Tad
Active member
- Joined
- Jun 26, 2009
- Messages
- 30
- Reaction score
- 1
- Location
- San Francisco..open your golden arms
- Website
- www.dntrecords.com
So I'm new to this board and I asked my brother what I'm supposed to do and he said I should post a story. I'm not that good a writing about things this long after it happened, but I'll do my best.. I'll talk about my first long hitchhiking trip (summer 2008, Palm Springs, CA to Portland, OR) as a cancer patient, but first some back information: In January of 2008 I was diagnosed with Hodgkins lymphoma (a type of cancer) and in March started getting chemo every two weeks. By the summertime I was ready to take a vacation. I was used to the chemo pattern by then..the first few days after a session were especially rough, each day I felt a little better. After a week I felt decent and by the second week (just before going in for another round) I felt more or less normal..then I'd have chemo again and feel like shit.
I went on a few short trips with my brother in May--timing them so the chemo effects were starting to wear off when I left, and getting back in time. I lived in the Palm Springs area, and so we'd go out to OC/LA for shows or to visit friends for couple days.
My brother and I decided to go to Portland, but in order to get there and make it back in time we would need to leave the day after treatment. The morning we left it already around 100 degrees when we began hitchhiking. A few minutes of walking and I was already feeling dizzy, so I sat down on a log. I was wondering if I had made a mistake going on a trip like this in my "condition" and I could tell my brother was thinking the same thing but didn't want to say it..but I was motivated to go on a vacation and get out of the desert and actually enjoy summer. Luckily we were picked up rather quickly (by a cool guy who bought us lunch and we went shopping) to OC. We took local buses to Thousand Oaks to get out of the sprawl of Los Angeles. We were at this on-ramp, and a cop on a motorcycle said, "Get off the freeway. Do it now." in total Matrix style. So we decided to walk to to the next exit on side roads. Unfortunately the one we took dead-ended, so we had to walk on the freeway, on the wrong side. Of course a cop pulled over very shortly after that. He was nice, and drove us to the next exit. But he acted like he didn't know we were hitchhiking to Portland, and thought we were walking all the way there. "I don't know how you'll make it to Portland from here, there's only freeways."
The next day we walked along PCH for hours..we walked along the tracks and saw a UP truck with workers..they gave us some UP water bottles (my favorite bottled water) .Then we got a ride to Santa Barbara. The next guy that picked us up was this creepy older guy that wanted us to get a motel room with him and like jerk him off or something. "I like to travel around and party. Know what I mean?..Do you like to drink?...Not even beer?...I'm thinking of calling it a day [4pm] and getting a room with a VCR...Well if you liked to drink I'd invite you back with me." Um, no thanks. He dropped us in Goleta and we were on our way.
The next ride was from an Indian truck driver. Before we got in he prayed to see if we were good people, and his guru said we were, so he let us in. We had to take our shoes off and he put sand all around the cab of the truck. Max got in and I started to but he said "No no, only one of you". But was kidding. Then I closed the door, and he leaned over, opened the door, put his hand on my shoulder and said "Now you run, and I drive away". And it was all movie like, and I totally thought he was going to push me out and kidnap Max. But then after that I realized he was just a funny guy with a cool sense of humor.
The general public already give travelers weird looks..but it's an even weirder look when they see a guy with no hair on his body and can tell I'm sick. They give a look like they're horrified but concerned at the same time. It was weird passing cute girls and giving them a look but then realizing..not only are my clothes and skin dirty, but I'm bald too..
We made it to Portland in less than about a week. After spending the 4th of July there it was time to head back. My brother was continuing on, so I made the trip back alone. I decided to head to San Francisco to visit a friend, and take the Greyhound back so that I could stay in SF longer. It only took two days to get there, and I had a great walk through the Redwood Forest (which was the worst place to get dropped off and I knew it, but it was the best they could do).
Well that's it. Sorry if it's not too exciting, I mainly just wanted to post a story and this seemed like an alright one. Oh, and I finished chemo in August of '08 and have been in remission ever since. I've been on a handful of other hitchhiking/trainhopping trips since then. (I'd travel all the time but I'm going to school part-time right now, and I run a diy record label)
:mummy:
I went on a few short trips with my brother in May--timing them so the chemo effects were starting to wear off when I left, and getting back in time. I lived in the Palm Springs area, and so we'd go out to OC/LA for shows or to visit friends for couple days.
My brother and I decided to go to Portland, but in order to get there and make it back in time we would need to leave the day after treatment. The morning we left it already around 100 degrees when we began hitchhiking. A few minutes of walking and I was already feeling dizzy, so I sat down on a log. I was wondering if I had made a mistake going on a trip like this in my "condition" and I could tell my brother was thinking the same thing but didn't want to say it..but I was motivated to go on a vacation and get out of the desert and actually enjoy summer. Luckily we were picked up rather quickly (by a cool guy who bought us lunch and we went shopping) to OC. We took local buses to Thousand Oaks to get out of the sprawl of Los Angeles. We were at this on-ramp, and a cop on a motorcycle said, "Get off the freeway. Do it now." in total Matrix style. So we decided to walk to to the next exit on side roads. Unfortunately the one we took dead-ended, so we had to walk on the freeway, on the wrong side. Of course a cop pulled over very shortly after that. He was nice, and drove us to the next exit. But he acted like he didn't know we were hitchhiking to Portland, and thought we were walking all the way there. "I don't know how you'll make it to Portland from here, there's only freeways."
The next day we walked along PCH for hours..we walked along the tracks and saw a UP truck with workers..they gave us some UP water bottles (my favorite bottled water) .Then we got a ride to Santa Barbara. The next guy that picked us up was this creepy older guy that wanted us to get a motel room with him and like jerk him off or something. "I like to travel around and party. Know what I mean?..Do you like to drink?...Not even beer?...I'm thinking of calling it a day [4pm] and getting a room with a VCR...Well if you liked to drink I'd invite you back with me." Um, no thanks. He dropped us in Goleta and we were on our way.
The next ride was from an Indian truck driver. Before we got in he prayed to see if we were good people, and his guru said we were, so he let us in. We had to take our shoes off and he put sand all around the cab of the truck. Max got in and I started to but he said "No no, only one of you". But was kidding. Then I closed the door, and he leaned over, opened the door, put his hand on my shoulder and said "Now you run, and I drive away". And it was all movie like, and I totally thought he was going to push me out and kidnap Max. But then after that I realized he was just a funny guy with a cool sense of humor.
The general public already give travelers weird looks..but it's an even weirder look when they see a guy with no hair on his body and can tell I'm sick. They give a look like they're horrified but concerned at the same time. It was weird passing cute girls and giving them a look but then realizing..not only are my clothes and skin dirty, but I'm bald too..
We made it to Portland in less than about a week. After spending the 4th of July there it was time to head back. My brother was continuing on, so I made the trip back alone. I decided to head to San Francisco to visit a friend, and take the Greyhound back so that I could stay in SF longer. It only took two days to get there, and I had a great walk through the Redwood Forest (which was the worst place to get dropped off and I knew it, but it was the best they could do).
Well that's it. Sorry if it's not too exciting, I mainly just wanted to post a story and this seemed like an alright one. Oh, and I finished chemo in August of '08 and have been in remission ever since. I've been on a handful of other hitchhiking/trainhopping trips since then. (I'd travel all the time but I'm going to school part-time right now, and I run a diy record label)
:mummy:
