Journey Day 6-7

People keep asking what job I'm going to. It's a job at a pizza place till a forklift job at the bottling plant opens.

People ask why I didn't just sell the car and all my belongings. 99% of what I took, other than clothes, (and I even left some of those) is computer stuff. Computers are my passion when at home. Pride made me keep them with me. The satisfaction of knowing that not EVERYTHING I owned was ripped out from under me is important to me. I lost enough as it is. I feel bad enough as it is, losing the home my father left to me. My dad left me this car too. Where I will live, there is no bus service to get to work or shop. Part of the time I will need the car to perform my job as well as work hours my friends can't. And last but not least, I live in it till I get to N.C.

And consider this, in 1997 I drove from my home in Mt. Shasta to Atlanta for roughly $125 each way. Now that same trip costs upwards of $500-600 and I'm only going one way. $225 of what I had recieved for gas money went to last minute repairs, the radiator. That left me with 175 of 500 to make the trip without having to get gas vouchers along the way or appeal for more donations.

 Anyone who thinks I'm scamming or lazy, doesn't #1 know me too well, #2 know what it is like to live in an area like Mt. Shasta and find a good job. Even my doctor was saying the other day that when she sees new patients who just moved to the area, she asks them what made them move here, there's no jobs to be had. They look at her in dismay and say yeah, had we known, we wouldn't have come here. Before the forklift job at Coke, I worked with U.P. for one of their sub-contractors. I was working often 60 hrs a week. I'm not lazy by any stretch of the imagination. But even the railroad started cutting back, laid off a whole bunch of people. I am going to NC to work my hind end off, period. You can either help or lend moral support, or get out of my way.

Now it looks as if weather may become a minor factor in my trip. It seems I am following the tail of a weather system.

Well, I'm stranded in Des Moines Iowa. That should give some of you a chuckle. And for the first time in my life, I'm staying in a county shelter till morning so I can try to obtain a gas voucher so I can continue. the trip. The police department is useless here, and one cop with an attitudem reminds me of Jeff Dunham's puppet Walter both in looks and attitude.

The shelter leaves a lot to be desired, but the option is arrest for sleeping in my car till the voucher place opens.

I got a voucher for $50, and that puts me 320 miles closer and out of Des Moines and the shelter.

I still need 2-3 tanks of gas to reach NC.

More to come! I'll do a full trip blow by blow after I arrive.