to Albert Lea, MN
Monday October 8, 2007
2:40am My beautiful camp last night got doused. At one in the morning it started raining. I had to scramble and cover my shit up. A lot of my stuff got wet. My blanket and sleeping bag and stuff. I'm not going back to sleep tonight. I need the sun to come up so I could ford the river. I'm going to have to wait a while. Unless, I pack up my shit and ford the river right now. I hope I can do it. I don't know. It might be tough. Hope I can pull it off without falling in the river. I have to take my boots off first. I threw them on when it started raining last night. I'll ford the river with my sandals so my boots won't get soaked. Unless, I just go in boots and soak them anyway. I don't know what I'm going to do.
Hmm, I shouldn't be looking around in the dark wasting the batteries on my flashlight. I'll stop.
I've almost smoked all my weed. That's what's helped keep me up all night. Marijuana and cigarettes. I have to wait until the sun comes up. Another three or four hours.
4:08am I am playing the patience game. I dug out this candle I have in my bag and set it on this little post that comes out. I took a picture of it. Flash and without flash. I'm playing the waiting game. I'm going to wait for the sun to come up then I'm going to put my sandals on and ford the river. I'll get to the other side and walk to I don't know. I am out of food now. I ate all the snacks I got yesterday. I do have some backup-pecans. The very last of them. From Texas.
7:33am Oh man, last night was friggin' crazy. At like 1am it started raining! It sucks. Up until then it had been a perfect little camp spot by the creek. I waited, I played the patience game and waited for the sun to come up. I thought I was going to ford the river. Since my boots were already wet I didn't have to put my sandals on. I packed all my shit up. The rain was real heavy. It was wet. I tried to cross the river but it got too deep and I had to abort. I just passed a barn I could've crashed in last night, ugh. I walked a bit through these people's property and I got to some road and turned left.
Oh yeah, last night to kill time I devised a way to collect rainwater. I used one of my rain ponchos. I now have me a full bottle of water. I was all out. Even though it's got a little debris in it, but it will keep me from dying, I'm sure. I threw up my poncho in between these close-together trees and let the rain drip in my bottle.
8:35am I walked 220 Street all the way to 670 Avenue. Left to Elkton. It's like a mile away. Hopefully that's a town. I'm going to see if there's a store or something. Maybe there'll be a coin laundry. Yeah fuckin' right.
8:53am I walked 220 to 670. I just stood here and rested. I'm resting standing up because there's nowhere to sit down. It's all wet. I am about ready to take off. Did I tell you I've decided to head back towards 90. I am not going to go towards Elkton because it looks like a long ways there. I'm not even sure if there's a store anywhere there. I'm going to walk up to 90. Maybe there will be a side street I can keep going East on. I don't know. It's cold.
9:29am I am getting closer to I90. I think I see a billboard for a gas station. BP, I think.
9:59am At long-last I have come to State Highway 16 over by the Windmill Phillips 66. I'm friggin' pooped. I'm going to go buy some food. I'll be able to get out of some of my wet clothes too.
12:01pm Amanda is rescuing me!
The cashier in the Windmill was very nice and let me borrow the phone. Troy never answered. I walked here all the way from Austin yesterday, like a good fifteen miles. Amanda: "Nobody stopped??" You can't walk on the highway so I had to cut through corn fields and private property. Amanda: "Oh my goodness!" Then last night I thought I had found me an awesome little camp next to the creek. I went right to sleep. Four hours later it started raining.
1:19pm Guess where I am. See, I was thinking I could go either way. I could keep going East to Rochester, but all my stuff was wet. Or, I could go back to Troy's house in Albert Lea and borrow his dryer. So when Amanda asked me if I needed a ride I said sure, without even asking her what direction. She was headed back to Austin and gave me a ride all the way back to Troy's house in Albert Lea.
Troy isn't home. I know he always leaves his door unlocked, but I'm not going to enter his house. The sun's come up and is shining bright. I'm going to take on the project of laying my stuff out to dry in the sun.
I figured it will kill a lot of time and hopefully Troy will come home while I'm doing that. I'm going to get it all dry. I can read my book too.
So I am back at what's-his-name's house. That beautiful girl Amanda gave me a ride. We pulled up in front of Troy's house and she listened to like two or three or my stories. Perfect. Damn, I lost the pack of cigarettes I just bought. That sucks.
7:43pm It's about time I made an update. I got my stuff dried off in Troy's front lawn. I took a picture. But, when it started to get cold I went inside the house. I was relieved because I'd have a chance to finish those dishes I started. I hate doing things half-assed. Troy eventually came home. I was sitting in his chair watching a movie. Surprised I was there he said, "I thought you already left." I told him, "Plot thickens," and told him what had transpired. He got a little uppity and said, "No more weed or money." I told him, "Dude, all my shit was cold and wet and I desperately needed a place to dry off at. I already dried my stuff in the sun. I don't need to borrow your dryer or anything. I hadn't even come in your house until recently when it got cold. Wait, have you seen your kitchen yet?" I cleaned it a lot. The dishes are almost done. There had been a mountain of them. There's another dryer rack full waiting to dry. He looked around and he seems to be alright with it now. Alright.
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