060509

                                                                                                   Grant's Pass to Ashland, OR

Friday June 5, 2009

     6:30am  I've had a relaxing morning so far. I got six hours of sleep last night. I woke up around five thirty or so.

     6:54am  122camp.JPG, 123camp.JPG, 124camp.JPG

     7:58am  125me.JPG, 126camp.JPG

     8:28am  I'm up and at 'em. I'm going to the onramp. I'll thumb it until I get bored and then I'll go to the gas station and try and call Peg.

     8:30am  Ha, it just so happens that the cemetery I crashed next to last night is the Pioneer Masonic Cemetery. I'll take a picture.

     10:15am  I got tired of thumbing it so I went to the AM/PM and got some ice. I tried to call Peg, but she didn't answer. I'm going to try and get to Ashland and see if I can finalize my update there somewhere. I've got work to do. I already got my pictures.

     10:25am  I came back to the onramp.

     11:47am  Bo, from Georgia he pulled over for me. I had been getting exasperated. I wanted to find out if there was a transit bus I could take to Medford.

     1:06pm  Bo brought me all the way to Ashland! I'm downtown. I took a picture of the Natural Lithia Water fountain and the H.P. Carter Memorial Fountain.

     1:16pm  I hiked all the way to the library, but it's closed on Fridays. That sucks. Opens tomorrow at noon. I need to find me a Kinkos or some place I can get some printouts. I am almost out of havethisbook.coms. This town is ripe and ready for my giveaway.

     2:07pm  I came to the A Street Copy place. 258 A Street. Right before I went inside the other 258 and asked them if I could get printouts there. They told me the copy place was next door, but that when I was done to be sure to come back and they would give me a free book. Free book? Man, that's right up my alley. I've got half an hour to wait for the guy at the copy shop, to let me use the computer. I'm going to see if I can tell someone my story next door.

     3:17pm  Mission accomplished. I've got shitloads of havethisbook.coms now. I used the paper cutter.

     3:50pm  Listener

     5:09pm  I'm going to try and give out free hugs in front of this fountain here.

                   Haha, this lady just walked by and told me I should have my sign say FREE BREAST EXAMS too! That's hilarious! Pure genius!

     5:36pm  Free hugs

     5:39pm  Me

     7:15pm  I am talking to beautiful Kristina telling her my story. She's got a story too. Kristina: "So I was at this party one night when I found myself in Portland really wondering about myself. I'm homeless. I have no idea where I am going, but I am enjoying the gratitude of people and learning the strength of community and just regaining all my faith in humankind. I can change. You just have to learn. So I am thinking about this to myself and I overhear this really nice boy and him and this really pretty chick were talking. He was telling this story about old Hinduism. There was a god and a goddess. It's about how life was created. So the goddess asks the god, "Do you want to play a game?" He says yes, what is it? She says, "I'm going to break you up into a million, trillion little pieces and put you in every blade of grass, every tree, every person, every living thing, everything." the god says, "Okay, then what?" She says, "The game is that you have to put yourself together again." I knew that. When I meet people, when I'm in nature, when I'm in the moment. Whatever it is, this beautiful perception of colors and things and interactions and feelings and just the energy of everything, I know that I learn something from every moment, from everything that touches my life, it shapes me, it takes me somewhere farther. I believe in signs. There are just so many coincidences that you can't deny it. It takes you farther on the path of yourself. I've been learning about myself. One day in Portland I finally found a job and a place to stay. I thought I wanted to work at the Saturday Market, that would be fun, on the weekends, you know."

     8:30pm  I've been hanging out with my friend Kristina. I had started telling her my earlier today, but there was some interruptions and I didn't get to tell her my whole Odyssey. I had forgotten, so she approached me later on and asked me if I could finish telling her my story. I said sure and we walked into the park. As we are walking looking for a spot to continue my story at, it starts raining hard again. We picked this tree by the pond and I threw up my tarp and kept us both dry. We sat down and I orated to her and Kristina listened beautifully. She was very reactive during the whole thing and was a blast to tell my story to. I was quite proud I able to provide shelter for the story.

                   Right in the middle of the story DJ JC peeked in and let us hit his joint. I appreciate it, brother.

     8:56pm  Man, I had an awesome presentation, a great time with beautiful Kristina. She's Swedish, I think. She listened to my legend all wide-eyed. She told me I was an inspiration to her to keep going on her path. That's just music to my ears. I love that shit. Ah, welcome to Ashland. I'm going to try and tell my story some more.

     9:24pm  I tried telling the Bridgets my story and one of them gave me three dollars, sweet.

     9:35pm  I had a good presentation in front of the Minute Market #5. Brigid and Bridgett

     9:58pm  I had walked down Main Street and came to the Minute Market. There were these two girls working inside. I tried telling this other girl my story, but nobody was listening. Oh yeah, one of them walked out and handed me some free donuts.

     10:39pm  Red alert, red alert! I just checked and I am missing some items. My new LED flashlight that Rene gave me in Portland. That's necessary if I want to find my camp in the woods tonight. I also can't find my blue rain poncho. I used it as a tarp earlier when I was telling Kristina my story. I remember when packing up I had put my wet poncho in an empty bagel bag. I must've left it on the ground when I left. It fell out of it's pocket. I forgot to snap it shut. That totally sucks. I was already walking away looking for a squat, but I need to go find that park where I hung out with Kristina and find that tree we hung out underneath. Hopefully my rain poncho will still be there. Please San Antonio, let me get my poncho back. It's totally mission-critical.

                     I can forget about my flashlight though. There's no guarantee that it fell out of my pocket there. It could be anywhere by now.

     11:02pm  I got back to the spot, but I don't see my rain poncho anywhere. But, right now when I was going to throw in the towel and leave I step on something hard. My flashlight!

     11:10pm  I don't know what happened to my rain poncho. That sucks balls. It was so perfect for me. Somebody probably picked it up as they walked by. I got my flashlight back at least. I am utterly grateful I got that back. I had totally given up on the flashlight.

     12:39am  It's about time I made an update. It's so awesome that I was able to double-back and retrieve my flashlight at least. I wasn't even sure where it had fallen out of my pocket. I only remembered putting it in it's pocket and me not buttoning it. It could've fallen out anywhere on my walk tonight. I am so lucky I found it underneath the tree we were smoking at earlier. I went back and was unable to locate my rain poncho which was a damn shame. I had that thing since last year. I got it in Florida from these dudes at USF in Tampa. I wanted to have that thing forever. It just disappeared. I don't know what I did with it.
                     Oh yeah, after I found my flashlight I asked people where the nearest woods were. They told me at the top of the hill, so I've been climbing uphill for over a mile now. Every time I think I'm getting close to the top there was another hill behind it. I even saw a taxicab and I flagged him down. I asked him if he could give me a ride to the nearest woods, but he wouldn't for just five bucks. He told me I was almost to woods though. Sure enough, I saw a treeline behind these houses. I walked up this driveway, through these people's property and found a trail up into the woods. I looked at the house and I saw this lady watching TV inside. Nobody noticed me. It's going to be really hard to find a place to crash. These mountains are very slopey and there are very few flat spaces where I could sleep. I thought it would be ideal if I found a couple tree trunks together on the side of the mountain. I found just that and I've assumed my perch. I'll take pictures in the morning. I am having so much fun in Ashland so far. I'm kind of worried about Herpes or HPV. My crotch still itches once in a while.

                     Man, Kristina was smiling so beautifully while I told her my story. She was the best listener. She told me I had given her hope and inspired her.

Next day..