Waste Management Swinger

Ammiel and I were wandering about downtown Phoenix while Larry was working, just exploring a bit. I spotted a walkway between two buildings high above, we guessed it was on the 14th floor, and we set out to try and get to it. After shuffling around both buildings and tailgating some folks with security passes in the elevators, our mission proved unsuccessful, the closest we got was a floor right above it looking out on top of it.

We spotted another building that looked interesting, and discovered there was a waste management convention going on there. We slipped in without badges, grabbed some free tea, and started to look around. It became a mission of getting all the free stuff while making small talk with the vendors. We collected a whole lot of hats, pens, tool kits, and other good stuff, I even scored a couple beers.

Last night was a good night too, it started with Larry dropping Amm and I off at another couchsurfing host's place, where we continued on to swing dance lessons, half way through. After the lessons there were 2 or 3 hours of dancing, everyone there was pretty good. Six blocks down the road we ended up at a bar called Big Fish, blues music was the scene, and these guys and girls were pretty talented.

Amm will be sticking here and I'm headed back to Larry's, probably helping some people move on saturday, then roading out to Tucson on sunday.

Getting Even With Vegas... Kinda

The ride into Vegas was lively, the jeep was filled with stories of travel and other good times. We made a stop at the Hoover Dam on the way to shout with excitement and throw coins holding our silent wishes for the future. Coming up over a bump on the road the lights of Vegas hit you all at once and the music gets cranked up in anticipation for what the weekend will throw at us.

We drove down the strip to soak in the lights, I was the first to get dropped off over at the Excalibur. I checked in, dropped my light weight bag in my room (left half my stuff at Larry's in Phoenix), and headed down to the Casino. I thought I had $150 in chips waiting for me, it turned out to be $150 in slot free play, which I quickly translated to "fuck". Basically I had 150 dollars in credits at the slot and had to play until it was done, so at the end up 3 coronas sitting in front of a one armed bandit, I was left $113 dollar bills, good old fashioned cash, so it worked out decent.

The next day I took a walk down the strip for memories sake, stopping at margaritaville for some volcano nachos, the kind I haven't had since going to school in orlando. Accompanied by a beer, I had more than a couple people ask me if I really intended to finish the whole plate, I told them I would, I didn't, but I came close.

Back at the Excalibur, I turned my $100ish dollars into $200 at the craps table, then took $55 to bet on the Lakers game. After futzing with the hobo site in my room for a bit, I came down to the floor and watched the Lakers take an 8 point lead into halftime against the Clippers, I needed them to win by 11 to cover the spread, they were on pace. I thought craps would be a good idea during the half, so I went and lost all the money I had, bummer. Now it was up to the Lakers to be sure I wasn't broke. I came back to watch them go up 20 or so points by the 4th quarter, and headed back up to my room confident they hold strong. Shortly after I confirmed they won online, and passed out prematurely from what I thought would be a quick lay down on the bed.

I was up early that morning, it was Sunday now, I'd be leaving around 3. I futzed more with the hobo site, showered, and was checked out by 11. I collected my Laker winnings to put a total of 150ish bills in my pocket, then proceeded to lose most of that in my last go at the excalibur crap tables, but only after a shot of tequila and a couple coronas. I came to Vegas with a 10 dollar bill, and now had 17 bucks, so I felt ok.

After a bit I got the phone call that Jon and Angie, couchsurfers who I rode with to Vegas, were ready to go soon and were at New York New York (casino). I went there to meet them, and saw a craps table I liked, put $12 on the 6, hit in 2 rolls, and cashed out. That put me at a profit of $21 for the trip, and considering I had to pay $10 a night for 2 nights plus a $1 "phone fee", I broke dead even for the trip.

The ride back to Phoenix was quieter than the ride up, almost silent, I think we were all reflecting on our respective trips and letting our minds wander where they wanted, Angie even caught some Zs in the back seat.

