The options for the last leg to Texas eggs

So my car is Lusk Wyoming. My friend Mark from Rapid City came and picked me up from there on Monday night. I'm at his house trying to figure out cost efficient methods to get me and my car back to Texas. The price and time it will take to have it fixed in a Po Dunk (whatever that means) town is prolly a lot of cash and a long time to wait.

So I got a price from Budget. $920+ my gas to texas...umm. so maybe 1300ish. i'm guessing. Then I have someone to fix it in Texas.

The engine will be about $1500. plus labor.

The cheapest auto transport place I found was $860 door to door. The thing about this is, I still need to get back to texas.. so i can take a bus for 190 or a plane for 232. But now i have a bike here in Rapid City and a guitar and my luggage. sheesh. I'd need to get it inside my wagon. Then i have a big luggage thing on top of my car. I need to get back to lusk, stuff everything in my car and then get back to Rapid city for a flight. That takes more gas money and time of others.

The options are plenty. the price is high. The stress is at a fairly low level. I don't know why. =) That rhymes.

I am also looking for people needing cash on Craigslist that might have some time to tow me down there. I'm getting a lot of responses but they aren't sounding like quite the deal yet.

=) The question is: will i make to Texas for Christmas? in this economy can i get a job to replenish my funds? will i find true love? =P just kidding.

Be warm and filled.

This is an update by Adam.

a present up-to-date - date....the destruction of the Subaru's internals.

I will have to go back in time to finish up the 3 blog series ... but for now i thought i'd update you as to my being.

I left the Gavins in Rapid City South Dakota about 2pm Sunday afternoon. On my way towards Colorado thru the Black Mountain Hills of Dakota, I stopped to see the big Crazy Horse monument. That's one crazy massive horse monument. It will be the biggest statue/monument in the world when it's done.. but it's not nearly done. The guy who started on the project believes in free enterprise so they are not using government funds to pay for this project. I like that. They even turned down two 10 million dollar offers to from the mothership.

it's going to look like this little thing.

this should give you an idea of the size.

Anyhow. I cruised a sweet ride from there towards CO.

At one point after this beautiful sunsetting, I passed up a big big truck. i think this is the problem. I was passing him going up a hill. I shifted to 4th gear. and then up to 5th while passing him.... but then I felt something odd briefly in the car.. like stutter..then i noticed it was in THIRD friggin gear. I was red lining it.. it was briefly though. I changed to 5th pretty quick. I took it easy for the next few miles giving a feel to see if anything was wrong with it. It seemed fine. Then i came to a van to pass. Here is the break down situation. I passed this van up in 5th gear. I was flooring it. It didn't seem like it had much power, but i blew it off as it just being that I'm cruising up a hill. So I pass the guy up....there is a train about 75 ft to our left. It's loud. I have my head phones on cuz there was no radio stations. I pass this guy up and get in front of him and then I feel as though i have no power at all. Nothing. I'm going slower and slower.. so i put on my emergency flashers. the van i just passed up I imagine is like, "what's up with this fool?" He passes me up as i'm pulling to the side as much as i can. there is no shoulder. it's pitch black outside. There is nothing......wait a minute... as i'm coming to a stop from my 75 mile speed. i see a house up ahead. There was about 20 miles of nothing since the last town of Lusk. Isn't it amazing that my car stops right in front of the only house for miles.. (actually I saw one other house on the ride back to Lusk, but i think they woulda shot me)...some might say this is God's provision towards me. =P I think it's still open to interpretation. I just do want to say that I'm very happy that it turned out that way. Others don't have the same fortune. Is that god's lack of kindness to them? anyhow...

I looked under the hood....as though I knew what i was looking for. It didn't stink. No smoke. not overheated. It just wouldn't start again. I had fuel.

So the walk to the house across the street. That's always scary. People out in places like this have guns and signs on their porch that say "trespassers will be shot". He just had one that said "private property.

