# Travel Journal No 2:From the Jungle to the Jail



## wokofshame (Mar 2, 2009)

So I left off getting into Havre, I managed to find CC Rider who was partying hard she introduced me to this kid Les, these girls Tania and Sky and this blackfoot kid she called Lengua because he always talked with his tongue, his real name was name was Sammy and she gave him a really hard time for not having his shit together. He'd gotten kicked off the rez (fort peck) and was just the town drunk now, he acted like he'd sniffed a lot of gas when he was younger wbich was kind of sad.
We smoked a lot of the hippie shit and said fuck you to the winter with a lot of Natty Ice
and generally had a good time, CC's old man Dean kicked Sammy out, I felt sorry for the guy because though he was a irresponsible wannabe pimp clueless fuckup on the outside, he was smart down there and he carried a lot of sadness over the death of his dad, he started crying when we were drinking together, i almost got him to come riding with me just to get him away from his aclohol addiction and his floundering in Havre but dean kicked him out first.
There are some people who really just need love.
I rode out on a gon the next afternoon and got in my sleeping bag almost immediately after i finished my Sparks, it was so cold, I missed Shelby and woke up leaving Browning, the stars were so beautiful on that ride i cried a bit myself. It was maybe -25 at the top and I woke up the next day leaving WhiteFish, I wanted to get off to fly a sign, but whatever, last time here had been bad luck anyway so on to rathdrum where i hopped off a couple miles before the yard to get some strawberry nesquik...mmmmm. Walking towards the yd I stuck my thumb up and this firefighter Matt pulled over within seconds, he was going to Spokane Heights to visit his dad. Behind his dad's house he claimed there was a busy siding so I bypassed hauser and went out to the siding overnight, a wbd actaully stopped but i was quite woozy.

The next morning I caught a ride with this short little gay guy Wally who laughed nervously after everything he said to downtown Spook to drink coffee and enjoy the warm sunshine. I got trapped there for 2 days and drank at this bar with 2 dollar drafts, lots of people bought me drinks and I camped in a cave underneath yardley, I had some wackass citizens try to pick arguments with me, countersurveilled the bull spotlighing piggy trains, finally, out of Spook! and on to Pasco. Apparently I'm too big to fit in grainers anymore which would've been kinda comical except squeezing thru the holes is a real bitch these days. My knife kept catching on the edge of the hole and it's a lengthy process to get into even a canuck.
In Pasco there was a lot of old tags, even Sidetrack's (a FTRA rider who killed over 30 hobos, stole their boots and identities, and covered their faces, unbeknownst to any of his brothers). He had penned "brothers of time" which was a little bit creepy after hearing about him from CC, I added mine, went to sleep for a while until a racks and stacks sided to let Damntrak pass. No 48's and I unsucessfully tried to get into some empty autoracks then settled a 53 porch out, great stars again and rolled into Vancouver WA in time for the goddesses at starbucks to sell me an overpriced cup of coffee and practice my knots. Across the bridge to hang with Widerstand, Rise609, Janna, and dog down by Albina Yd. I met this kid from Denver on the Max (commuter train) who took me back to his flat for a big bong hit, I got stoned off my ass and headed to Powells where I discovered the best book ever,titled Once a Hobo: The Autobiography of Monte Holm. It's about this I made my usual run out of the city on the Max to sleep in Hillsboro, found a stored pickup truck with a cap in a lot and slept in the back of the truck. 
The next day I headed DT again and waited in a retardedly long line of homebums in the cold drizzle for a haircut and coffee at the St vincent de paul. A bunch of Mexican guys got in a noisy argument with pretty much everybody after cutting into a gap in the line in front of me, then, unrelatedly, this guy waiting in line behind me got hit over the head with a lock in a sock by some guy with a facemask on a bike. Blood was gushing all down his back and the ambulance came. All that was inside was shitty whitebread pastries and weak coffee anyway, I barely managed to get a haircut and all their lists for clothing and such filled up fast.
Off to the Food Stamp office in Hillsboro (never go to the one DT, there's an endless line of homebums to wait behind) and the most beautiful girl hooked me up with 176$ that were left over from an old card I had lost. Since I never expected to get it, this was a nice windfall. I went back to Powell's to read and got in a coversation with the most random people that started because this one kid was reading a book about zombie wars, we started talking about the best tactics for surviving a zombie infestation and went from there.
I ran into Whisper (retired) at Road Warriors Drop-in. Like his name says, he's a real quiet dude and i was happy to see him again. Some dumbass kids brought in a puppy and a ferret which shat inside. The food is always good there, though, and you can get a shower.
Off to the BNSF yards in Van and I watched the railcop sit across from me all night until the BAR9 pulled in a little bit different spot than I thought it would. I bought one of each flavor of Joose and I can tell you it is an inferior product to Sparks as far as taste. They have closed 39th street and are planning to build an overpass where A and B yards are currently divided. 
I hopped on the DPU and we left at about rush hour the next day, stopped at the OT for a few hours and rolled down past a bald eagle to Bend. It is a real pretty ride across the Columbia and up the Deschutes River. I wanted to see what Bend was like as my friend Tristan had lived there for a while, it was alright and I met some neat people. 
I hung out with some homebums and a bottle of "two-buck chuck" (charles shaw wine) from trader Joes' by the catch out until a southbound came and I rode that to K-Falls. I slept in the cave there and he next day I caught the same train with another unit added on the rear. There was only one ride on the entire train and that was a shitty one-hole grainer so I took the unit. On the way down I was sitting in the conductor's seat and a little south of the state line we unexpectedly passed a NBD. I was a little worried the crew might have seen me but we chugged on for several hours south until we came to a halt. 
I peeked up and there were two parked cop cars. hmmmm...Back down and deerjacking lights lit up the windows. Son-of-a-bitch. I sat on the stairwell until I hear footsteps on the outside stairwell. I put my hands on my knees with the palms facing outwards as the outside door opened, then quickly the inside. It was 3 cops with flashlights and guns drawn. Into the cuffs and off the train, it turns out we're in Greenville CA just a few miles N of Keddie. the deputy who took me to the Quincy, CA jail was a nice enough guy and he dropped me off in time for a roast beef dinner. He had to go join in the chase for some joker with a pellet gun who was driving around town and shooting people from his car, but eventually he got back to write my citation, fingerprint and photo me, let me loose and schedule a court date for tomorrow. Wish me luck!


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## dirtyfacedan (Mar 2, 2009)

GAHHHHH!!!! Don't leave us hangin'!! Be safe.


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## Nym (Mar 2, 2009)

no! what happened next?


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## stove (Mar 2, 2009)

Good luck Murt!


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## brakemansair (Mar 4, 2009)

holy shit! good luck man.
p.s. we met at a free shit giveaway in the park in seattle this last july.
matt


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