Not all roads lead to Rome.

    After my last post, I made it to Tampa in a few days. My first night in Tampa I slept in some woods, the second day was spent mostly walking to where I wanted to be, and a lot of sitting, and finally uploading that video from the last post. That night I slept in an abandoned parking lot behind a Duncan donuts. The following night was Friday, so I got to somewhere where I was able to play Friday Night Magic, and when I was done, I met up with a woman who I met online and who agreed to host me for the evening

Beautiful Tampa

    I helped her with some chores the next day, and then met up with Brian. Brian was my age, and we had a lot in common and plenty to talk about. We went down to St. Petersburg to an outdoor art fair, walked around the Dali Museum, went to a casino to lose some money with his friend Nick, followed by us all ending up at a bar and watching Brian kill some people at Foosball. 

Me and Brian outside the Dali Museum

    Hanging out with a cool guy really made me miss my friends. I crashed at Brians for the night, and we split the next day, so I started doing some thinking. My plan for a while had been to stay in Florida for the winter and work, if I didn't like it, I was going to go back home to Texas to work and stay with my friends. I had been working lately on paying attention to what I wanted to do, not what I felt obligated to do, otherwise what is the point of freedom? I now realized that what I really wanted was to go see my friends, I was getting pretty tired of the loneliness of the road, already having had several huge waves of loneliness in the past few weeks.

Dali Museum

    So, being a free man, paying attention to what I really wanted to do, I got a greyhound ticket and figured maybe I should make it home for Thanksgiving. After about a solid day and a half of bus travel, an awful experience in itself, I made it back to Texas, where I am now. The plan now is to spend the winter here, and work on my future travel plans. Although I have to say, my plans are becoming less and less solid. Maybe next week I will feel like going back to slab city, and just hit the road.

Road Thoughts
   I have a lot of people tell me that they wish they were doing what I am doing. I have been telling all of them the same thing. Then do it, if you really, truly want to do it, then do it. I will help you however I can, with advice and resources, I might even travel with you if you are down. I will make sure you are prepared and I will let you know how capable you are to achieve your goals. But if you don't really want it, on an intrinsic level, if you are just subject to the all so common "grass is always greener", if as soon as I leave, you are not going to think about a life of travel at any serious level, then stop it. You aren't doing yourself any favors. All you are doing to yourself is pining over something you don't want, and taking value away from the things you have. If your world is more enjoyable to you than a life of constant travel, then you need to notice it. And if it isn't, then I will see you on the road.