120403

 

Ukiah, Laytonville, Empire Camp Rest Stop

Thursday December 4, 2003

     2:35am  I woke up and Richard was up. I asked him what he was doing up so early and he told me he was going to eat breakfast at Denny's. He invited me and Wild Bill and we are going to breakfast.

     3:20am  We're at the Denny's. I came outside to smoke a cigarette while I wait for the food. These two guys and a chick came out talking shit about the four cops that were inside eating. There were three squad cars in the parking lot. I laughed and told them, "You guys want to smoke a bowl??" One guy said, "Yeah, bust it out. Let's pop some tires too." I gave this guy a hit right in front of these three cop cars. The cops are all inside eating. Haha. Fuck the system.

     3:28am  Richard gave me a dollar and asked me to go buy a paper for Wild Bill. Bill wanted to look at the job ads. I walked up to the cashier Julia and asked her if she could give me change for a dollar because I wanted to get a paper for a friend. Julia told me she had yesterday's paper back there if I wanted it. I figured the jobs would still be the same so I thanked Julia and took the paper. Thanks Julia.

     4:35am  We are leaving the Denny's.

     5:01am  We got to the motel. Wild Bill and I are standing back, so we don't make it obvious that it's a big group in that room. Man, that's so awesome that I had a roof over my head when it started raining in Ukiah. Man, it's raining hard.

     5:46am  Richard is showing me some book called Extraordinary Living for Ordinary People by Sam Shoemaker. It's one of Richard's book. He bought it for a dime.

     9:56am  I woke up at the Motel. I didn't get that much rest. Richard woke me up because he wants to have the guy come in to fix something and I shouldn't be there. I asked Richard if he minded contributing to my tobacco delinquency. He gave me two dollars for a pouch of tobacco. I'm going to walk across the street to the Safeway and buy some tobacco.

     10:14am  Richard told me to be gone for like fifteen minutes or so. I rolled/smoked me a cigarette. Now, to kill time I'll just help people bring their carts back. I'm a nice guy.

     Whoa, this Safeway has been in Ukiah since 1929.

     10:20am  I'm walking back to the motel room. Sunrise Inn.

     11:28am  Some shit happened. It sucks. I stepped outside the motel room to smoke a cigarette since it's a no smoking room. After I finished the cigarette, I went inside and the phone rang. I was the motel manager. She immediately asked me, "Who is this?" I tell her my name is Victor. She asks me, "What are you doing there??" I tell her I'm just visiting and she demands to talk to Richard. She told Richard I had to leave. Richard told her that I wasn't smoking inside, but she didn't care saying, "When he opens the door a little smoke goes in the room." So, I told Richard that was a sign and I should leave. He agreed. See, when I first ran into Richard I told him my dilemma and he asked me if I needed a bus ticket. He said he was going to think about it. Well, I hit him up right now and he gave me ten dollars. I'm grateful, but that won't be enough for a Greyhound ticket. Well, at least it stopped raining. Richard told me there was a public transit bus to Willits. I walked over to the bus stop in front of the Safeway and checked the schedule. The bus to Willits comes at 3:15pm.

     12:40pm  I just realized I left my NOFX hoodie in the motel room, in the closet. Richard had left the same time I did, so I have to go hunt this guy down. I'll walk back to the Safeway and just stand out there hoping I see him come out of his room.

                     Cool, there's Richard. I'm going to get my hoodie back.

     1:43pm  I'm out by the Safeway patiently waiting for 3:15pm. These two hip-looking young dudes just walked by and I asked them if they had any weed to smoke? One guy told me no, but at home they had some and if they saw me around they would smoke me out. I told them my platform and they were automatically intrigued. I asked them if they had the patience for a legendary story. They invited me to their camper parked in the Safeway parking lot. We went to their camper and I met their other friend Woody. Cool, story time in the camper.

     2:30pm  I realized I lost my plastic water bottle. I searched around for it then Woody, out of the blue, hands me this badass 32 ounce Nalgene water bottle! I can really use this thing! I had lost my bottle.

     3:00pm  Alva just hooked me up with some traveling weed in the camper!

     3:05pm  I was hanging out in that trailer when it dawned on me I had a bus to catch at 3:15pm. What a great way to kill that wait. Thank you, Love.

                   I got a Nalgene bottle!! That's so awesome!

     3:20pm  I'm on the bus to Willits.

     3:32pm  I'm on the bus to Willits. I made friends with the bus driver, Angela. I had asked her for a courtesy ride yesterday and she had told me no, that they didn't give courtesy rides. She recognized me. Her email is mend_cino69@yahoo.com.

                   Cool, I was talking to Angela and she told me that there were a lot of Buddhists in Ukiah. Like ten thousand. Nobody told me about that. I can't believe it. She suggested I go to the temple. Man, Buddhists love peace. That's exactly where I'm going to go after I go to Arcata and get my stuff. I'll come right back here. Angela told me that she drives the bus that goes out to the temple every Wednesday and that if she saw me she would give me a free ride. So, I'm going to try and make this connection. The bus is the #52 to Talmage.

     4:48pm  Oh yeah, I'm in Willits. I'm going to go stand by the highway and hitchhike.

