1500 more miles to go. Can't wait until I get back to Texas and to familiar grounds.
The East Coast has been interesting and it has been a challenge just trying to survive. No car, no home, jobs are real scarce here in this locale.
Time to end this.
I've met some great people here but jeesh, enough is enough.
Math question: 1500 miles, average walk for humans is 3 miles/hr.
Not accounting for hiking up and down mountains, rest breaks, sleeping and eating, adverse weather and dragging two suitcases and a dog on a leash... how long would it take me to make it?
Hint: Ain't gonna do it. No fucking way. There are better methods for travelling 1500 miles across America and I intend to use them. A mere academical question just in case I cut my hitchhiking thumb off by some freak accident.
After this trip, one gets paranoid, overtly suspicious. Especially when kind Mrs.Kindel, recently widowed in Cumberland, tries to eat my brain after serving me some delicious coconut cream pie and ice-cold milk.
It was most enjoyable up until that moment.
If I try the hiking solution, I'm afraid I might meet up with other Zombies who chase me into the Tennessee woods and I have to put survival up against the desire to buy/barter/steal that old Ford Falcon that's sitting outside Old Man Parker's cabin. I've seen it and it's cherry and has a working 289 that sounds strong.
Uncomfortably, Mr. Parker has been turned Zombie on me. This after sharing some fine Moonshine with me and wishing me a pleasant night.
I was going to ask if he would be willing to sell me the car. But I can't find the keys to it and he is now out howling with the Others to bust in his own cabin to eat our brains.
Bastards.
Road-trip from Hell, indeed.
Thankfully Ella, my dog, is a great shot with a 12-gauge.
We watch each others back.
I obviously deleted my FB account a while back. I felt like disappearing for awhile. I even waited the two whole freaking weeks per their TOS without "Liking" something just so I could be completely erased (supposedly).
So I had to create a new account on account of my new job, so I'm back in a limited way.
Still don't trust Facebook, and I am beginning to have many misgivings about Google even though I am a Charter Member there.
Which just means I've given them a whole bunch a data free over the years in exchange for a Gmail account and all the other free stuff they offer.
Like Locations: right now you would see me at 400 or so Plank Road in Altoona, PA. But I'm not really there.
My electrons are scattered freely everywhere. Good luck finding me.
Anyway, there are times when I think they are both EVIL.
Sorry Google, you've been heading in that direction for quite some time now. My guard is up and you are no longer my internet friend. Take your data and shove it.
Too late now. When I die, give a donation to the Internet Archive 'cause that's where I'll be.
Please excuse the dearth of posts here on this humble blog. Many changes have occurred since my last correspondence to you.
Last time we met, I vaguely hinted I was leaving to go get Ella as I was missing her terribly.
That in fact has occurred with me travelling from Houston back to Altoona PA. She is still staying with friends as I can't have a dog where I am currently residing, but we are together once again.
I decided to stay here in Altoona and I have a new job which I enjoy immensely, am looking for a place to reside that takes pets, and hopefully can afford some transportation here in the near future.
That's the plan anyway.
Oh, one more thing. I have got to get me some sort of mobile internet access as this travelling to McDonalds to use their WIFI is getting annoying.
Signing off from central PA,
Laurence Martin - ex Road Warrior
I'm going to be leaving this latest location in order to rescue my dog, and in the process perhaps rescue me. We have been together since day one and have enjoyed and endured many events in our lifetime together. I hope she will remember me when I show up.
I've picked a wonderful time to move back to my beloved Texas.
As much as I had complained about the cold Pennsylvania winter, I had no idea that I would actually welcome such a situation again. It's been that hot and dry.
It's been so miserable that I was hoping for the hurricane Irene to head our way for some relief from this weather.
I've been here since the beginning of June 2011 and upon arriving learned that the total rainfall for the Houston area was about 5 inches since February.
I know the summers are hot here but most of the days have been 100 degrees F or more (with a few scattered upper 90 degree days here and there). I should have waited until winter to return to the Texas gulf coast, but at least I can take some comfort about the fact that I have certainly sweated all toxins out of my body. In fact, I probably could have watered more that a few backyard gardens with the liquid coming out of my pores.
If you had purchased $1,000 of shares in Delta Airlines one year ago, you would have $49.00 today!
If you purchased $1,000 of shares in AIG, you would have $33.00. If you purchased $1,000 of shares in Lehman Brothers, you would have $0.00 today.
But, if you purchased $1,000 worth of beer, drank all the beer, turned in the aluminum cans for recycling, you would have $214.00.
Therefore the best current investment plan is to drink heavily & recycle.
So my BP is in the danger zone according to the "chair" at Walmart. 159/96.
No shit. I wonder why.
My teeth are in serious need of repair and they are a source of pain and headaches daily. Enough to wish I could OD on Valium or something.
Is it no wonder I am so crabby?
No shit Sherlock.
Besides, I have no job. No home. I have no vehicle. My dating index is -100 on a good day, not that it matters as I'm about the worst candidate ever for that sort of thing. It's been fucking 100 degrees thirty here since I have arrived in Houston. My faithful friend Ella is stuck up in PA and has probably forgotten about me. Yadda, yadda. Cry me a river.
Sorry, but I'm a little pissed off about now.
Grr.
