We asked everyone who came through if they were going north. Most were going south and the few who were going north were packed to the gills. We were just about to give up at closing time, and were packing to leave, when someone pulled up in a large van and they said they
1) were going north and
2) had room for us.
Loki was so excited, he gave the guy (Joey) our last $3. It was a pretty comfortable ride. Joey's friend Hailey gave us a couple of very nice-scented patches as promo for her other friend's band, and it turned out that the drive to Oregon was really short, only a couple of hours.
Before I tell you about our time in Oregon so far, here is a brief list of California cities we liked and disliked.
LIKED:
Berkeley
Richmond
McKinleyville
Lafayette
El Centro
Niland/Slab City.
Those cities are all very permissive, friendly, and generous.
DISLIKED:
Brawley (cute lil town in Imperial County that thinks it's a real city)
San Jose (RAIDS! RAIDS EVERYWHERE!)
San Francisco (impossible to spange, cops cracking down on "homeless *~problem~*")
Eureka (BUMBLEFUCK TOWN WITH ASSHOLE COPS AND MOST BUSINESSES DO NOT ALLOW THE PUBLIC TO USE THEIR RESTROOMS.)
Oakland (uninhabitable shithole, according to Loki)
Los Angeles (lol same)
On September 20th, we woke up somewhere on Redwood Ave in Southern Oregon, a bit south of Grants Pass. We walked for a while and I really enjoyed the scenery. We got a ride to Rogue Community College and hung out there for a while until some prep called Security, who was very nice and said he wouldn't have bothered us if someone hadn't bothered him. Walked a bit more-- a lot more, actually, and by sundown we came across a Pentecostal church, which excited me to no end because that's my denomination. I made it in for the evening service to give thanks and a few people prayed with me and for me. We slept outside a Salvation Army.
On September 21st, the lump in the side of my throat had almost completely cleared up. It's gone now. I still have coughing fits triggered by sugar, but that night when we were praying, my throat actually did heal up a bit, so I'm quite pleased about that.
A volunteer saw me sitting there with our stuff while Loki was going to the food bank for food and she gave me some free tampons (yay!) and well wishes. We spanged outside of WalMart for like ten minutes, which got us a couple dollars and a bag of pretzels, so we had snacks and we were able to buy rubbing alcohol to fuel our can-stove. The rubbing alcohol is cheaper here, but also comes in smaller bottles. We bought 2 for about the price of what 1 would cost back in California. It was REALLY hard finding a good place to sleep.
Some particularly annoyed dock workers for Big 5 Sporting Goods woke me up and shooed me away on the morning of September 22nd, but the rest of the day went well. We spanged for enough money for food and laundry. There was a festival in the afternoon that Loki assumed was a Christian festival and he was afraid to get any closer because of how he'd stand out, but it turned out that it was an addiction recovery celebration festival. They had free food, free pens, free haircuts, free massages-- it was great! I got there at the tail end of it, so I got a whole box of pastries.
When I came back from the festival, Loki was chatting with a man who's opening up a youth center and wanted ideas from us. Oh yes, and also, I was able to buy some yarn to continue knitting my shorts (since I ran out of clothes before laundry day) and some scratch paper pads (since actual sketch pads are ridiculously expensive). The man talking with Loki bought us some food and offered us a ride to a mission, but their shower was closed and Loki and I would have been forced to spend the night sleeping apart, so... nope, we just stayed in the area and, with permission, loitered by an Arby's and watched Lord of the Rings.
After Loki went in to ask permission to loiter, someone came out and gave him $20 just for being a polite young man.
Today, we're doing laundry. Actually, it's just about finished. The laundromat has Wi-Fi and outlets, so that's how I'm able to be with you today, and I'm just so happy about it :D Oregon is great. We don't know if Portland will be as hospitable as Grants Pass, but this is amazing and we're very happy to have made it this far.
Pictures from our trip!
Arcata and McKinleyville had gorgeous scenery:
and then we got to Orick:
The bathroom at the Orick convenience store had some really cute, kitschy decorations. I am a fan of kitsch:
There was also a map, which we thankfully wound up not needing:
Oregon so far!:
This is the little pocket angel I bought at the first thrift store John and we went to. She broke :'(
This is me after my free haircut! I'm not trying to look angry or menacing; I'm just tired XD
No comments:
Post a Comment