Greetings from Conway, AR. :) When I left late yesterday afternoon, and walked on to Rt. 40 (an Interstate), I looked carefully for signs about what is restricted. There were none, but I had a funny feeling. However, I just kept walking. Along the on ramp drove a white pickup truck and a guy asked if I wanted a ride to Conway in the back. I thought it sounded pretty tempting. So I tried to open the back seat door of the cab and he said ...no, in the *way* back... I looked back there, and the image of a friend who had ridden in the back of a pickup truck in Yarmouth and who was paralyzed when it broke his neck flipping over flashed into my mind. Na... I said as nicely as possible. And thanked him for the effort. He waved and drove away. You tell me to be safe--well it is avoiding stuff like this that seems to honor your request. It was warm (53 F), the sunset was beautiful and the stars came out before too long as I journeyed along, with semis and compact cars whizzing by.. The road was big, 4 lanes in each direction, with Jersey barriers stretching between them the whole way. After something like 3 miles, I reached a VAST area that almost looked like a New England marsh. It was flat as a parking lot. The breeze blew up and hit me with gusts Id estimate to be 15-20 mph. There was plenty of shoulder and a grass embankment running down along the sides of the highway. After this flat area was river and then the trees began again. Id walked 6 miles by this point and the mornings walk, plus the lack of sleep was telling me to find my nesting place. Eventually I passed over a dirt road that went under the highway. A small concrete-lined drainage way led down to a small creek that ran beside this road. It was very dark, and I just knew it was in the middle of nowhere. I decided to venture down the embankment and scout for a suitable place to roll out the tent. First I walked in past a narrow wood line, then over a dirt road (that ran parallel to the highway), and then partway up a much steeper hill that was fair clear of brush. I usually stand for a while and take in everything, and last night was no different. I listened for foot falls in the leaves, automobile engines in the distance (which was hard due to the proximity to the highway) and just the feel. I took off my pack and found two trees to hook the tent up to, pushing my jean legs into my socks to keep the littlest critters out of my pants. But something made me hesitate. I just had a weird feeling about the place. It was so open. Which way would I face the head-end of the tent to? Where would animals most likely surprise me from? How far from the dirt road was I? It didnt feel right. My choice to question brought a warm shutter up and down my spine--a warning from within, perhaps? I took the hint - whether is *was* a hint or not - and pulled the pack back on. I knew there must be a better place. Walking back down the hill and over the dirt road, I noticed that to the left was a patch of fallen trees and tangled brush. If there could just be a clear place inside there... I went out and around it, and sure enough was a pathway leading into an area with only a few trees and some pricker vines,but not many. The nice thing was it was fortified on three directions by impenetrable bushes. There were indeed two trees about 7 feet apart with a relatively soft bed of leaves between them. There were some pricker vines running up the trees and in between them, but nothing I couldnt work with. For some reason bears kept coming into my mind. I took out my multitool pliers and pinched the vines off at the ground level. Wondering what to do with the cut pieces of vine, it occurred to me that if any soft footed large animals were to get interested in me, it might be good to set these out around the path that I came in on. So thats what I did, twisting them into large sections of pricker rope and running them across the pathway. If felt great in this second place and it was still only around 6:45 pm so I had time. After hitching the open end to a 6 inch diameter tree, facing out toward the path, and securing the squished up and bungeeed foot end of the tent to a small tree I placed the back pack into the left side of the tent and the other stuff on the right side. I saw that the tent had its characteristic sag in the middle, even with the rope spine super-tight. I really have never liked how low the ceiling of the tent has been... I knew what to do. I dug the self-tightening clamp that Id never used yet out of the backpack, and crimped it on to the top-side of the tent, then bungeeed that to a tree on the side. It worked brilliantly! Now the inside of the tent was a good four feet up in the air. Nice! plenty of space. I crawled in, pulled out the sleeping bag and slid into it. Everything felt right. The wind was very strong, blowing in a cold front that has lasted into today. I tried to sleep. Youd think it would have been no problem. But it was. I rolled over, left, right left... The leaves were comfortable the tent was in good shape, but there I lay there sleepless in god knows where. After a couple hours a truck went peeling by on the dirt road above, with a spotlight jutting from side to side. But the angle was not right for him to see me. Eventually, I found that sleepy feeling and drifted off. I guess I didnt realize because I had a dream that I was in the tent in the daytime. suddenly (in the dream) a man appeared on the side of the tent and stretched out a piece of fabric as if to trap me there. I woke up sweating, yelling No! and pushing my hands against the air at the opening. This put me off for while longer. I tried to meditate on it to see if I might have had a reason for this fright, but soon I took it as a fluke and went back to sleep. In my next dream I was with a group of young people. I knew them really well (though not in the waking world). We were sitting on a roof drinking beer. Someone showed up with some kind of drug (dont know why I have these drug-related dreams--I am clean as a whistle in real life!). It was some kind of thing that you dump as a liquid onto a tray. Then you wait