RAMBLEON 2010

This story is about myself, Milky and my cohort Q. Q and i have been planning on traveling together via rail since last summer (2009) when he managed to break his arm right at the beginning of summer by eating shit doing a wheelie while clipped into a fixed gear bike. The plan was to hop freight trains from the bay to NYC in a months time. This is what actually happened. We started our trip from two separate locals on the 6th of july. He got to SF on his own accord, most likely via mother and i started my trip helping my packrat/genius buddy joey k move from my pad to his new one. Then finally me and my good chum R2 the specialist were cleared to roll old joeys out into the world. R2 was heading to the city to pick up his lady friend and i was on my way to rendezvous with Q and then head to Marin to do two paid painting gigs. But first we were lined up to rendezvous with gnar bmxer extraordinaire nick to swoop up Q's travel guitar, a well worth it pit stop on the west side of town. With some gas and the guitar in the car we hit the roller coaster road and headed north. We got into the city around 9pm and parked up the whip in front of the apartment of the beautiful dancer Tressa Gold where R2's lady friend was waiting. So we settled in there for a bit and i was able to get some packing tape to fix the binding of my sketchbook (crucial) and then her les-b-friend lover said we needed to vamoose so they could "sleep". So we did just that and R2 had apparently looked up the address for Naan 'n' curry and wanted to race the clock to get there. He probably wrote it down wrong because after a half an hour of cruising the lower tenderloin i saw no naan nor curry. His girly was playing the "i am cranky and want to go home bit" so we swallowed our hot tube dreams and they promptly dropped my off at my buddy Jfame's house in the Excelsior. Then they headed back townside and me and jfame and his cohort Boom caught up on life as J licked up a blunt. Then after listening to a few fresh new tracks off of their album "Iced Tea and Hennesy" me and J decided to head to Safeway to grab some grub. We headed in and were turning towards the frozen food section when a cop with his gun drawn runs past us without saying a word with a posse of three other pigs trotting close behind him. We just stand there stunned looking stoney as hell wondering if we should continue in the direction they just ran or if we are going to get caught in some sort of crossfire. We decide it would be in our best interest to find sustenance in the opposite direction and proceed to find some taquitos, white castle burgers and some seasonal Kona brew. As we hang in line at the register we we see an undercover anti-shoplifting agent walk out and a very disgruntled, handcuffed man escorted out by the cops. So we went back to the blackhole and munched and watched Rocko's Modern Life (score!) One more blunt procured its self and at about 3am i passed the fuck out.

I woke up on the 7th at 7:30am and cleaned up the living room a bit and left a note and proceeded to walk down the southhill and hope on a 42 bus which took me across the city to Lombard in the Presidio. There I hopped on a 28 bus that took me to the Golden Gate Bridge. Q was there waiting and we walked across to the Marin side. I had a forgotten drip tag there that actually looked like an accidental drip from someone painting the bridge (should stay for years). So once on the other side we relieved ourselves at the tourist water closet and then tried to hitch from the 101 entrance for about 10 minutes when My man big willy from Stinson beach finally called me up and said he could pick us up. I said we should meet at the 7-11 in Sausolito and he said that would be fine. we agreed to meet there in half an hour. I remembered it being a 10 minute bike ride. Well, after a roadside smoke break it was an hour and a half trek. And big will had already came and went. Fuuuuck. So we got there and i grabbed 2 taquitos, a turkey sandwich and a sunny D and will said he would meet us back down there. what a pal. So that he did and we headed to San Enselmo to Marinitas Mex restaurant. There we found a Honda Odyssey catering van that we were to spice up to raise eyebrows around town. We got the tour of the place from Frank the cook to get a feel for the style for the van and then we were off to the home despot to make the paint purchase. We bought 11 Rustos, painters tape/paper, gloves, cheap masks and we were ready to go, 80$ out the door. We zipped back and it took a while to tape up the lights and windows. Then Q made this crazy feathery looking bronze stencil pattern on the hood. I did the background with burgundy and regal red, he did the phone number on the bottom and i throw up "tacos at your house" on both sides. Then he threw a nice guitar with a candle in it to the left of the words that looked just like one they had hanging on their wall in the restaurant. Then i threw some tacos in there and we were done. We got 200$ to split plus the 80$ for materials, a few free mt. Tam ales, some tacos and a bunch of leftover paint! We then headed north on Sir Francis Drake Blvd and i asked old Willy if he wanted to stop by the Ink wells creek spot for the end of the day sesh. He was down. So we parked up the ol' truck and walked down with a towel and 4 cans. Me and will jumped in off of some rock ledges and then Q and i threw up some paint as it got dark. Big willy drove to stinson from there like a bat out of hell, shmobbin the whole way. Actually he tailed a porsche until it pulled over for him and then he promptly pulled over for it saying he would rather it clear the deer for him! We actually amost hit a fawn right outside of Olema, so go figure. We pulled into stinson, dropped our bags in Will's little apartment and were introduced to the kitchen of Breakers restaurant. Will whipped up some breakfast for dinner with some pints of anchor steam to boot. We ate in his little apartment and smoked an after dinner spliff. I leafed through "The Family of Woman" and once again P.T.F.O'ed

