# 3 days north in a shopping cart to nowhere



## Venatus (Sep 5, 2015)

So, some of you may already know this, but ive been planning on leaving the bay for quite a while. well i finally got fucking around to it 3 days ago. It all really started in Berkely, where me and my wife got off at the bart station as a sort of head start to a spot i heard was easy to hitch from. we spent the night in berkely and then we went down to the university ave on ramp to the highway. News flash, that fucking ramp wasnt just a ramp, it was a high speed bridge, and 95% of the assholes in their cars would drive past and not even glance at us or our modest cardboard. we spent a few hours waiting around there, maybe it was because we had so much baggage cause we had issues, but maybe really it was because nobody in that shit town gives a shit either way, it didnt matter, we where stranded.

So i decided to go and find a shopping cart, so we could move our shit and go to a better spot, cause we had so much shit and we could hardly get anywhere on foot with it. I wandered around the fucking town looking for a goddanmed cart to use and spent a good couple hours roaming around mumbling to myself like a madman. well i was a madman! 

I was that crazy guy who walked to emeryville from berkeley just to find a shopping cart! i didnt have a choice of course, theirs no carts sitting around in a ivy-league-college-post-industrial-wasteland-coastal-tourist-trap-of-that-shithole!the only store with em near us was grocery outlet and they had those carts fuckin guarded with a steady eye, no fucking way. In the end i find a shopping cart out in a shopping center on the side of a curb, and lo and behold its a petco cart, they dont have those stupid protector strips cause its petco so i go and i take the danmed thing and walk it all the way back to the next town where we load up our stuff and begin the long unforgiving walk through places that have been developed over and forgotten, and places that where just forgotten, and places where it felt like the industrial world just took a shit and died in it, and these old fucking rails that would catch the carts wheels and id have to nut up or risk losing everything to a semi driver who didnt give a fuck.

We went to another on ramp, me and my miserable wife, waiting out there with a sign and our thumbs out waiting for a ride, the sun was setting and a ride never came. so we went under the high way bridge and camped with some homebums who gave us some pizza for the night. we where at the edge of berkeley, i went scouting out and found we where at the edge of albany, another bay area tourist trap shithole.

My wife and i spent the morning unloading and sorting through what to leave behind, cause we had too much shit and we figured thats why nobody would give us a ride. after that we began a kind of pleasent morning walk down the way to albany where the Frisco bay trail began, laughing and telling jokes and stories to each other all the way, it was nice and pleasent, it hadnt dawned on us just how fucked over we really where, but its not like we couldnt work our way around that. we passed where old hobo camps must have been raided, under many overpasses and through intersections filled with impatient upper class yups eagerly heading for the tourist trap they would waste money at. 

we went on and on, i switched from my tiny petco shopping cart for a lucky shopping cart of decent size. we continued on the trail along the coast, enjoying the view of the hideous toxic waters of the bay and passing grumpy old ladies on bikes. here and there as we entered southern richmond we saw faint signs of other hobos, we saw less and less the futher along the coast we went. eventually we reached the marina and found a power outlet. my wife insisted on spending 4 hours there charging our devices and got her ass sunburnt bad.

we went through richmond getting lost now and then but trying to follow the trail route becuase what the fuck else are you supposed to do when your in the wretched ghettos of a shit town in the bay area? nobody really notices us anywhere, whether its in a rich country club neighborhood or a miserable slum, we are invisible. people i meet mistake me for other people, and we blend in so well too most scenes we have nothing to fear. it wasnt the places we went that hit us hard, it wasnt the journey as we traveled up north though richmond along that forsaken bike trail to nowhere. It was knowing and accepting the truth of life, that if we lived or died it didnt matter to anyone, that was the hardship of our conquest along the edges of sore feet and madness.

No im not saying its really anything, but we spent 3 days walking, spending the night on the road or at a park in a culdesac, clinging to our lucky red cart and surviving. up and down brutal hills for hours on end, sometimes id even load my wife into the cart because shes not as well adapted to it all as i am and her feet get sore fast.

Eventually the trail ended, and we did as planned thumbing the road for a ride at the end, but we had long since passed even the land of dislike, on to the land of indifference. we watched the cars pass for hours on the third day, watched a million little worlds spin by, their inhabitants oblivious to us. I dont expect anything of the world, i know its up to me to survive, up to me to feed myself and keep myself sane, but its truly a blessing when a stranger comes your way and helps you out. i had never really put much though into that fact until that very moment, when i gave up thumbing for a ride. we loaded up lucky red again and pressed on past the trails end, up a hill, under an overpass, up another hill in a dead quiet rich suburb, till we reached the gas station.

at last here i am, sitting here after 3 days of walking and pushing a shopping cart, from berkeley to northern richmond. thankfully our landing is habitable, and with the skills i have, survivable. i can spange 30 bucks in an hour or so, and im sure we can find a nice spot to sleep at till i get things get better. This is our white flag, me and my wife are done trying to hitch a ride in california, we may try again in another state, but in the end ill put my will towards easier and less agonizing ways out of this fucking shithole state. 

The world calls, and i push my cart to answer it.


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## psychofoamer (Sep 5, 2015)

If you're gonna seriously be on the road, then you need to downsize to what you can fit into a traveling/hiking pack.

That's probably why you didn't get picked up at University St. 

The on ramp could've changed though, it's been awhile some I've been put that way..,


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## Venatus (Sep 5, 2015)

Leadbellytherxrcur said:


> If you're gonna seriously be on the road, then you need to downsize to what you can fit into a traveling/hiking pack.
> 
> That's probably why you didn't get picked up at University St.
> 
> The on ramp could've changed though, it's been awhile some I've been put that way..,


yeah, we downsized alot, and im going to get my wife a sizable travel pack soon as well with the money i spange.


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## Art101 (Sep 5, 2015)

shit I just gave away a good one.I do have a duffle bag and a very solid but not big back pack so hit me up and we can talk.


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## rando (Jan 17, 2019)

This story is very enjoyable to read, thank you for sharing! DONT GIVE UP


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## BusGypsy (Jan 20, 2019)

Yes, we are rooting for you! Get some backpacks at Goodwill or something. It's true, the shopping cart will hurt your cause.


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## Deleted member 23824 (Jan 20, 2019)

I hope they got to their desired location, thread is about 3 1/2 years old!


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