My current whereabouts

After talking so much shit about Florida and flooding readers with apparent negativity, I want to do a 180: Where I am now doesn't suck. In fact, this place has been like an emotional pot of gold for me. The problem is, I can't really say where I am right now because my host is worried about other people finding out that they're associating with me (because I write "fuck" sometimes). Anyway, I'm within a couple hours of Charlotte, Columbia, Asheville, and maybe Atlanta, too. So maybe you can figure out that puzzle.

Anyway, this town has been incredible to me, both the last couple days and a month ago. The story takes place here. I want to say more, but I can't do it in such a cryptic way.

Ashton from Quizno's: If you by any chance are reading this, I want your phone number so we can try to coordinate the things we talked about. I got a great deal on 6 tapes today at Best Buy--$3.50 each--and I want to let you guys tell your story to my camera. I want to hear about Jessie Wright, too, if you want to talk about him.

Everyone else: If I didn't write about him before, Pastor Jessie Wright was the manager of the local Kangaroo truck stop when I came through here a month ago. He was really cool to me in a whole bunch of ways when I was trying to get a ride at his store. Additionally, I watched him lead by example as he swept and mopped the floors and did the kind of work most managers would make the "associates" do. Really good guy.

In the time since I was here before, somehow Jessie managed to get fired. That didn't make any sense to me, and the Quizno's workers also thought very highly of Jessie. Sounds like something fishy is going on at Kangaroo, and I believe someone told me Jessie is preparing a racial discrimination lawsuit (he's black).

I hope everything works out for Jessie, and I would like to help him--maybe tell his story or something--if I can.

(Fuck.)

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Aimless
The Quasi-Aimless Trailer
If you'd like to contact me, call me at 614-738-3867.

Walking vs. riding

In a comment, Jay asked:

What percentage walking/riding do you do to get from town to town? I understand that your goal may be to cover large distances in a short period of time, but maybe just walking through towns, sticking to the local roads, will offer you more rides? Or, have you already tried that? Just curious.

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I want to answer this more thoroughly when I get home for a short break in a couple weeks, but it changes a lot. At the beginning I walked 70 miles before accepting a ride. Lately, though, I've been walking very little because I've been at truck stops, looking for a ride to somewhere specific.

Sometimes it depends on where I am. In Florida my forehead was blistered from the sun's daily pounding, so I tried to remain in shaded areas as much as I could. Additionally, in and near the Everglades there is almost nowhere to walk, for two reasons: 1) There aren't necessarily any roads going anywhere; 2) You could easily end up in the middle of nowhere, with gators all around and no clear safe place to set up camp. (I don't know enough about gators to feel comfortable doing that. I don't think they are very aggressive, but I really don't know.)

I have walked about 280 miles so far. I just checked myself out in a mirror for the first time, after looking at a "Before" pic I took of myself on Day 1 or Day 2, and WOW! The gut is almost gone. The titties, too. It's amazing.

More about this in a couple weeks. (Remind me if I forget. And Jay, this will be the year of the Aimless Comfest. I'll be there the whole time, on the job. It will be "the shit.")

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Aimless
The Quasi-Aimless Trailer
If you'd like to contact me, call me at 614-738-3867.

Lew Graff

Remember Lew Graff? He's the pastor who gave me a ride across Alligator Alley and bought me fish & chips. As I said before, he's a really good guy (and a native of Michigan). Well, here's the URL to Lew's blog. And here's a post he wrote about our encounter.

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Aimless
The Quasi-Aimless Trailer
If you'd like to contact me, call me at 614-738-3867.