TOUR

[zippyt]

Ok, so the worst thing that I can imagine is being spotted on the bowl. Maybe I’m weird, but that’s the truth. If I was ever to forget to lock the bathroom door in a public bathroom, and some stranger were to walk in on me, I am sure that my heart would stop, my brain would stroke out, and I’d bleed from my ears until I died. Don’t ask me how I know this, I just do, OK?

Damn LJ , you would have NEVER made it at Parris Island !!!! Just a row or crappers , no stall at ALL !! The ONLY way you could have ANY privecy was to get the fire watch ( all nite guard ) to wake you up an hour or 2 after lights out ( unless the DI felt like being an ass !!!)

[Brigliadore]

Oy, LJ.
Post the end of the friggin story already. You ended your last part of the story with, We climbed rocks, swam in the river, and talked about living there forever like Matthew did. It was gonna be great!. So how about we hear the rest of it.

Don't make me nag you.

[lumberjim]

sorry......i forget the rest........

[lumberjim]

...just kidding

We spent some days gathering firewood, refilling the water jugs, and getting food, and some days just crafting or throwing the Frisbee or playing hackeysack. On one of those days that I had gone hard at it all day long, I recall being physically spent, and as I rested my rubbery muscles on a blanket near the river, there was a moment when I noticed my contentment. It was in twilight that it came to me, cool in the shade of the canyon walls. I can sometimes catch a whiff of that feeling as I picture the moment, but the memory of a feeling is a fleeting thing. I felt at that time like I could sustain myself and Shelby there indefinitely, and that I would be quite happy doing so. And at that particular moment especially, as we had enough food for 3 or 4 days, full water jugs, a large pile of firewood, and excellent weather. I owed no one anything, there was nothing to spend money on even if we had some, and I was alive. It occurred to me at that time that I was an animal, and I had satisfied my basic animal needs. And more importantly, it seemed that this was all that anyone had the right to expect of me. I was free from any social pressure to do the grown up things that young adults must learn to do. I was happy. Not a thing to complain about. It is a moment that I have filed away in a different part of my brain with a couple of other moments when I saw myself from above, and the big picture was visible to me. I was able to put myself into perspective, and I was pleased with who I was, where I was, and what I was doing.

All good things must come to an end, as they say, and although we were making no plans to leave, we had promised Heather that we would call her mother and let her know that she had gone to Guatemala. Heather’s mom was crazy. No really. She was the first person I ever heard refer to her medication as her “meds.” She was a hippie, though, and I don’t recall being concerned that Sue would react poorly to her daughter leaving the country with Jeremiah and a bus full of hippies. We also let her know that we had Heather’s car and would be bringing it back to her when we got around to coming home. This, for some reason, set her off like a powder keg. She demanded that we return her car immediately as it was in her name, and we were not insured to drive it. She went way too far way too soon with the shit she was saying, too. We blew her off a little bit and told her we would be staying there a little while longer, but would be coming home when it got cold out. We’d call her later.

So then, there was an end in sight. And it just felt like we were waiting to leave. It kind of blew the whole, “I’m not late because I’m not going anywhere” motto I had begun to think to myself. The next time we called Sue, she said she had called the police and given them orders to shoot to kill. I told you she was crazy, didn’t I? Still. It was her car, and if we got nicked for doing something else, and this car came back stolen(just in case she actually HAD called the police), I didn’t think I would be able to talk our way past it. So we decided to make our way home by chevette. Troll and Jen didn’t want to stay alone, either, so they were going to go live in Chicago and find jobs. I hope they got good ones. I had a half tank of gas, and $50 in my wallet. I was in a Canyon in New Mexico, and we were on our way to Downingtown, Pennsylvania to return Sue’s car. I gave away all of my paraphernalia because, if we did get stopped, and the car WAS reported stolen, I didn’t want to have anything on me that could be found in a search. I only recently replaced one particular item that I was very fond of. Anyway, obviously, I made it home, or I wouldn’t be here writing this, but next time, I’ll tell you how to get home from 2500 miles out on $50 and a half tank of gas in America.

