092507

                                                                                                                  to Tonkawa, OK

Tuesday September 25, 2007

     6:45am  I woke up around six thirty in Paul's backyard. I had to take a shit real bad and luckily they're letting me use the restroom at the 7-11.

     7:54am  I'm walking around UCOK looking for a gym. Going to try and manifest me a shower.

     8:24am  Mission accomplished! I didn't tell you. I scored me a shower! I walked around the college and asked some kid where the gymnasium was. I walked to the front of it and I didn't go inside at first. It started drizzling and then I saw some girl come out of the building. "Cool, it's unlocked," I realized. I asked her if there was anywhere to take a shower in there and she said she didn't know. I walked in and the boy's locker room is right here! It was totally empty, so I went in and scored me a shower! They had soap dispensers on the wall. I didn't have a towel, so I just stood there by the lockers and drip-dried. I just packed all my shit up and I'm ready to go. Awesome. Tappin' the resources.

     10:15am  Jeremiah was nice enough to let me back up my pictures on his computer at Paul's place, and he gave me a ride to 35. I appreciate it, bro.

     10:39am  I asked the kid working at the gas station if he would let me ask for rides and he told me no. It's only three exits down to the next gas station. That's what I'm going to do. I'm going to eat, smoke and take off walking. It's not raining that hard.
                    
     10:49am  Bart just walked out of the Conoco on I35 and volunteered me some money. I appreciate it, brother.

                     Holy shit! That dude just gave me a hundred dollars! Hell yeah! That guy just gave me a hundred dollars!

                     And when Jeremiah dropped me off he gave me a little weed! I've got everything I need. I love what's going on.

     11:03am  I am taking off.

     11:20am  I'm talking to Bobby and Bo. They listened to my story. Bo: "I am very impressed with how you are living. I myself have lived since I was fourteen in the same manner. God, my father, provides for me in every situation. There's no condemnation. I'm not at all against what you're doing, but I believe God wants to break through so that you can live for the eternal, not the temporary. This is all going to pass away at a certain point. But the eternal doesn't pass away. God provided Jesus Christ to give us absolute purity and righteousness in trade for all of our impurities, all the negative, all the hatred, he wants to trade and replace it with a true nature of love and take away that hatred. So in that, we can either join with Jesus or we can go against Jesus. But there is no other form of love other than what already exists. God is that love. Yahweh is that love." 

Victor:  I think we need to stop labeling things. The only word it needs is Love. Praise Love. That's the only one I need to know the truth, that's self-evident anyway. 

             I didn't need to read it anywhere to discover Love. Love is written in nature."

Bo: "It is written in nature and nature testifies that a creator bigger than ourselves created everything including us. God is the one that made this the way that it is so that we could live according to just what you're saying. With nothing, but having everything. He owns all of this, but he gives it to us freely because he loves us." 

Bobby: "And his example of love was himself in the person of Jesus on the cross dying so that we could be with him, so that we could know him, so that we could now what love really is." 

Victor: "I think the Jesus, God, bible story, that's all the translation of love that was needed at the time it was written for people to understand love. That was two thousand years ago. We need an update, badly. 

Bo: "And we can all be part of that update, because Jesus still lives today and it still accomplishing his love." 

Bobby: "You see this right here? This says Kairos. Kairos is Greek for 'God-appointed time.' You said yourself that you don't believe in accidents. Here we are, we just took off walking. We are finishing up the last leg of this particular assignment that we're on. It just so happened that when we came to this road here, which is a crossroad that we run into you and you're going in the same direction we are. Now, in the temporal we're heading North. But, in the eternal realm, in God's time because God is eternal. He's not confined by time, space..." 

Victor:  "He's not even a person. We can't call it a he or a she."

Bo: "He is a person. He made us in his image." 

Victor: "No, it's something much bigger than a person."

Bobby: "The god undefined by time and space came and encapsuled himself in the person, in the man Jesus Christ." 

Victor:  "How do you know?"

