Cafe Terra - Rutland, VT

Last night when I got off the train I asked someone in the parking lot where Centre St. was and I must have misunderstood him, because I walked along the street, lugging my suitcase and never saw the place. When I got to a corner I realized I was not on Centre St. I called Back Home Again and explained where I was and that my suitcase had broken, so the person I spoke to came out to meet me. He grabbed my suitcase and I followed him back towards where I had come from. I can not remember his name now, but he was perfectly nice. I was terribly grateful to him for helping me with the suitcase. It was a two minute walk from where I was standing, but it would have taken me at least 15 to lug the suitcase there.

I promptly went to the Walmart and purchased superglue and duct tape for the suitcase.

I headed to the cafe, which is next to the hostel, and sat down to eat some homemade pizza. When I asked which pizza did not have meat on it the three people at the table looked at me with a mixture of awe and pity. I've gotten used to this by now and I laughed it off as I took a slice of the yummy veggie pizza.

I struck up a conversation with the men at the table and told them I had come from New York. They all expressed that they liked it there, but could not live there. One of them had tried and left after six months. He also lived in Tucson, Truth or Consequences, and about a thousand other places. We talked a little about Tucson and New York. All of them were very friendly and smiley.

The oddest thing about these people were that when I was introduced to any woman, I always smiled, but they never smiled back. I only got into conversation with one of them the whole evening and she was perfectly pleasant, but she seemed almost worn down. It was the end of the day, so I really shouldn't think much of it. I'm sure they get people in and out daily, so they don't invest a ton of emotional energy in them.

After dinner I moped the floors and then headed to bed. I really don't think I did much, so I was planning to come back down and offer more help for the morning, but no one is around yet. I walked to the bus station and got schedule. My bus doesn't leave for another hour or so, so I figured I'd grab some chai and give an update. Also, the room I stayed in smells super funky right now and I can't stand to be in there. It is a small, windowless room with three bunk beds and a bathroom. The bathroom doors have all been taken down which is kind of odd, but you can't see the toilet from the bedroom, so it wasn't a huge deal. The other women in the room did not seem at all interested in talking to me, so I fixed my suitcase in silence and climbed into a top bunk for a restless evening.


A view of the front of the place. The door on the left is the shop, the right is the cafe, and the middle leads to the hostel.


The bunk I slept in. It was missing it's ladder, so they had that small wooden guy in place of it.

Somewhere between New York and Rutland

I'm currently sitting on the train to Rutland, VT. The train is scheduled to get in around 9PM, but I don't have high hopes for that. I'll probably get in closer to 11. I'll be staying at this crazy place called Back Home Again. It's a community of people who live by some kind of religious practice. I'm not completely clear on what it is, but from what I gather it seems like some kind of Hippies for Jesus community. They run a cafe and a hostel, which I can stay at for free, for an exchange of two hours of work. If I don't want to work, I can give them $20. If I have time, I'll definitely work. Not only because I'd like to save money, but because I'd love to learn more about these people and how they live. All of my friends from DTF call them a cult. Who knows, maybe they are, but as long as they aren't crazy-freaky-animal sacrificy, I don't really care what they are.

Tomorrow I'm taking public transportation to Manchester, where the people from the farm should be able to pick me up. I haven't confirmed it all completely because I'm not sure what time the bus gets in and where and if I can walk to it easily in Rutland. I hope so. But I'll call the farm later today and see what the deal is.

I stared my day off so well. I woke up a little earlier than my alarm, took a shower, did my laundry, successfully packed all of my shit and had some toast for breakfast. I planned to get into Manhattan by 2 to pick up my check from Keen Company, for the work I did on The Fourposter (Shameless Plug- Go see it, I love it, it's wonderful). I didn't end up leaving The Bronx until 1:45 though, so of course I got in later than I wanted and ended up running around like a crazy person. Had to get to the bank, planned to go to the post office, and I had to pick up my train ticket and print out my absentee ballot application. I didn't make it to the post office. I barely made it to the train. Iggy met up with me and helped me get my bags to the train. Then when I got on the train, all frazzled, I was lifting my bag to put it away, but I missed slightly and hit a bar and broke one of the wheels clean off the bag. ARG! The stupid thing is heavy and I don't know how far I can carry it with my other bag as well. I'm so annoyed at myself for this. I had my bags all nice and arranged so everything was super easy to deal with and then I had to go and break the wheel. Typical.

