# From Illinois to LA, my first vagabond experience



## Jim (Jan 22, 2022)

The number one thing I underestimated about this life is how hard it is to keep your phone charged. My journal updates slowed to a crawl and eventually a halt, as well as anything less essential than calls, texts, and maps. Tonight I decided to go soft and get a cheap motel room, so I'm writing this now while I have a cable in my phone. 

At first I was going to hitchhike, and I did. Then someone in St. Louis convinced me to take a Greyhound and gave me enough money to do so. A few days later, I'd survived the unbelievably long bus ride to Los Angeles. In between snoozes and bathroom breaks, I'd made a few friends, too. 

"A", a thirty-nine-year old, lanky white guy, dressed in an aggressively hippie style -- odd red sunglasses, a permanent beanie cap, baggie, colorful clothes and a twisted wooden cane -- was newly homeless, like me. There was some situation with his family, I didn't get all the details. He was definitely mentally ill in some way and he did a few more drugs than I was comfortable with, but in every other way he was a kind, really genuine sort of man who always did right by me. 

"T" was closer to my age (20), sane and claimed to only do weed and alcohol. He knew LA and the west coast in general, and filled our heads with grandiose plans. He said he had a van, and that he could get us jobs and stuff to sell on the road, and that we could travel up and down the coast. T knew how to talk and how to get people's defenses down. That's a skill I've always envied. Unfortunately, it's a skill usually wielded by assholes, in my experience. T was no different.

Me, A and T all agreed to explore LA together while T tried to get his van back from his mom, who lived there. That should have been the first red flag. After a day of hyping everything up, T got drunk and high, and we were no closer to finding a place to sleep than we'd been hours ago. A complained about this, and T yelled at him. They fell out, hard. I felt caught in the middle, but my choice was obvious. Sleep on a bench with A, or follow T and his impressive charisma to a hostel where we'd split the cost for a night. 

After an awkward night in which T tried to invite me into the shower with him and I chose to be responsible and just go the fuck to sleep, we met up with A, who apologized and made up. Maybe he was genuine, or maybe, like me, he just knew he was alone in an enormous city with no resources and no knowledge of the street. 

T brought us to Venice Beach, where he continued trying to get a hold of his mom and we hung out at drum circles and slept on the beach. It was a good time, but after we'd spent four days there, and T's mom had finally arrived, T went back with her for reasons I still don't know. I haven't seen him since, although he texted that he wanted to meet up earlier today, and never did.

After that, A and I spent a night with A.W., another traveler, who showed us a spot in West Hollywood where we spent the night. After that I was stuck squatting under a lifeguard stand on the beach with A, freezing my ass off more and more each night, which is exactly not what I signed up for. Waiting for T to get his shit together took too long and I split earlier tonight. 

So far, I've hitchhiked twice, slept outside for the first time, made friends with other vagabonds, learned how to navigate Los Angeles, been hit on by guys on two separate occasions (very flattering, I'm bi but just wasn't comfortable with the encounters), learned the immeasurable importance of being friendly and personable with everyone, and taken off to be by myself again. It's been one hell of a ride, and that's just in my first week out here. 

Tomorrow I'm gonna walk Hollywood Boulevard like a good little tourist and then see if I can hike up to Inspiration Point and probably spend the night up in the hills somewhere. After that my destination's San Diego, then Slab City. I've learned that making very long-term plans is useless out here. Things always turn up along the way.


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## ali (Jan 22, 2022)

I feel you on the troubles with trying to keep your phone charged. The hard part isn't finding outlets so much as it is staying in the place with the outlet for long enough. Like, if it takes a couple hours to charge all the way, what are you going to do in that time? Just sit there doing nothing? It's so much easier when you have a roof over your head at night, because then you just leave it charging while you sleep.

One useful thing, if you don't have one yet, is to get a power bank. A 20000mAh one will keep your phone running for 3-4 days, maybe more. You can use the power bank to charge your phone overnight, then plug the power bank into outlets during the day whenever and wherever you find one. If you find a good outlet in a safe place you can even leave the power bank behind and come back later, if somebody swipes it at least you only lost $25 and not your whole phone.


