Saturday, December 11, 2010
Catch up2
Okay, because I can't seem to write about the past while I constantly experience the present and want to document it, I'm going to be doing current updates alongside past entries for the time being and see how that goes.
Thursday, December 9, 2010
Ever gas jugged across country?
With North Carolina growing a little weary, the weather becoming colder, and a serious lack of things going on, I decided to test my posse-gathering skills and see what I could come up with. The result was a couple desperately seeking to get the hell out of Norfolk, VA, a Musician from Boone looking for a jog down to Athens, GA, a weathered traveler stuck in Greensboro, NC, and trying to get down to Austin, and another mysterious fellow out of Boone who described himself as "White, skinny, and 30."
I gathered up the Norfolk folk first, Pugsley and Sara, and we arranged ourself back at my home base in Charlotte, Amelie's, and we more or less instantly approached by another pair of travelers. The older of the two was a serious wet-head and I was having trouble figuring out how how he was managing to put two sentences together. Eventually, he couldn't. The younger was about twenty, wide eyed, and you tell by the way his eyes were glued to the older wet-head that he was entirely too impressionable.
I let the 2 of them pair up with my two Norfolk companions and swill it up around the van for a bit before I finally got sick of the wet-head's idiotic Butthead-laugh. Also pushing me over the edge was his constant asking if he could come with us to Atlanta, while simultaneously saying he had to get out the state that night because he had a warrant out for his arrest for burglary. I told the younger of them to meet me back at the van in the morning, because I wanted to get him away from this worthless piece of shit, but he never showed up and I didn't have time to wait for something that probably wasn't going to happen.
The next morning, Joe from Greensboro showed up a little late, but at least he showed up which is more than I can say for the others who were permanently stuck "en route". I decided around 4 O'clock that this was enough waiting, and that four people was good enough. We left Charlotte targeting Atlanta.
Atlanta came and left without too much incident, Pugsley and Sara ran around the outskirts of the town snatching up fuel and money while Joe and I held down the fort. We refueled, restocked cash, and took off for Mobile, AL with the hopes that we could crash there for the night as a way point for New Orleans. We ended up a bit short of Mobile, but it all worked the same.
In the morning we took a minute to wake up, and warm up ( it was still a bit cold at night in Alabama), and then we hit Mobile, passed it and rolled into Mississippi.
Mississippi did not like us. The first "town" we stopped at literally ran us out of town. We stopped at a gas station where I bought a funnel so we could get some gas from our gas can into the van. An older black man walked by me as I peeked around the corner of the gas station to look at what else was around. He took a disliking to me checking things out and figured I was up to no good. He turned around and came back and walked up to my face and asked, "Looking for something?"
I told him I was just looking around. He responded with, "That's my truck over there." I looked back in the direction I had been looking and saw a whole pile of cars and trucks parked in no particular order. He didn't point. He didn't specify. I had no idea what he was talking about. He simply stared at me from about 3 feet away and the only response I could give him was a shrug and an, "Okay..."
He started to walk away and came back to us and told me too leave, immediately. There were 3 more gas stations across the street so I said fuck it, took the funnel and threw it back into the shop on the counter and told them they could have it back. a lady asked if I wanted to money back. I told her no.
They next gas station was a bit more polite, but we got more or less the same response from them. I figured I would go over to the McDonalds next to the third gas station and steal some WiFi and check my E-mail. Mistake.
I got about 5 minutes into my tappity-tap on my laptop before Pugsley, a man whose body was not used to moving quickly, rushed through the door with a mighty burst. He took one look around, spotted me, and shouted, "we have to go. Now!" I looked across from me where two AT&T business man in suits and ties were sitting and figured I should probably just freak out and make a bigger scene since they wouldn't know how to respond, and Pugsley had already freaked everyone out anyway.
I jumped up out of my seat, slammed my laptop closed , and yelled back at Pugsley, "What did you do!?" while I ran out the door dragging my bag behind me. I took off running as fast as I could, quickly passed Pugsely, and saw a lady with a notepad sitting behind my van scribbling what I assumed was my license plate. As I got close to the van I gained speed coming down a grassy hill and I noticed I was about to hit a large patch of cement directly behind where the lady was standing. Up until now, she had no idea I had been rushing at full speed straight at her, and I knew as soon as I hit that cement I was going to make quite a racket pounding the cement. Again, might as well have some fun, I thought.