On a different subject altogether, I finally purchased a camera, as I stated in an earlier post, and here is the first round of pictures. We went out after the first preview last night and I got a pretty amazing picture of all 8 of us. How we all managed to cram in that close and I managed to get an accurate shot, I will never know. The picture is priceless. I'm going to miss these wonderful people so much, but I hope to find new wonderful people on my journeys. Here goes.


Oops, not everyone is in this one.


If at first you don't succeed...

Between Charlotte, NC and Richmond, VA

When I took the bus down to South Carolina on Monday the craziness of the whole ordeal got me talking to some of the passengers. I sat next to a woman named Robin. She was on her way back to Atlanta from Maine, where she had just buried her mother. She was an older woman, but she had no home and was staying with her son. She used to have a husband and a steady job, but she divorced him a few years ago, and then was laid off. Suffice to say, she had seen better times. I told her about what I was doing and the farm job I had lined up. She said she had been thinking of doing something like that, but she didn't know where to look. I gave her the WWOOF website and told her that it was worth the $20. She seemed excited and I hope she uses it. Who knows, maybe I'll bump into her again. I'm a little annoyed with myself for not getting her email address.

I am now back on a Greyhound bus. I'm heading back to Richmond to see Cory for a second and then leave for NY on a Chinatown bus at 1am. This Greyhound experience has been a lot like the last one, in that it sucks. The bus took off thirty minutes late, but this was understandable because the weather was pretty bad. We were running about an hour behind when the bus suddenly turned around 60 miles north of our last stop, Greensboro, NC. One of the passengers had gone up to the front of the bus, talked to the driver, and without explanation, the bus turned around. Finally one of the other passengers asked what the hell was going on. The driver told us he was going back to Greensboro to drop off that passenger that he had been talking to, and then we would turn back and drive straight to Richmond without making any stops. He expected we would get there on time, which should have been 5:20pm.

When we got back to Greensboro he dropped that passenger off at a rental truck place, not the bus stop. If I had known this bus was actually a cab maybe I would have asked to be taken to the Bronx instead. Lame. I have no idea why that guy did not get off the bus the first time we were in Greensboro, or what he said to the driver that made him turn around and drive back an hour and drop someone off at a place that was not even a real bus stop. It is now 5:50 and it has started raining again. We're not in Richmond. We're not even in VA yet.

The one good thing that has happened because of all this is that suddenly everyone on the bus is chatting with one another. The three people in front of me were talking about conspiracy theories for hours and have just changed to relationship advice. The people in the back of the bus are playing music. This young dude in a leather jacket walked up to me while at a rest stop and said something I could not understand. I asked him to repeat it and I still couldn't understand it. I was worried that it was his accent and I really didn't want to be a jerk about it. I told him that I was sorry, but I could not understand him. He said "Oh, I'm sorry, you don't speak Russian? I thought you did." I laughed it off. Now I would like to know what it was that he said, but he is several rows in front of me, talking to the elderly southern woman next to him. Maybe he's getting off in Richmond and I'll have time to ask him about it while I wait for Cory.

I wonder what made him think I spoke Russian? I know people often try to place my heritage, but no one has ever assumed I spoke another language based solely on what I look like. Interesting.

Between Richmond, VA and Greenville, SC

Backstory: I have been planning to go down to SC to visit my grandmother in her new home and surprise her. My mother planned to fly out and meet me so we could surprise her together. The plan was, I would take a Greyhound into Charlotte and she would fly. I would get there a few hours before her and take public transportation to the airport so that we could be picked up together and I wouldn't have to hang out in a greyhound station.

Wow. Wow. Oh my ridiculous travels. I'm in day two of my bus trip down to SC and oh my God how did this happen!?!? Yesterday I called my mother to check in and see what time we were getting picked up by my uncle, and I find out that I had the whole trip planned around the wrong day. My mother is not coming in until Wednesday which means I didn't have anyone to pick me up from Charlotte until then. I frantically called my uncle and then purchased another bus ticket that would take me from Charlotte (about 2 hours from their place) to Greenville (about 15 minutes from their place). The ticket didn't cost much, so it wasn't a huge deal, but it's a good thing the bus goes there at least. I finally spoke to my uncle and he'll be able to pick me up. *phew*

Right, don't sigh in relief quite so fast Krysta, you know how your luck runs. I would say that part of the reason I'm such a resourceful person is because of all the crazy shit that always seems to happen in my life. As soon as I think a situation is fixed, something stupid almost always happens to make it worse.

