Saturday, November 17, 2007

Recap (Day 2)

It had been a hard night, with only a jacket and bushes to protect me from the wind.

I woke up and realized I was across a high school. My first thought was "oh man, i need to move fast" because a guy with a huge backpack probably would be noticed.

As i moved a few blocks north it dawned on me that i was in a wealthy area.

The weight of the backpack forced me to stop to take breaks every few blocks.

I thought my luck had ran out when a patrol car stopped right in front of me as i was taking a break on some nice grass.

I told him the truth, i had left my wife and was on my way to Canada.

He ran my I.D. and found no warrants or anything that would have given him a reason to take me into custody.

Surprisingly he told me i was going in the wrong direction. The officer then told me how to get to State Road 7 which he said was a better way to go.

I thanked him and I put the backpack on quickly (too quickly) and walked back following his directions.

Now comes the funny part.

A block away I realize that the backpack is on me wrong and I can't take it off!!

My only choice was to fall on the grass on purpose to try and take it off.

Of course someone at the corner notices and tells a person who is driving by, who ends up driving to me, gets out of his car and helps me get the backpack off. I thanked him.

So who else shows up?

The officer I had just spoken to less than 10 minutes before.

A quick explanation and a grin got me sympathy and I was allowed to move on.

About an hour later I'm thirsty and two workers tell me there is a water fountain in the Municipal building nearby.

I figured since I'm not looking for trouble I'd be ok. I was half right.

The lady at the lobby pointed to the water fountain and I must have drank a lot and sat a while, because on my way out I was greeted by three police officers.

They were more thorough, more questions, checked my backpack, padded me down for weapons, ran my I.D. (twice!!) and i tried to look as harmless as possible.

I ended up getting a ride to State Road 7 in a patrol car, I guess they wanted me to move along as soon as possible.

I moved slower than the first day, my shoulders were in serious pain.

That night i slept on the cardboards again, behind a bush which was shaped in a wide "U" so nobody could see me from either direction of the street.

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