     5:00pm  I'm out here hitchhiking. I walked past the high school and I'm going to stick my thumb out. Nobody is picking me up.

                   Mendocino County was badass. I gotta come back here.

     5:10pm  I walked a little past the high school. I was kind of getting pissed off because it was getting dark and nobody was picking me up. I got the impulse to walk over to the gas station and ask someone pumping gas for a ride. Some dude was pulling off and I asked him if he was going North. He said not that far and I told him every little bit helped. He let me in and is hooking me up with a ride to Laytonville. His name is JD.

     5:35pm  JD's loving my shit. He was nodding his head up and down the whole time and when I paused he was all, "Keep going, keep going." He stopped at some store in Laytonville and he went inside to get a beer. He asked me if I wanted one and I told him Hornsby's Draft Cider, if they had it.

                   That's so cool that I'm already in Laytonville. I was told to stop here, that there are lots of hippies here.

     6:25pm  JD's taking off. What's your phone number, dude? 707-984-6461. He wants me to keep him updated.

     6:29pm  JD dropped me off at a Chevron and I'm in the bathroom right now. JD was cool. He told me, "Man, you're the coolest hitchhiker I've ever picked up. Good luck with everything. I will never forget this night." That was one of the best presentations I've ever had. He brought me to Laytonville. That's awesome.

     6:50pm  These two Safeway truckers pulled in and I went and asked them if they were heading North. They told me they were, but that they couldn't take any passengers. I told them thanks anyway.

     6:57pm  I just asked this guy if he was going North. He said he was, but that he was walking. He had these hip wader boots on. I started telling him how walking was the secret to life and I told him what I was going to do. He believed every word I said. Man, everybody is believing me tonight. That's awesome.

                   I just had a conversation with another guy. He said he wasn't ignorant, but he was because he wouldn't let me finish. He was all saying, "I got kids, I got a family." I told him, "Well, don't you want what's best for them? Learn to listen." I just walked off.

                   Cool, there's another dude here asking for rides. I won't feel as awkward.

                   Whoa, this lady driving a Kia Sephia just walked by and asked me if I could drive a stick. I told her yeah. I asked her how far she was going and she said almost to Eureka.

     7:36pm  Some funny shit happened. I was driving Elena's Kia Sephia. When she had asked me if I could drive standard I told her yeah, thinking it's a ride. I totally forgot that I was in California, on highway 101 and it was dark and it was raining. Shit, I can barely drive 101 in the daytime when it's dry with an automatic. I was going real slow and shifting all sloppy. Elena got really nervous at my driving and got fed up. She ended up dropping me off at this rest stop in the middle of the night. I didn't feel like driving anyway. It was raining. And, it was a Kia Sephia, the same kind of car I was in when I had my first head-injury.

                   Oh yeah, I told Elena my mission objectives and she got a little weirded out. When I told her I would explain exactly how I would do it, provided she had the patience to listen, she said, "No, not right now." She's totally all ignorant and sold out. She's all about money. Aww, poor baby. Her back hurt and she didn't feel like driving. Oh well, I guess I really don't know how to drive a standard that good. Now I'm at this empty rest stop with nobody here. It's pouring rain and I'll never get a ride. I guess I'll be crashing here and I'll take off walking in the morning. Let's see what the bathrooms are like.

     7:41pm  Please Love, help me out. Send somebody my way. This is an empty rest stop at night. Nobody stops at rest stops at night.

                   Oh yeah, I'm at the Empire Camp Rest Area, wherever that is(8-24-03, 6:44pm). Earlier that dude JD told me, "I'll never forget this. I assure you."

     8:55pm  Cool, two cars just pulled in. I'm going to go ask them.

     9:02pm  Man, that sucks. I thought I was going to get a ride. They just took off. That sucks.

     12:03am  I just had an awesome presentation with this trucker that stopped in front of the restrooms and talked to me. I told him my entire platform and my ½ hour long odyssey story. He listened to every last bit of it. He still wouldn't give me a ride. Plus, he told me he had stopped at the rest stop to rest. To get some sleep.

                     He had listened to all my stuff and I asked him, "Hey, are you sure you don't want to reconsider on the ride? It'll go straight into my book on generosity the whole world is going to read." He was all, "Oh no, I could really lose my job." I should have told him, "Man, I'm going to make it so you don't need your job." I then asked him, "Well then, I don't suppose you could spare any change for a bus ticket?" He said, "Sorry, I don't ever carry cash. I got credit cards. I just write bills and they get paid." I should've told him, "Man, you're not going to need them either."

                     Oh yeah, and that guy told me that I was already in Humboldt County. Humboldt is a big county.

                      I just counted all the emails in my green memo book. I have 104 in there.

     12:45am  That cool trucker who listened to me came back. I was just sitting there in front of the restrooms with my head down under the eave. He comes up to me and says, "Are you just going to stay there?" I told him, "Yeah, this is the only dry spot around." He told me I could go sit down in his truck.

     12:50am  Bill is being nice enough to let me spend the night in his truck. He had told me he was going to be there until 6am and I asked him, "Do you think I can catch some z's just sitting here in the seat?" He told me, "Well, that's the point." That's so cool. I got a dry place to sleep tonight. I'll hit Humboldt tomorrow.  

Next day..