071003

 

     Portland to Eugene, OR

Thursday July 10, 2003

     2:10am  I woke up on the sidewalk and almost got sprayed by the street washer.

     2:45am  The street washer woke me up. I woke up and Sky is over here sewing her pants, chilling with her dog. I'm going to go back to bed. I'm tired. Sleeping on the sidewalk in front of City Hall.

     8:05am  I woke up on the sidewalk this morning and walked to the Greyhound station to see how much a ticket to Eugene was. I'm going to see how much it is and go spanging. Liza recommended I not go to Salem. That Salem is all conservative and I would have more fun in Eugene. So that's where I'm aiming for now. Bus ticket to Eugene is $14.50. That shouldn't take long.

     8:52am  I walked over to the Blanchet house where they feed sometimes. They told me to go to the Union Gospel Mission, which is all the way down this street.

     8:55am  Ray was nice enough to give me a cigarette.

     9:25am  I got a sack lunch at the mission place. I ate on the sidewalk and now I'm walking down Burnside. I'm going to go spange up some bus fare. $14.50.

     9:56am  I made up a sign. On one side it said, "I need $14.50 for bus fare to Eugene. Anything will help. Mobilize me, please." I crossed out need and put want. Honesty is the best policy. On the box it already said, "Thank you, we appreciate your business." I crossed out the "we" and put "I". I crossed out the "r" in "your" and crossed out business. So, it's left with, "I appreciate you."
                  On the other side was my default sign. That same one I flew in Berkeley that had my mission objectives and email address on it.

     10:34am  Lenny has been gracious enough to give me a couple Reese's candy bars and he's going to hook me up with a rolly, too. I appreciate it, man. It'll come back to you.

     11:00am  This old man stopped and actually read the mission side. He tells me, "Good work. Thumbs up."

     11:35am  Ivy hooked me up with a cigarette.

     12:31pm  I came to the corner of 5th and Yamhill. There's a lot of pedestrian cross-traffic here. I can probably get some more people to read my sign. No one has stopped yet, though.

     12:40pm  6th Avenue and Morrison street. I need to skip this town and go where people will listen.

                     Make sure to look up the Bahai online.

     1:23pm  I'm getting directions to hitch out of here. What was your name? James said, "Go to Walton Park and Ride. I'm not sure of the bus, but you can catch it on 5th Avenue. If you can, catch the express which will take you out there faster. I think it might be the 96. The 96 runs during rush hour. The drive to Eugene is about two hours, so if you're hitching you want to allow yourself at least 4½ hours of daylight."

     1:29pm  Adam just walked by and hooked me up with a burrito. 

     1:53pm  Billy just gave me a cigarette.

                    Some homeless guy just walked by carrying all these beers. He read my sign and he gave me one. It's worth a beer, I guess.

     3:07pm  Antonio hooked me up with a cigarette.

     3:31pm  I'm on the 94 Express bus. I can't figure out where Walton Park and Ride is. I had rewound my tape to see what it sounded like, but no one has ever heard of such a place.

     3:43pm  I rode the 94 to Interstate 5 South. I'm going to smoke this cigarette I bummed and go walk the highway. Hopefully I'll get a ride.

     4:32pm  I'm walking down the highway and all of a sudden I see a 96 bus drive by. Shit! I had gotten on the wrong bus. I could be getting further without walking. I walk for like half a mile and turn around and see a sign for a park and ride. I'm just going to keep walking South on the highway.

     5:10pm  The coolest shit happened. I walked like two miles and got to this shaded part. I sat down on the rail. I'm sure you can imagine rush hour traffic in Portland. It's going at a snail's pace. All of a sudden, pretty close to where I was sitting, this guys was trying to pull his red truck off the road. I throw my stick down and run to render aid. He gets the truck on the shoulder and asks me, "Do you need a ride? I just got some bad gas. It'll start if I let it sit." He told me he was only going ten more miles. I responded, "Hey, that will be ten more miles I don't have to walk." Then, when he got his truck running he said, "Okay, just don't fuck with me."
                   All of a sudden I hear someone yell, "Are you going to Eugene?!" I yell back, "Yeah!" Some lady in a blue van with a baby in the backseat drives by slowly. Since the traffic is all barely moving I am able to run up to her van, she opens the door and I jump in the passenger seat. What great synchronicity. Traffic just happened to almost stop right there. What a great coincidence. 

     6:00pm  Man, what a great turn of events. I walked for like a mile before I got picked up. Them people were right. I had no trouble getting out of Portland. Man, I forgot the girls' name who picked me up. Oh yeah, but on the way we stopped at this rest stop to change her baby's diaper. She has a one year old daughter who's name is Raven, I think. We got out and stretched. She's going to drop me off in downtown Eugene.