for it to evaporate and scrape up the powder left behind. I had no idea what I was doing and didnt really want to do it anyway, so I just talked to them while they did it. A young woman who seemed to have been flirting with me the whole time licked her finger and pushed it into my mouth. I pulled back. Then, I noticed I was floating up on to the small cupola and rested on its steep roof. A small walkway ran around it and I tried to get down to this little porch. It was a long way to the ground and I got scared that I was going to fall (similar to the dream the night before). I woke up again in the tent. It felt as though many hours had gone by, but it was only 11:00 pm. Sighing, I rolled over. There was something walking around out by the edge of the dirt road. And, I smelled a campfire. Shit! But the smell subsided and the foot falls faded into the distance. Remembering my pricker barrier and the wall of brush behind me made me feel better. I lay away for a couple more hours and then slept again, this time not remembering my dreams. I woke up to the watch alarm at 6:30 am. I clicked it off and put my head back down again, finally feeling tired enough to really sleep. But something woke me up again at 7:25 am and I saw orange light in the east. It was time to pack up. Pack up was quick and painless. I made my way back down the dirt road and up the embankment on to the highway. I walked, satisfied that the night had been a pretty successful affair. The walk along Rt. 40 was easy. I realized that if the whole was was like that, I could definitely make some distance today. Id walked about 3 miles when I heard Sir!! Sir!!!! behind me. I turned around and saw the flashing blue lights of a police car behind me, the officer slowly emerging. I walked back to him and he walked up to me. Im with the Arkansas State Police and I stopped you because it is against the law to walk on an Interstate. I apologized and said, ...I got on just north at that last exit, in the town just north Little Rock and saw no sign. He said, Yeah...Well, there is a sign at every on ramp. It is for your own safety. Im just concerned about you. A man was killed walking along this shoulder just a couple days ago. You are welcome to walk down there... Here pointed to a frontage road that ran very close and parallel to the highway. Ok, thank you sir, I said ...and Im sorry. I would not have walked here if Id known. He smiled, and got back in his cruiser as I descended down the bank and on to the frontage road. It was only one more mile to Mayflower and I didnt mind at all getting off that highway, though the shoulder was disappearing again... I got off next to the exit of the highway and walked over to an Exxon station, bought a coffee, a cranberry juice, a breakfast sandwich and a map, and used the restroom. I knew from checking Google maps that there were no McDonalds around there. And, Rt 365 went right up to Conway, eight miles away. So I took off along Rt. 365 for what seemed like an eternity. My shoulder blade pain returned and it was very uncomfortable, but I trudged along. It was another one of those time, like when I got to the border of Salem, that I was elated to finally make it but them had to walk four more miles to get to the McDonalds where I sit now (on Oak Street). So eight miles turned into twelve miles... My pedometer says I walked a total of 33.05 km (or about 20 miles) today, and it FEELS like it. Ive cranked out the mileage in the last couple days. But Im tired. My shoulder is sore and Im using up precious time writing this when I should be researching my next move. Id like to get a room and then a bus from here all the way to Oklahoma city. It is actually less miles than it was from Branson to Little Rock. That trip was $58. But Im very low on funds again and should skip the room, which means another five mile or so walk out of Conway to sleep and then walking back the same distance to look for a bus tomorrow. Jefferson Lines (the bus line that runs from here) has the crappiest possible website. The from and to options always come up as no route available for your date no matter what time or day or destination you try. And there is no map of stations, nor schedule, nor which places are drop off and which are pick up stations. It is less expensive than other bus lines, but you have to GO to the stations themselves for info (as Stacey and I discovered), even then there is little to no info for options. Anyway... I want to take the bus. I cant afford to get a room AND eat for the next week. So sleeping outside is the answer. I dont mind sleeping outside. That is always the easiest part of any day (and night). Tonight it is due to rain late--maybe after midnight. And tomorrow there is a 40 percent chance of rain, so the bus would be a nice way to avoid that. Hopefully if I can get a few more bucks I can spend the night in a room in Oklahoma City and was my disgusting self (and even more dirtier clothes). I know people might be tempted to get a hold of friends in the area, but it would be hard for me to wait for info about it--if it doesnt work I would need to leave NOW to find a sleep spot; I dont want to impose (REALLY dont want to--Im not just trying to be polite); Im not in any physical condition to stay up chatting for hours, I just want to sleep, but that would be rude. Things are a bit more complex than most people realize about this kind of situation. In addition to all of this, my boots are really getting bad. I can feel every little stone under the soles. Getting new ones is NOT easy with everything else I have to think about. I can deal with these for a while longer, but in Oklahoma city I hope to have even just a small amount of money to get to a used clothing store to pick up new boots. Wish I had a pipeline connected to LLBean. They would be absolutely ideal. But I have no address to send them to. OK, I have to get going. I will likely be back here in the morning to get online before heading to the bus station for info. Talk to you guys again then! :-D
Posted on: Tue, 16 Dec 2014 20:55:11 +0000
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