Tomorrow's another day of unknown. I left a couple things in Tucson at the girls' place, not of the most importance, but being that it's on the road back east and they're all pretty awesome anyways, I'm thinking I'll stop in another day or night here pretty soon to see them and pick those things up. My mind's wandering about the hitch back to NYC, how long it'll take, when it might get cold, the people I'll meet, the cities I'll see, and what it'll be like once I get there. It'll be great.

Vegas, I'm Coming For You

I walked a few miles from the girls' place to an I-10 on ramp in Tucson, the skies were a bit gray, rain was a possibility for sure, but didn't seem imminent. This particular on ramp seemed pretty good for hitchhiking, there was a quarter mile service road straightaway headed right for it, giving people plenty of time to see me and decide to stop, and a wide enough shoulder so they could. It took 30 minutes.

Jimmy Graves from Alabama, a man who travels with his work selling AC units picked me up, he even gave me a mystery brown bag of food and drink from the hotel he'd stayed at, so I enjoyed some apples, muffins, and cereal bars on the ride. He dropped me off about an hour or so up the road just outside of Phoenix, and I walked a ways from there. I gave Larry a call, my couchsurfing host, and let him know I was close and he came and picked me up.

It's a cool couchsurfing scene in Phoenix, Larry's hosted plenty of people and has ideas to open a hostel at some point perhaps too. He was also pretty interested in the idea of the travel site I'm building within hobolifestyle.com, so we may put our heads together and create something really awesome. There's another surfer staying here too, Ammiel, who recently became a full-time vagabond like myself. It's cool to hear hitchhiking stories and everything from someone who's actively into it like myself.

Now though, it's time to take on Vegas, again. Larry set me up with some other couchsurfers who can give me a ride into Vegas tonight and back to Phoenix on Sunday. I've already booked my room, which was a comp package at the Excalibur that includes $150 in chips. The plan is to filter those voucher chips through the tables to get some real money, then I can pay a looming bill or two and keep on keeping on.

Should be good times, afterwards I'll see a bit more of Phoenix if I can and then dart across the country best I can to save Mark from doing something stupid, like getting another job in the old NYC.

Ducks in a Row

After one last night of surfing at Micah's place, I was off to couch surf elsewhere in Tucson. I was brought into the home of Kelly, Jess, Eve, and Diane, I'm their very first couchsurfer, at least through couchsurfing.com.

There's a lot of life in this apartment, in addition to all the roommates there's a cage full of rats, a couple mice, and a couple ducks flapping around. Each morning the ducks, Electron and McLovin, kwak in glee while they try to pull my blanket off me in my couchsurfing slumber. I didn't sleep well, but I lived well.

There's been some great drinking nights at the girls' place going into the morning, a lot of movie watching, a couple new beers at a local brewery, lab rats, and even some serious progress on the hobo lifestyle site. As always though, the time has come to move on to the next thing, so tomorrow I'll find myself with my thumb out on the side of I-10, one eye on Phoenix, the other on Vegas, and NYC on my mind.

These are among my favorite times, the pivot points where I turn the corner to a new place and new things, but I can't even see around the corner to know what's coming, just a guess or a hint maybe, a general direction. Tomorrow we'll see which way the wind blows.

Hot, Cold, Rain, Snow, Camping

My second night in Tucson was spent couchsurfing with Micah, but my third and forth nights were far more interesting, and it started with the idea of doing a little camping.

No buses go to Sabino Canyon, so I walke dthe 9 miles from Micah's place to the visitor center their, pack and all of course. Once their I got my fire permit (free) and asked some questions about the area and the wildlife. I turned down the $7 map, and took the small free one along with a warning of rare mountain lion sitings. Minutes later the old park ranger came running outside and handed me the fancy $7 map for free, I guess he was worried about me.

From what he described, the camping spots and fire safe zones were 8 miles deep, but I also turned down the $5 shuttle that went the first 4 miles, so walk I did. You've never seen more cacti in your life, they went as far as the eye could see, all types too, I even saw a white tail deer running along through them in the foothills.

After I made it past the hot 4 miles of road and general hikers/runners, the real trail began, up and twisting through the canyon. Within half a mile I saw one guy who worked on the trails on his way out, he'd be the last person I saw for the next day or two.

