120103

  

Arcata to Eureka to Scotia and walking..

Monday December 1, 2003

     11:09am  Once again, Kati and I had a long goodbye. We kissed and hugged. She went off to work and I'm sitting here getting my stuff together again. I folded up my rain poncho and put it in my Adidas bag. I got everything packed in there good. I'm going to go eat at The Endeavor. I'm going to try to get out to Scotia after dark so I can go sneak in that RV Park and crash. That's what I'm going to do.

     11:19pm  I'm leaving Kati. I looked around to see if I forgot anything. I'm locking the door and closing it behind me. Oh man, I'm going to miss this place so much.

     12:34pm  I came and ate at The Endeavor and it was good. I came out to the red curb to smoke a cigarette. I just groundscored me $1.63 in change. It was just there on the ground.

     12:36pm  I just ran into Brian or Ryan, I don't know. He had seen me in Portland. He was all, "Hey, there's the guy with the stick." That's so badass. People recognize me from Portland still. That's awesome.

                     Josh came up to me and said, "I thought you were leaving." I told him all about me having to get my rain poncho. We all just came over here to smoke some marijuana by the wall.

     1:18pm  I just walked to Long's Drugs and damnit, the cameras aren't five dollars anymore. That sucks.

     1:20pm  Luckily, the were still five dollars. I didn't see the sign for them anywhere. I picked one up and went to a cashier and asked her, "Hey, these aren't five bucks anymore?" She scanned it and sure enough it said $4.99. I got two of them. I am ready to travel.

     1:37pm  I am going to try and hitchhike to Eureka. To The Raven House. I'll say bye to Kati again.

     1:42pm  Damnit, competition just walked up. Another guy hitchhiking.

     1:46pm  This lady just stopped in her car and asked us if we wanted to go to Indianola, which is like almost to Eureka, but not really. I told her no thanks.

     1:55pm  Barry is hooking me up once again. This time with a ride. He said I have him in my book twice. I'll be sure to have a link to your past contributions, Barry(9-26-03,7:13pm, 10-29-03, 1:56pm)

     4:39pm  I went to The Raven House and Kati and her coworker Calvin are going to some art workshop thing. We're all going to walk down the road to some gallery. I went with them and sat there and read a National Geographic. Now, I'm going to walk to the Greyhound Station, because the bus to Scotia comes at 5:05pm.

     4:56pm  I'm at the Greyhound station.

     5:03pm  Black Eye just hooked me up with a cigarette in front of the Greyhound station. I had offered him a quarter and he said, "No, I'll give you one, though." Thanks a lot, brother.

     6:30pm  I am in Scotia now. There's a store here. I'm going to go buy some food. I'm hungry. I bought a Zebra Cake because it had the most calories of all the snack cakes, 460. I got two of them. I came outside and ate it. I met this one dude who had a backpack on. He had been riding the same bus I just got off of. He was waiting for the bus driver then he was going to keep going. I told him about my mission and he seemed impressed. His name is Caleb and I got his email address. That's so cool. I'm back to work. I'm working. On my way to save the world.

                   Okay, I'm on my five mile hike to Stafford Road. It's all night time and dark. It's cool.

                   Earlier I passed a Palco truck in front of this huge wood mill. On the truck it said, "Working for the future." What bullshit. They're working against the future.

     7:00pm  I'm on the highway walking South. I said out loud, "Love, please help me out. I am in need of some assistance."

     7:20pm  I stopped to rest. Yesterday I walked to Eureka nonstop. It was like six miles. It killed me. I thought it would be good practice. I'm taking a little rest right now and I'm going to smoke some weed.

     7:37pm  I'm up walking from my rest.

     7:50pm  I'm passing the sign that says, "Stafford Road 1 mile." Cool.

     8:00pm  I'm stopping to rest. I can see a sign that says, "Camping next right. Stafford Road RV Park."

     8:05pm  I'm taking off. I took a couple drags from a cigarette. I really shouldn't be smoking. I'm going to quit when I go back to San Antonio.

     8:10pm  Now passing Eel River. Richard Fleischer Memorial Bridge Eel River. Bridge 4-14r. I don't know. I can't read it. It's dark.

                   Okay, I got to the infamous bridge. The one I couldn't sleep under because I would have to sleep on the sidewalk right next to the street. I'm going to walk to the RV park which isn't far.

     8:25pm  I am coming up to the entrance of the Stafford Road RV Park. I'll take pictures tomorrow in the light.

                   Umm, I've been walking around in the dark for a minute and I can't find that shelter. I don't know where the hell it is. I hope I don't draw suspicion.

                   Okay, I've located it. I'm going to walk to it now.

                    I was walking towards it and I noticed a truck pulling around. They came over and parked right in front of the shelter I was going to sleep in. I wonder if they'll tell me shit for sleeping there. I'm just going to go up and ask them.

     8:35pm  I found me another shelter to crash in! I even have a big long bench to sleep on. It's an old church pew.

                   Oh yeah, I never told you guys about the awesome patch Kati sewed on my army pants. There was a hole wearing on my right knee and Kati had said she had the perfect patch for it. It's an old boy scout patch that says "Fearless Leader," on it. It has a green ranger hat. It matches my uniform perfectly, and it patches that hole. She also sewed this cool peace patch on my cargo shorts. Man, I miss Kati already.

     9:03pm  I am crashing out. I can't believe I'm going to bed already. I got nothing else to do and it's dark.

Next day..