked the Asian lady working there, "How much for the clown wig?" She asked me how much I would give her. I told her a dollar and she said it wasn't for sale and would have to ask the manager that came in after noon. I'll come back in a while. It's a badass clown wig. I really hope I get it. Before I left I told her I'd give her five dollars for it. She told me to come back when her manager was there.

                  I have a dollar sixty in my pocket in change. I'm going to stop at McDonald's.

     9:45am  I just had a badass presentation with Ryan and Russ right in front of Davidson's Interiors. They were laughing their asses off at the Note From the Rich.

     10:57am  La gente amable en Comadres me estan dando comida.

                     I was walking down Main Street and I saw Los Camadres El Salvadorian Food. I hit them up and they're hooking me up, awesome. Welcome to Santa Maria.

     11:08am  I got hooked up with a delicious pulpa, I think it's called. I took a picture of it.

     11:57am  I just went back to the thrift store and I bought my rainbow clown wig! When I walked in the Asian lady asked me, "You got five dolla?"

     12:35pm  I made a mad-dash to Salvation Army here at the corner of Cook and Miller, but nobody is here. They're not having lunch. That sucks. At first I walked all the way to the shelter, I thought lunch was there. Then I walked all the way to Sally's and it's not there either. Argh.

     12:38pm  Salvation Army wasn't feeding lunch today. MLK day probably. I was a little bummed out because I spent a whole five bucks on my clown wig and I only had five dollars for weed. I just ran into this dude at the bus stop and he sold me a five dollar nugget!

     1:06pm  The greedy ass driver won't give me a ride. He said that he's got people watching him today. That's right, be afraid.

     1:15pm  I just sat down and read my book by where the buses stop. Every cycle of buses I would go and stand in the middle of the grass, with my shirt clearly exposed, just standing there reading my book. I had a good talk with Joyce and her cute son Andy. Andy the Handy Man. His shirt said Handy Man. I'm just going to stay here all day and tell my story to people. I'm all stoned.

     2:14pm  I'm having a good time today. I'm over here by where the buses stop. I'm reading my Into Thin Air book. It's just great so far. I can't wait to read Into the Wild. I was just leaning on the side of the parking garage in the shade next to the bus stop. I am waiting until 4:30pm so I can go get my pack at the shelter and then I'll come back here and see if I can get a courtesy ride to San Luis Obispo. I am just making my presence known in Santa Maria. I tried telling this white thug dude my story. He bummed a cigarette off of me at first. He got hung up on the money part. "How are you going to eat? You have to work," he said. He just bailed out when his bus came. I'm just going to stand here and read my book and let people read my shirt.

     2:45pm  I just came to the mall and I'm going to hit up the Red Robin place.

     2:50pm  Robert, the manager at the Red Robin is giving me gasoline for my stomach. I appreciate it. Everybody gets credit.

     2:52pm  Yeah! I had been there reading my book and I got hungry. I didn't know what I was going to do for food. I figured I'd go walk around and look for a taqueria. Then I saw the mall and thought, "I haven't been to the mall yet. Maybe they'll have a food court I can hit up." Right when I walked in the mall I see Red Robin. I walked in and it was all nice and fancy looking. I saw some guy in a blue shirt and I asked him if he was the manager. I hit him up, "For the past seven years I have been walking around the whole country conducting a study on generosity...." He hooked me up. When he came back with the food I asked him for his name and he said, "Robert, but I don't want to be in that." Tough.

                    I came back to the grass and sat down. I opened the box of food and Robert had given me a couple chicken strips and fries. I was famished so I wasn't sore there wasn't a burger. Thank you, Robert.

     3:50pm  Man, I've been sitting in the grass for a long time. Like three hours. I just undertook the daunting project of ShoeGooing my boots. I had yet to treat them since I left San Antonio. They were almost dead. There were holes in the soles, the heels and the balls of both boots. Stupid me, though. The whole time I was thinking I had my sandals to put on to let my boots dry for three days, but then I remembered I had left my pack at the shelter this morning and the boots were already treated. I was contemplating how I was going to get to the shelter now. I didn't want to waste the ShoeGoo treatment. I'm going to hike my happy ass all the way to Morrison, wearing only socks. Since I have been wearing boots for so long my feet are really sensitive and tender, so much so that I am immobile barefoot usually. I felt I should be alright in socks. I think it's like a mile away. I'm going to take a hit of weed. This book is getting good. Into Thin Air. I don't know if I would ever want to get that high.

                   Before and after.

     5:07pm  I am leaving from the shelter. I did some paranoid-checks and I am whole. I don't need the shelter. I can always camp somewhere else. I'm glad I scored a shower yesterday and I got a good book to read too. The staff warned me that if I left I could not come back. I told them I had planned not to return. I came over by where the buses stop and I'm going to see if I can get a courtesy ride to San Luis Obispo.

                   Park

     5:28pm  I am really glad I had my walking stick when I was limping all the way to the shelter. Hopefully I'll get a courtesy ride. "I'm just traveling through. I'll walk it if I have to."

     5:39pm  I just took a picture of my new setup with my boots strapped to my pack. They're drying.

     5:50pm  I came to the bus stop and the 10 bus came and the driver told me that he would be back in twenty minutes. Chris is out here and he just got hooked up with a big bag of food from Red Robin! He split the burger down the middle with me.

     7:04pm  I was wondering how I was going to get change for busfare to San Luis. I asked KC in the parking garage and he gave me some change. I appreciate it, bro.

     7:22pm  Tyler hooked me up with some change for the bus. I appreciate it, bro. Everybody gets credit, thanks.

     7:35pm  Man, I spent nearly all day in the grass at the bus stops. The greedy ass driving the San Luis bus wouldn't give me a courtesy ride. I only have seventy five cents in change. Maybe the bus isn't coming anymore. It's almost eight.

                    I had to double-up on socks because it's getting cold.

                   This one driver told me that there were no more buses going to San Luis Obispo. That the last one left at 6:15pm. That blows. I've gotta find a place to crash now. That sucks. I'm just going to walk in any direction.

     8:00pm  I jumped on the 61 bus. I'm going to go out on Foster Road.

                   Man, that greedy ass bus driver straight up lied to me. I had asked him how long until the next one and he told me not long. He was the last bus. Fuck that dude.

     9:07pm  I forgot to tell you. After learning I wasn't getting to San Luis Obispo tonight, I asked the 61 bus that pulled up if he went to any woods. The Mexican driver didn't understand the question, but this dude and girl were getting on the bus and the dude told me there were woods by where he was going, by some mobile home park. When we got to their stop I unleashed my legend on them and they listened superbly. They listened to my whole Odyssey and everything. What did you guys think? Them: "It's interesting." Be sure and sign the guestbook and let me know what you think. Two nineteen year olds. Stephania.

                   I asked the kids to direct me to a campsot. Across the street from the trailer park is a big field with some woods behind it. They told me about some concrete structure out there I could camp at and sort of pointed to it. After I finished the kids hung out just standing there while I smoked a cigarette. I was a bit hungry by then so I asked them if they could spare any food. Stephania gave me this big box of fruity Mike and Ike's, perfect. I hopped the barbwire fence and trotted through the cow-patty rifled field. I got to the woods and explored around for a bit. Close to this wire fence I found a good spot at the base of these trees next to a big cement block. I put down my blue tarp first, then my military rain poncho/portable floor on top. I pulled out my sleeping bag and liner and made my bed. I brushed my teeth and went to sleep.

Next day..