Bakersfield to Tehachapi, CA
Tuesday December 16, 2003
4:55am I crashed out in that little TV room and I'm up again asking for rides. This trucker just volunteered me a two dollars.
I didn't even ask him for it. I asked him for a ride and he pulled out two dollars and gave them to me.
5:44am I'm still out here asking for rides. No one's given me one yet.
I've had a couple almost ones, but not quite yet. Almost only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades, hehe.
5:46am Ron just hooked me up with some change. Another trucker who gave me money without me even asking.
6:44am This one trucker told me it was thirty four degrees outside. Damn, it's cold.
I made up a sign.
7:25am Ray, the cashier at the truckstop, is hooking me up with a cappuccino. I appreciate it, brother.
7:28am Mark hooked me up with a cigarette at the truckstop. I appreciate it, brother.
7:42am Charlie, yet another trucker, gave me two dollars. I appreciate it, brother. Dude, I'm not asking for money, I swear.
Oh yeah, I took a couple pictures at the truckstop.
Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you that I walked out to the highway and I'm going to stand here with my thumb out.
9:24am I went to the gas station across the highway from the truckstop and Grant is hooking me up with a ride. Like a forty mile jump. Thank you, Grant. Grant isn't a trucker. He's driving a little pickup.
I currently have ten one dollar bills in my wallet.
10:16am I am in Tehachapi! It's on the verge of the Mojave Desert. This place is awesome. It's got tons of windmills in the background. I should take a picture, but umm, I just got one disposable camera left. Umm, I have ten bucks. I can buy a new one I guess.
There's a K-Mart in this little desert town.
Oh yeah, that Grant guy was all religious and shit. But, he was cool. He gave me a ride. He didn't agree with me, but accepted I am just different. He's a cool guy. He knows it will come back to him, too. He's just one of the billions out there who have accepted that peace will never come. He said, "Oh, that will never happen." Only because they don't believe it can. Anything is possible. Doubters.
10:43am I came into the K-Mart to use the restroom. I'm going to see how much cameras are, too. If it's a lot more than five dollars I'm not going to get one.
Cameras here are six dollars. That's the cheapest one I found, but I only have ten dollars. I should worry about food, first. I'm going to wait until I run out of pictures, before I buy a new camera.
All these windmills are awesome!
Oh yeah, there's tons of old people in this town.
Oh yeah, I went in the Burger King and bought me a Whopper Jr. I'm eating in front of the Texaco gas station.
11:06am Joanne gave me some change here in front of the gas station. I just told this lady my ideas. I didn't ask for any money. She volunteered it.
I'm going to go walk around this little town.
I walked up to the Malachai Church, but it's closed. I was going to talk to some people here. I would have excluded the part about marijuana though.
I look like a prophet with my poncho. I'm all layered up. I got my walking stick, my army pants and my cargo shorts.
11:28am I saw some kids drive up at some B&B Store. I asked them if they were going East and they said no. Then I asked them if they knew where I could score any bud. They told me they were about to go score some right then. I told them, "Yeah, it doesn't seem like there's much to do in this town." They told me, "Nope, all there is to do is smoke weed." I asked him if he could break me off some for five dollars. He told me yeah and that he would swing back by in like fifteen minutes.
This dude just pulled up in a Current Connections van. Phone number 661-823-8105. 24 hour service repair specialist in Tehachapi, California. I gave him my platform. I asked him, "Hey, just out of curiosity, what's the population of this town?" He told me about 30,000. He told me there was a whole mountain community. I told him about my plan and he was in total agreement about the marijuana. He said, "If they legalized it they could tax it and make lots of money off it."
It would solve all our problems.
11:36am I asked that dude if there was a Native American Indian population in this town. He said, "Nope. There was until the white man came." If you walk down the road when you come to Beele Street. That Beele guy, it was all his fault.
He was all, "Yeah, you never see people smoking weed and getting into a fight." Exactly!
12:00pm Okay, it's noon and those kids never showed up again. I'm just going to say forget it. I'll just keep asking around. One guy told me there was a lot of weed in this town.
12:15pm Josh hooked me up with a cigarette. I appreciate it, brother.
12:30pm Badass, there's a museum in this town.
12:34pm I went in this computer shop. I walked in and told the guy, "Hi, I want to tell you what I'm doing. Do you have the patience to listen?" He said sure and I started off, "With the Internet I have found a way to fight the world's greatest problem." He cut me off saying, "I don't have time to listen to this." I told him, "Ignorance is bliss, I guess. You can just wait to hear about it when the rest of the world does," and I walked off.
Okay, I'm going to go in the Guild Thiftshop and see if there are any people in there to talk to.
I opened the door to the thriftshop and there was a big family inside. Forget it.
Okay, I see another church. I'm going to check it out.
The doors are locked.
I'm just making sure my garden grows. I'll plant the seed in every town I go. Fertilizing the countryside. You couldn't stop me with insecticide.
Wow, there's this cool mountain over here. I'm going to walk around and talk to people then I'll go to the gas station and get a ride out of here.
Earlier I saw this girl and a lady walking down the street and I asked them, "Hey, do you guys know where I can score any bud?" The older lady said, "What?" I told her, "Some marijuana." She said, "Not now." Hehe, she could've helped me, just some other time.
1:16pm I was walking down this one street leading to the highway and this one guy pulls up in a truck and tells me, "Hey man, there's a prison work crew right around the corner." Ahhh, that's why nobody's giving me a ride.
I'm going to jump over the railroad tracks here and take a shit at Tehachapi Village Market place.
