Tramp

Saturday, November 12, 2005

The Grind

Our first destination in the states was to go back to Issiquah and relax in the comfort of a friends house. We got a ride from these girls from Colorado springs, Erica used to live with the drivers current boyfriend. A cool coincidence. Then we took the public bus to Issiquah and my friends abode. There we did a lot of sleeping and drinking, a nice little decompression back into the American life style. Time is reviled for the illusion that it is when im traveling. I couldn't rightly conceive of the last time I was there, even tho it wasn't much more then a month. On our way out of the pugit sound area we visit Ericas step dad for a night, he was a bit judgmental but that seems to come with older age, hopefuly I can avoid that in my life. But we got fed and a roof so what the hell.
In the morning, a quick hitch to Olympia. We hitched out of there from the same spot I hitched to mutant fest with haily and roxi. After a long wait we got a ride about 2 exits down and got dropped off at a truck stop. There an older man hitching on the off ramp gave us his spot "you got your whole life ahead of you" he said. Soon after a trucker offered us a ride. Interesting man. That evening he gave us a ride to Portland where he stopped at a truck stop. We watched a movie in the little trucker theater (the antics of the drunk truckers behind us was more entertaining then the movie). After the movie lo and behold, the same old man that had given us his spot on the ramp was sitting in the lobby. He had a wealth of knoledge and stories true or not. And I have a strong feeling I will see him again some day. We spent the night in the truckers cab and folded some moving blankets in the morning for $10. He gave us a ride all the way down to southern Oregon where he dropped us off.
At some point that day he picked up another hitcher about our age by the name of Roach. We all spent the night together in Grants Pass and got drunk. In the morning it took a lot of time but we got a ride to Cave junction and from there a ride straight to Arcada. Now the man that gave us that ride was from Colorado too, and he just happened to be at the same art festival in paoina before the west coast part of my trip. He also informed us that one of our favorite bands from Colorado would be playing in arcada the next night. We met up with the band (Kan'nal) before the show and helped them set up in exchange for free entry (good thing because it was 21 up).
Now, in order to under stand the next leg of out trip you have to have a general idea how humbolt and mendocino county's are during harvest season. We didn't have any marathon rides this time which was fine, because each and every ride from Arcada to San Fran came with gifts of freshly cured bounty. We slept on the beach in Mendo city where everyone in town told me to stay for a wile, and a part of me wanted to, but we made it into san fran that day and berkeley that evening where we stayed with friends of erica's. In berkeley I got to see an ex lover and close friend. Erica and I had lunch with her (D) and her boyfriend (Roger), which was nice but I got the feeling Erica and Roger were uncomfortable, being strangers.
By this time I had decided to go home from there and we bought amtrack tickets to take us to Denver. There is no smoking on the train so we made a grip of brownies for the trip. And it was a nice ride. In Denver we walked around for a few hours trying to find our friends warehouse. We hung out there for a long wile and got to see a lot of old friends, until ericas friends picked us up.
From here on is the gradual decline back to my old ways, interrupted by moments of seeing old friends again. And now, im back in Telluride just waiting for the snow and the season. Now, telluride is one of my favorite places and it is so much fun living here but its not really the kind of fun that I cant write that much about. You know, just epic powerdays, great parties, sweet people, gorgeous mountains, that kind of thing. But I will write here and there when I feel like it. But this coming summer im going to be traveling again and this time im leaving the country for awhile. This year was just pratice for the adventures to come.