So I walked up to the door and knocked and walked back away as to not startle whomever would open the door. His name was Thurman Thomas. He had guns alright. and dead animals all over the house. It was great. He was kind enough to show me where i could get some phone reception. It was in a 1 sq ft area by a post out by his truck. I made a call to Mark, my only mechanic friend for advice. (i just left his house in Rapid City). Thurman got dressed and we drove out to my car to check it out.
Thurmans girlfriend showed up as we were driving out the street to my car. This guy was soooo nice. the car started.. but it was making a loud pinging noise and i didn't like running it.
We got back to the house and I made a call to the local tow people. I spent some time chatting with Thurman and his girlfriend Rayleena. aka Ray. Interesting name.

Anyhow, the tow guy came and drove me back to Lusk, Wyoming, 20 miles back. He took me to the first hotel. The guy at the desk was so nice and told me there was a cheaper room at the next Hotel called Raw Hide Hotel....he even called and checked their availability and checked if they had wifi. So i was thankful and went the the Raw Hide where I stayed the night.

thurman and his chick Ray. dangit. her eyes are closed.

Thurman couldn't take a steady photo. but this elk head is massive!!! just above the couch. =)

It's presently monday morning. I called not too long ago to the Tow people. My engine is shot. It sounds like I threw a rod or something. So this is big bucks. I'm waiting for a call back to see what it will take.

Twists and Spins. We shall see what comes of it.

Options:
1. fix the car. big bucks are required and lots of time. we are in the middle of nowhere. Mark told me they'll come pick me up and let me stay at their house while the car is being fixed.

2. ditch the car. um. not really an option.

3. Start working in Lusk. Fat chance. =)

Just staying as optimistic as I can. I'm not too worried about it. Trying to go with the flow and not be overwhelmed with worry or anything.

So we'll see. If any of you own a private jet. pick me up. i'll pay for gas. =P












307-334-3560

rods are rattling in it. bottom end. jim.

Theresa. Pronounced Thur-essa.

I shall attempt to break down my blog in 3 sections so it will not be overwhelming reading and hopefully make it easier on my readers, who are the inspiration of my life. (sorry, that isn't entirely true. i wanted to sound like the author of a real book, though i do really like you readers, whomever you are).

* I haven't been writing so much.. i'm guessing it is cuz this take so much time. I was thinking about hiring an assistant. The assistant would write as I speak my memoirs.

I hit up Chicago after leaving the holiest of all Toledos, hung out there a night. Rode my bike around and got a photo or 2. I wanted to hit up the Sears tower this Saturday night, but the line for that thing was ridiculous. I was going to check it in a few days when i came back down to chicago in a few days.

I forgot this guys name but he yells nice things at people trying to bring a smile to them, hoping to get some cash for the day.  sounded insulting to the women.

Homeless and his sidekick

  This saxophone guy raised a big stink cuz i took his photo. I wasn't planning on giving him money cuz he wasn't that good. I was just taking a pic cuz it seemed like the right thing to do. He stopped playing right in the middle of his song and started lecturing me on people taking pics and going and making money off of it while he gets nothing out of it. He spoke of people recording his music while he plays on the streets and then people taking it making it big while he gets nothing. gosh. kinda dramatic. but whatever. I gave him a dollar and tried leave. he was wasting all his time talking to me, no one was donating to the cause.

roll that beautiful bean footage

I arrived in Theresa Sunday night I knew it'd be cold here so I drove to the local Walmart and purchased a 4-in-1 hoody type thing. It's amazing. It's cold here. It's gonna be colder. Today it was 21 degrees when I went outside to walk the lovely puppy by the river.

When I first arrived here, I was staying up pretty late chit chattin away with my home boy Chris. The first morning after my first night, I slept in til 2ish in the afternoon. Oh my. I didn't realize it, but I hadN'T been getting the best of sleep for quite a long time in my car. I had been feeling sickly, but it was sooo normal to be filled up with phlegm and waking up with sore throats every morning. For the first few mornings i was sleeping in like a slug. It was great. It felt great. I didn't even hear the whole family waking up and leaving for school and work AT ALL. I was out cold, and it was cold out. My body recovered and recouped. Ufda.
<side note: i went to go get some string cheese from the local refrigerator, as i was eating my string cheese, my friend grabbed the cheese from my hand and whopped me over the head with it like 3 times super quick; jerk!!!  =)>

k. What was written above was written weeks ago.