june 8th
Will woke up around 6:30 am to do some sort of baking work for the restaurant and got us up for brecky around 8am. Then Me and Q brainstormed some ideas for 2 signs that we had been commissioned to paint for Breakers and then after a morning spliff we got to work. Later in the afternoon we headed over to our buddy luke's house via some cruiser bikes and watched some movies, played some ping pong, hit the tub and hit the ocean. twas a very prime time. That was the first time i had played around the table,The musical chairs of ping pong, but not the last. we booked it back to Will's house that night to crash out. also Q had me finish this stick and poke tattoo of this drawing of a whale his woman associate drew on his arm.

June 9th
In the morning we worked on finishing up the signs and came to a compromise on the design of the signs. We had to Cater to Will's suggestions and his dad's critisisms, but that what it takes to get it done right so the client can be happy with the project. Q discovered that is is good to clarify if the client is going for artistic or just plain legible. We finally got paid 120$ each for doing 2 signs and were fed both days with complimentary drinks the whole time as well. score-sazy. Once we were done there we headed to Bolinas with Luke to pick up some clear coat for the signs and to paint the freewalls over there called "green Walls" because they were origionally painted green. We brought some red, yellow and lilac color buff and all the leftover rustos. whoopie! we walked down the line and saw a hot 7seas Natrl and MEME production. We called up Kickit and he said he would try to make it down there. We decided to paint up this wooden wall that had never been buffed yet! So we buffed up 8 sections for Q and I and luke started up a lion a ways down. I jumped in the water and took a jog to dry off as i waited for my buff to dry. And then Luke and i walked down the opposite direction and saw and saw a buried throwup i had done in 08. Then i went back and jumped into painting headfirst. Kickit showed up just as i was running out of black and down to my last sputtery banana cap with more paint and saved the day. we rolled spliff and rejoyced. The some kids that were painting around the corner kicked down their scraps too! After we finish we all rolled back to stinson in Lukes truck with Q, kickit, and his doggie Bella in the back of the truck. Luke was bumpin some hot peanutbutter wolf beats. when we got back i washed the rollers out like every good painter should. There was a bunch of kids at the courts playing wiffle ball. we kicked it in the apartment and smoke one more big spliff, and then kicker said he was ready to hit the old dusty trail, A.K.A the 1 highway. we up and outed and Q proceeded to leave a fresh bag of salad greens on the table that he ad just bout from a nice farmer. So we rolled up and over Mt tam and back across the great golden gate back into the city, then i ever so kindly directed him to the closest taqeria farrolitos to re-up on some grindage. I got a hold of JFame when i was there and low and behold he was gonna be picking up A couple of my good buddies in San Jo at 4am when they would b e dropped off by this craigslist ride they had scored. I said i would glady battle them for the couch space at the greenhouse. So kick dropped Q and I off over there and i proceeded to munch a carne asada burrito. Then as he was offering to toss up a salad he realized he had left his greens back by the beach. sheeeit. Then J started playin some Madden on the old video game box thingy and i fell the fuck asleep. He rolled to pick those guys up at 4am. They came in were suprised to see me. So victrola rolled the victory blunt and after jesse passed out and we hung out chatting like 12 year olds at 6th grade camp and finally Cez fell asleep and started snoring almost immediately. That fucker finds a way to be a savage even when he sleeps. stayed up till 3am so we slept in till noon.

