What A Ride: Before the Woods

(previous chapter)

When I got back to Ohio I learned that, after a month of nothing on my schedule, I missed some work while I was away and lost my job.

The Athens-area of Ohio is the poorest in the state, with the few job prospects. I applied to everywhere I could, I checked in frequently, I did everything that would normally make landing a job easy. There's just so many people fighting over so few jobs.

I kept myself occupied by writing. I began work on my first volume of poetry, Through Kaleidoscopes. I also started to learn more about putting myself out there as a writer by joining the forum website, www.writersbeat.com. This website gave me the ability to network with other starting and independent writers and learn how they participated in the literary industry. It also gave me a place to have my work critiqued and improved. Some of the poems that made it into Through Kaleidoscopes had been critiqued and altered after being posted to Writer's Beat.

The forums also got me on the editorial staff of The Oddville Press for Volume II, Issue II when I responded to an ad in the website's Classifieds section, giving me insight into and experience in the other side of the publishing door. I took that experience into my own project, The Adventurous Pen. Through Kaleidoscopes finally came out shortly after The Adventurous Pen's launch. I was also teaching chess to local kids at the library.

While all this was going on, I was still living at my mom's, with my stepfather, two little brothers, and an infestation of bed bugs. All of a sudden, bed bugs were everywhere in town, and our house was no exception. It was driving everyone crazy with stress as we all became alert to every little motion out of the corner of our eyes, or the feeling of something against our skin, only to lay awake at night as the bugs crawled all over, feasting in an unstoppable manner, while we wished only for a peaceful rest. Already lacking money, many funds were spent trying to eradicate the pests, unsuccessfully.

As spring began to poke its head, my mom was able to get me a job flipping burgers where she and my stepfather worked. Shortly after I began working, my mom and stepfather moved to escape the bugs. I stayed behind in the house as a squatter for another week or two, before moving into a friend's house and helping him pay rent for the next month.

I love festivals. I love the energy and the love at festivals. It rejuvenates me and gives me hope for humanity. I've been volunteering at the festivals at Wisteria Event Site since I was 16. Festivals are a big part of my life. That's why, when I had to decide on paying for new camping gear that I needed, or rent, I chose the camping gear. I bought a High Sierra 90L backpack, which is still my pack after everything it's gone through with me. One of my friends loaned me a tent, as mine was in no condition for long-term living like I was about to do anymore. I figured out how to sort through what I had left and put it in my pack. What I didn't need got tossed away and my pack became all my worldly possessions, my life on my back.

I moved into the woods.

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What A Ride!: West Virginia and Back

(The story starts here)

In addition to having no where to go with winter rapidly approaching, I was also dealing with a heartbreak. I had recently came out with my feelings to the girl I was in love with (we'll call her N) at a festival we'd both attended, and, not having the feelings reciprocated, walked away from one of the most important friends in my life. That kinda started a habit of running away that I'm still fighting. I remember feeling so lost, like there was nothing left for me where I once called home.

I caught a ride to Athens, Ohio, where I stayed a couple nights with a friend while trying to figure out what I was going to do now. I contacted a friend from West Virginia to see if I could stay there on my way to Colorado, my next intended destination.

Then, I showed back up at N's house. Because I didn't know what else to do. I loved her and wanted to see her before I left, though I knew I had already said goodbye and would only be saying goodbye again. I hadn't really been prepared for the trip at all. N set me up with some extra supplies, like a good sleeping bag, warmer clothes, and a camp cooking set. She also gave me a wire-wrapped necklace that would become my most treasured item for the duration of the time it existed. 

My next jump was to Pomeroy, Ohio. I stayed with some of N's family there for a night on the Ohio-West Virginia border, before they drove me to Hurricane, West Virginia to stay with my friend there. I hung out around the Hurricane/Huntington area for a week or so with my friend. He made me a walking staff that I still use today for my journey, but it took him time to complete it - hence my stay when winter was creeping in. The day he had to leave for CoSM in New York to spin fire for Alex Grey's birthday, I hit the interstate in Huntington to head west. 

I stood on the on-ramp for hours flying a sign and thumb to no avail. The longer I waited, the more doubts my inexperienced mind had about what I was about to do. Eventually, I started walking back towards Ohio. 

The next several hours were spent on foot, painfully as my pack that I was not used to carrying - and that was not meant for this type of travel - also had broken straps that I had "fixed" enough to wear, but with it tight against me and cutting into my shoulders. 

