083008

San Antonio, TX

Saturday August 30, 2008
 
     4:57am  I got 6.03 hours of sleep.

     6:04am  I'm ready and I took off for the morning. I ate breakfast with some leftover Chinese food my mom had brought. I'm walking. I'm going to see how far I can go without resting. See how far past 410 I can go without resting. That's usually where I take my first rest. I'm going to stop at the Church's and fill up my bag with ice. Today I am going for speed. I have some food in my pocket for when I get hungry. I'm going to walk as fast as I can today. Let's see how fast I get downtown today. For sure I'll be there before twelve when they feed lunch at the daycenter at Travis Park. I'm walking down Old Tezel right now. I've got my WPTMJ shirt on. I've got three of them. They all kind of have armpit stains. The one I wore for my 94 mile walk around 1604, I'm going to keep wearing only this one. It's even got a small blood stain on it. I'm going to keep wearing this one until it wears out, to conserve the other two.

     6:17am  I walked to the Church's and right before I got to the Church's I realized I didn't have my digital camera on me. Shit. I thought maybe I could call my mom and she could bring it the half mile to the Church's. Then all of a sudden I found a quarter on the ground in front of the Church's and thought that was a sure sign to call my mom. I walked to the Citgo, but the payphone is ripped out and gone. So, I'm going to walk back home and get my camera. I can't walk downtown
without my camera. This kind of messes up my not walking in the sunshine. It's still dark outside. I'm walking back home to get my camera.

     6:26am  I'm almost back to the house and my mom's car is still there. Maybe she'll give me a ride back to the Citgo.

     6:32am  I'm leaving again. I don't want to wait for my mom. Oh, and I took a shot of Riovida when I left. I did get my bag full of ice at the Citgo, so it wasn't a total waste. Also, I had originally thought about walking down Wickersham to Guilbeau, but I wanted to get ice. Now that I've already got the ice and went back home, I can. I noticed I had forgotten my camera so I came back home. My mom said she'd give me a ride, but she was taking her sweet ass time. Anyway, I'm walking down Wickersham right now, the shortcut I wanted to take. It's not that much shorter, just an alternate route. This has probably thrown my timing off for getting downtown. I'm going to try and walk all the way. Rest as little as possible. I should've brought my rain poncho. It might rain.

     7:00am  I just got to Guilbeau. Turning left.

     7:10am  Got to Bandera and turning right. Oh yeah, today is Saturday. They won't be feeding lunch downtown at noon. There should be free food somewhere.

     7:15am  Just crossed Mainland.

     7:18am  Crossing Leon Creek.

     7:20am  Seventy four degrees it says on the bank sign.

     7:25am  Crossing Eckhert.

     7:34am  Huebner.

     7:35am  I took a picture looking down Bandera from Huebner. You can see the water tower in the background. Loop 410 is right over the hill.

     7:40am  Passing Poss Road.

     7:45am  Walking in front of the Onion house. I'm going to take a piss break up here soon.

     7:46am  Leaving from my piss break.
                  
     7:49am  Passing Seneca.

                   Haha, The Church on the Rock(2-11-04:1:52pm) went out of business. Suckers. Remember them? It all says Church For Sale now.

     8:05am  Walking underneath 410. I am really debating taking a break. I'm pretty hungry. I was thinking I could take a break at the same spot I did last time, on that concrete block in front of the vet's. Ahh, I have a trail mix bar in my pocket. I can eat that while I walk. I don't have to stop.

                   Hehe, Dr. Covert had told me, "You can't be out there saving the world with gum disease."

     8:37am  Passing Hillcrest.
                  
     8:43am  It's funny, right across the street from the Bandera Road Flea Market they have a billboard that says, "Passengers speak out about reckless driving." Speakup Ad Council. Dumbasses have a typo on their billboard. Speak out about illiteracy.

***I'm typing this up on Thursday 9-4 and I did a Google search for reckless. It turns out that is the correct
spelling of the word. Hmm, you learn something new every day. I always thought it was wreckless.***
RECKLESS

                   I am getting hungry again. I'm going to eat another trail mix bar. On the walk instead of on the run.

     8:53am  Passing Cheryl.

                   I'm going to load up a hit of weed while I'm walking, hehe.

                   I'm going to take a leak behind this building here. I'll take a hit of weed too. Just a little pause. I'm not stopping.

                   Oh yeah, my mom had hooked me up with some money for food and busfare. So I've got weed money, hehe.