Two or three miles deeper it began to get dark, and I didn't think I'd make it to the special camping zone in time, but the trail now had a cliff on my left and a stone wall on my right. Somehow (I'd find out how the next day) I lost the trail completely, but managed to find the flattest chunk of earth to break out the sleeping bag and call it a night, only after watching the stars and wondering if mountain lion or spider or whatever else might be around.

The next morning I took a look at my fancy map, but couldn't make heads or tails of where I was and might have lost the trail. I peered over the cliff and saw the river flowing, and tried to climb down a bit to get a better view. I opted for getting higher ground, and found the trail pretty quick, turns out I went down when I should of kept going straight... damn dark.

I hiked a few miles until I got to the basin, the one the ranger had kept talking about and I could actually see on the map. It was there where the trails split off in a few directions. I went to take the box trails towards all the camping spots, but the trail seemed to die right where it started, pointing me to cross the river but with nothing on the other side. I crossed and looked around, there were plenty of tiny foot paths and even remnant of fire rings, but every tiny path ended pretty quickly, I didn't want to stray to far...

I started to turn back, at this point I was in thick trees and cacti going nowhere. That's when I saw a mountain lion dart across about 40 yards in front of me. I remembered the ranger saying that out of the last 60 odd reports of attacks, only 3 were NOT single hikers. Damn mountain lions. I kept watch in that direction while hollering a bit, but quickly made my way back across the river to where the paths split off. I chose a random trail this time, I obviously was not meant to do anything but that.

At this point I didn't care too much about what the "camping zone" and "fire zone" was, I'd already seen fire rings and other signs of potential camp sites, "legal" or not. Another mile or two and I saw a little sandy beach area near the river, perfect, and I made my own path off the trail to get to it. I wasn't there but 5 minutes when I started looking for an even better spot, I figured if I could see this spot from the trail then someone else might, I didn't want any problems if I wasn't really supposed to be there. Sure enough, I found a similar but even better spot about 100 yards upstream.

The first thing I did was build a fire ring, then slept a couple hours. When I woke up it was still daylight, I was going to wait until dark to get my fire going, now I'm glad I was impatient. Here I am with a lighter, and I can't get this thing going. I went up and down stream collecting logs, sticks, twigs, and other bits of dry grass cursing those survivor shows where they're rubbing a couple sticks together. And I have a lighter. Bastards.

I did get it going eventually, just had the right combination of sticks and whatnot I guess, now I feel like I could get a blazing fire going whenever I want. I cooked my ramen noodles, played some harmonica, and went to sleep.

I woke up to the sound of rain drops. I didn't think it would rain, but I sealed everything up the night before just in case. The rain got harder and harder, then it died, then it picked right back up again. I thought I might wait it out, but it wouldn't stop. I dragged myself out of the declining dryness of my sleeping sack and into the weather. Everything was too wet to pack in my bag, I walked away from the campsite with my backpack and now my sleeping sack awkwardly slung over my shoulder, still down pouring.

It wasn't the easiest, but I started making my way back the way I came, through the canyon, up and down the hills, through the puddles, all that good stuff, knowing there was a good 5 or 6 miles ahead, and that's only to the sort-of-road that would be another 4 mile stretch, but at least some shelter in the scattered bathroom buildings.

I wasn't walking but 20 minutes when, no joke, the rain turns into snow. At first I thought it was a joke, and then it just got heavier. It didn't even seem way too cold, couldn't even see my breath (the classic cold test), but my hands were completely numb, and hell it was snowing. The way the canyon twists, turns, and elevates, you can't really see the opening of the canyon yet still feel like you're on top of a mountain, it's really pretty awesome. Since I hadn't done the whole hike into it in one shot, and not even in daylight, I wasn't sure how much there was to go.

I finally made my way to that road, and onto the first bathroom hut where I rested my load of crap and thawed out for a minute, before continuing on. The bridges on this little road were being over powered by the streams that were running over them... but that's water over the bridge now, I got past all that.

