For all of the pictures from this trip go here:
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The trip was awesome. It was great to visit with everybody, but nobody probably wants to hear about the visit with the family.
On to THE ADVENTURE:
Jack and Holt dropped me off on an exit off I-68. I said my good byes to "The Cousins" (Nevada, Morgan, Erin and Riley) and walked to the on ramp.
I sat there for a while until I was picked up by a Father and son drywall team. I was in the back of the truck so I didn't get to know them that well.
More thumbing on an entrance ramp until I got bored.
Then walked a few miles on the interstate until I was stopped by the police.
We talked about many things on the long drive together. He is currently reading the Omnivores Dilemma and although he is in the Navy he doesn't blame me for not wanting anything to do with the military as they are the "puppets of the politicians" who we agreed are the puppets of the corporations. I was not expecting to meet such a cool police officer in MD. He dropped me off at the AT and gave me a granola bar. I had 2 Oranges, about 10 Apples (found a tree), a full belly and about 2 liters of gatorade/water mix. I knew that by the end of the walk I was going to be both hungry and thirsty.
The AT is Awesome!
Aaron is a teacher in Baltimore MD. He bought a bunch of survival stuff when 9/11 happened and a few years later he thought he might as well use it. He had never been camping before and when I met him he was sitting by the trail, tent half set up, boiling watter, looking confused. I helped him set up his tent and start a fire and he gave me some food. He was carrying 4 times (or more) the stuff I would have been carrying if I was planing a hike. He gave me 2 or 3 days worth of food and still had more then he needed. The food was strange stuff. ER Bars are like huge gram crackers packed with nutrition. Those with a few military rations thrown in and I am still eating the stuff.
In the morning I went to a hikers hostel and met a cool section hiker. He gave me some pizza leftovers and we hung out. I got to use the internet and after looking at maps decided to hitch hike out. I walked for hours before I crossed the trail again. I was deciding if I was going to go back on the trail or keep hitching when my hiker friend popped out of the woods. We talked for a bit and then he went on. I think I would have had a much nicer walk if I had gone along the AT but that is the gamble. A few more minutes of standing there and Erika pulled over. "I never pick up hitch hikers, but I like your pants" she said.
We hung out for an hour or two at the Coffee shop she works at. Met a girl studying art at a local collage and the local ear doctor (Fun guy) and then she dropped me off at a truck stop.
After an hour or so the manager of the truck stop told me I had to leave. So I went to the gas station and met this guy...
That car, Loud. Kind of fun though. Fast, low to the ground and it just whips around turns, but oh boy was it loud.
He took me to the next truck stop down the road. I walked around with a sign for an hour or so. I saw the first guy I talked to again. He bought me dinner after I turned him down twice and then offered me a ride after some conversation. He had a dog.
He offered for me to sleep in the truck, which I excepted becase that way he could radio other truckers in the morning to give me a ride... But we were parked next to the entrance and it was so loud with the trucks driving through that he couldn't sleep and so he drove the rest of his trip that night. I was ok with that because I was having a nightmare when he woke me up to tell me. It wasn't like the nightmares I used to have. It was sortof a tour through a hell realm where everyone is telling me what bad is going to happen and I feel a little constricted but generally relaxed. Anyway, I ended up sleeping out in a feild, as far from everything that I could get.
I woke up feeling pretty rough. I laid around for a long while after the sun came up trying to feel like I wanted to walk back to the loud truck stop and bury my pride and conjure up enough positivity to ask person after person if they were headed east. After a very short walk around the truck stop and one trucker calling out on his CB for me I gave up. Standing by the ramp seemed like a bad idea. Cars were not passing often and I was in the middle of nowhere. I was going to eat some breakfast and start walking. Then something strange happened. Someone stopped going the wrong direction. I thought they must be doing something else but they waved me over. I packed up my food and ran to the car. "Where you headed". "Where ever you are". I told them I was going to NYC and they said maybe not that far but they ended up taking me to Somerville NJ. It was quite a drive. They were both in seminary. John Mark Henry, the driver and I did most of the talking. He asked me about my faith and I told them about it in Christian lingo to avoid conflict. It was all very nice until the co-pilot started talking about what Buddhism is and I sharply cut him off with his misinterpretation. Then asked him how much he had studied Buddhism and told him that he didn't understand Buddhism and that he shouldn't be talking about it. The rest of the ride went well and we prayed together when we got to Sommerville NJ.
I met a few really nice people there. First the guy at the comic shop, the record store, then a gift/food store. I washed my pants, in the dunken donuts bathroom and went to the library to use the internet. In the library I met Mike. Reminds me allot of Ted from Big E's, conspiracy theories and everything. We talked for a bit and then I went to his place to take a shower and to wash my shirt. Mike lives in a 3 story house that was 'Abandoned' in the financial crisis. They haven't evicted him or turned off the utilities yet and the land lady left the state and stopped collecting rent...
Every Friday Somerville has a classic car show. The car show was fairly boring but in my mind I compared it to the flower festival in Thailand. I stopped back by the gift shop for some free popcorn and then hit the train to NYC!
When I got to NYC I was feeling pretty exhausted. I had planned on going to a party in Brooklyn and staying the night there but I only had partial directions and less then partial interest in being with people so I hoofed it to Talia's place and after hanging out with her mom until I could not think straight and then I passed out.
