wolram said:
Hells bells Om you sure do have a busy life
"Had" a busy life.
If you ask the same question in 10 years, I'll say; "Same place as I am now, laying on the couch".
2006 was somewhat extraordinary.
That was also the year that my friends left me at the fair, and I ended up walking back to our campground.
23 miles. 10 pm to 10 am. Quite an interesting walk.
The only people that offered me a ride were the police.
They said if they saw me again, they would arrest me.
That was the first and last time I got pulled over for walking like a hippie.
The police stop was kind of funny, as it took them 15 minutes to find out I had no criminal record.
And 10 seconds after they drove off, I noticed my friend's truck driving by, in the direction of the campground.
He had apparently been looking for me for about an hour. But I had been told by fair staff that I had to be out of the gate by 10 pm.
So he was looking where I wasn't.
But if the police hadn't stopped me, I would have been on the road exactly where he would have spotted me.
And he would not have missed the outfit I had on.
Unfortunately, the police pulled me over at a truck weigh station, where I was attempting to use a payphone, so I was 40 meters away from the freeway when he passed.
I may have muttered some expletives at that moment.
Anyways, as I said, it was an interesting walk.
Although there was a full moon out, it seemed to set rather early.
It may have been all of the mountains and trees, and at times I was walking in near total darkness, and could barely see the white line that marks the side of the road.
I had picked up a walking stick at the beginning of the trek, and it turned out to be a very useful blind man's cane, on several occasions.
I also attempted to sharpen the stick as I walked, by dragging it heavily on the pavement, as there are bears and cougars in the area.
Fortunately, I ran into no wild beasts.
And then when I got back to the campground, I soaked my feet in the creek for an hour.
I was surprised I had no blisters, as flip-flops are not the best walking apparel.
My hips though, ached for several years afterwards.
I still carpool with my friends, and as punishment, I recount the trek, every year, as we drive to and from the fair.
"That's where the cops pulled me over!"
"That's where I took a nap."
"This is another place I took a nap."
"This is where I took a nap on the lawn, and the automatic sprinklers came on at 4 am"
"This is where I saw the watermelon looking vegetables with spines."
"This was the worst hill."
"This was the second worst hill."
"Slow down to 2 mph, I want to relive the past."
"This is where the hippies played music very loud at 5 am in the morning."
"Did you know there's a creek right here? You can't see it when you're in a car, because of all the vegetation"
"This is where I thought about getting water."
"Did you know that after walking 10 miles around the fair, and 15 miles on the road, at about 4 am, you start hallucinating?"
"This restaurant is not open at 6 am."
"The people in this house wake up very early."
Of course, on a 23 mile DEATH march, over 12 hours, this is just a sprinkling of what I saw.
I always refer to it as my DEATH march.
I even made a t-shirt, with the trail highlighted in red, representing my blood...
A tad faded over the years, so I wear it now, only on special occasions.
Very nice!