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## Colinleath (Jan 28, 2022)

Here's my charging setup. As long as the days are sunny keeping charged is no problem. This is the panel sold at decathlon. I think the anker one is about the same. They use the sunpower panels i think. The batteries are 10000 mah. I have two so I can alternate. I also have high watt wall chargers and both batteries can benefit from that (you've got to check max input voltage and current on the power banks you get).

Heavy though if you add everything up!

I'm also carrying a tent pole i found so i don't need to work as hard to Jerry rig a way to keep the panel straight. The tent pole is behind the panel.


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## Jim (Jan 28, 2022)

Colinleath said:


> View attachment 67472
> 
> Here's my charging setup. As long as the days are sunny keeping charged is no problem. This is the panel sold at decathlon. I think the anker one is about the same. They use the sunpower panels i think. The batteries are 10000 mah. I have two so I can alternate. I also have high watt wall chargers and both batteries can benefit from that (you've got to check max input voltage and current on the power banks you get).
> 
> ...


Nice! Thanks for the details! 

I have a small solar charger too, but I'm pretty sure the solar part is broken, it only takes wall charges now. I'll see if I can pick up something like yours sooner or later.


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## SouthernSammon (Jan 28, 2022)

Great read. Looking forward to more updates


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## coyote mogollon (Jan 28, 2022)

Old school pen n paper. I’ve even gotten to the pt of hand sewing my own, needle n thread, bookbinding. Can use recycled grocery bags, filch copy paper from libraries or copy centers etc. But I’m also using an iPad so copying stuff over is a bit of pain n the ass. The solar charger thing is interesting. Costs?


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## varis (Feb 3, 2022)

I charge up in libraries and parks under wooden shelters. 

I know in San Francisco I couldn't find much, but there were a few light poles here and there on the wharf. 

I've had to plug up behind vending machines too, or ask local peeps where to charge up. 

I don't carry solar or an extra battery pack.
But!
My Chromebook doubles as a spare battery.

First thing I do in any town I end up in is look up the largest and closest libraries.

I rarely have a dead phone between libraries and the Chromebook "battery", and I use my phone to read books at night too.


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## Colinleath (Feb 5, 2022)

coyote mogollon said:


> over is a bit of pain n the ass. The solar charger thing is interesting. Costs?


There was briefly a solar panel of this quality on amazon for $14 but they're usually closer to $60 in a store and $26-50 online i think. The power banks shouldn't be more than $20 each, just again make sure they can speed charge from an outlet (you shouldn't need to charge for more that 3 hrs to fill a 10000mah from an outlet and 1.5 hrs is possible with high watt chargers and a powerbank that supports a quick charge input)

I use my phone a lot for internet. And can go 5 days with two charged 10000mah power banks.

https://www.amazon.com/Anker-Charger-PowerPort-iPhone-Galaxy/dp/B012YZXMZS

Forclaz Trek 500, 15W Hiking Solar Panel - https://www.decathlon.com/products/trekking-solar-panel-15w-trek-500?variant=8110363672687

With solar panels, I've found it better to use those with sunpower solar cells. (Though it looks like they may be called something different soon: SunPower will no longer manufacture solar panels - here's why - https://www.solarreviews.com/blog/sunpower-to-stop-manufacturing-solar-panels )

Look for the dark squares. Or better for a spec sheet that says 'sunpower.'

For years i tried using suntactics solar panels to save weight but these would always break or fail to charge at a reasonable speed (when panels get hot they lose efficiency, especially what suntactics used. . . And most panels will get hot)

Panels benefit from babying. That said, ive been surprised that my current one from decathlon still seems to work as good as new, when I think the panels probably should have cracked by now, so my guess is that the sunpower panels are flexible while what suntactics used were not.


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## Extimus (Feb 8, 2022)

I take multiple lighter powerbanks with me rather than one big one, with a bunch of tiny chargers.
That way I can selfishly use 3 outlets at once big win in time
You could also use one of those octopus quadruple chargers but tbh idk if the total energy output is the same or not
Good read, cheers


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## The Toecutter (Oct 20, 2022)

Hand crank chargers with built-in batteries are also sold.

If you ride an ebike, you can also use the battery in it as a mobile power bank.


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