The Dallas/Houston Experience

Shortly after getting settled into the Dallas J, I met a fellow hitcher, an alcoholic who called himself Philly because of his origins in that city. He slept in a sleeping bag out in the wild, bedding down wherever possible. His goal was simple, pan handle for booze and find a ride. Now Dallas is a in a dry county, so booze isn't so easy to come buy, but being located fairly close to a dangerous ghetto, he managed to locate a bootlegger in the area. It was quite interesting to see the style and methodology of a seasoned vet on the road, to see him in action, to learn some new ideas and tips in the survival methods of the road.

Now at the same time, it is hard to pan handle and hitch while another is in the same spot, it is a competition to try to get what each wants, and this was complicated by another hitcher popping in and trying to do the same. Now he portrayed himself as a seasoned vet as well, but we could tell he wasn't that seasoned, and pretty much tried to keep separate of him. There was another as well whom also happened to be a hopeless alcoholic, who regaled us with many war stories of various criminal activities. He was an interesting guy but a little too 'hardened' for my personal taste.

I also discovered two who I thought where just drivers layed over like so many others, however it turned out they where professional sign flyers, making $100+ each a day flying signs in choice locations. They where quite interesting and I learned a few things from them.

Now for me I am not on this journey just for survival, or just to make what I can pan handling and such. Sure, I will do what I need to do to make a few bucks when I need it, but it isn't my ultimate goal by any means. My goal is to live a simple life according to my beliefs. So I try to get what I need and be happy with that. Ultimately everyone found themselves a ride, and I was the last looking for one of all the hitchers. It was an interesting few days, and a ride came along willing to take me as far as Houston. I needed a change of scenery so I took it.

A few hours later I am in Houston, it's night, too late to try to hitch, so I make myself comfortable. come morning time I overslept my preferred wake up time, so I just sort of hung out, and got a feel for the situation. Shortly after dark I decided to take a walk around the perimeter of the truck stop to see what I could see, and ran into a little party of Household Goods guys with a good amount of beer, and had a few, that was a nice little distraction. Got me a good nights sleep, and was awoken about 6am by a female employee who seems to think she is God of the truck stop, giving me a warning that this isn't a hotel and the constable would be glad to escort me out if I got caught sleeping again. Sure enough the constable came checking about 10 minutes later.

I got to noticing that there was a Hotel down the road, so I set off for a walk to get some free breakfast. Now if you ever travel in Texas, you will learn that on the Interstates they have an odd setup for on and off ramps. They like to use one way access roads on either side, and you have to find an over or underpass to cross to the other side. So as I am walking north I am looking for the hotel, hoping it is on my side of the highway, and of course it was not. So I kept going hoping to find a way across. I never did find a way across but I did run into a different hotel which had an excellent breakfast. I had myself a wonderful Texas shaped waffle, some eggs, sausage, some pastries, and juice. It was surely tasty and well worth the almost 2 mile walk to get to it. So I finished eating, gave a nod of satisfaction to the clerk in the hotel, and headed on back to the truck stop to setup for a ride.

I flew me a sign, talked to some drivers, but ultimately didn't find anything for the day. So I called it a night and came back inside to await for the next day, and do some networking with the drivers inside.

I ultimately got stuck at the J until Monday. That morning of all people, the not so seasoned hitcher from Dallas appeared from a truck! At this point the management at the J came to the conclusion that I was not in a truck, and was just trying to find a ride, he gave me until sundown to find one and be gone by then.

I got to talking to a local Mexican, who gave me a ride to the Pilot about 15 miles south, so me and this other hitcher took the ride and went on down there.

We didn't last long there and security made us leave within an hour, we weren't going to have any luck late at night anyway. Not knowing where else to go for the night, the other hitcher decided that under the overpass of I45 would be a good spot for the night, not what I wanted but I went with him to it. I didn't get much sleep under there!