Once finally at the visitor center again, I laid out a lot of my gear to dry and repack. I had no service in the canyon, so turning on my phone was met with a slew of messages, emails and texts, but I was able to confirm another night of couchsurfing with Micah. The question now though was the 9 mile walk to get their, then Rich came along.

Rich is a tour guide, he struck up a conversation with me about all my gear and started tell me tour guide kinda stuff about the area and cacti, pretty interesting actually. I asked him if there was any kind of bus from here, I knew there wasn't, and he said he'd give me a ride if I waited for him to get off work. He set me up inside in the warm near a power outlet, and I waited a couple hours for him to get off while I caught up on two days of being offline.

On the ride back with him he told me stories of his traveling days and his current plans of convincing his wife of tooling around the country in cheap RV, I think he's got a pretty good shot at it. He dropped me off right in front of Micah's house, and I've since washed and dried all that needed to be.

I can't wait to get back into Sabino Canyon, next time I'll bring some friends, stay a couple more nights, and hopefully not get rained, the snowed out. Good times.

Mobile Sleep is Cheap

I rarely have the money to afford a hotel or even a hostel, and couchsurfing is more fun anyways. There are times when couchsurfing doesn't come through, and I'm left keeping a watchful eye for any nook in the landscape I can crawl into, and the temperature can usually make it a more difficult find. If it's cold enough, a sleeping bag is needed. You can't just pull that out anywhere and crash, it's important to stay hidden to avoid any kind of police confrontation that would disturb your slumber.

Last night was on the edge, only really cold when I stopped walking and moving around. I found a lot of various nooks on the University of Arizona campus, but none could be deemed sleeping bag friendly. The first was on a dark park bench where I caught an hours sleep before cold set in. Next I found a gap between a bush and a building, but realized quickly that I was still somewhat visible. The last spot I found must of been some kind of architectural mistake, it was a long gap the building formed itself, almost like an alley way or a 3 wall court yard where no light was shed. I stayed there for a bit, but it seemed to perfect, like others may know about it and there was also no way to escape or even see if someone was coming.

Having got some info about the national forest, friendly for backpackers, I headed to the bus in hopes to get there by sunrise to find a camp spot and sleep the morning away. I'd gotten directions earlier from some people, so I waited a while and then parted with a dollar bill as I got on the bus. Almost right away I could tell it was going in the wrong direction, but it was warm and I was comfortable. A few hours later I'd been all over the city I'm sure, but well rested now and starting to recognize where I was again. I never made it to the forest, but for a dollar I got to sleep comfortably and warm, ready for today.

Sean has a similar plan when he goes to London later this year, where he'll save money on hotels one night by taking a night train to Paris. It's a pretty good trick, whether you're going in a circle or actually getting somewhere.

Cross Country and International Ride

It was 6am Friday morning, and I'd made my way to a parking garage on the westside of manhattan to meet up with my ride to the west. He was on time, and we hit the road, twisting through the northeast and beyond until we finally we made our way to Knoxville, TN by dark to stop for the night.

We has a lot of interesting conversation, Jim was a filmmaker and an avid traveler, he'd been all over the planet in a lot of situations. A lot of his stories began with "Do you know (insert name) from ____ (insert movie or something)", and I only knew about half the time.

I mentioned he was paying for gas and motels along the way, but as it turned out, I was also treated to meals throughout the day and beers each night. That brings me to the first night, before we arrived in Knoxville when we attempted to go to Dollywood on the suggestion from one of his friends. It was closed, but the surrounding town was like a cheap Las Vegas for families without gambling... a lot of neon, rides, comedy barns, etc. We found the only bar that had been grandfathered into this dry town, had a couple beers, and took off to Knoxville. There we found a night club, I guess. A lot of two step kinda action and female mullets, but good times all around.

We made it as far as Dallas the next day. We found a little bar there with an interesting crowd of regulars and 70 year old bar maid who's worked 364 nights a year, for a long, long time. By the end of the night everyone was buying everyone rounds of shots and beers, mini-therapy sessions broke out, and we all had a great time into the night and past last call. We got on the road late the next day of course.