So the VanDyke house was a very pleasant experience to me. I love these guys sooo much.
some of the hi lites of being with these guys are just that.. being with these guys. Their family is amazing.

We took a hike. The suspense was in the air. The orange men were everywhere on the opening day of hunting season. As you drove through the streets of the small 200-3000 population towns, you could see the men in the fields along the roads colored in orange, stationed at just the right places to shoot, kill, and destroy mama deer as she went looking for a berry to feed her sister and children. =P So we took at hike through the woods,...until we could see orange hunters not too far in the distance. not too safe walking around where gunfire is going off.

We visited a cheese store. Ate some cheese curds which make a squeeky sound on your teeth when you eat them when they are somewhat warm.

We took a tour of Sprecher Beer and Soda Brewery. They gave us coupons for four free small glasses of beer each from their little bar. some was yum. some was nasty. But they do have some pretty yummy soda.

We took a tour of the Sprecher Soda and Beer Factory in Milwaukee.

We visited Madison and walked in the Capital of wisconsin.

We checked out free movies from the Library. My favorite was Gran Torino with Dirty Harry... er. Clint Eastwood.

I read a whole book while in Theresa. I know you might read 50 books a week. But i'm not that fast. The boy in the Striped Pajamas. I know it was a movie. but i forgot the movie. That's the second fiction book I've read on my trip. and i'm diggin fiction books. very stimulating and pleasant. While i chilled at the casa and read, I spent lots of time with Miley the dog.

while the family is away at work and school, my closest companion was Miley.

So on one of the days that I was here, a friend of mine from San Antonio, Ryan Leatherman happened to be in the Chicago area, 3 or so hours away. I headed toward Chicago early in the morning, stopped by in Milwaukee to scope it out. Milwaukee is, or rather was the city of Beer. It used to be a booming beer town. I noticed the most gothic cathedral type churches i've ever seen in my life in this town. it was pretty. while there i went to the banging art museum with wings. the wings flap on this building at noon. I was excited to see that until i saw it. it wasn't too appealing.

PBR. They do still sell it. Pabst Blue Ribbon. The cheapest beer at every bar.

The front of the winged museum, wings spread out.

The back side of the museum, wings down.

If you know the name of this artist and/or the name of the painting. i'll mail you a prize if you find out!

I was in the city of Milwaukee for a few hours. IT WAS FRIGGIN COLD!!. i drove my bike around the coast area, visited the museum and then split. Then i drove to chicago. I went there so i could go up the Sears tower.. which by the way is no longer called the sears tower. it's called the WILLIS tower.. That's right. you heard correctly. The willis tower. Start telling ur friends. Oh my. what a view. While I was up there some kid proposed to his girlfriend. She slapped him and ran away crying. .. .. .. .. That woulda stunk huh? but actually she did say yes.. her mom was there and they were blocking that window view for the next 30 minutes talking. =) but i didn't mind. They just got engaged. i just missed the pic while he was on his knee.

Get it right Willis!

On the glass hang over on the Skydeck of the willis tower

At helicopter height. prolly even higher. I think this guy flew around for our enjoyment.

Then I saw ryan later in the evening when he was free. We had dinner. I crashed in his fancy hotel room and left early the next morning. He's actually from the chicago area. When he lived in Illinois he found me on the internet when he was looking for a place to stay in San Antonio while he interviewed for an Army Musician position at Lackland. he found me on a link that I had posted about house church a while back in 08 sometime. So he came down to san antonio and stayed in my house after i did minor investigation and found out he's a nice guy. Two months later i went on my very first vacation in my life to Chicago, I got to stay at his house in the Illinois area. He's now housing me again up north.So it was good to see a little bit of  Texas for a few.

my only lame pick of ryan when he pulled up to meet me at the hotel where he was staying.

The next morning I headed back to Theresa. I stayed a few days with the Van Dykes in Theresa Wisconsin where they are living and Chris and Jen are working. Then  on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving we loaded the vehicles up and took off on an eight to 10 hr journey to Fergus Falls, MN where their house is that they are working on.  What a fun drive.

