Open Country

    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.

Back on the Road

    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.

Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality

    Hey friends, I know that I am off the road for a while, so it makes sense if a lot of you are not reading this regularly any more, or at all. But I still have a blog, and things to say, so if you feel like sticking around and reading some stuff by some guy who isn't in a position to be giving advice or perspective, then welcome.
    Today I wanted to talk about something I have been reading lately, something that is going to sound kind of dumb at first glance. It is a Harry Potter fan fiction. As the title states, it is called Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality.
     HPMOR is one of the best, if not the best thing I have ever read. Written by Eliezer Yudkowski, HPMOR tells the story of  Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone, if Harry Potter was an aspiring rationalist. Eliezer Yudkowski has written the first story I have read where the smart characters act smart. Unlike the classic Enders Game, where characters are smart because the author says so, the characters of HPMOR demonstrate thought processes, iweigh decisions, discuss  probabilities, and think outside the box.
    The other think I admire about this story is that Yudkowski has said that he doesn't like "gotcha"  endings. The book never pulls a "It was the Janitor the whole time." Every plot event in the book is foreshadowed, there is always evidence of what is going to happen. The problem with that is that since the story is already so long, there is always evidence to consider, theories and hypotheses to consider. There are whole forums online of people discussing possibilities, making predictions and evaluating evidence. As testament to this style of story telling, there is even a reference somewhere in the first ten chapters to an absolutely crazy and unbelievable event that doesn't happen for about 70 chapters.
    I won't lie to you, this is a long read, and if you don't have a kindle or an ereader, then reading online can be a little daunting. But I also won't lie to you when I tell you that this book can have a huge impact on your life. The science in this book is true, and you can use it to make better decisions, and to look at reality with a new perspective.
    Please don't think "oh a Harry Potter fan fiction" and write this story off with no time to consider it. The common belief is that the book really gets going by chapter 5, so if you are not into it by chapter 10 then you can stop. But I have never heard of that happening.
    The story can be found at hpmor.com, along with the ebook downloads in the side column. I also have to note that the story, although at already 100 chapters, is not finished. The updates come in ever few months, but the author has promised to finish the story by the end of 2014. Please don't let that stop you from reading it, there is still plenty to read, plenty to discus, and plenty to enjoy.
    I don't really have a schedule for posting updates, so I would recommend subscribing if you care about reading my wandering thoughts (ha get it).

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.

Video Time !!

edit: It took way to long to upload this video, will try again later. 

     Thanks for watching my video. Unfortunately, a few more things have happened since then, so my video doesn't cover it all. After making that video, I ended up walking a few more miles, having to navigate a bunch of large road intersections around the Airport. That night I found a nice spot off the side of the road to catch some z's, only being awakened by screaming loud plane engines a few times.

Who couldn't fall asleep here?

    The next day I got up late, and found a spot to thumb it that was kind of rough, only got one ride, that didn't take me very far but got me out of Atlanta, where I crashed that night. The next morning a guy took me to a rest stop where he thought I would have luck getting a ride all the way to Florida. It was a long wait but he was right, a trucker named Jim came up and started talking to me, then offered me a ride. We were heading to get into the Tampa area that night, but disaster struck and Jim's truck had a critical failure. He was going to be stuck at a truck stop north of the Florida border for a few days. I tried to get a ride that night a little further, but there was little to no traffic and I ended up camping at the truck stop. Today I got up, waited out some rain, and got a ride with another trucker to Ocala Florida, where I am now.

    Earlier while I was sitting here on my computer, I heard someone saying my name, I looked around and saw Jim. Apparently he had got a patch job and limped it here to get a real fix. He bought me dinner and a shower, and we chatted a little more about how he was going to handle his situation. Eventually he had to get off to bed, so here I sit writing my blog.

    My goal right now is to get to South Florida, although right here is warm enough. I would like to find a place to stay somewhat more permanently for a few months down south, but I am not sure how well it will work, so I am still setting up fall back plans. Also if anybody sends me Disney World tickets, I will make a video of me singing a song of thier choice, and post it here for all to see.

3 years apart, now I am a legend.

Pics from this week

Classic Memphis Trolly, filled with non classic homeless people

Listening to jams in an Irish pub in Memphis, you jelly?

Always a good time around the kitchen table at Court House

We all went to a park and a bridge, and Bip looks like a train robber.

All the togetherness of Spencers van

Today someone threw pennies at me.