3:18pm I fell asleep outside on this bench. I'm still tired. My feet hurt. I hope I get a ride.
3:25pm I'm at some intersection by the highway. I couldn't make out the name on my recording. Let's see how long it takes me to get a ride.
4:20pm Man, I've been having a terrible time. Nobody is picking me up. I realized why. It's because the California Correctional Facility is here. There's no Greyhound here. I did see a bus going back to Bakersfield. I don't want to go back. I paid twenty dollars to the taxi to take me to the truckstop at Bakersfield. It's not like I got a place to stay in Bakersfield. It's going to be freezing tonight. It was really cold in the day. I don't know what I'll do. Nobody is giving me a ride and I don't know where I'm going to sleep tonight. I'm going to freeze.
I'm going to walk up to the Jack in the Box and order me a burger. I had bought me a cherry pie at the Walgreen's.
I walked back to the gas station where the lady gave me change earlier. I asked some guy pumping gas, "Where is the nearest truckstop?" He told me to go to the restaurant/motel nearby. That some truckers stopped there. Then he told me that down this other street was a Denny's. The Denny's was a little past the place where that guy told me there was a road crew working on the roads and I had turned around.
I walked to where that guy told me and I see in the distance the Denny's sign. There is a Denny's over here. Hmm, 24-hours Denny's means . . . warmth. I don't know about sleep, but I'll be warm.
5:27pm I don't know what the hell I'm going to do. The sun is coming down and it's getting cold. I'll have to stay up at the Denny's all night and wait until it gets warm to find a place to sleep.
Dude, I saw this truck pull into the Denny's truckstop. I walked up to him and asked him if he was going East. He told me no, but he offered me a steak!
Whoa, that's so badass! I just ran into this trucker who's going to hook me up. He's going to give me a meal, even though I just ate at Jack in the Box.
He all fired up this portable gas grill. He's going to barbeque right here in the cold. I wonder how cold it is.
5:35pm Man, it's all dark.
Whoa, that cool trucker, his name is Michael just gave me a whole pack of cigarettes!
And Michael gave me a thick jacket! I needed one so bad. It's freezing.
This is so great!
6:40pm Oh man, praise Love so much. That guy Michael was an angel in disguise. Before, when I was walking to the Denny's, he had just been pulling up to the stop sign. I waited to let him cross, but he insisted I cross first. I gave him the peace sign. Then, when I walked up to him at the Denny's, he had pulled up his truck. It didn't seem like there was any Eastbound traffic stopping at the Denny's so I went up and asked him, "Excuse me, do you know if all the traffic here is Westbound?" He said, "Yeah, I think so." Then he asked me, "Hey, do you like steak?" I told him, "Yeah, I like steak!" He cooked me two awesome steaks. Better than anything I could've ordered in the Denny's. He even heated me up a can of carrots. Two big steaks, some bread and some carrots. It was great. I am sooo happy. I'm so happy. Even though I'm cold, I'm so happy.
Praise Love.
Oh yeah, and he gave me a jacket too!
And he gave me fourteen dollars!
Come on, get happy!
Wasn't there an angel named Michael?
7:20pm I told this girl Jenelle, who works at the Denny's, my ideas and she agreed with everything! I asked her, "Hey, are you guys going to run me off for asking people for rides?" She told me, "Nah, don't worry about it." So, I'm just going to sit here at the Denny's and ask people for rides. Since I had a pack of cigarettes I asked them, "Hey, do you guys have a smoking section here?" They told me, "Nowhere in California can you smoke inside."
I told Janelle, "I want a warm chocolaty drink for my cigarette." She told me, "I can get you a coffee, or would you prefer a cappuccino?" I said, "A cappuccino will do just fine!" She asked me, "What do you want? French Vanilla?" I told her to surprise me. To just mix all the flavors together. Anyway, I got a cappuccino and I'm smoking outside.
8:02pm I ran into Steve here at the Denny's. I told him about my plan and he said I should go to the gas station behind the Denny's and ask for Faruk, an Arabian guy who works there. He said I should tell him that Steve sent me and he would hook me up.
8:32pm Craig just hooked me up with five dollars just like that! I appreciate it, brother.
Whoa, that was cool. He just gave me five bucks. That was awesome. If that doesn't prove me whole generosity thing, nothing does. I didn't even ask this dude.
I got twenty four dollars. Hmm, I got enough for some weed.
8:53pm Janelle gave me one of her Camels. Thank you Janelle.
9:12pm Dave, who works at the Denny's too, is hooking me up with a cup of coffee. I didn't even ask. He offered. And, he told me, "Man, if you get hungry, let me know."
Wow, Janelle just walked out heading for her car to go home and she handed me seven dollars! All I told her was, "Goodbye," and she handed me money!
Oh yeah, that truck driver Michael from earlier. His phone number is 541-672-5390.
10:06pm I saw this kid at the Denny's wearing an Operation Ivy shirt, so I immediately busted out with my plan. After I talk to him he volunteers me a phone card! Badass!
And, he hooked me up with a Camel Wide.
10:25pm Richard just hooked me up with a military-issue mummy sleeping bag!
Dude, I didn't even talk to that guy. He just walked outside as he was leaving and asked me, "Hey, do you need a sleeping bag?" I told him, "Hell yeah!"
10:55pm I went up to the manager at Denny's and asked her, "Hey, would it be totally inappropriate if I caught a couple z's on that bench where I've been sitting by the entrance?" She said, "No, no, go ahead." Yeah!!
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