To be continued. Part two. Thanks giving/ Snow Storms/ Fergus Falls and Duluth.

From Eastness towards the Westness!

So dear friends.
I'm ready to settle down somewhere. I need consistent friendship. sorry, this one turned out long. and too many pics. i take back my sorry. i'm not sorry.

So I guess i don't need to tell you guys everything......so i will not.

Instead of going straight up to Boston from Hartford CT, I decided to head southeast towards Mystic CT and then to Rhode Island. It was the start of this leg of my journey where i got your opinions about where to shower. Here is the winning place. It was a campground. It took a quarter to take a shower.....I couldn't figure out this dumb quarter contraption, i thought it was broken so i put in a quarter in the next shower. That didn't work either...arrrghh.. so i spun and bopped and jiggled it and got one of the showers to turn on....7ish minutes later.. these are timed showers... i was taking a nice shower......mmmmm. and then the water turned off. Its really cold at this point outside. so i ran out of the showers (the quarter thing was about 6 feet from the shower), and jiggled the second shower!!! yess! except this one only had cold water coming out!! booo. but clean none the less.

Acorn acres, where i snuck in to shower it up.

The east coast. Rhode Islad shore.

The exciting capitol of RI.

For the Halloween days, I spent one in Providence RI (fri), the other in Boston(sat). This is when the days began to get friggin cold again.  real cold. There were crazy women dressed in the most ridiculous outfits when it was 35 degrees outside. when i say ridiculous, i mean hardly any clothes. These Northeastern women must be made of a different material to handle such low temperatures. sure.

I spent a few days in boston. I decided to take a whack at shooting some people... with the camera that is.
Boston is great. It's old. It's historical. I only saw old sites here and only talked to some mormons.
We talked. They were impressed by some of the things i knew about mormons, they must've thought me one. but when they asked, they found out my dilemma with faith. I asked them for something concrete that they've seen god answer as a prayer. (this was a healthy non combative conversation, i thought) The one guy on the left was immediately ready to answer that.

He obviously had some sort of experience that he was ready to share quickly. I got excited. I thought, "oh man, this must be good." He busted out his book of mormon. He started reading a quote that mentioned something about praying to god to see if these things are true.....and that god will make it known. Then he told me that one day he prayed, and he got this confirmation from god that the book of mormon is true. It's called the burning in the bosom. That isn't exactly the response i thought i was going to get... but was certainly glad that this guy is wholly convinced of his experience. And really excited about it at that. That's always good no matter what u believe. if you don't believe it, then u certainly can't preach it. In fact i think this is probably why most people don't share their faith. They, honestly somewhere inside might not actually think that it's worth sharing. It's not too believable to them, it's not the kind of message they want to be known for sharing in public. Who knows? maybe it's just not worth the effort. maybe it's personal. maybe they're just scared. which is totally understandable.
I did a trail in Boston called the freedom trail. it was neat. They had a red line, either paint or bricks which traveled thru town to different historical landmarks. i liked how easy it was.. =)

So then I left boston. Look at the view of the sky on my way out. these are untampered.. Oh my. Ufda!

Oh by the way, when i arrived in boston, i spoke to shenon again. I had gotten in touch with him a couple of days prior.... I didn't want to be the one to miss out on seeing his family because of me. i really love and miss those guys.  He did say i was welcome, though it didn't sound like it....i wanted to take him at his word and not go by my whimsical feelings. So i spoke to him the Saturday i arrived at Boston. I told him, "shenon, I will by-pass boston to go see you guys for the weekend, just tell me what is the best time for me to show up." Anyhow. We finished with the idea that any time on sunday would be good for me to show up.  there was hesitation in his voice (this whole convo). He spoke and said, "I just don't see why you want to spend time with us, we won't have the same fellowship". This began the worst conversation i've had with a human being in almost my whole life (over exaggeration). Ultimately by the end of it all, Shenon apologized for saying "adam, you are welcome at my house anytime" a few days earlier. He flat out doesn't want me there. He said he'd rather me be a murderer than an non-believer. And i hate to say it, but my dear friend is the first person i've ever told in my life that I'd prefer them not pray for me. The type of god that was coming forth from his lips was a god i want to have nothing to do with...it was one i do not want intervening in my life.  =/  But at least the truth came out. I believe he was glad the first time we talked when i turned down the offer to go and see him..... He didn't have to honestly admit that he didn't want to see me.

