San Antonio, TX
Sunday December 15, 2002
Okay, today is Sunday, the 15th of December, 2002. This is my first day of real training for my walk to the West Coast. In the morning I got on AOL and talked to someone who has done this before, who has hitch-hiked all the way from San Francisco to San Antonio. Her name is Gana and she's twenty one. I was like hey, where do you live? We gotta hang out. She agreed and gave me her address and phone number. She lives over in Stone Oak Parkway, way on the Northeast side of town over by 281 and Loop 1604. I live on the Northwest, also near 1604. I'm going to walk there. Just to hang out with her and see what advice she can give me since she's done this before. Maybe she can teach me some things that I need to know before I leave.
I grabbed all my gear I'm taking with me on my big walk. I put on my big ass backpack with changes of clothes including my thermals, my rain poncho and other stuff. I also grabbed my simple Adidas soccer shoe, drawstring backpack which I wore on my front. I was ready to travel. I grabbed my walking stick and headed out the door. Right now I'm walking East on 1604, right past Bandera road. I'm going to walk all the way to Stone Oak Parkway which is like going Northwest to Northeast. It's about two twenty five right now and I'm just passing Bandera. I got a long walk ahead of me. Training.
I walked all the way to Babcock and 1604 right over by where my friend Andrea lives. I was hungry so I walked into the Pizza Hut that was there and asked to speak to the manager. I gave him my line about being a long-distance walker and if they could spare some gasoline for my stomach, but they didn't bite. I told them thanks anyway and walked over to the Bill Millers BBQ place. I was hoping it would work there. It's all a number's game. Alas, they told me no too. I walked over to the gas station and asked if I could borrow their phone. I was going to call Andrea and surprise her by telling her I was close to her house. I was going to see if she could give me a ride to Stone Oak since it was Sunday and I didn't think she had anything else to do. I called Andrea's house and her mom answered. I asked for Andrea and her mom told me that she had just left. I said bye to her mom and walked outside, hoping she hadn't driven by the gas station and would see me. I went outside and sat on the curb on the side of the building. I ate some bread because I was hungry. I then got the idea to load a bowl of weed in my pipe. I took my big backpack off and sat down. I fished around in my soccer shoe bag and extracted a little bud out of my Ziploc bag of marijuana. I broke it up on my jeans and loaded my little sneak-a-toke. As I was working laboriously with my weed good 'ol Andrea pulls up in her car! She told me she had gone back home and had seen someone had called from the gas station and she figured I was out walking and would still be closeby, so she came looking for me. Sure enough, there I was. I asked her if she wanted to smoke some weed and she said hop in. I told her about my plan to meet with this girl to get pointers for my walk and asked her if she would mind driving me out to the Northeast side of town. Andrea said sure and we took off.
We smoked some weed and just then I remembered I had some black-cat firecrackers I had found in the garage. I showed them to Andrea and she said cool. I asked her if I could light one and throw it out the car window while we were driving. She laughed and told me she didn't care. It was a blast. Andrea made me wait until there were no cars behind us and I chunked out a firecracker. Dude, it sounded just like a gunshot when it went off. I was all stoned and laughing. It was rad.
Anyway, we eventually get to this girl's neighborhood in Stone Oak. We find the street she lives on and I tell Andrea to just drop me off. She does and I walk over to Gana's house. I knocked on her door and her father(I presume) answers. He didn't seem too happy for some tall stranger to be knocking on his door. I said, "Is Gana here?" and then I see someone poking their head out from behind her father and she told me what's up and to wait a minute. After a couple minutes, she opened the door and I introduced myself. First thing she tells me is, "Want to go for a hike in the woods?" Badass, I love exploring new woods. Thing is, Gana didn't smoke weed but didn't care if I did. She showed me this cool campsite she had when she was a little kid. She hadn't been back there in years though. It was a really cool place with lots of big rocks everywhere. I felt right at home. I told Gana, "I'm going to crash here tonight, walk to 1604 in the morning and catch the bus home. We hung out for a little bit and I even learned how to make a fire. I can't say I ever made one without lighter fluid before. I was quite proud. I made a little pile of leaves and lit it with a lighter. I then noticed that if I blew on it, it would make it hotter and even if the flames went out all I needed to do to get it to spread was blow on it. Eventually, I got a good little blaze going and I put some dead branches in it. I was in awe with my little fire. You learn something new every day.
