Day Two-Hundred-Twenty, Hobo Pride

It is bitter cold tonight, some degrees below freezing.  Or so I'm told.  I haven't bothered to poke my head outside.  I am installed in a Motel 6 in Tallahassee, Florida.

There was some chill in the air this morning.  I woke with a very sore throat.  It was warmish last night; I took my comfort for granted.  I forgot to put on my wooly hat.  Which you should see; it's adorable.  It's your loss as well as mine.

My back was better than I had expected.  I'm used to sleeping on the ground.  I had put up my tent on some knobby roots, deep in the woods after dark.  I wouldn't have been much better off if I had a sleeping pad.  I would have moved but I was sure there were bears outside.  I lit up a cigar.

God, no, I didn't smoke the thing.  I let it burn like incense.  They were a gift from a mountain man I met in Idaho.  Under a bridge.  He gave me a dozen.  "Bears hate 'em," he said.  It sends them scurrying for the hills.  They smell like Castro's ass.

I had fifteen miles or so into town.  It was a beautiful a day.  I've been in a fantastic mood lately.  It has me a little unnerved.

I'm not accustomed to happiness.  I've been happy before.  But never for long and not without reason.  There is little joy in my heart.  Which is not to say I wouldn't like there to be.  I'm just not wired that way.  I was born sad and bred a pessimist.  I have a dark thoughtful nature.  It is a by-product of intellect.  Happy people are stupid.

But here I am all giggly.  I'm ready to drool on myself.  If I didn't think it would wear out my shoes I would be skipping down the road.  Life's a day at Disneyland.  I want to hug every tree.  There's a song in my heart.  The world's my erster.  It's got me grinning like a chimp.

I'll enjoy it as long as it lasts.  Nobody knows me down here.  For all they know I've always been happy.  That will be our joke on them. 

I had eggs at a truck stop Denny's.  Even they could not undo my mood.  They tried but I wasn't having it.  Waffle House, they are not.  I did meet a friendly hobo outside.  He took me to his camp in the woods.

"I have a fireplace," he bragged.  It was a steel burn barrel.  There were two tents and some bedrolls.  Five or six people lived there.  Only one was home.  I gave them each a cigar.  And shared my Fruit Pie.  They offered me some beer.  And gave me advice.  They seemed to sense I was new.

Yet still they embraced me as one of their own.  It was flattering.  And heart-warming in a hoboey way.  They were glad to share what they had.  And asked me if I was warm enough.  And told me where to get soup.  They look after each other.  They're all a bit mad.  They are hungry but they are free.

They laughed when I told them where I had camped, across from the police academy.  The cops, it seems, are running a sweep.  There are too many hoboes in town.  Business owners start to complain and they are told to move on.  They were keeping low for a while.  I didn't stay there long.

No cop stopped me as I walked on.  It rather hurt my feelings.  I saw them rousting some other guys.  They all had cardboard signs.  "It's beg or steal so we beg," said one.  "GOD BLESS YOU!" said another.

Tallahassee came up on me quickly.  I walked my next ten miles in town.  On sidewalks.  The easiest kind of walking.  There was plenty to see.  It is the seat of state government and home to FSU.  There are plenty of trees and the streets are clean.  It is built on a series of hills.  And it is just big enough that there was no way I could walk through it before dark.

I hunted up a big sporting goods store and bought a new sleeping pad.  Just like my old one but not as good.  It only has last me a month.  After that I'll be sleeping on sand.  Or with the fishes or worms.

I didn't even look at shoes.  My old ones are falling apart.  I've had them since I left Missouri but it's too soon to say goodbye.  I think they are good for two-hundred more miles.  That may be pushing it some.  But a good pair of boots wants to die on my feet.  I think I owe them that much.

I was tempted to camp in the trees by the mall.  As an expression of hobo pride.  Instead I checked into a Motel 6.  They have a laundry room.  And a hot shower.  I am overdue.  I covered some miles this week.

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