Bobby: "Then he was despised and rejected by his own creation. He knew before he was despised that he would be and willingly allowed himself to be crushed by his own people just for the cause of saying this is love, that my life is taken from me. I lay it down for the cause of love for you."

     11:51am  Welcome to the Bible Belt, Victor. I was walking up 35 and all of a sudden I see these two other kids walking. Hardcore bible-thumpers, man. I told them my story. They all put their hands on me and prayed for a longass time. Ahh, it was nothing I haven't heard before. I'm going to keep walking.

     12:01.47pm  Mile marker 142.

     12:18.52pm  Mile marker 143. Seventeen minute mile.

     12:38pm  I'm going to stop underneath this bridge and rest and smoke.

     12:44.16pm  Leaving.

     12:48.36pm  Mile marker 144. I'm going to try and do five miles at a time, like I've done before. Next rest at marker 149.

     1:07.09pm  Mile marker 145.

     1:10.10pm  Waterman Road one mile. Exit 146.

     1:24.25pm  Marker 146.

     1:31pm  Taking Exit 146. There's a Shell station. Big Catfish Barn.

     1:47pm  I came to the diner. This dude in the back told me, "That's a badass shirt."

Chapter 10 of Ishmael. Good quote on page 147. "Living close to nature is wonderful for your mental health."

     2:19pm  I am leaving the diner that's across the street from the Shell station. It's thundering right now. It might start raining while I'm walking. 27 miles to Guthrie. I asked permission to ask for rides and was granted it, but this place is dead. It's not raining. Just thundering and lightning. Maybe I should walk it. It's only ten miles. Maybe I'll go to the onramp and thumb it. I don't know.

     2:32pm  I'm going to take off walking, even though it's all thundering. Next gas station is at the next exit. Like three miles or something.

     2:43pm  I stopped for like three or four minutes. It started drizzling, so I put my raincoat on.

     2:44.38pm  Marker 147.

     3:02.20pm  I'm going to stop and take my raincoat off. It's not raining at all.

     3:06.29pm  Leaving.

     3:25pm  I didn't tell you when I passed the mile marker. I've been looking down the whole time and I walked right past it.

     3:47.44pm  Exit 151 coming up. Seward Road. I'm a walking machine today. I haven't rested at all since the diner. The gas station is coming up soon.

     4:01.32pm  Passing mile marker 151.

     4:06pm  Taking Exit 151.

     4:11pm  I just got to the Shell station. I'm going to take a piss.

     4:37pm  I am up from my rest. I aired out my feet and put fresh socks on. Guthrie is five more miles.

     4:44pm  I just passed marker 152, I think. Or 153. Guthrie is one mile, I think.

     4:54pm  Passing sign that says See Guthrie! Unique museums. I'm aiming for Wichita.

     5:02.21pm  Mile marker 153.

     5:19.53pm  Marker 154. I'm going to take a breather and smoke.

     5:30.34pm  I'm about to leave 154. I'm going to set my chronometer for this mile.

     5:35pm  Becky, right? It started raining. It's been drizzling this whole time. Well, it started pouring and I was scrambling to get my stuff covered up and Becky pulled over for me. I really appreciate it, Becky. Everybody gets credit, thanks.

     5:44pm  Becky saved my day. I was walking and all of a sudden it started raining! I took my pack off and was getting my raincoat on and she pulled over for me. I hear somebody honking and I look up and there she was. She said she had seen me walking when she was on her way to Edmond earlier. She had told herself, "If I see that guy I'm going to pick him up." She sure as hell did. She rescued me in my time of need. She says she usually doesn't pick up people.


                   Pretty Sky.  

     6:29pm  I'm at the Subway here in what town am I in? I didn't get the name, but the manager here is a bitch, hehe.

     10:30pm  I didn't tell you. I spent the rest of the day at the gas station. Shelly, the cashier, when I first got here she said she got off at eight and she'd be able to give me a ride a bit North. She ended up having to work a long-ass time. Her backup called in. She gave me a ride and now I'm going to look for a place to crash.

                      Shelly wrote her phone number on my hand. 405-408-8439

Next day..