I woke up at 7:30 hearing lawn mowers. They were mowing the grass in the park and were getting closer to me. It was Wednesday. I woke up and sat in the bleachers behind the backstop to brush my teeth. I had some cardboard I got from Starbucks the day before and I wrote "Oregon or Washington" on it.
I walked a couple miles to get to the 49er trucks stop. By this time I was stinking pretty bad and could use a shower and a load of laundry. I got to the truck stop and went inside to check it out. The showers there were $10! And laundry was pricy too. I was bummed about that but wasn't gonna get a ride very far smelling like cow dung. So I bit the bullet and paid the price.
Afterwards I sat in the tv lounge for a while. When I sat there my sign was next to me on my backpack. A guy walked up and said "yeahh Oregon" and gave me knuckles. He said he was headed there too. He told me to go outside with him and smoke a joint then make a plan to get out of there. I told him I don't smoke but il strategize with him. He said he had been hitchhiking 25 years and will help me. So I followed him.
We walked outside towards a firework stand in the front of the truck stop. He said he had been here a few times in the last couple years and he knew the security there. They actually let him stay in the empty booth and fed him also. He had his stuff inside there, a backpack, sleeping bag, and guitar case. He brought his stuff out and we sat in front of the booth. I asked him where he came from. He was coming from Venice beach where he played a gig. He was a musician and sang and played guitar. He pulled out some pictures from his backpack and handed them to me. There were pictures of him with Willie Nelson, kiss, bb king, and his band playing shows on stage. He had a band named "chaz slaughter(his name) and the Dino diva wrecking crew". They were big back in the 80's and opened shows for kiss and other bands. He also had pictures of his Phd credentials and of a business he owned, an archeology business. He owned a yaht in Florida too where he lives for parts of the year. I was pretty shocked. I asked why he was out on the road? He said that's all he has ever known. He hitchhiked his entire life from gig to gig and never traveled with his band. That was pretty interesting to me. He was definitely a unique guy.
Chaz rolled a spliff and smoked it. After he smoked it he took his time making a sign similar to mine. He kept saying we would go to Oregon together and would get a ride before the day would end, so I decided I would stick with him and his experience. He said we would chill till about 4 when the trucks really start to roll out of there. We went to a grass area and sat under the trees there in the shade. It was really hot out so we tried to stay cool. We both ended up falling asleep for a siesta from about 2 to 4.
When we woke up we sat behind the booth in some shade where the exiting trucks could see us and our signs. We sat there for about 30 minutes when Ray Ray walked up. Ray Ray was a 24 year old guy coming from Austin Texas. He had been dishonorably discharged from the army and his girlfriend had just went into prison, so he decided to hit the road. He was heading to Humboldt to work on a weed farm for a guy he knew. He was looking forward to smoking all the weed he could and drinking beer on the California beaches. He asked if we had weed and me and Chaz said no, even though chaz did have his tobacco bag with weed mixed in.
Ray Ray randomly knew Chaz and said he saw him play in austin before. Chaz said he had played there many times and that he actually has a statue downtown. Ray Ray said he had seen it.
We sat there a while talking when ray ray said he was going to get some beer. He said his buzz was wearing off and he needed more alcohol. He left his stuff with us and went to the store. He came back about 10 minutes later and said he made 10 bucks asking for change then bought 2 tall cans of beer. He pounded them down. Chaz pulled out his guitar and started to play. He ripped on it and played awesome music for a while. He covered pink Floyd songs too and nailed them. We were both thankful he played for us.
Ray ray was talking about his girlfriend and said he was bummed she got locked up. She used to travel with him and hitchhike also. He said they would use all drugs together and party a lot. He also mentioned how he used to make money having her flash random guys for money. He was pretty entertaining. Apparently she tried to stab her step mother and that was the reason she was went to prison. She was sentenced to 5 years and just went in.
We sat there a while but had no luck getting a ride from any truckers. After a while Chaz said we needed to walk up a few miles to an on ramp and try to get a ride. We all kind of randomly decided to stick together. So we packed our things up, ray ray got a tall boy for the walk and we left north around 7pm. We walked a couple miles up to an onramp on highway 5. We decided to make a bed next to the freeway in a dirt field for the night. We sat our stuff down there then all headed back towards a shopping center nearby. I wanted to go to Starbucks and the guys went to beg for money. I don't think I could ever ask for money and would rather starve then do that. I was in Starbucks about 10 minutes when they came back with about 30 bucks! I was really surprised. They went to the store there and ray ray bought 3 more tall cans and also bought a huge hoagie sandwhich for all of us to eat in the morning. We then went back to the dirt field.
We all made our beds and laid down. Me and Chaz went to bed but Ray Ray drank his beers and was singing to the skies for a while. He was drunk.
He actually fell off the curb a few times earlier during our walk and into the street. He was pretty lucky no cars happened to be passing by.
I fell asleep around 11 in the dirt field with my two fellow homeless companions. It was pretty funny how that day ended up like that. Never thought I would be sleeping in a dirt field with two homeless guys when I woke up that day, or even in my life for that matter.
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