So what happened? Well, the bus showed up an hour late to Greyhound because it had broken down. It didn't leave for another hour after that. The driver, who I think might be a bit crazy, spent a great deal of time yelling at passengers for no apparent reason. Then, as I thought we might be making up some time, he got lost. One of the passengers managed to give him directions, and we are now running two and a half hours late. AWESOME!

But wait, it gets better! My connecting bus leaves at 3:30, we were supposed to be in at 2:30. Not going to make it now though. The ticketing woman told me that the bus I am on is the one that goes to Greenville, and it has the same route number. If that is the case, then I should have nothing to worry about. However (and there's always a however), the bus driver told me that this bus is not going to Greenville. So who knows! Not me! Maybe there's another bus leaving to Greenville a little later, but at this rate we might not get into Charlotte until next week.

Between Tucson and Austin

I'm currently driving through Texas. When I turned on my computer it offered to connect me to the wireless network "Jesus is Lord." We also just passed a place called Zebra Show Bar. Sadly, I forgot the camera, so no pictures of this. Ah well.

I've never typed in a moving car before, it's kind of crazy. Lots of typos. Not really enough room for my hands,

The man I am driving with is called Marty. He has a bird named Max, who is, thankfully, in a cage. When I get to Austin I'm going to remind Joe that I got in a car with a bird for him. If that's not love, I don't know what is. But Max is a chill bird, so we're getting along. He likes to "sing" along to music with high notes. Marty likes to whistle along with him. I like to eat Twizzlers.

Marty drives a minivan, which gets surprisingly good mileage, even with the AC on and the back completely packed with stuff. It drives well too. He is a man who likes bumper stickers. He has not one, but two "F the president" stickers, which I fully support. I wonder if he'll want to keep those on there even after the election. Perhaps they are reflective of his feelings towards the office in general?

Marty is s biology teacher at high schools and community colleges. He lives in Austin, but will basically travel to wherever the job is. He is currently waiting to hear back from a position h applied for at an all girls school. He is unsure f they allow makes teachers, but the ad did not specify, so he applied. He's got wild hair and unkempt facial hair and he likes to drink tea on the road because "road coffee is the worst coffee."

He's the most interesting person I have traveled with to date, because, like me, he's seen a lot of places and he's seen most of them from the road. Traveling with fellow drifters is a pleasure. I drove through all of NM and he slept. It was nice. Sadly, Marty is not in a hurry at all and keeps stopping the car for all kinds of silly things. He did a u-turn for donuts and attempted to stop at a rest stop to sleep for a little while, but I took over the driving because I wasn't at all tired. No point in stopping when you have two drivers.

I'd like to end this with what Marty just said to me as I typed this: "Pretty fast for a pecker." Ha!

Parents' Place - Tucson, AZ

Well the internet is down, but it seems like a necessary thing to attempt an update. By the time this gets posted it'll be Monday. Right now it's Sunday night. I'm leaving for Austin tomorrow at noon with Marty, a teacher at the community college in Flagstaff.

Joe called me about a million times today. He instructed me to bring clothes for caving. Sweeeet. I love this idea of caving with Joe. Last time we went we had a wicked good time. Actually all the times we went were a wicked good time, even though I am not in shape and had a hell of a time climbing out of one of the caves. Climbing into it was funny because I couldn't find a good foothold at one point and though I was going to fall, so Joe grabbed my foot and held it to the wall. Ha!

This whole Craigslist rideshare thing has caused a few realizations for me. The first thing to mention, which is rather sad but true, is that my rides from Craigslist have been more reliable than my own friends. In the past two months my friends have bailed out on me so many times and the worst part is, I was never once surprised by it. I am absolutely not a flaky person, if I say I'm going to do it, then I will do everything in my power to get it done. It frustrates me that the majority of my friends are not this way. I begin to question my friendships and whether or not I am really as close with these people as I think I am.

The other fun thing about these rides is that I am given the opportunity to meet people I would never meet within the normal confines of my recent life. There are stories I would have never heard and experiences I would not have had. I never would have thought that I could enjoy the company of a married 23 year old Christian and even exchange some music. I would never have met a man who loved Hawaiian shirts so much that when one of them flew out the window of his car on the highway, he actually pulled over and chased it. I would not have had a giggle at the college student who tailgates full sized dump trucks at 5 mph.

Tomorrow will be another journey. Another story. This one will bring me to my best friend and a whole new chapter of adventure in a city I've never seen. This one is even more important to me because it's been such a nightmare to plan out and it's worth it to me. I guess I update from Austin.

