Getting to the super wall

So after that shitty night, we head to where the crew change says. The Super Wall! We walk to Broad and get to a gas station where we find a ride to the road we need to get to. They take us in the back of their truck to a rehab center? At this place these people run into someone they know who says they're going that way and could drive us instead. So we get in the car with this lady who's a NewYorkRican who complains a lot about how people drive in Richmond and that no one knows directions. Of course she knows this because she'd been asking everyone around for directions while were with her, causing traffic jams. She's really nice though and offers us a ride to Baltimore that weekend because she's going to Philadelphia to visit her son. We finally get to the spot we needed to get to which was a bridge passing over a train yard. Now we just have to figure out where the spot is. We walk across the bridge which is sketchy because we have packs on with CSX trucks passing us and being visible from the yard. We get to a spot under the bridge that fits the description a little bit but is still a little weird to us and pretty visible. After some discussion, we decide that isn't the right spot. We walk across the bridge to the other side and get to a spot very similar only this time there's train graffiti. So then we decide we're in the right spot. After waiting for a long time, we start to question again whether this is the spot and I decide that if we don't catch something by about 1 o'clock, I'm going to hitch with or without them. Trains are passing by but nothing is stopping except a few southbound junk trains. After noticing the graffiti is all southbound, and a lot of talking and calling Fiz, we realize this isn't the right spot. Fiz finds the spot for us on Google maps and we head there. Along the way I decide that I want to hitch. Kelsea also wants to hitch but is torn because Kiki absolutely does not. Kelsea and I start to get really frustrated however because Kiki is on the phone with Fiz and not talking to us about what we're going to do. So after arguing and waiting, I begin to hitch and Kelsea decides she's going to stay with Kiki. We split up on bad terms and the lack of sleep, lack of food, and the extreme tension start to wear on me. After hitching maybe 20 minutes I decide I need to eat and get water. I got my things and walked about 20 minutes to a gas station to get a banana and a jug of water. Along the way, I decided to see if Kelski had gotten a train because I was now considering to meet up with them. I was in no shape to be hitching. I decided I could probably get some sleep if we were waiting for a train also. They hadn't caught out yet and Kelsea told me the spot was very close to where I was, so I decided to meet up with them. I was calling Kelsea to get the information for the spot and she wasn't picking up. I knew this had to be Kiki. I end up figuring it out and of course as I'm walking up, I see Kiki on the phone with Fiz. Extremely irritated, I sit my stuff down to put the water in my camelbak. Of course, when I do that the open jug of water falls down the very steep rocky hill were on. The spot was interesting. Directly under an interstate and behind a fence covered by trees, it was a relief to have finallly found the spot. It was covered in train graffiti and the wall down by the tracks was covered in traditional graffiti. There was a small ledge at about eye level where I could lay down to sleep as I found out that it is very difficult for me to sleep on an incline. But, alas we were here and now just had to wait.

Recap take one

So, I've been back in Florida for two or three weeks now. It kind of sucks. I've been sitting at my parents' house spending my time reading or watching The Office and cleaning. Which isn't all bad but, I just can't go anywhere and have been going crazy. Anyway, I'm going to recap everything that happened after Atlanta. Probably in parts. I may not be able to remember everything so accurately. A lot happened and it wasn't so recent. But, since I have all this time on my hands...

So, Kelsea and Kiki got off the boat in Savannah and decided to meet up with me in Atlanta. Fiz had left by this point. I think there was only a few days between the day Fiz left and the day Kelski showed up. Anyway, we were trying to figure out how we were going to get north. Either we'd hitch out or we could take a train. Kelsea was very eager to ride a train because she hadn't done it yet. But, before they got to Atlanta (I think the day before), I found a rideshare going from Atlanta to Richmond from this lady, Becky? maybe? This lady was nuts. Very nice though. She was in Atlanta with her 9 month old son to meet up with her husband who was a truck driver. After thinking he left her and going through this roller coaster of emotions and confusion as to whether she would give us a ride or not, everything worked out and she picked us up at Emily's house. The drive went pretty well. Besides the stopping at Burger King so much so she could feed herself and her son. She fed him cheeseburgers. This kid is 9 months old and already addicted to Burger King. What the hell? Anyway, she dropped us off at Josh's house in Richmond which was awesome. I had never met Josh. I liked him and his cynicism. He had a good sense of humor. We hung out there with his douche bag roommates for something like two or three days and decided to catch a train out to Baltimore. The last night we were there was hell. We were sleeping in Josh's room while Josh and his roommates were out drinking somewhere. They came back pretty late and shit got crazy. From Josh's room we can here Josh get in a fight with his douche bag roommate which wakes me up. Then Dez (another roommate) comes in wasted and tries to get everyone to get up and party. By this time it's like 3 or so in the morning and we need to get up at 6 or 7 to get to the catch-out spot. So, we all start to get really frustrated. After a while of this, he passes out but just before Josh comes back in his room. He's apparently pretty closed to blacked out and really upset over seeing an ex and his current situation which is that of not having a stable job or money and being in a shitty house. So as it sets in he gets really upset and gets a gun of his out of his closet and puts it to his head. This, needless to say is extremely alarming and honestly a bit irritating. It takes something like ten or fifteen minutes to convince him to put the gun down and by that point it's pretty much time to go. So with no sleep and a huge amount of irritation, we head out toward the catch-out spot.