[jinx]

Everybody had a made-up name; Happy, Floppy, Poppy, Dancing Bear, Foot Bear, Possum, Sunshine, Sunbeam, Sunscreen.... we all thought it was funny (especially when their name would suddenly change one day; "I'm no longer Moonshine, my name is now Quazar". Ya... ok bub) and didn't give their 'real' names much thought. Except for Troll.
Jim and I, having a lot of time alone to think and talk, debated about what his real name might be. By the time he showed up at the canyon we had decided that his name was Eddie. He just looked like an Eddie.
Turns out we were wrong, it was Ryan. He liked Eddie better though.

[blue]

Didn't even know this existed 'til you mentioned it in Dirt Poor.

What a cool thread! Wish you had more pictures. And there was drugs but very little rock n roll or sex.

[lumberjim]

I have more photos, but I just moved in august, and have yet to dig them out.

And there was drugs but very little rock n roll or sex.

sex was tricky, but we had enough. I'm just too much of a gentleman to go into a lot of detail.

as far as rock n roll goes, if you consider the Grateful Dead rock and roll.....there was plenty.

[blue]

Get digging! I scan in on average 100 a weekend.

Jen was gorgeous, Jinx was hottie potottie, you..well you just look like a younger dorky ass version of yourself.

[lumberjim]

When you find yourself that far from home, and with that little amount of money, and pride that would not let you ask for help from home, you should have a plan in mind before you set off home. We had discussed it at length with Troll, who had some experience with traveling on the cheap. We figured that it would take us about 5 days to make the trip home, as we would have to go mainly town to town where the interstate went through empty parts of the country. The plan was to hop from city to city spare changing and dumpster diving, and if all else failed, asking the authorities for help. Most cities or towns with more than 15,000 people in them will have some type of traveler assistance program. This sounded a little bold to me at first, and I did feel like a tool the first time I had to do it, but it got easier. It was easier and more pleasant than spangeing, that’s for sure. I would go to the police station, introduce myself, and let them know that I needed to get home. Most of them used vouchers that were good at the local gas station. Occasionally, they would refer us to a church or tell us that there was no program, but normally, they were glad to help us leave town. Ehem.

We headed north out of Silver City toward Socorro, NM. Things went well in Socorro. This was my first attempt at asking for help from the police, and it was as simple as filling out a form, handing over my ID for a moment, and redeeming a $10 voucher across the street. We started out of town late at night, planning to drive to the next rest stop and sleep. As we went up a slight grade, on newly paved highway, the Chevette’s lights blinked and dimmed. The car cut off halfway up the hill, and the shoulder was none too wide, and bordered by a guardrail. I couldn’t do anything in the dark, and while I felt like the car probably wouldn’t be rear ended while we slept, I did take a relatively fatalistic approach to my repast. The car had that soothing rocking motion of trucks blowing by at speed and the wind they created in their wake. In the morning, I looked under the hood, found nothing awry, and scratching my head, tried the ignition. The car fired right up. I got us down the road a ways to where I had mor room to work, turned the car off, and back on. No problem. Huh. Shortly after this, as the day’s light became more complete, we looked out into the landscape south of the road and saw this along the roadside:





there were lots of these radar dishes. This was the national radio astronomy observatory, and like the umbrellas, we had no clue about them until we got home and remembered to look it up.

[lumberjim]

We went right past Albuquerque and by night found ourselves in Tucumcari. There the car actually did die. It wasn’t recharging the battery, so when I put the headlights on as it got dark, the battery weakened and died. With no money, and a bad battery ( it was an old one, so we figured it had stopped holding a charge) it seemed as though we might get to know Tucumcari pretty well. The town is in an empty section of the New Mexico desert, demarked by a single mountain protruding from the otherwise flat tableau.





THE LEGEND
The Legend of Tucumcari Mountain has been handed down from mouth to mouth by Indian tribes.
"Wautonomah, Chief Apache, knew that he would soon die and was troubled over the matter of who his successor would be. His two finest braves were Tonopah and Tocom, enemies and deadly rivals for the hand of Kari, the daughter of Wautonomah. But Kari loved Tocom and hated Tonopah.
So, Wautonomah called Tonopah and Tocom to his side and said: "Soon, I must die and one of you must succeed me as Chief. Tonight you must take your long knives and meet in combat to settle the matter between you, and he who survives shall be Chief and have for his squaw, Kari, my daughter."
So the two rivals met and hurled themselves upon one another in deadly combat; but unknown to either, Kari had concealed herself nearby, and as the knife of Tonopah found the heart of Tocom, she rushed from her hiding place and plunged her knife into the heart of Tonopah. Then, taking Tocom's knife, she stabbed herself in grief.
When Wautonomah was led to the scene, he was heartbroken. Seizing Kari's knife, he plunged it into his heart, crying in agony, "Tocom-Kari." The old Chief's dying utterance lives on today with a slight change to "Tucumcari," and the scene of the tragedy is now famous legendary Tucumcari Mountain."