As i hit the pavement I did a little hop to accentuate my landing while charging full speed towards this woman who was very occupied being a busy body. I got two or three very loud steps in to which the woman jumped, startled, and nearly dropped her notepad. I rushed by her shooting a 'BOO!" at her and quickly popped the door open, started the engine, and gave the woman the I'm-going-whether-you-move-or-not engine rev. She scampered out the way and I whipped the van around as Pugsley caught up and did jogging-jump entrance into the van. Off to New Orleans we went.
I gathered up the Norfolk folk first, Pugsley and Sara, and we arranged ourself back at my home base in Charlotte, Amelie's, and we more or less instantly approached by another pair of travelers. The older of the two was a serious wet-head and I was having trouble figuring out how how he was managing to put two sentences together. Eventually, he couldn't. The younger was about twenty, wide eyed, and you tell by the way his eyes were glued to the older wet-head that he was entirely too impressionable.
I let the 2 of them pair up with my two Norfolk companions and swill it up around the van for a bit before I finally got sick of the wet-head's idiotic Butthead-laugh. Also pushing me over the edge was his constant asking if he could come with us to Atlanta, while simultaneously saying he had to get out the state that night because he had a warrant out for his arrest for burglary. I told the younger of them to meet me back at the van in the morning, because I wanted to get him away from this worthless piece of shit, but he never showed up and I didn't have time to wait for something that probably wasn't going to happen.
The next morning, Joe from Greensboro showed up a little late, but at least he showed up which is more than I can say for the others who were permanently stuck "en route". I decided around 4 O'clock that this was enough waiting, and that four people was good enough. We left Charlotte targeting Atlanta.
Atlanta came and left without too much incident, Pugsley and Sara ran around the outskirts of the town snatching up fuel and money while Joe and I held down the fort. We refueled, restocked cash, and took off for Mobile, AL with the hopes that we could crash there for the night as a way point for New Orleans. We ended up a bit short of Mobile, but it all worked the same.
In the morning we took a minute to wake up, and warm up ( it was still a bit cold at night in Alabama), and then we hit Mobile, passed it and rolled into Mississippi.
Mississippi did not like us. The first "town" we stopped at literally ran us out of town. We stopped at a gas station where I bought a funnel so we could get some gas from our gas can into the van. An older black man walked by me as I peeked around the corner of the gas station to look at what else was around. He took a disliking to me checking things out and figured I was up to no good. He turned around and came back and walked up to my face and asked, "Looking for something?"
I told him I was just looking around. He responded with, "That's my truck over there." I looked back in the direction I had been looking and saw a whole pile of cars and trucks parked in no particular order. He didn't point. He didn't specify. I had no idea what he was talking about. He simply stared at me from about 3 feet away and the only response I could give him was a shrug and an, "Okay..."
He started to walk away and came back to us and told me too leave, immediately. There were 3 more gas stations across the street so I said fuck it, took the funnel and threw it back into the shop on the counter and told them they could have it back. a lady asked if I wanted to money back. I told her no.
They next gas station was a bit more polite, but we got more or less the same response from them. I figured I would go over to the McDonalds next to the third gas station and steal some WiFi and check my E-mail. Mistake.
I got about 5 minutes into my tappity-tap on my laptop before Pugsley, a man whose body was not used to moving quickly, rushed through the door with a mighty burst. He took one look around, spotted me, and shouted, "we have to go. Now!" I looked across from me where two AT&T business man in suits and ties were sitting and figured I should probably just freak out and make a bigger scene since they wouldn't know how to respond, and Pugsley had already freaked everyone out anyway.
I jumped up out of my seat, slammed my laptop closed , and yelled back at Pugsley, "What did you do!?" while I ran out the door dragging my bag behind me. I took off running as fast as I could, quickly passed Pugsely, and saw a lady with a notepad sitting behind my van scribbling what I assumed was my license plate. As I got close to the van I gained speed coming down a grassy hill and I noticed I was about to hit a large patch of cement directly behind where the lady was standing. Up until now, she had no idea I had been rushing at full speed straight at her, and I knew as soon as I hit that cement I was going to make quite a racket pounding the cement. Again, might as well have some fun, I thought.
As i hit the pavement I did a little hop to accentuate my landing while charging full speed towards this woman who was very occupied being a busy body. I got two or three very loud steps in to which the woman jumped, startled, and nearly dropped her notepad. I rushed by her shooting a 'BOO!" at her and quickly popped the door open, started the engine, and gave the woman the I'm-going-whether-you-move-or-not engine rev. She scampered out the way and I whipped the van around as Pugsley caught up and did jogging-jump entrance into the van. Off to New Orleans we went.
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