El Paso, TX was our stop on night three. We were set on going into Mexico for some food and beers, El Paso borders Juarez, Mexico. Things got a little shady. Jim slipped the guy at the hotel $10 to help setup a trip across the border, and the guy Dave called his buddy Sergio who agreed to take us over the border, wait for a few hours while we drank and ate, and then take us back to the hotel all for $55. When he showed up, he said he was Sergio and confirmed all of this, and off we went.

Getting across the border was easier than I thought, we drove over the bridge, they opened our doors and trunk, didn't check our IDs or passports (Jim didn't even have one), and then there we were in Mexico. We stopped in front of a good looking bar, and asked Sergio if we should just meet back there in 3 hours... Sergio said he wasn't waiting and we'd have to find our own way back. We stayed in the car while Jim berated him for the scam, called back to Dave at the hotel who was assumed to be part of the scam, and he decided to make Sergio drive us back and that we weren't going to pay a thing.

Off we drove in the tension taxi into the 2 hour line of cars waiting to get back across the border. Jim and I opted to hop out and walk, the walk only took 10 or 15 minutes at the most, Jim told part of the story at the border and talked our way across without even being asked to see any ID once again, and we caught a different taxi back to the hotel in hopes our room hadn't been broken into and our stuff stolen. Jim lied to Dave saying the cops were coming to question and had everyone's name involved (by the way, "sergio" was actually ricardo). We then went to grab some food and beer, in america, assured no one would try to steal our stuff if they thought the cops may be coming to investigate.

So that's my only experience in Mexico to date.

This morning we took off from El Paso, and I'd decided to stop in Tucson, AZ while Jim continued on to California, and here I am in Tucson now. I've put out some couchsurfing requests and have a confirmation for tomorrow night, nothing for tonight quite yet, but we'll see what happens.

Pivot to Freedom

An interesting week is turning into an exciting month. Sunday brought the best football game in memory and a gathering of great people, drinks, and food a plenty. The following day Mark brought on the news I've been waiting to hear for years, he plans to quit his job dealing with coffee, take a load of time off, and just do whatever he wants.

Around this same time I'd been talking to someone offering a ride on craigslist, all the way from NYC to California. I met up with him at a bar last night for an introduction, and we plan to hit the road as soon as tomorrow night. He's seem pretty interesting and is also paying for all the gas and lodging, that equates to a free cross country ride for myself.

Time will tell a lot this month. I wonder if Mark will go through with quitting, and how soon, he already seems to be questioning it. As I type this he's snoring a few feet away on the couch, wiped out from another day's work. I wonder if my ride to California will go through, and if I'll actually make it to California, or find a reason to jump out somewhere along the way, and then where? I wonder if I can launch all the huge improvements to HoboLifestyle.com this month, or if I'll be preoccupied with what the road throws at me.

All and more will be revealed, soon enough.

Good Beer Night

Mark met me in the city last night for what turned into a great night of trying new beers. We've both had a craving for some tasting lately, so we headed to Under the Volcano to do just that.

The bar tender was exactly what you would want, a cute girl who loved and knew her beers. We started with a turbo dog, and then stepped it up to a delirium. We decided we'd have a kwak and then move to a generic beer after to just cap off the night when our taste buds faded to mild drunkeness.

After the kwak though, the bar tender insisted we keep trying new beers rather than defaulting to a generic beer, and she covered the cost for a chimay blue. She also gave us a small glass to taste the beer she was drinking.

Eventually last call came, the lights went up, and we were drunker than we thought we'd end up. Turns out most of the great beers we were drinking were around 9%, so we stumbled out of the bar towards the subway, laughing at and with people on the street all the way.

We surfed the subway back to Astoria, and the glow of Burger King reminded us of our hunger. It was drive thru only at this point, but we got in line behind the cars in our invisible one. Another guy as drunk as us got in our car, and somehow that plan actually worked, we walked away with a couple burgers that our new drunken friend paid for.

Great way to end the night, and a superbowl today with plenty of people to enjoy it with. This is why I say, and will continue to say, good times.