6/1/20

This was my first day traveling to Ohio. The day started off pretty bumpy.  It was met with lots of rain the first few hours. I kept having to stop and readjust my bicycle which was moving around a lot. I took an obscure route through Alice because my original plan was to stop in Houston to have lunch with my dad.

The roads were flooded so I had a hard time navigating to through the area.  I decided to cancel lunch with my dad and go straight to Dallas taking some back  country roads. It was really pretty. I’ve never been up these group of highways before. This part of the trip was really pleasant. The weather was awesome. There was lots of greenery. The houses were were spacious. There were a lot of cattle ranchers out here.  It was beautiful privatized land. I had lunch in Lexington. Then I continued North on 77. I also saw a lot of pro Trump signs and churches.

 

 

 

6/2/20

I started my second day of travel in Plano. I stayed with a college friend, Sarah. It was good to catch up. I spent a majority of the day traveling through Arkansas. I got a flat in Little Rock so that took a few hours to clear up. I had dinner at Golden Corral. It was close by the tire place. I had a stomach ache after and felt kind of sad. I don’t know if it was the gluten in the pot roast, or the inhumanely treated cow that I ate, or the sadness of the atmosphere where I was at, but as I was having my dinner I felt like crying. I had no real tangible reason for feeling this. It was just a kind of existential loneliness that came about. I didn’t though. It would have been nice, but I wouldn’t have wanted anyone to come ask me what was wrong, because nothing was wrong. It’s simply an expression of my experience of samsara at the moment. I thought the waitress looked kind of sad. I wanted to give her a big tip but her service wasn’t very good. She seemed to follow me when I got up to get in line, and talked to herself. There seemed to be some genuine sincerity when she asked me how I was doing, so I gave her a moderately good tip. I don’t think people should be given big tips simply for being sad. I got back on the road with a stomachache and continued to travel east. I am grateful to be here. There are many big trees. This is proper forest country. My mom called a bit later. I was happy to hear from her even though she told me an annoying story that I’ve heard many times before about coddling her fearful dog during the recent thunderstorms back home.

 

Listening to:

 

 

 

6/3/20

Day three. I made it to Ohio. I spent the day driving through Tennessee and Kentucky. There are lots speed traps in Tennessee. I got a ticket in Kentucky. That sucked, but I was able to observe myself while I was getting pulled over. My shoulders were stressed, my heart sank. I felt disappointment and sadness and maybe some adrenaline. I was going 16 over the speed limit, but the officer said he would only fine me for 10 miles over, then said “drive safely”, in a southern gentleman demeanor. I guess I should have thanked him. After that I drove the speed limit, except for the times that I didn’t it. I felt like it was a message from the phenomenal world to slow down. I felt like this was another price I had to pay in order to enter this new chapter in my life.

I wonder if the delay that happened because of this ticket altered the course of my future in some beneficial way. Normally I think this following song is nihilistic and ruinous with a nice beat, but I thought the following lyrics were applicable.

 

 

“Anything that may delay you, might just save you.”

 

 

The states seem to be turning more beautiful as my journey progresses. Ohio is lovely. there are many groups of homes here without fences/gates. I love seeing this. I walked on some soft grass and took a nap with my head at the base of a tree at a rest stop in Ohio. I could feel the soft cool earth and the roots of the tree pulling all my stress down and away. Had I traveled all this way just to experience this? A few tears roll out of my right eye. I felt a great sense of a homecoming. I felt like this simple therapeutic experience was not available to me back in the RGV.

 

 

 

6/5/20

Yesterday was my first full day in Athens. I spent the day with Chichi, my buddy I was meeting up with to live here with, looking at different apartments online. Met with a realtor. I also took a look at a town nearby. It rained in the afternoon and in the evening. Athens is it’s own little world. When I leave the town, I feel like I’m reentering the rest of the world. The place kind of sucks you in. It feels like having a pot hangover when leaving, like a light-headedness.

 

 

 

6/6/20

Last night was the 2nd night Chichi and I slept at a rest stop outside of Athens as we continued our search for an apartment. The search was harder than I anticipated. Athens is college town that has an ample supply of housing in the summer. I was expecting to have many choices and to be in a strong place to negotiate price and duration of lease. This definitely didn’t happen. We looked at surround towns and even considered leaving the area all together, but I was getting nervous as I was on a deadline to find a place in order to continue my online English classes.

That morning we went on a hike at a nearby lake. It was lovely. Its been a while since I’ve been in this kind of environment. I felt my body radiating in subtle energy. I will take advantage of reconnecting with nature while I’m here.

I drank from a streams that fed into the lake. I felt like this was a sacred experience.

After leaving the hike, we decided we didn’t want to be homeless anymore and decided to go with the one apartment we had been shown the previous day.

 

 

 

6/7/20

Yesterday was my first full day in my new apartment. It was so good to finally find a place. I’m reminded of all the times that I lived without having the foundation of a steady shelter. It  sucks having to live out of boxes piled into my car. I felt like I might have been able to get a better place if I had been willing to search a bit longer, but I was anxious to get back to work and to have a better living situation. The place is pretty cool though. It’s a two-story apartments. Four bedrooms. It was built in the 1800’s.

I spent yesterday trying to figure out my internet and drinking water situation. Most of the water refill stations in town are closed due to the virus. The tap water tastes weird. I hear there’s a lot of mining in the area so that’s also a concern with the water. I went out to a neighboring town where there was a spring spewing out water. I was able to fill up on that. On the way back into town I stopped off at an organic market, and was surprised to find that they had a water refill station at the back of the store. Now I don’t have to drive 25 minutes to a neighboring spring to refill my water. Produce is 50%-100% more expensive than back in the valley. The local electric (AEP) and internet (spectrum) companies have monopolies in the area. Monopolies already bother me, but the electric company gets its power from coal (infuriating). There have been daily ‘Black Lives Matter’  student protests here. I hope to see protests that relate to local social justice issues as well.