Alright, its been a while. Bear with me.

So we left off staying at the family in the Grand Canyon. Next morning was good, some nice breakfast, some laugh, and a ride to the right road. Saying our goodbyes and lucks be a wished, we went our seperate ways.

So I’m sitting on a highway watching all sorts of people pass on by. As always, I have a smile on my face and my thumb in the air. It didn’t take too long for a fella to pick me up. He was a nature-specialist and did the whole tours thing for national parks all over the west. Fell into that kind of work by simply volunteering and fell in love with nature. Dropped me off riiiight outside the gates of the Canyon, and there things got really interesting.

It seemed to take forever to get a ride. I was sitting there for a while, and the gate-guards were eyeing me. Fella passed me, stopped in the highway, reversed, and bam! Caught me a ride! Really cool fella, I feel super bad I can’t remember his name, haha. We got along right away, he hiked through most of the canyon and was a super outdoorsy type. Told him I was heading up to Mesa, Utah. At the same time I saw some rain clouds over that way. He was talking about Durango, Colorado an aweful lot and it didn’t take a lot of convincing to ride with him the hundred or so miles to get there.

We spent a lot of time just making jokes, swapping cool stories about outdoors stuff, talking about music, all sorts of junk. He was about 40 years old, looked about 26, and partied like he was 18. Went to raves still and loved the electronica sorts of music. He was an architect getting ready to move to California. The business was booming again, and he had a pretty sweet gig set up for him. 

Got to Durago and decided we were both pretty beat, and we’d go splitsies on a campsite and have a cool little night. Got some brew, ate some food, had a fire, did some silly dancing, and passed out. Twuz lots of fun. A really good experience, and lead to even more great times.

Woke up and took off. He had to get up to Denver and get ready to do some moving, and reccomended I stay in Durango a couple days, see the sites, get some work, etc. I figure “why not?” and walk around for a while. I find a library to get some info, and out of the blue- “BBBRRRRUUUUOOOOHHHH” Thunder rolls in. Thunderstorm. Fun. Guess I’m staying here whether I like it or not.

Durango is a really neat place. I loved every fuckin’ minute of being there. Everyone is active: You see everyone going biking, jogging, kayaking, and everything in between. Also, everyone is high. High on something, and its usually not too bad. Whether its adrenaline from their activities or from the relaxed marijuana laws, everyone was super chill.

I hide my backpack in a church, because nobody steals from a church. Wander around, talk to strangers, shake hands, kiss babies, and ask around for information. Appearently there’s a pretty nice homeless shelter around here, but I figure I’d see about couchsurfing. It starts getting a little late so I go to get my stuff. There’s a fella going through it, and he wants to do nothing but help. Again, reffered to the shelter. Welp, guess I’m going to the shelter.

I show up there and feel like a fish out of water. Had to do some pretty basic paperwork and talked to the guy in charge at the moment. He was a pretty cool guy. I’m pretty sure he was gay because of certain little personality tweeks, but he had this big rough rugged look. Makes me laugh thinkin’ about it.

Got a tour, introduced, and a bed. Talked to some of the other people there, and it seemed pretty nice. Everyone had a relatively peaceful and positive attitude. I fit right in. Some of the people are difficult to have a real conversation with, but there was one fella I really hit it off with.

Todd was at least 40 years old. He was also very intelligent and fun to talk to. He had this whole plan going on with this software he was working on that would understand human language and run simulations. Seemed like it would eventually have a huge positive effect for humanity.

We would talk for a long time about all sorts of different things ranging from politics to mathematics, science, and humanity. Sometimes we’d get an audience that would just sit and listen. We had pretty similar ideals, and I think we both learned a lot from eachother. Especially when he sat me down and taught me Einstein’s Theory of Relativity and time dilation. Opened my mind to a whole different world of physics and made me more confident that I could understand it without knowing and understanding the mathematics behind it.

I would walk around town during the day, ask around for any odd jobs and just talk to people in general. That was fun. It was a beautiful town. Eventually I got bored, though. Antsy to get on the road. So one day I packed my stuff and left.

PS: I’m way behind, sorry guys. So much has happened and I’ve had little time to update. I’ll try to write some more up later.

The first step has been taken. On the 12th of April I will be starting. I’m pretty  unprepared, my pack is overweight, and I’m pretty scared. So this should be pretty intense on the “Leaving comfort zone” scale. I don’t want to be unprepared! At the same time I don’t want to be lugging around 50 pounds of unneeded crap.

Guess I’ll learn on the road. I’ll figure out what I need and don’t need. Right about now I’m wishing I was a boy scout at some point. I feel mentally unprepared. But I got safety measures. Some camping supplies. Some clothes. A few comforts. Worst case, I toss some things and pick up whatever I may need on the road!

Anyways, yep. Homelessness. Its pretty manageable when you’ve got plenty of friends to help you out. I just couchsurf from place to place. Seeing everyone before I go off on an amazing life changing adventure. Its freeing, too. I’m no longer working, allowing more time spent with my friends. I have money saved, and I’m not living the same grindy ‘go to work-come home-play on computer-see friends sometimes’ situation that was starting to really bring me down!

“How long will you be gone?”

“When will you be back?”

“Where are you going?”

“Don’t get raped!”

Lets clear the air here for all my loved ones reading this:

I don’t want to put a timeline on this. This can’t be rushed. If I find some remote town where I work at an amazing little place for a month or two, cool! Who knows what’ll happen! Gotsta gotsta gotsta keep an open mind.

I’ll be back later. Or, in internet terms: bbl.

I’m going anywhere and everywhere that might interest me. The Grand Canyon. Carlsbad Caverns. Hopping trains from east to west. The Smithsonian. Wherever I goddamn please. I am free to do what I please!

“What if you die!”

Its not a matter of what if. I know I’m going to die. One day. I figure its more of a “How will I die?” I’d much prefer dying trying to do something amazing than living a hollow life and taking no risks until one day it sneaks up on me.

So, there we have it. I love you all. Hope I can see you before I depart.