moving along. i left boston towards Rochester. I slept in Albany, the capital. then hauled the next 5 or so hours towards Rochester. I made it there Tuesday night to attend one of my friend, Mike's, seminary classes. Then i spent the next 5 days with Mike, Tina, Adelina, Noah, Deja and Daniel. I had a great time with them. Rochester is the place where Kodak began. Kodak was revolutionary at the turn of the century for making photography accessible to the everyday person with the brownie camera selling for $1 each. I also got to attend the best farmers market IN AMERICA! right there in Rochester. I also had this great meal known as the GARBAGE PLATE. when ur in rochester....get one. Anyone who's anyone in Rochester knows about it. lastly i visited the grocery store that Alec Baldwins mother refused to give up. She will not move to California from New York because she doesn't want to depart from Wegmans. I also played a lot of the Wii with the kids and with Mike and Tina. I'm not too good. But that's ok.

Noah was sad when i left his house the first day i was there. =)

the original shag carpet.

I stood on a table, on one side was this normal looking small lake.

on the other side of the table and street was Lake Ontario. Huge.

View of Garden from George Eastmans 50 room mansion

So George Eastman had some uncurable spine disease and he ended up killing himself. here is the last note from this millionaire. It says, "To my friends, My work is done. why wait? GE" Then he shot himself in the heart.

I went downstairs to get some water and I saw Mike demoted to the couch with a doll. =P jk.

I helped the Moultons paint. Mike painting.

went with the kids for a bike ride at the local cemetary. it's the happening thing to do these days.

Some friends of the Moultons sneaking in some of Tinas buffalo wing dip. (? i think it was called)

I ate most of it.

the garbage plate. Macaroni salad, potato squares and 2 beef patties with cheese. yum.

we intently watched the new karate kid flick with jaiden smith. my 3rd time in 2 days. =)

my last photo from the moultons house before walking out the door.

I left Rochester after 5 days and headed to Niagara Falls. Oh my. How massive. How loud. How powerful. How neat. A nice lady named Leslie started talking to me there at the Falls. So she's now my friend on facebook.

This is the first show up above the next morning.

my first black squirrel experience.

just feet away from the bridge of interrogation.

I tried headed to Toronto Canada after this to check it out since I was so close. I didn't have anything in particular I knew for sure i was going to see except a castle recommended by my friend Laurie. And then this super tall building that someone mentioned. I was going to go get on the web when i got to toronto so i could get better details. I should've had this planned more fully before attempting to enter the foreign country. Upon entering the lane, the butt load of questions came: Where are you going? How long are you going for? Where are you staying? Do you have anything in your vehicle other than clothing?... prolly about 7 more questions. He gave me a paper and told me to pull over..that they were going to search my vehicle around the corner. They tore up my vehicle. So then when i went into the immigration part, i was hammered with more questions. All the previous questions plus some more. Please go to the bottom of this entry to see a somewhat detailed question answer time. =)


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anyway....I'm not the kind of person Canada wants on their land. I sounded very suspicious.. and rightfully so. I had no literature of canada.. didn't know the names of anything... the hostel, the big building, nor the castle. No proof of anything tying me back to the US for sure. For all they knew i could've starting living the life of an axe murderer in Canada and they would've never found me. It's all good. I left towards Ohio. I cried for weeks.

my car post search. doesn't look much different than before...except it was really trashed.

Tonight (at this point in the blog writing process)I'm in Ohio . I saw some Amish folk. I want to have a conversation with them. I wish they hung out at the local market or something so i could just walk up and start talking....but i only saw them in transit on their handy little buggy being pulled by a handy little horse.

Most of the trees now...no colors.

west facing the sun.. i found me some relief. coasting in his shade!!