     6:03pm  At the rest stop I noticed these older dudes in a white truck hitting a pipe. I walked up to them and asked them, "Can you spare a hit?" They're smoking me out right now. That's so very generous of you, guys. It'll come back to you. What's the point in having it if you don't share it, right?

     6:08pm  Cathy has been generous enough to give me a cigarette.

                   The rest stop we stopped at is called Santiam Rest Area.

                   It's cool. When I got back in the van and we took off, she(I'm going to guess on her name being Rheann) asked me if I could reach back and get a 2½ gallon jug of water to refill her bottle. I said sure and filled it for her. That's so cool. She's all about water, too. She told me about this PBS show that describes alternative lifestyles and how people live differently. It's in Portland. It's called Zigzag. Oregon Public Broadcasting. I'll look it up on the Internet. It's around the 10th. I don't know, my watch may be wrong.

     7:15pm  I'm in Eugene! That lady(damnit, I hope I recorded her name somewhere) dropped me off at some place called the Station Square. There's a big clock tower with people hanging out in front. Let me go make some friends and bum a cigarette.

                   All those people at the Station Square are all old.

                   I'm walking down Pearl Street, passing East 6th Avenue.

                   Haha, someone carved into the cement while the sidewalk was drying, "Dale Sucks."

     7:35pm  This park kind of sucks. It's all paved over, there's barely any grass. It's got a nice fountain. There are a lot of people out here, but no one would give me a cigarette. That kind of sucks. I wonder where all the kids are.

     7:36pm  I asked this dude if he knew where all the young people hung out. He told me that fountain was one place and there was another place over by the bus station. He gave me directions to the bus station and I'm walking over there now.

     7:40pm  I finally found the kids in this town. I met Rafika and a whole lot of other people. I don't remember their names. Well, things are looking much better now. There's lots of kids in this part of town. Downtown Eugene.

                   Some girl is giving me directions, "Take the 41 Barger. Go past Four Corners and the big Y. There will be a TacoTime on your left hand side and you want that stop. Get off at that stop, walk across the street and there's a big building. It's brown. It says Catholic Community Services. Walk up to that building and walk around the back. There's a fence where all the people are. That's where the(can't understand her on the recording) is."

     7:57pm  Vee hooked me up with a cigarette. That's very generous of you.

     8:22pm  I'm walking around taking a brisk walk with Vee and Brad. We are on a mission for nugs. Weird, there's condoms everywhere in this town. All over the ground.

     8:51pm  Eugene is cool. I'm over here telling Erin my story. What was your friend's name, Erin? She tells me her girlfriend's name is Butts. I'm telling them both my story, then all these people came up with some pizza. I got hooked up with a slice. It's delicious. Barbeque yummy. Alright, that's about all that's happened.

     9:20pm  I just talked to Esther and Jeremiah who walked by. I asked them if they could spare a cigarette and Esther gave me one.

                   Whoa, Jeremiah just hooked me up with two other cigarettes, out of the blue.

     9:25pm  I'm sitting out here talking with Jeremiah and he was telling me how some guy he knew smoked weed and got all violent. I was like, "Yeah right." They corrected me and told me that he got violent when he didn't smoke weed.

                   Whoa, I see a kid with a pet ferret. Wow, only in Eugene, Oregon. That's awesome.

                   Jeremiah hooked me up with another cigarette.

     10:30pm  Jeremiah gave me even another cigarette.

     10:35pm  George and I are hanging out at the Cafe Paradiso.

     10:54pm  I'm in front of the Cafe Paradiso. We just got directions to where to camp.

     11:00pm  We walked over to a pizza shop and they didn't hook it up. We walked down some random alley because George wanted to smoke some weed. He's going to let me smoke some, too. Thanks, brother. Man, I'm loving Eugene. This is a vortex. I'm going to get sucked in here.

     11:39pm  Sweet-tooth hooked us up with some Cocktail Pumpernickel Bread. It hit the spot. Thanks a lot, Sweet-tooth.

     12:45am  Man, what a hospitable welcome to Eugene I have had. Casey and Brian have just shown me their camp. Brian has a little portable gas stove and he's cooking up some rice and beans. Brian just told me he had some weed to smoke, too. Man, the icing on the cake. Dude, my book is going to kick so much ass. Nothing but the truth.

     2:35am  Brian just told me to look up CrimeThinc. I'll do that at the library sometime.

Next day..