Parents' Place - Tucson, AZ

It would seem I found a ride from craigslist yet again. Thank you internet for always solving all my problems, even though you sometimes create them. I'll be leaving Monday afternoon and arriving Tuesday morning. It will be a straight drive through with someone named Marty, in a van, moving to Austin. Marty will call me this weekend. I don't even know if Marty is a man or a woman. All I know is that I'll have a seat with a seat belt and a ride to Austin. Go me. I hope this Marty person doesn't want to split gas 50/50 because that seems a bit unfair. We shall see.

Speaking of traveling cheap, I found this today. Looks promising.

I also should mention that my travel to Santa Fe and back cost me $57 in gas. This is a number I am very happy with. We'll see how much Austin will cost. Time to scope out a ride back.

Parents' Place - Tucson, AZ

My ride to Austin kind of fell apart, so now I need to try and find a last minute Craigslist thing. It's worked for me before, but Austin is a lot further away than ABQ and Phoenix, so I hope I find something. More importantly I hope I find something back. If I have to fly I will, but I really, really, really don't want to. Not going isn't much of an option. I need to see Austin and it's about time I went to visit Joe. I mean, what the hell else am I doing? Plus I can not take much more of Tucson. After all the stress of today, none of which I feel like re-living by typing about, I'm ready to get out of here. I need to pack. I can't even say I didn't see this coming.

BUT! I'll figure it out, I always do.

Parents' Place - Tucson, AZ

I went and met this dude. He's a regular guy, I'm very happy I'm going to be traveling with him, he seems cool and fairly interesting, but nothing totally weird. *phew*

Parents' Place - Tucson, AZ

So my ride to NM this week just crapped out on me. I found another possibility that is leaving from Tucson tomorrow morning. I hope I can go meet him today and that h is not super-sketchy or anything. He's going to call me back in a little bit. In some ways it's probably better because he's leaving sooner and from Tucson and he's not in an over loaded pickup with 10mpg. Plus he wants to do all the driving, which is fine by me. I just need to make sure he's not a creepo, and he's just trying to save on gas. The other issue is, no one knows I'll be leabing so soon and so I don't have a ride from ABQ to Santa Fe. But if all else fails I'll have him drop me off at the airport and I'll take the shuttle or offer gas money to someone headed to Santa Fe, something I've always wanted to do.


So today's to do list is now:
Get money from Bank
Buy pajama pants
Get camera charger and take pictures at Ace
Calm parents down
Meet this dude


Update: I just got off the phone with him and I am going to meet him in about 30 minutes. Sounds like an OK guy. He works for the newspaper. Now I'll go see if he has any weird voo-doo dolls hanging around his neck or something.

Parents' Place - Tucson, AZ

Well, well, well. Here we are. Yet another blog on the ever-expanding internet. Why do I need this blog? Why couldn't I just be happy with a LiveJournal? For one thing, I like the fact that this blog is so customizable. I also think that LJ has a negative connotation. AND I think this blog will be easier to use and read by more people. Word. But have no fear, I suspect that the posts will be quite similar, if not the same.

I wasn't super happy with my starting point in LJ anyway. I want this to be a travel blog, full of my insights, not a list of things I did during the day. That's boring. Plus pictures, and those are easier to post here. Admittedly I do not have a camera, but because I'm the only person in the world without one, getting pictures should be easy.

Now to the point! Here are my plans, thus far:
Friday I leave for Phoenix with Chad and crash with him for the night Santa Fe/Albuquerque.
Saturday I meet with a guy who might be driving to Chicago at the end of May then I stay with Liz until my ride to NM is ready to leave.
Sometime between Monday and Wednesday I arrive in Albuquerque and figure out a ride to Santa Fe, where I will crash with some friends for about a week. Then I find a ride back to Tucson.
On the 19th I leave with Alison to Austin, TX to visit Joe.
We're back in Tucson on the 25th
On the 28th I possibly get a ride to chicago, where I take the train to NY and hopfully catch a ride to VT with one of m buddies, or else take the train.
One other option is to go to San Fransisco and see Miss Lisa and then just take the train to NY from there. Have not discussed this option.

I'll try and keep my travel plans updated as they get finalized. Mostly I can't wait for the following things:
Red Chile in Santa Fe
Hanging with Joe in Austin
Rolling around on the grass in VT

Oh Tucson, I won't be sad to see you behind me.