Anyway, Gana said she should be heading back home soon and I asked her if she could do a water run for me. She agreed and told me she would get me some snacks too. She said it would be probably be better if I came back to the house with her because it would look kind of suspicious to her father if she left the house with water and snacks. I left my big backpack at the camp, walked back to her house and Gana discovered that no one was home and she was locked out. We walked around to the back yard where she had a big deck and a trampoline in her yard. We were just going to sit outside and wait for her parents to return. The trampoline looked very tempting. I hadn't jumped on one since I was a little kid. I asked Gana if she minded if I jumped on it and she told me to go right ahead. I stood there thinking if my want to jump on the trampoline was worth the trouble of unlacing my boots. I finally decided I had nothing better to do and took my boots off. It was a blast, I never realized that jumping on a trampoline was such a good workout. I didn't do a flip though. I'm too paranoid I'm going to hurt myself. It had me breathing real hard though. After about ten minutes I got bored of it and got off. I went to sit over by Gana and relace my boots. When I was almost finished her father and family drove up. Gana told them we had gone on a hike and that I was about to leave. She went inside and refilled my water bottle and gave me a Ziploc baggie with two packs of yummy granola bars.
I was contemplating on walking to the gas station. Man, some bitch just honked at me real loud for no reason. I remembered I had to call my mom. She was probably worried she hadn't heard from me. I had Gana record some directions to the camp site on my recorder for me and I'm walking to the gas station to borrow the phone. I'm going to call my mom and tell her I'm going to crash out in the woods as training for my journey. I'll see if I can bum a cigarette from someone at the gas station too. Alright, so it's a long ass walk to the gas station.
Wow, this is great. I just walked into the Walgreen's and asked them if I could use the phone. I called my mom. When she answered she immediately asked, "Where are you?" I told her I was in Stone Oak and she was amazed that I actually walked all the way over here. I told her that I had gotten my friend Andrea to give me a ride from Babcock. She asked me when I was coming home then. I told her I wasn't, that I was going to crash out in the woods. She said, "You're going to what?!" I told her I was going to sleep in the woods and that I'd build a fire to keep me warm. She asked if it was on private property and I told her it was behind some neighborhood and I was totally secluded. I told her my friend Gana had shown me a little campsite of hers and that I would be perfectly safe. I told my mom 'bendicion' and hung up with her. I walked across the street to the gas station to use the restroom. There was someone in the restroom so I was just standing there waiting. Oh shit, I forgot to use the restroom. Oh well, I can use it in the woods. This guy who worked there gave me a funny look and smiled. I guess because I had my stick. He asked me how I was doing and I told him I was the happiest man in the world and that I had some big plans. I told him all my scripts about how I was going to bring world peace, save the ozone layer and get marijuana legalized and chill everyone out. I told him everything. He just stood there with his jaw dropped and said, "But, but, but, but." He was just dumbfounded. I told him, "Hey man, you know what would hit the spot? I've been walking around all night and a cigarette would be badass. You don't smoke cigarettes do you?" He told me, "Man, I got a Black-n-Mild in my car. Want me to get it?" I told him that would be so badass and he went and fetched me the little cigar. Hehe, I wanted a cigarette but I guess a cigar will do. I can smoke a little of it now and save some for the morning when I wake up. Cool.
I'm walking back Stone Oak Parkway to the woods. It's only about eight or so. Hmm, maybe I should walk around the neighborhoods or something, I got time to kill. I thought maybe I would go in some apartments and hang out at their pool and smoke my cigar, but I decided against it. This was a rich part of town and they would probably call security on me. I'll just go to my place in the woods and start a fire and just chill out and smoke some weed and love life. Okay, I'm just walking back now. Oh yeah, Gana had given me these two tomatoes and some little marshmallows. When I built a fire with her earlier I said, "Man, I wish I had some marshmallows." She had told me that she had some at home and that she was going to give me some. When she handed me the baggie with the mini marshmallows in it she told me, "I know that kind of defeats the purpose, but it's food nonetheless." I'll have something to eat for breakfast. She gave me two packs of granola bars too. I can eat one tonight and have another for breakfast. Anyway, this is going to be such a fun night. When I left Gana she had told me I was going to have a blast on my trip. Now, I'm going to go walk to my place, eat and smoke.
