031507

            Somes Bar to Happy Camp to Randolph Collier Safety Roadside Rest Area on I5

Thursday March 15, 2007

     7:48am  Last night Travis and I crashed at some private property Woody recommended. I woke up at like four this morning shivering cold. I couldn't go back to sleep. Travis got up around when the sun came up. Around seven or so. Our sleeping bags are soaked from the condensation.

     8:38am  We are all loaded up and we're leaving camp. Next stop is Happy Camp. Thirty miles away.

     9:03am  Passing by the Quinn house, the Wesley house. Those names are on the mailboxes. We're walking 96 going towards Happy Camp.

     9:55am  We stopped at Rock Creek, river access. Has a sign with a fishhook and a backpacker.

                   We're going to smoke some weed and rest.

     11:36am  Roger just rescued us again! Here at Rock Creek. The produce guy from yesterday. That's awesome. He's taking us to Happy Camp. Awesome.

                   5PQL577. California. White Toyota 4 Runner. SR5 V6. DJ just hooked us up in Happy Camp. He gave me a shitload of cigarettes and some money, awesome. He drove off though. I didn't have time to give him my webpage. He knows who he is though. Two dollars. I appreciate it, DJ.

     1:01pm  What's this place called again? Pizza House in Happy Camp(this town is living up to it's name) just gave me a big breadstick. What was your name, again? Joey. I appreciate it, Joey. Everybody gets credit, thanks a lot.

                   Oh hell yeah, DJ kicked us down some bud too!

     1:19pm  Oh, I forgot to tell you we got hooked up at the gas station. This DJ guy gave Travis like two bucks and some weed and shitloads of cigarettes. With that money Travis went in and bought a bag of Sunchips. We ate that. A little cake, too. I went next door to the Pizza House thinking I would just go hit them up with my 'ol gasoline-for-the-stomach line. Sure enough, she gave me a bigass breadstick with cheese. I'm going to go outside and split it with Travis. We're going to walk to the edge of town and try to hitch out of here. We could be taking the pass to O'Brien but it's snowed in. Alright.

     1:34pm  Here we are still at the edge of town waiting for cars to come by. No cars are coming. We're aiming for Yreka. The story behind the town name is that a long time ago there was a bakery there and someone saw Bakery in their rearview mirror. So they called the town Yreka. Without the B. It's not eureka at all.

     2:11pm  We got tired of waiting so we're going to start walking towards Yreka. Me and Travis.

     2:14pm  Passing mile marker 4200.

     2:18pm  We were walking down the road and all of a sudden this car that we had seen driving the other way, this old man and this girl, they stopped and asked us if we had any drugs. Any pain meds or Vicadin. When we told them no they said, "Well, we're not going that far then," but the girl in the passenger seat held out a baggie with some weed shake and we took it. So it was kinda bitter-sweet. Thanks anyway.

     2:38pm  Passing mile marker 4300. Twenty three minutes it took us to walk that mile.

     3:17pm  Sonny and Eva were nice enough to pull over and pick us up. We're a mile outside of Happy Camp. They're taking us all the way to Yreka. We appreciate it, guys. Everybody gets credit.

     3:24pm  Whoa, they pulled out a long beautiful peace pipe.
 
     4:30pm  We just landed over on Highway 5 just North of Yreka. We got dropped at some rest stop up here. We're going to cross the bridge and we're headed to O'Brien. Then we'll go North to Medford. Grants Pass.

                   This rest area is nice.

     4:34pm  We are at the Randolph Collier Safety Roadside Rest Area. California Department of Transportation. Comfort station.
 
                   By the way Randolph Collier was the father of the California freeways.

     7:10pm  Me and Travis are still standing on the onramp with our thumbs out not getting a ride. One guy pulled over then he saw Travis and his dog and kept going. Not enough room. Oh yeah, I'm going to walk back to the rest stop and dig through the trashcans. I scored earlier. I got a shitload of cigarettes. I even got us some food! This dank turkey breast in a Ziploc bag. I've got like two cigarette boxes full of snipes. I've got tons of tobacco. I told Travis if he got a ride to just go, but if he left it's his loss.

                   Ahh, there he is. Oh yeah, I forgot to get a piece of cardboard to make a sign that says hungry but that's alright, I found some good food. Travis is right there. He's waiting for me. He's going to be happy.

                   Man, that chicken breast was damn good! Travis and I split it. That was dinner. That was such an awesome blessing. It was right there in the trashcan, on the very top. Someone just set it down in there. Still in the Ziploc bag. I stuffed that in my pocket real quick. Then I found all the snipes. Tons of cigarettes. That's what people do at rest areas, empty out their ashtrays.

     9:58pm  Kevin, this other guy at the rest stop is traveling from Mexico on a motorcycle and he gave me a cigarette. I appreciate it, brother. Everybody gets credit, thanks.     

Next day..