In the morning I headed back to the Pilot, and flew a sign and tried to get a ride out of there. The store management told us to leave, so we headed over to the old security booth by the truck entrance / exit. Eventually we got told to leave there too, so we did.

I had no plans of sleeping under that bridge again, and I noticed from my snooping around that there was a nice patch of woods behind the truck stop, so we went and investigated it for a possible camp site. He wasn't very comfortable with the concept of camping, but I love camping and I am skilled at it, so for me it was a much more comfortable idea.

I found a good spot, instructed him to find some wood for a fire, and we setup camp. We took a walk to a local grocery store and got some food to cook on the fire. I got the fire going and cooked a descent meal for the night, and setup for bed. Was a descent night, weather stayed OK and the temp stayed fairly warm. Was a bit annoying though was he kept waking up and complaining the fire was out, instead of just getting wood and putting it on, but that was useless anyway as he had no concept of how to work a camp fire! So I kept getting woke up every hour or so to restock the fire, that was annoying.

We got up early, and decided that this Pilot was not going to yield a ride, so I decided to head up to I-610 which was a mile away, and hitch from the interstate directly. Happily I split ways with the other hitcher as he wanted to go to West Memphis so he stayed on I45 northbound and I went on to 610 south bound.

I got a ride fairly quickly by two kids heading out to I10, so I took it. They offered to help smoke a Joint, so I did so, that was nice, though where I got dropped off at was not very nice. I tried to stay where they dropped me off at and hitch but this was very much city, and the interstate very crowded with traffic, didn't take but 20 minutes for a Houston Police Officer to come by and tell me to get off the interstate, so I did.

I ended up walking about 2 miles and found a waffle house. By now it was dark, so I decided to get something to eat. I pan handled for about 30 minutes, and was up to almost $7, was about to go in and eat, when a Mexican offered me an entire pizza! One of the waffle house workers also offered me a soda, so I was set! After eating I walked to a near by gas station and get me a pack of smokes. Now I stashed my stuff behind the waffle house, and went back to check on it, while figuring out what to do for the night for sleep. It was nice, clean, and quite with a nice patch of grass behind that waffle house, so I slept right there on the grass!

I woke up, and decided it was time to get the hell out of here, so I headed on down the road. Now hitching in this area is difficult, the access road is a 3 lane highway with no shoulder, the interstate is crowded as can be, and dangerous. Luckily I found a side road that is the only exit for a rather large housing complex, which fairly descent traffic exiting from it. So I sat down at the corner, put my bags down with my sign saying 'West' hanging from my guitar.

I sat there for about an hour when a guy pulled up to give me a ride to outside of the city limits. He ended up taking me to the Loves here in Katy, which was perfect for me as my goal was to at least get here anyway.

After 3 days of outside survival, it is nice to relax indoors. I got here early, around 10:40am central time, and decided that I would just relax here until morning. I am tired, my feet hurt, and I have internet access, so it will be a nice distraction to relax for a little bit.

It is bitter sweet realizing this phase of my journey is nearly over. Come tomorrow I will get my last ride of this journey to San Antonio which is only 3 hours away. Part of me is glad to see that I will actually arrive at my destination that I set forth as my goal, another part of me is sad that the journey will be over. Looking back over the last month, the time spent hitching has been really fun, enlightening, and adventurous. Some bad times, mostly good times, not a bit of it do I regret.

When I get to San Antonio I face a fork in the road, in one direction I can hop into a truck and continue my life as it was a few months back, or I can keep going down this road of adventure in hitching. Since I cannot really decide which I really want to do more, I will let fate decide. If the driving gig goes through, I will do it, if not, I will continue on down the road. At either rate my life is destined to be on the road, whether it be in a truck or on the side of the road with my thumb sticking out, I will be on the road.

From this journey I learned how simple life really is, and how complicated we make it every day for ourselves. My long term goals have been refined, and I wish nothing but simplicity. Whatever road my life takes, I will continue to chronicle it in this blog, for all to read. It is all just another chapter in my life, which I am sure makes for a great story for someone.