stories "on the road",part three...

have traveled through 28 states(23,while hitchhiking),going from Puget Sound,the Columbia River,the Atlantic Ocean,the Gulf of Mexico,the Northeast,New England,Great Plains,and Midwestern states... i have lived in Marina Del Rey,Sacramento,Washington State,Orange County,and many other areas,of the Western United States... i have stayed in Reno,Denver,Albuquerque,Salt Lake City,and Las Vegas,at various times... i have seen both ends of the Grand Canyon(Lake Powell,Arizona,Lake Mead,Nevada,Hoover Dam,Nevada/Arizona(the border dissects the dam),the South Rim of the Grand Canyon,and Zion National Park)... i have walked 100 miles,in two different states(Colorado,and Nebraska),in consecutive months... i have crossed the Mississippi River many times,and have seen Christmas Eve,at the Fremont Street Experience in Las Vegas... i have walked the entire Las Vegas Strip,in 105 degree heat,and exactly one week later,was living in Marina Del Rey,in an apartment on the beach... that is a really odd,strange,but very true story... walked out one night,after working at Zion,and saw a couple of deer,walking in light snow,as i went to my dorm room... have walked in the Nevada desert,at twilight,early morning,and blazing hot daytime... that is a real trip... have had botulism,almost died(had to empty my stomach contents into a bathroom trash can one night-i do not recommend doing it),or i would have died that night,spent four days in bed,in a friend's house,in Kingman,Arizona,and then traveled to Albuquerque,in 112 dry heat degrees... it was fascinating to do all that,but very very tough and hard to be "on the road",for a decade,and be anywhere near sane and safe... i remember all that,and wish that you folks,could just understand what a real survivor that it took to be day after day for all that time... UNC was dead right,when he said that he was very proud of me,and said that i was a survivor...