Finally, a trucker on his way back to Ohio pulled over and picked me up. He was friendly enough, buying me some dinner at a McDonald's and giving me another $20 when he dropped me off on the side of the highway that night in Ohio before he went back to his home. 

I continued walking until almost midnight in the cold as I looked for a place to sleep for the night, knowing the further I walked that night, the less I'd have to the next morning. I finally decided that I would pitch my tent behind a small hill by the highway. The area was clearly marked as a construction zone, but there were no machines around so I though I was safe to camp. That night, I slept in two pairs of socks, two pairs of pants, two shirts, a jacket, a coat, and my sleeping bag. I was still REALLY cold. I also noticed at this point that I didn't have a rain fly for my tent. Good thing I was on my way back home and not still trying to make Colorado. There was no way I was ready yet. 

I set my phone's alarm for 6 am so I could get up early enough to tear down before anyone knew I was there. Well, 6 came around and it was still dark, still incredibly cold, and I was still exhausted from the previous day and night, not having much sleep from the weather. I decided I'd stay in my tent until the sun was up more. 

As I lay in my tent, I listened to the sound of machinery beeping. I could tell it was construction equipment I was hearing, but it was off in the distance. However, the more I listened, the more apparent it became that the sound was getting closer. I poked my head out of my tent and saw the long arm of an excavator as the machine was climbing some hills to get to where I was camping. I acted as quick as I could, throwing everything out of my tent and tearing down. With no time to pack up, I grabbed everything and ran for the tree line I was camped against. Unfortunately, the way I was carrying my things made me too bulky to get past the branches. 

The excavator made its way over the hill, with another piece of machinery on the way behind it. I gave up, dropped my things, and waved to the guy in the excavator. Luckily, he was cool with me having been there. He did need me to move out of the way, though, as I was camped right beside the trees he was about to knock down. 

So I was back to walking. I felt weaker than the day before, more worn, but I wanted to be home by that night if I could. After a few hours on foot, someone stopped and gave me a ride to the Marathon in Albany, where I got some breakfast and water before catching a ride with another trucker into Athens. I met up with a friend who gave me a place to be while I contacted a ride back to Nelsonville. This is when I did my first dab. 

I caught my ride back home. After me not being there for a couple weeks, I was allowed to go back to living at my mom's because they decided they did care about me being on the streets.

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What A Ride!: The Prologue

My story starts in a place called Nelsonville, Ohio. It's a small community in the foothills of Appalachia, nestled in the Wayne National Forest. My parents were never married. My mom gave birth to me when she was 16. I was their only child, but they've each had other children with their other partners since. My mom had two more boys with a man that is now dead. My dad had a girl a little older than me, two more boys, and a girl younger than me. They're both married respectively now, and I've got a handful of step-siblings, too.

My family has never had much money. My mom and step dad work at Sonic Drive In; my dad works at Wendy's.

During 6th grade, I moved into my dad's house in Shade, Ohio. It's not even a town, but rather a township, out in the middle of the country. Needless to say, I grew up pretty sheltered. I occupied my time by reading and listening to music when I wasn't watching my siblings or helping take care of the animals - we had cats, dogs, horses, goats, and chickens.

I was also pretty into computers. My dad got me interested in programming when I was still in middle school. I taught myself HTML in high school, went to Tri-County Career Center for their Computer Tech Academy program my junior and senior years, participating in SkillsUSA's web design competition at the state level both years. After high school, I decided to move back to Nelsonville to attend Hocking College for e-business and web design.

The only problem was that I was starting to become disillusioned with the matrix I was leading myself into. I had experimented with LSD at the ages of 13 and 14 on a regular basis, thanks to a friend I had back then. At 15, I attended my first festival - Cornstalk at Wisteria. At 16, I was volunteering for Wisteria's events. The more I got to experience the woods, the less I wanted to do with technology. Shortly after leaving high school, psychedelics became available to me again and made me question the direction I was leading my life even more - listening to the metallic drone of voices coming through a speaker in the classroom.

I was also letting a homeless friend of mine from high school stay with me, starting to worry more about getting high than class, and spending too much money on drugs. We've all been there, right? Well, it ended with me just not going to class anymore.

I lost my apartment shortly after that and moved in with some friends for about a month, then moved back in with my uncle, where I stayed until I got a job counting inventory.

I moved back in with my mom when I got the job, but the work the job provided was seasonal. It wasn't long before the off-season hit, leaving me without work for over a month. In that time, my step-dad said that my mom and him could no longer support me because they had to also support my brothers.

I packed my tent, sleeping bag, and some other essentials in a quite uncomfortable backpack and hit the road. This was in late October of 2013.

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