Nomadic Zen – A Vagabond’s Guide To Happiness

I’ll talk about Day 2 and beyond in SD some other time. I like to jump around with my memories.

I don’t feel like talking about Rainbow anymore. I think I did a fairly okay job at summing it up. I will say this though; I don’t dig large gatherings. I’m an introvert. I’m a loner. I could be perfectly okay sitting in my house (hypothetically speaking of course) all by myself most of the time. In a gathering like that, I’ll meet a lot of people, but have a hard time forming any real connection with them. In the end, most of them are forgotten and most have forgotten me.

On the flip-side, put me in a car with a stranger on a 300 mile ride and I’ll do great. Put me at a table with a girl on a first date and I’ll have no trouble carrying a conversation. A small gathering of strangers and I’ll be the life of the party. Too many and I’ll sit on the sidelines and enjoy the people watching.

I didn’t really care for Tentsurf a whole lot and Nationals gave me a little of the same vibe.

We live and we learn, right? I’m doing both, that’s for sure.

Evan, Audrey, Nick, and myself left Rainbow on July 5th around noon-ish. I think? Who needs time when you have no where to be! So we loaded up our van and kissed our Jesus fish for good luck. California isn’t going to know what hit it!

While we were in the process of loading up the van, a tall guy with a menacing beard and a friendly smile was approaching. He had a backpack, a guitar, and a piece of cardboard with the word “west” written in black marker. We kept on hoping we’d find a hitch hiker going west with a guitar and by chance, here he was.

Chance (and that’s his birth name), was so delighted to here that we were willing to pick him up and take him along. He had been looking for a ride all day and had given up and was on his way back to the festival. We told him we were on our way to California and with a great big enthusiastic smile, he says “right now?”

Of course right now! So he hops in and we start heading west. Our plan was to make it close to Flagstaff before nightfall and find a place to camp out near town. Shortly after we crossed into Arizona, we had car problems. We stalled out on the side of I-40 and couldn’t get the star started again. While we figured out what the hell we were going to do, Evan started playing some music and I did my best to make sure every semi that drove past blew its horn at us. I laughed while talking to Nick that this truly was what I wanted my life to be like. I wanted these seamlessly random events to pop up everyday. I won’t bullshit and try to talk about how important this moment was. It didn’t change my life and I didn’t find anything close to deep insight regarding it. But, it was pretty funny 5 kids on the side of the road playing folk music and spending more time worrying about the passing semis than the fact that we had a broken down vehicle in the middle of no where AZ and I was a couple thousand miles from what anyone would consider my “home”. This is my life though. And I was more than happy to be here.

We put some oil in ol’ bessie and off we went roaring into the sunset once again. And by this time, the sun was setting. We found a sign that marked a campground off the next exit and decided it was as good as any. We pulled off a few miles down the road looking for camp. We had no intention of using their camp site, but we figured if someone was charging money to sleep there, we could find a decent spot not far away for free.

There was a pretty open field on the side of the service road and we were miles from anything resembling a city. Or a village for that matter. We pulled the van over and started working on camp. Chance and I went and gathered some larger pieces of wood to supplement the masses of dry kindle from the tumbleweeds nearby. We cooked up a bit of hobo stew, cracked open some booze, and got comfortable around the fire. By that I mean we got drunk and naked. After my experience at rainbow, I felt a lot more connected with nature when not wearing clothes. It’s a silly concept anyways to be hot as hell and sweating and still covering your body from the elements. It’s unnecessary and just out right weird.

I slept under the stars of Arizona this night in a place that likely nobody who reads this will ever visit. It was so remote that I couldn’t even tell you within 50 miles where we were. I had a full belly, I was drunk, and I was so distracted by the vibrant sky that I thought I’d never fall asleep. Several hours later, after the best sleep I had in too long, I knew it was time to wake up. All of us nearly simultaneously woke up when we felt the sun beaming down on our faces in our desert paradise.

At this point we were only an hour or so from Flagstaff. We decided that the Grand Canyon would only put us a couple hours out of the way so we may as well check it out. People travel from all over the world to see that big ditch so it would be criminal to not go the 40 miles required to see it. We hadn’t planned for that in our original budget (whatever the hell that means) and figured we would stop in Flagstaff to panhandle some money to offset our expenses. When traveling you start to truly understand the value of a dollar. It’s worth nothing. It’s just a tool. It comes and goes like everything else in life. Yet our greed tells us how important it is to survival.

We got into the east side of Flagstaff and split off into groups. It’s important when spanging to be as visible as possible to as many people as possible. I hit one exit ramp, Evan hit the gas station, Nick hit another exit ramp, and Chance went wandering off somewhere that I don’t recall at this time. Evan showed me that people are very willing to give away gas. Catch them at a pump, tell them you want to see the grand canyon, and they will add a couple splashes to your gas can. Nice folks are out there. You don’t have to lie and exploit them. My sign that day read, ‘need money for travel.” $13 an hour as a panhandler beats the hell out of slaving away in an ambulance.

Eventually in a blue and red flash, my parade got rained on. Did you know it’s illegal to panhandle in the city of Flagstaff? Me neither. The officer was very nice and not looking to give me a hard time. He asked if I had ID and of course it came back clean. He told me it was fine if I hung out on the streets, but I couldn’t fly a sign. Fair enough. I’m out.

