commentary...

i traveled 50,000 miles on my thumb,in the 1990's... being homeless will do that to you,or as i put it,being "on the road" will do that to you... do not take this the wrong way,but there are certain things that i do honestly miss about it still;not the sleeping under whatever i could get to sleep under,or on top of,like snow,cement,warm grills,under bridges,under trees,or on branches in bushes,in back of Safeway stores,and on cots in those stores(i knew some people who worked there,who let me sleep in the break room,sometimes),wood chips,a church hallway(out of the wind),many shelters,many movie theaters,and some hotel rooms(when i had money)... my favorite saying is,"a nickel in my pocket",because there had been many a day that i had a nickel in my pocket,or even less... what i do miss about it is the travel every day,because no matter where i went,i saw different things every day,and there are four trips that i remember the best:the first trip in 1991,from Sacramento,California,to Lubbock Texas/Amarillo,Texas... i traveled 18 days,in February,that year,before having to rush home on a Greyhound,paid for by the State of Texas,from Lubbock/Amarillo... i hitchhiked all the way,from Reno,to Tatum,New Mexico(seven miles from the Texas border)over that time,and it only rained two and a half hours,in those eighteen days,so i really enjoyed the walk through rural New Mexico,at that time of year-"nickel in my pocket" time... the other three times were the two times i traveled to New York/Connecticut(one time i got so sick most of the trip-104 degree fever,and chills,and a major pier six verbal brawl,with Greyhound on both sides of the country,over my travel)and the second time was when i got mugged in White Plains,New York,and had to hitchhike all the way to Akron,Ohio(i collapsed on a church doorstep,after six days of living hell(puddle jumping* through Ohio/Pennsylvania),and the final time was in August/September 1998,when i walked 100 miles in Colorado(August),and Nebraska(September)... *puddle jumping means that you get many rides in those states,but you go not very far with every ride... i remember one ride,was one quarter mile in length(one off ramp),and that happened for six days... a living hell,you see... i could walked faster,and further than taking those rides... what i miss the most is the scenery that i really got to see,especially on those 100 mile walks through Colorado,and Nebraska... what real beauty... what a hobo's life... i would not have missed any of it... i have seen Zion National Park,Rocky Mountain National Park,both ends of the Grand Canyon(Page,Arizona,and the Hoover Dam),including the South Rim of the Grand Canyon,in a blizzard,every coast of these United States,and waking up in the Nevada desert,seeing the hues of the cold desert meeting the hot sun,in the morning... what a beautiful sight... you may never understand or realize how much i appreciated that time,in my life...