    Today someone threw pennies at me. After my last post I actually didn't make it out of Hot Springs, starting my trend of slow hitch hiking that has plagued me for the last few days. I camped in the woods in Hot Springs, the next day taking the entire day to take me to the far side of Little Rock, today I spent all day hitch hiking and still didn't get to Memphis, still being about 40 miles outside of Tennessee.
    At my second to last spot today, an on ramp in a small town in the middle of nowhere. I was concerned about getting a ride there, because my initial responses from the drivers wasn't hopeful, and the traffic flow was pretty low. While I was there, a guy drove buy at about 15 to 20 mph, and took a hand full of pennies and straight up winged em at me.
    At me, not near me, at me, pretty obviously getting a laugh at pelting the hitch hiker with pennies. It also bothered me that they were pennies, although that is probably only because that is what he had when he was looking for something to pepper me with. It reminded me of a video I saw a few months ago, where a bunch of guys smashed a homeless womans' cake. Even though they compensated her for more than the worth of the cake, they were the kind of people who got of on hurting others, basically just grown up bullies. I have had situations like this before, where people shouted at me or gave me the finger, even once where a person pretended to run me over. But all of those people looked like they were in high school. This guy today was an adult with full beard.
    It is a strange feeling, to be a 22 year old man, getting bullied by a guy that is older than me, on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere in Arkansas. I know it is a small thing, and I am probably just whining for no big thing, but I am just having trouble letting go of it. It seems like something you would see happen to Zach Galifianakis in a movie about how he is such a loser. It just seems so absurd to me and I needed to vent. Luckily I have a blog and you people read it so deal. Also here is a picture I took while riding in the back of a truck.

More New Friends

    Texarcana was a still a little wet when I woke up in the morning, having camped out in a grassy area between 3 parking lots. I reluctantly rolled up my wet tent and set out to get to Hot Springs. I walked about a mile to an intersection that I knew at first glance was going to be rough, but it was much farther to any other intersections. After a few hours I decided to try the bus, taking the advice of a local to where I could get a ride. He was wrong, and I again ended up in a spot where no ride was forthcoming. One more 3 mile walk and some misunderstanding of how new roads had affected the landscape, I found myself standing on the side of a highway with cars going 70 mph only an hour or so before dark. It was one of those times I really needed to be lucky, and turns out I was. Larry Butler pulled over and offered me a ride to a small town about an hour down the road, although he promised me there was a large truck stop there, something I know to negate the negative effects of small towns. Larry dropped me off as the sun was setting and I thought, "heck, maybe I can get one more ride".

Why does every cool sunset picture I take have a truck stop sign in it?

    Tom picked me up just a few minutes after I arrived, and my luck held, because he was going straight to Hot Springs. We chatted along the way and he offered to let me sleep at his boat club docks, and buy me breakfast in the morning before taking me around town. I gladly accepted. That night at the boat club I met a few guys who were there fishing, and we chatted a bit, but I was pretty tired so I had to hit the hey. I woke up to an active thunderstorm that was testing my tents water restiveness. Then Tom came buy to get me, forcing me to pack up my tent in the rain, making sure it, me and most of my bag were thoroughly soaked. Me and Tom had some "hot cakes" at McDonalds and he took me around town in the rain to show me the bath houses, the mountain lookouts, and so on and so forth. I asked him to drop me off at the bath house that had the cheapest bath, and we parted ways.

Beautiful foggy Hot Springs Arkansas

I feel like I had died and gone to "not cold anymore" heaven

    The bath house was nice, but pretty quiet so early in the morning. I started talking to the only other attendee who was around my age, and found out he was also a traveler. His name is Jerry, and he was staying up in the hills around the town. We decided to grab some lunch together, we then went to check up on his torioses that were traveling with him, and then decided to go get our $10 free play at the local Casino. I turned mine into $45 and Jerry decided to just hold on to his free 10 bucks. It was still to early to crash for the night, so we decided we might as well go see Enders Game (DON'T SEE IT, IT IS BAD)

Jerry  actin a fool at the bath house

    We went back to Jerrys campsite, ate a light dinner and then passed out. This morning we got up pretty slowly, and walked down to the road to find some internet and some lunch before I try to make my way to Memphis. We got some dried fruits and such at an old country market, and now sit here at McDonalds. My goal for the night is to get to Memphis, but I see that as pretty optimistic, hopefully I will at least get to Little Rock.

Our quiet secluded campsite in the hills.

Random Road Thoughts
    A lot of people who were also on the road have made some pretty broad statements about how "traveling is the land of opportunity". I always regarded such statements as pretty much meaningless, or non measurable, just fancy things that people say to sound wise. But I do notice myself doing a lot of stuff spontaneously, which I now realize is because of my lack of planning. Someone asks, "want to go to a casino?", "I'm not doing anything, why not?". I found that all the new avenues I am taking are available because I really hadn't thought of what else I planned on doing for the day. Maybe I should make more efforts to keep my plans even more open.