     9:00am  Crossing woodlawn. Almost got hit by a car.

     9:04am  I just found a whole Doral cigarette on the ground. I'm going to smoke it while I walk.

     9:05am  Crossing General McMullen.

     9:10am  Crossing Cincinnati.

     9:17am  Left on Culebra.

     9:19am  Passed Wilson to the left, 24th to the right.

                   I'm going to stop and cut a new tennis ball. I lost the one that was on there. Wait, I see it. I'm going to keep going.

     9:34am  I just crossed Zarzamora. In all actuality I have been walking for three and a half hours this morning, because I had forgotten my camera and had to go back. I left again at six thirty, so I've been walking three hours nonstop with no rest. I am almost downtown. It's going to be awesome if I can get there in three and a half, four hours. It used to take my six hours to get downtown.

     9:44am  Walked underneath I10.

     9:49am  Passing Colorado. Almost to Fredericksburg. I'm going to take a piss in this corner real quick.

     9:51am  Walking. I took a leak. I am almost to Fredericksburg.

     9:54am  Turning right on Fredericksburg.

     10:01am  Just got to San Pedro. Turning right.

     10:07am  Walking underneath I35. McDermett Freeway. Almost downtown.

     10:17am  Travis Park. I walked all the way downtown in under four hours! It used to take me six hours to get downtown. Hell yeah, I was hauling ass. I'm going to sit down and rest.

     11:15am  It's about time I made another update. I got to the park and rested a bit. Right when I walked up this guy read my shirt and smoked me out with this badass Colorado weed. We were looking for a place to smoke so we came to where the Gutter Punk Bridge used to be. They're extending The Riverwalk and doing all this construction now. We climbed down there to smoke, but a mountain bike cop rolled by and saw us. He yelled at us, "It's blocked off for a reason!" I quickly put my CamelBak on my front, to conceal world peace through marijuana. We climbed out of there, he didn't see my shirt and just gave us a warning, whew.

     11:46am  I just took a picture of a cop arresting some drunk guy. That cool guy who smoked me out with the dank, I didn't get his name, he wanted to play a game of pool with me. He said he was going to try and round up the change and come back to the park, but it's been a while. It sucks, because he has the good weed that I need to walk around Loop 1604 with. I wanted to see if I could buy a little bit from him. I'm tired of waiting for this guy, it's been like an hour. I have to
walk back home now. I'm going to go get hooked up at Estela's, watch. Estela gave me some ice the other day(8-15-08:12:16pm). She'll remember me. I had logged her generosity for the ice and everything.

     12:12pm  I hope Estela is here. Here I go. I passed up Cristan's for this.

     12:15pm  Nice, Estela is hooking me up. I'm going to eat here. I'm tired.

     12:29pm  Hell yeah, I got hooked up at Estela's. I'm walking now. I've got a happy belly. I'm going to walk Fredericksburg back home now. When Estela asked me what I wanted to drink I told her limonada. She told me she had just run out of lemonade. I just asked her if she could fill up my bag with ice, I already had water. She did, but then when she brought me the food she set down a glass of lemonade!

                     Fredericksburg

     12:40pm  I just took a picture of this mural of some pretty girl. She's got the San Antonio look. You can tell when people are from here.

     12:44pm  Walking by this lame-ass McDonald's billboard. It says, "Today crew, tomorrow manager. What are your plans?"  Oh man, that's right. Aim high! That's just hilarious.

                     The sad thing about it is that billboard actually works. It actually inspires some people.

     12:46pm  Just passed Woodlawn and about to go under I10.

     12:51pm  Took a piss break right before Mulberry.

     12:54pm  Passing W Mulberry.

     1:00pm  Passing Zarzamora.

     1:32pm  Man, I'm far already. I won't rest until I get to 410. I might not even rest there. Let's see if I can go all the way home without resting.

     1:34pm  Guess who I just ran into? I was walking almost to Balcones Heights Road and I ran into Sam! My old roommate. Remember Sam(1-1-04)? How crazy. It's been years. He was just walking across the street. I gave him a big hug.

                     Awesome. I asked Sam what he was doing and he said he was getting something to eat at Subway. Then he asks me, "Are you hungry?" Sheet, I walk for a living. I can always eat. He's going to get me some lunch, awesome.

     1:41pm  Sam is hooking me up with some lunch at Subway. He's getting me a pizza just like his.

