Star Alia
New member
Ok I was just recounting a story to my dear friend Jess who's family has always tollerated my madness and nomadic lifestyle and even helped me try to give it up a few times and I thought to myself we all take alot of lucky guesses as travelers and alot of the time we play them off as fact or something we knew we could do all along to each other so I thought we could share them.
Mine started in 2003 when I was 17 or 18. I moved from Cali to Florida with my x who soon after left me. I had just finished my tattoo apprentaceship in 2003ish when hurricane Katrina tore threw South Florida and New Orleans. My home in West Palm Beach Florida and alot of my friends homes where gone and seeing as how New Orleans was FEMA's only goal we all knew we where fucked. We tried to ban our little area of the ghetto together to make a community but with all fludded homes and broken windows it didnt seem to work so well. So we did the default Floridian response...we bought candles and alot of booze. As the night progressed I thought of my stint hitching as a run away in Cali and from what I was told (I was veeeery drunk at this point) I made a very moving speech about the goverment not being there for any of us and how this babalonian experament had failed horridly ect ect followed by me shoving a carpet needle and ring threw my lip (yes I know the dangers of that now) then storming over to my house spray painting "RENT IS THEFT" on the wall with a few Anarchy symbols , I packed a backpack (5 kids my age watching me do all this from the doorway) I asked them if they wanted anything. They took what they wanted and I unloaded a fire extinguisher into my home and said goodbye. I woke up in the morning with 4 of those 5 kids holding backpacks in there arms waiting for me to get up at our friends less flooded house. They informed me that my speech and actions had moved them and they all quit there jobs and did simalar things to there homes. "Oh fuck" I thought to myself "what have I done" Not being the type to back down I acted joyfull as they told me our native american friend Ziggy had named our tribe "Nesi Sequoia" and that ment "wolf Pack" and I was to be there Alfa Female..."the horror! These kids thought I had a plan?!?" I looked up the 2003 SERF gathering in Adison Alabama and quickly made a plan. we split into 2 teams and met up in Saint Augustine Florida where we tried day labor....they didnt want me or the other 2 girls and we now had 3 boys. So the plan was they work to save up for a shit van and we forage and gather. The first day we got a little beer than more and more lol turns out we where good at foraging that at least then one of the girls said she was hungry and I thought "oh yeah!! fuckin food?! the boys are gonna be starved!!" I told the girls to chill there at the park and I would be back. I checked dumpster after dumpster it was too early in the day and was a trash morning. All I found was some old bread. In my drunken state I thought thats cool Ive got this so I take a safety pin fold the tip backwards and sharpened the fold on the sidewalk. from there I attached some layered over floss and the bread. I dopped it in a canal and boom like magic CATFISH!! damn thats some luck I tought on the way back as I collected unripe oranges and perfect pecans. At camp I gutted the fish, stuffd it with the orange slices and shelled pecans wraped it in bannana leafs and cooked it hawian style in the sand. the boys got back and I dug it uo and it was perfect. I will never forget that cuz thats what gave me my confidence from there on Ive been unstopable and as my knuckles say "fearless" Im a traveler to this day. 9 yrs later and I met my boy and best friend at that gathering when we got there.
We all have a story like this where we thought "no way in hell" but tried and triumphed anyway. Share yours
Mine started in 2003 when I was 17 or 18. I moved from Cali to Florida with my x who soon after left me. I had just finished my tattoo apprentaceship in 2003ish when hurricane Katrina tore threw South Florida and New Orleans. My home in West Palm Beach Florida and alot of my friends homes where gone and seeing as how New Orleans was FEMA's only goal we all knew we where fucked. We tried to ban our little area of the ghetto together to make a community but with all fludded homes and broken windows it didnt seem to work so well. So we did the default Floridian response...we bought candles and alot of booze. As the night progressed I thought of my stint hitching as a run away in Cali and from what I was told (I was veeeery drunk at this point) I made a very moving speech about the goverment not being there for any of us and how this babalonian experament had failed horridly ect ect followed by me shoving a carpet needle and ring threw my lip (yes I know the dangers of that now) then storming over to my house spray painting "RENT IS THEFT" on the wall with a few Anarchy symbols , I packed a backpack (5 kids my age watching me do all this from the doorway) I asked them if they wanted anything. They took what they wanted and I unloaded a fire extinguisher into my home and said goodbye. I woke up in the morning with 4 of those 5 kids holding backpacks in there arms waiting for me to get up at our friends less flooded house. They informed me that my speech and actions had moved them and they all quit there jobs and did simalar things to there homes. "Oh fuck" I thought to myself "what have I done" Not being the type to back down I acted joyfull as they told me our native american friend Ziggy had named our tribe "Nesi Sequoia" and that ment "wolf Pack" and I was to be there Alfa Female..."the horror! These kids thought I had a plan?!?" I looked up the 2003 SERF gathering in Adison Alabama and quickly made a plan. we split into 2 teams and met up in Saint Augustine Florida where we tried day labor....they didnt want me or the other 2 girls and we now had 3 boys. So the plan was they work to save up for a shit van and we forage and gather. The first day we got a little beer than more and more lol turns out we where good at foraging that at least then one of the girls said she was hungry and I thought "oh yeah!! fuckin food?! the boys are gonna be starved!!" I told the girls to chill there at the park and I would be back. I checked dumpster after dumpster it was too early in the day and was a trash morning. All I found was some old bread. In my drunken state I thought thats cool Ive got this so I take a safety pin fold the tip backwards and sharpened the fold on the sidewalk. from there I attached some layered over floss and the bread. I dopped it in a canal and boom like magic CATFISH!! damn thats some luck I tought on the way back as I collected unripe oranges and perfect pecans. At camp I gutted the fish, stuffd it with the orange slices and shelled pecans wraped it in bannana leafs and cooked it hawian style in the sand. the boys got back and I dug it uo and it was perfect. I will never forget that cuz thats what gave me my confidence from there on Ive been unstopable and as my knuckles say "fearless" Im a traveler to this day. 9 yrs later and I met my boy and best friend at that gathering when we got there.
We all have a story like this where we thought "no way in hell" but tried and triumphed anyway. Share yours