[lumberjim]

There's not much happening in Tucumcari. I cannot imagine living there. It existed soley because of the interstate. The car ran for a few minutes, but then would die, and each time it was weaker to start. We called Sue again at that point to tell her that it would be a while until we could save up the money to get a new battery put in. Oh no no. She had to have the car pronto, so she had us locate the local western union agency and she wired us $75 to get the battery replaced. It took all day of waiting in a dusty little storefront for the money to come over. I stared at that white linoleum floor with the black runner floor mat. The rust rings, and the pitted aluminum glass door with the bell at the top. I cannot remember what the store's main function was, strangely enough, but I can picture that black vinyl chair with the chrome arms and broken jagged arm rests.

We got a battery at Kmart for under $50. After I installed it in the parking lot, I noticed how hungry I was and that I was staring at a Kentucky Fried Chicken. Oh , yeah. The $25 we had was bonus money. I felt I was due for a bonus. We spent $20 on a family sized meal, and ate half of it in the car as we left town. We were like two ecstatic kids tearing up their easter baskets. Such glee. Baked beans! Mac n cheese! potato wedges! CHICKEN! I hadn't had meat for 2 months at that point.

Which has an interesting effect on the gastrointestinal process. About 5 hours after our first go round with the chicken, Shelby and I engaged in a silent yet friendly fart war. Kentucky Fried Farts. Oh man. I still say we both lost that war. The next morning I could literally feel the grease oozing out of my pores. We promised each other that we would not make that mistake again.

[Elspode]

That is the most depressing explanation for a place name I have ever heard.

[lumberjim]

The only other notable event was the time that we stopped into the salvation army to see about getting a bed and a shower. Someone had told us that they were clean ad free. We found the one on the map at 2 AM. There was a scary looking woman dressed like a nurse at the desk. We told her what we were up to, and she started laying down the rules. We would sleep in separate rooms. We had to be up and out by 6:30 am, you had 1 towel and 1 washcloth, etc…. Sounded OK to me, but as soon as Nurse Ratchet left to go and get blankets for us, Shelby grabbed my arm and pulled me outside. “No way!” She started towards the car.

“What the?” I was confused, and felt bad about bailing like that, but Shelby had been thoroughly skeeved by this lady, and was afraid to sleep alone. So we split. And as we left, I heard my favorite mug slide across the roof and crash to the ground. We didn’t stop to retrieve it, as we were in the middle of a get away. Oh, well.

We stopped in Knoxville TN, and stayed with Shelby’s Grandparents for a few days, and then we drove home in one straight shot. I got a flat tire about 1 hour from home. Hysterical. Coming home was strange. I’d never been gone so long, and there had been recent changes to a few local roads and landscapes. We got home in the very early morning. Straight to sleep on the orange carpet in my very own bedroom. The bed was unmade, and I wasn’t taking the time to make it. We were awakened a few hours later by my sister who couldn’t wait any longer. “Good to be back; yes I have lots of stories to tell; yes, I did lose some weight; yes Sue IS nuts…she called here too?” We cleaned our stuff out of the chevette and returned it that day. Sue acted like she was glad to see us and had been primarily concerned for our safety the whole time. Yeah. That’s why the cops had orders to “shoot to kill” . Looney.

So that’s it. I got my night job at Denny’s back, didn’t get the furniture refinisher job back, I worked graveyard for a year and a half, got into management, got burnt out. Left to sell cars, got into management again, got a computer that had internet access, and stumbled upon a site called cellar.org. You know the rest.

Jim

[xoxoxoBruce]

Good story and well told, Jim.
Tucumcari has (had) a chinese resturant called the Golden Dragon. Their food was better than the best places in Frisco's China Town. Go figure.

[lumberjim]

thanks, bruce.

the best mexican food i ever had was in Kansas...that town where all the cowboys are buried.......