     2:51pm  I am leaving from Sam's. That's so cool how I ran into him. He bought me a veggie pizza at Subway. He had asked me what I wanted and I told him to just get me what he was getting. Sam asked me, "Would you want to relax after we eat?" I told him sure, so we went back to his apartment and hung out. I got to show Sam the leaf blower video and Free Hugs. I show those to everybody. It was an interesting little pause. I switched out my tennis ball and took a hit of weed. Sam doesn't smoke weed anymore. He said the effects last too long. I'm walking now.

     3:05pm  About to pass Hillcrest. Loop 410 is afterwards. I'll take a picture.

     3:07pm  Crossing 410.

     3:20pm  I just passed Callaghan.

     3:25pm  Turning left into Oak Hills Country Club. I'm going to take my usual shortcut over to Louis Pasteur.

     3:32pm  I walked by the tennis courts and there were all these kids taking lessons or something. I went up there to ask if they had any dead balls I could get for my stick. All of a sudden I see my dentist! Dr. Covert! He's playing tennis with his family.  What's up, doc?

                   Dr. Covert was all glad to see me. He asked me how my teeth were. I told him great, they'd never been this clean. I told him that the cute girl who cleaned them for me had told me I still needed to get a deep scaling, this really good cleaning they do where they have to give you Novocain. He told me, "Come by and I'll see if we can squeeze you in again."

     3:38pm  I scored like nine balls on the other side of the fence at the country club! I went around the back. I can't believe I never thought to do that before. I really needed some balls to walk around the loop with, and take off traveling again.

     3:42pm  I looked around some more and found me a shitload more tennis balls. They're all scattered around back here. Both my cargo shorts are bulging with balls. Umm, that means I can't walk home or my legs will get chafed. That's a sure sign to ride the bus, hehe. If excuses were money I would be rich. That was awesome how I ran into Dr. Covert at the country club. He's going to hook me up again. What crazy encounters I am having today.

                   There were reasons why I walked up Fredericksburg today. See, everybody?

     3:48pm  I cut through the Oak Hills Country Club and scored me lots of tennis balls. I came out on Louis Pasteur. I'm going to take another break. I'm right in front of the dental school, these big fields with trees. I'm just going to sit in the shade here and smoke. Then I'll cut through the dental school to the bus terminal and ride the bus home. I've walked enough today. I had another blessed walking day.

                   I took all the balls out of my pockets and counted them. I scored me a total of fourteen balls today.

     4:07pm  Leaving from my rest in the grass. I'm going to walk to the buses now.

                   I took a picture of the big water thing at University Hospital.

     4:35pm  I walked up to the transfer center and asked this girl if the 606 had come yet. She said she hoped it hadn't, that was the one she was waiting for. My ears perked and I immediately hit her up for my story(to kill time for the bus to get there. I put on an awesome presentation and Nene was such a great listener. She loved my story. I took her picture.

     4:36pm  7674 hooked me up with a transfer. A bus pulled up and I told the driver, "I've been walking since six in the morning. I'm training for my second walk around Loop 1604 starting on Monday. Can I please have a transfer?" Everybody gets credit.

     5:21pm  Nene was such a great listener. Beautiful listener. She was so reactive. She loved my story. "You're awesome, you're awesome," she told me.

                   3021 hooked me up with a transfer at the Mainland Walmart, sweet.

                   Today was awesome. I didn't spend any money. I still have all the money my mom gave me this morning, which I thought I would use to buy weed. I still need to get some for my walk next week.

     5:39pm  I'm on the 606.

     5:48pm  I got off over by the Church's.

     8:11pm  I've been home for a while. I'm talking to my mom and she's really frustrated at her job. She hates it so much, all these deadlines they are giving her. She's really stressed out. I worry about her so much. It must be hell to have to work somewhere you don't like. I told her I wanted to sit down and have a big talk with her and figure out her finances and get her to stop paying for all this bullshit she doesn't need. Like the home phone she barely uses. She gets all her calls on her cellphone and the only people who call the house are telemarketers. That phone is always ringing with people trying to sell her something. Thank goodness for Caller ID. We never answer that phone.

     8:24pm  I forgot to tell you. I drove my mom's car over to the Agua Pura place on Mainland and Tezel, close to Dr. Covert's office, by the Walgreens. I am refilling a couple three gallon bottles for my mom. Twenty five cents a gallon. We need water. Hydrate or die.

     10:06pm  I am going to bed.

Next day..