After I left Kerville it only took me a few rides to get to Junction, where I was held up because there were already some hitchers on the road I wanted to take, and nobody ever gets a ride if there are 2 groups hitch hiking on the same road right next to each other, so I had to wait. But it turned out to be a lucky break, because while waiting in the near by truck stop I met Walt, who offered to take me all the way to Alpine. Walt was a nice guy and easy to talk to, and he also worked at the small local airport and offered to let me crash in the Pilots lounge for the night, an offer I gladly accepted. I killed some time walking to the nearby carnival, but I had no cash so no rides for me. I spend the rest of the night watching movies and taking it easy.
My campsite in Kerville, there was a lot of cactus
Study Butte Texas, nothing but mountains and shrubs
I was woken up early by about 15 pilots doing pilot-y things, so I decided to pack up and get on with my day. Since it was early I grabbed some donuts, bought some groceries for the park, and read maps and comic books in the local book store. I finally hit the road around noon and made it into the park about 5. Then I learned that it is against park rules to hitch hike in the park, so I had to just catch rides by asking people in person. I somehow made it to Rio Grande Village for the night, where I met a group of guys my age who wanted to hang out. We chatted and watched a movie and threw the football and Frisbee around some.
The next morning I slept in, and got up slow, I went down to the Rio Grande and played in the water and stacked rocks (see photo and videos).
My first try, flat rocks but still rewarding
Larger rocks and harder to balance, was seriously worried about my feet getting smashed.
I decided I am going to meet up with thewindantherain, the hitchhiker I met in Santa Fe last fall, and together we are going to go to Colorado. He is leaving tomorrow out of Kansas City, and I will leave out of here, and we will meet someplace in the middle.
The video is actually a little dumb because I couldn't keep the camera steady and throw the rock, but dammit if I was going to rebuild that thing, so here you go.
Well winter is over, and it was time for me to stop bothering my friends and get back to moving. After an interesting spring break with my friends, I finally chose a location to leave from, so they left me at an intersection near Hamilton Pool in Dripping Springs. It was late in the day so I wasn't expecting many rides, but to my surprise I got 3 before it got dark. All were nice guys, easy to talk to, and Al finally dropped me at an intersection where I found a place to crash for the night.
Gotta love those sunsets
The next morning was a little more, shall we say, cold. A cold front had blown in over night. I didn't have any problems in my tent, but as soon as I was on the road I could feel. It didn't help that I was in some pretty sparse country with some pretty good wind. My first ride took a while, but they were some nice people my age. They took me into Johnson City where I picked up another ride in minutes from a nice young conspiracy theorist. We had a long talk about how police are not nice, and he took me far out of his way past Fredricksburg, where he got pulled over by our much discussed police officers and was given a ticket for speeding. He had to get back to work, so he left me at the entrance to a ranch off the side of the small highway were I became a human Popsicle. I froze until I got a ride all the way to I 10. The traffic on the interstate was non existent heading west, so I decided to take the interstate east to Kerville, hoping to pick up a ride west to Fort Stocton. After another hour or so freezing on the on ramp, I caught a ride to a McDonalds in Kerville where I am now, eating the last of my canned peaches and restarting my blog.
The dashing, contemplative man of the road
The plan now is to head to Big Bend, but it is not concrete yet. After that I want to go check out Colorado, and after that, depending on the weather, maybe the north states. My plans are pretty fluid right now, so if anybody has any ideas, feel free to voice them in the comments section.