Well, look at me.

So, I made this blog in October 2008 so I could follow other blogs I was interested in. It's July 2010 and I've now decided to use it. My reasoning is that having looked at blog posts from ages ago, it's really interesting to look back at what was going on. I might hate this idea at some point. We'll see. Also, I like the idea of writing. It might be good for me. Again, we'll see. Or I'll see. Because really, who's going to read this?

Anyway, my life as of late:

July 30th I left with Fiz and Jolie in Jolie's mom's Mercedes to go to Maine. We stopped in Gainesville for a night or two. I ran five miles one of the nights with Fiz, which was nuts. We left and headed for Asheville where on the way we almost died a few times from someone's driving but, made it. Jolie stayed there one or two nights then, left for Chapel Hill. Meanwhile, Fiz and I kicked it in Asheville for couple weeks. This consisted of rock climbing, skating the bad ass skatepark for free everyday, eating vegan chili cheese sweet potato fries from Rosetta's, hanging out with Asheville folk, etc. We decided that we wanted to make some money by doing a medical study in Austin, TX and agreed we should do it sooner than later.

We left Asheville by hopping my first train ever toward Knoxville. It was a six hour ride through the Smoky Mountains along the French Broad River. One of the best things I've ever done. We caught on the fly and rode in the third unit after waiting at this brewery our friend worked at (That place is awesome and so is our friend for that matter. They had triple charcoal filtered water). At some point, a train engineer came back and questioned us for being on the train but, said he'd pretend he hadn't seen us. We got off in Knoxville while the train stopped at a siding just outside the yard. Pretty ridiculous first train ride. We walked for a while through a water treatment plant and a neighborhood to a gas station that a friend of a friend named Riley met us at. He was a nice guy who let us stay at his house with his really awesome dog, Petey for two nights. He dropped us off at a truck stop so we could hitch to Birmingham and get on another train towards Austin. We found out pretty quick that the male couple wasn't the best combination for getting picked up. But, sooner or later a nice trucker headed to Chattanooga picked us up. He said if we were still around on Monday that he'd take us to Birmingham and Fiz suggested that he take his number down. I thought to myself Monday's so far away we'll be long gone by then. After trying to hitch for two hours to no avail we thought better than miss the World Cup final match (Netherlands vs. Spain) which was the next day we might as well stay in Chattanooga that night. So, we got a ride into town. The person who took us was a young college student named zach(?) who dropped us off at Sluggo's, a really good vegan restaurant. We found someone to stay with named Pauly. We watched the match the next day at the house of some people Fiz met the night before. One of which was Brian who let us sleep at his house the following night. The morning after, we got up and walked 3 or so miles to an on ramp to try to get to Birmingham. After two and a half hours of hitching with no luck, we finally got picked up by two oogles named Pixie and Frecks. They took us to a library to do some weird secretive myspace scumfuck business then took us to an I-75 on ramp. We waited for a while and got picked up by a weird drug fiend couple. The guy driving, claiming to have been on a lot of xanax, could not accept the idea of Fiz and me not smoking weed. Meanwhile, he was changing lanes without realizing, driving in the shoulder and way too fast and with his left leg because his right was prosthetic, and looking at me the whole time. You could say I was little nervous. But, we got to the spot that they said they could drop us of at that was "Such a better spot" where we would "definitely get picked up" "real quick" in Ringgold, GA to find ourselves "sleeping" (staying up all night across the street from the on ramp at the Chevron that had wifi watching teen movies) overnight until 7:30 am when we got back to the on ramp. At 9:30 we got picked up by a kayak instructor named Jeff who drove us to Atlanta basically to Little Five Points. We met up with my friend Emily who let us stay at her parent's house, which is where I've been staying for a week now. The intention was to get on a train here to New Orleans then, take a train to Houston and hitch up. However, on the second night we were here, Fiz and I decided to bomb "Killer Hill" in Emily's neighborhood at midnight. This proved not only to be a hill but, to also to be quite killer. So much so that Fiz, gaining to much speed, got enough speed wobble to propel him into the unforgiving pavement. Behind him, I skated down to see how he was. He was pretty banged up looking and said his wrist might be broken. We tried to find out for sure and seemed as though he might have just sprained it. He mentioned having a high pain tolerance but, we brushed it off saying he'd probably know if it was broken. So, we watch it over the next day or two to see that the swelling has not gone down and neither has the pain. After visiting a doctor to get X-rays it's revealed that his wrist is broken and he needs to go to the ER immediately. We go to Northside hospital where I watch a doctor numb his whole left arm and place his finger in a five-fingered chinese finger trap, belly dancing, BDSM contraption to rebreak his wrist. We wait over the weekend in hopes that that was all that was needed before he can get a cast. On Monday (today), he went to an orthopedist to see what was up to find out he needs surgery. So, I hear I am. Fiz leaves tomorrow for New Jersey to get his hand fixed and hang with his mom for a couple months. I think I'm planning to meet up with Kelsea and Kiki, who are sailing from Key West up the east coast, in Savannah to get on the boat with them to North Carolina or meet them in North Carolina and head north. Don't know what I'm going to do but, I'm having fun. Definitely going to miss Fiz. But, I'm still hopeful things will be awesome. Who knows?