Wow, the night gets so interesting as I go. I just passed this neighborhood by the country club and I see this big hole in the wall. Just a big gap. I looked through it and I see all these fountains and walkways. It looks like a miniature golf course without the game. It's just a nice little walkway on the other side of the wall. It's pretty cool. There's a neighborhood in the background. I decided I would go in there and hang out and smoke a cigarette. I made sure no cars saw me crouching into the opening in the wall. I just came in and sat down on a big rock and took a piss. I'm going to eat me one of my granola bars and smoke some of that Black-n-Mild that guy hooked me up with. What a great night.
Mmmm, these granola bars are good. They're Nature Valley 100% natural oats and honey flavored. 100% natural source of energy. Wow, she didn't give me tomatoes, she gave me oranges! It was dark and I hadn't noticed. I would've been grateful even if they were tomatoes. Mmm, those little marshmallows are good.
Holy shit, I got so lost. I thought I was walking on Stone Oak Pkwy but it turns out I've been walking down Huebner and now I'm at Blanco. I had a feeling I was walking the wrong way, I wasn't recognizing anything. Now I'm going to walk all the way back to the gas station. I need to get to my stuff that I left in the woods. I have to go make a fire and keep warm. That sucks, I kind of want to eat my other granola bar now. Ahh, I should hold off until I find my shit. This is crazy, I need a compass bad.
You know what I did? At the intersection where the gas station is I went up the wrong street. I've been walking on Huebner all this time and I should've been on Stone Oak. Crazy, I'm dumb. It's the weed, hehe.
You know why I got lost? It's because in this part of town, the rich, snobby part everything is the same. Everything looks exactly the same. That's the real reason I got lost. One turn looks like all the others. Damnit, I want some difference.
Okay, I kind of remember walking past the Walgreen's before I got to the gas station. I'm not going to walk to the gas station and ask the guy which way to go. There's a cop at the gas station and I got my stick. Cool, I would be going the right direction. There's that Falcon Bank there I remember passing. All that back tracking was some good exercise. It's about nine oh five now. Hey, there's a Subway there. Let me go see if I can get me a free soup or something.
I stopped into the, actually first there was a guy in there and I wanted to wait for the guy to leave so I could ask the kids working there if they could hook me up with a free soup. There were these two kids younger than me, about twenty one or so. I told them my story and that I'd been walking since Bandera(I lied, I didn't tell them I got a ride). I asked them if they could donate some gasoline for my stomach so I could keep walking. Like a soup or something. they told me they were out of soup but they would be happy to make me a sandwich or something. They offered me a six-inch sub. They asked me what I liked and I told them I didn't care and to just surprise me. As long as I'm not hungry anymore. They hooked me up and I told them my ideas and stuff and gave them my email address. Now, I'm going to go and eat my sandwich in the woods. It'll be a long walk. The time is now nine seventeen.
Okay, I'm back to the entrance to Gana's neighborhood. The time is about nine thirty seven. I'm going to stop here and rewind so I can listen to the directions she taped for me earlier.
Okay, now it's about ten forty. I messed up because after I rewound, I accidentally taped over some stuff I had already recorded, because I forgot to advance it to where I had left off. It was a bitch finding the place, but I finally found it. I remembered some landmarks like a fire hydrant and some broken woods. I got to my place, the little campsite and I started a fire. It took me a while to get the fire going, but oh well, I have to be patient. I am just now going to eat this sandwich now that the fire is going good. Everything is cool.
Yum, yum, this sandwich kicks ass. It's a big, thick tuna fish sandwich with some cheese and a slice of roast beef. Yum, this hits the spot and I was hungry.
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