It's worth the mention that I visited a psychic in Cleveland. it was quite and odd experience. I just had to do it. The lady said some pretty interesting things that were spot on. But for the most part, i guess it could've been kinda vague. She was off on a lot of things too. =)

While in cleveland I also visited the house where this was filmed.

Randy, the younger brother happened to be there signing stuff so he could pay off his student loans.

After Cleveland i headed towards Holy Toledo. I spent the night there.Then South Bend, Indiana which is where i am now (one paragraph and 2 days later). Dance clubs are extremely interesting to me. Humans and their mating process. It looks like most men are trying to get laid, and only some women are trying to get laid. But i don't really know.  A seeming good time had by all though. . . . . maybe?

i really like this.

I'm doing well most of the time. Sometime my thoughts overwhelm me temporarily. Sometimes i think i'll never be content with myself. But it's good to step back and remember the bigger picture. for the most part, this is a transition in my life. Certainly things will be kinda confusing. I wouldn't expect anything less. how long will it last? i don't know, but i do know that all things pass.  Pains from wounds, hurts from peoples, ...emotional, physical, relational,.....all these things are there for a moment.. they freak us out....but over time we learn from them, we heal, we rebound. why wouldn't i expect anything less in this time in my life?  maybe one day Jesus will make himself known to me...maybe not. Who knows. But i tell you in truth that i'm on this search in my life because it seems right for me to do. I'm not trying to be rebellious or to make a big stink. I think what i'm going thru is right.. right now.  I'm doing what seems right in my own eyes.....just like the book of judges. If god is going to clarify things. Then he needs to do that. But i'm not waiting around for that. i'm going to keep going, and if god says anything, i'm definitely fine with that. if he's silent, i'm fine with that too.
I'm ready to start working.  at least make a little bit more money to continue this trip a little bit longer. I will be headed back to the continent of Texas for the Holy day of Christmas presents. Dunno after this. But i'm not worried.
=)
the adamo.


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the question time went something similar to what follows.

Where are you going? Toronto, i say. What is the reason? oh tourist type stuff. How long will you be going for? i suppose a day or 2. Where will you be staying? A friend of mine suggested a hostel, or if not, i'll sleep in my car. "this is canada, it's illegal to sleep in your car on the public streets." Oh. Then i guess i'll stay at the hostel, i say. What was the name of the hostel?, he asks. um... I don't remember. What else were you going to do in Toronto? oh you know, adventure type things. What do you consider "adverture?" =) um...i don't know, i was going to visit this particular castle a friend of mine told me about and also this very tall buiding someone recommened me to go up and see the view. "What was the name of the castle?" ...um...i don't remember that. you don't know the name of the hostel, you don't know the name of the castle, how were you going to find these? Well, usually i get to a town and then get on the web at a McDondalds or a Starbucks....they have free wi-fi.. ...    Wi-Fi? What? (in disbelief) This isn't america, we don't have that, he said confidently.  Really? i ask, starbucks doesn't have wi-fi in Canada? in that case i'm screwed. i'll have to make some phone calls.
Is that car registered in your name? yes. Where do you work? i don't work, I've been traveling for two months. What kind of work did you do? Air Conditoning Control Sales. Why did you quit? So i could travel. Is this your house on this drivers license? yes sir. Do you rent or own? I own it...   Are you leasing it out? well, my roommate is there. Do you have any proof of this?  What kind of proof are you looking for? like bills in your name from recently. no sir. Do you have any literature on Canada? No.
Go ahead and take a seat, i'll be back.
15 minutes later.
I don't remember the words for this. I just remember the being rejected part. =) He said something like, based on this, i can't let you into canada. There is a criteria that people must meet before we let them into canada. You don't meet none of it. you have don't know how long you'll be here.... two days tops, i said.  well you don't know where you're staying, don't have proof of funds. "i can pull up my bank account for you". you don't have any maps. "i do have maps." Well, no literature on canada. I'm sorry....i totally understand. I am suspectious. 

please scroll back up , i book marked your place with a bunch of *******'s as you might have noticed.

walking home.