In the short amount of time we were in Flagstaff we managed to get around $40, 5 bags of groceries, and a 6 gallons of gas. Plenty of supplies for our 40 mile drive to the canyon.

I remember when I was about 7 years old my parents took me to the Grand Canyon on one of our many family vacations. I called it a big hole in the ground and I was ready to leave as soon as I got there. I was probably ready to leave before I got there.

This time it was wonderful. The views were picture perfect. We stopped along the way, played music, danced like gypsies, and got our pictures taken by Asian tourists. Life was good for us. Really good.

After a few hours of being tourists ourselves, it was time to leave this hole in the ground and move on to our next adventure. After our luck in Flagstaff the first time we went back to get dinner. On our way back, we ran out of gas. No big deal. After you’ve made it as far as I have at this point, a small set back like this is just the punchline of the day. We hung out for a few minutes on the side of the road while we formulated a game plan. Just then, a Volvo pulled over and the driver asked if we needed any help. Need? No. Prefer? Yes. I grabbed the empty gas can and hopped in towards the nearest station. He said he had to drop off the ice cream at his place so it doesn’t melt, and came out with “a fake beer” as he called it. I cracked open my O’Doul’s and headed off to the gas station. I wish I could remember the guys name, but that was like a month ago. He did however buy us $5 worth of gas and dropped me off at the van.

We were back on the road in no time and shortly in downtown Flagstaff. We split off again and decided we’d meet up in an hour. I was hesitant about spanging downtown after being told it was illegal in the city and I spent most of my time just walking in circles and being discreet. This guy gave me 75 cents and the next time he passed me I engaged conversation. Josh ended up offering up his small 1 bedroom apartment to the 5 of us. Josh had to ask his girlfriend if it was okay and I told him to meet us at the square where we’d be chillin. We went to the town square where Audrey and Evan were busking. Check out their myspace. A little kid pulled away from his father to come over and dance with us. I laughed and said to him, “remember, stay in school so you don’t end up like us when you grow up.” His dad smiled at me and said, “he can do whatever he wants with his life.”

A little while later Josh and Heather came and gave us the OK. Heather took off in their car and Josh rode with us. We stopped at the store and bought a fifth of whiskey and a 40 to wash it down with.

Josh lived not far from where we were at and by the time we got there, heather made a delicious pasta dish that was vegetarian friendly. The food was hot and it was nice to sleep inside. Josh was raised by his grandfather who was a full blooded native American. Josh was taught how to live off the land and would go for long periods of time living in the desert with nothing. He took me out in his backyard and showed me some of the plants and what they were used for. I was drunk and can only remember a few of them, but it was a good time. I’m still alive so he must have some clue of what he was feeding me.

That night we were sitting around drinking, boozing, and chatting. Evan was talking to Nick about what he truly thought of him. It was honest and blunt. But not offensive. I asked him what he saw in me. He read me pretty good. In short he told me what I know already. I’m closed off to people. It’s not intentional by any means, it just is. I’m learning things about me along the way. I feel like I’ve come so very far, but in the end I’m closer to the start than I am the end. I still have much to learn.

More alcohol was consumed and Josh let us see his tattoo portfolio. He did some really good work and this was about the time Chance said he wanted a tattoo. Before the alcohol could wear off, Chance was laying on the floor and Josh was swerving around with his tattoo gun like a drunk driver on the freeway. Chance got a jacked up crooked version of a balance beam that wasn’t balanced. It was awesome and will always provide a hilarious story of his adventures hitchhiking.

We were woken up early to the sounds of domestic disturbance. There was yelling, crying, and breaking of things. I said to everyone, “I want to be out of here before that door opens,” and we tore ass to pack up. Eventually Heather “kicked” out Josh and we invited to come along with us. He packed up and to make this long story short, after 2 hours decided not to come.

On the road again we were. I was only going about 100 miles or so west getting dropped off just before California. My aunt was going to pick me up from a truck stop down the road and take me back to her place to crash out for a few days.

Exit 9 was what I was looking for. We were counting down the miles and it seemed surreal that I was leaving these guys. We had spent the last 2 weeks or so together and I had a blast.

They hung out with me while I waited for my ride. I was holding a sign that said “aunt Diane” because I figured I’d made it all this way holding up signs on the side of the road that I better not fix what isn’t broken. She drove into the pilot and couldn’t find me. She said she saw a group of bums and overlooked them (us) while looking for me.

She told that story numerous times while I was in Arizona and everyone found it amusing. Except my grandma. She was upset that my friends and I kept being referred to as bums.

While I was in Arizona Nick called me to update me on where they were at. Nor-cal at the time. He told me to update this thing and make sure I portray them as really awesome people. I’m going to close this post out by doing just that.

Nick, Audrey, Evan, and Chance are all beautiful human beings. I feel blessed to have met them, traveled with them, and most importantly befriended them. The time that I spent with them will always be with me. With nothing, they were more generous than anyone else I had met on my trip. They would give their last bit of food away in order to stop someone else from going hungry. Money meant nothing to them, because they have learned you can live comfortably without it. It comes and goes with good times and bad. With them there were no bad times. These are the people you would refer to as bums and avoid at all costs. These are the people who I consider my family in the way they looked out for me. Thank you.

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