Saturday the 10th
we woke up and smoked a blunt for breakfast, and then decided to go to Geneva Pizza for lunch. So we drove down there and right from the start it seemed like the 40something old server lady had a crush on me. We ordered up and grinded down and then she only charged me 1.50$ for a to$ meal! I had also seen a table full of books and had scoped one out that i wanted to take on the rest of the trip, so i asked if i could have this book called "everyday Zen". She gladly gave it to me. so then the boys dropped me and Q off at city college bart. We bought a 3.40$ ticket to ashby and took the free shoppers shuttle to Emeryville from there. Then we went to trader joes, filled some water at the House of the king of burgers, and walked over to a parking structure to scope some trains. We surveyed the tracks for a bit and weighed out our options. Then we noticed that we could slip through the fence into this abandonded lot next to the parking structure. This took us to the accomidating Emeryville jungle. We sat there and drank a sixed pack and watched the amtracks go by. Along with a few Double stacker trains. I had found some excellently broke in thin deckchair pads, that me and Q decided to take with us on the rest of the trip. The proved to be a wonderful luxury on cold or hot steel. I expected our train to roll thru around 6pm from previous times dealing with the old roseville local, but she decied to come around 8pm on this saturday night. It was a shorty with only one ride! A Leftside open boxcar that was second to last. This little puppy never stopped but slowed down to about 5mph. By the time we got our packs and buts up in there she was probobly going about 7mph. And then we were officially NBD (NORTHBOUND). We headed up and around the bay and then came to the Martinez siding where we had quite a lengthy layover. Maybe it was a crew change, maybe not, either way we were there for about 2 hours. Good nap time. I was getting a bit worried that we might have been left there with no units A worked even walked all the way down to the back to check something. Then finally we started moving. then the crazyest thing happened. as we were rolling by these 3 fishermen, one hurls a rock at the boxcar trying to get it in the door and then sees we are in there after he throws it! it hit about a foot out on the door as we sat and watched in awe from inside.Then the sun set. We got to roseville in a few hours, and the train stopped with its ass sitting right on the rear of the yard where we could see the watertower that told me it was a good of place as any to jump off. then we saw that the walmart was directly on the other side and i was stoked that we called it perfect. We walked into Walmart and tried to buy beer and 2:07 and were of course turned down. so i popped out the old grocery bag and we walked back and got some celebratory Cook's for Q's first trainride and walked on up and out of there. We sat in the field and ate some salami and cheese sandwiches and went to sleep around 3am, again.


sunday the 11th
We got up a little after the sun at 8:30am. I spied one other individual in the yard, either a rider or a junky or both i figured. i bounced into walmart to freshen up and procure a map of the northwest U.S. will Q stayed with the gear. As i hit the bathroom to brush de teeth and the like i saw john doe in there had the same idea. once we packed up we started the long walk to the north end of the yard, about 3 miles up. and the sun in roseville flexes its strength as soon as she wakes up, so it was already heading for 90 degrees. We found some bike jumps, across from the yard and after walking about 100 yards we started thumbing it. We actually got a ride after about 10 minutes of walkin and thumbin. The man was going to the flea market, and so i knew that we didnt really want to catch anything during the day and that the flea was right past the yard so we decided to do the same. Denio's is one big flea. We bought a little metal cigarette, Q got a sunhat and we went in on some carnitas, tortillas, and all the making for some guacamole.
Then we up and outed and headed towrds the roseville market. by by now it was about 95degrees. On the way there is this creek that i had spied before in my travels and we decided we better go down for a closer inspection this time. As soon as we saw the situation we decied to spend the day there. There was a sign on the way down that said it was a salmon breeding ground and it was true! I saw about 12 salmon between 2-4 inches! Also there were some shorty walls to paint down there that had some tags from the lucky few trainrides who took the time to duck into this oasis. Q went on the mish to grab some cold brew to got with the carnitas feast. When he got back we discoved the wonders of bagamole, and with two shakes of some louisiana hot sauce we had some delicious carnitas burritos. I sat in the creek for a while and then tried to catch some fish with cranberries, a centapede, and some dehydrated apple while Q snoozed betwixed some pillars. The only thing nibbling was this little bluegill. The only other people we saw come down was this guy with a bucket full of fishing gear/beer and his girlfriend on the other side. We saw a few intermodal trains go north and 1 go south. Around 5 the heat started subsiding so we decided it was time to hit the Roseville market and scope some trains and get another cold frosty. From there we walked down to the old stone lion jungle hoping luck would be on our side. We were net by a disgruntled barking dog. This was Athena. She belonged to a nice enough 50something year old black man named wild wes(t). He had some scraggily dreads and a scraggily beard to match, reminding me of my good buddy ryan a bit. He turned out to be quite talkative. He had every kind of story about every kind of thing like panning for gold in Orville, riding trains with two wolves, in the winter no less, and owning multiple expensive guitars, including the one he was carrying with him that he said was worth thousands. This guy was carrying all types of shit with him on the road! he had a 9volt amplifier, some gold nuggets, and some rocks he just thought were cool. We tried to catch the market again for the last round of beer but she was closed when we got there. so we went back to stone lion and smoked a few bowls with wes and snoozed a bit. He bounced out to some other sort of camp spot. We woke up right around 2am to catch some canadian grainers to Dunsmuir!
Roseville to Dunsmuir 2am-7am (5hrs)
just for the record (emeryville to roseville 7pm-2am 6hours

At first we got on opposite sides of the same grainer, but then Q came over and said he had a porch right across from his so i sauntered over there with him. wed got settled in and got rolling right away, yeeha! We made a fairly long some somewhere right around Orville. There were all these clanky sounds that made me think that people were walking down the lone checking grainer holes but i was just silly train grumbles and my imagination at work. We had just smoked a bowl right before the siding so i guess i was just having a little paranoia trip. anyways we sided one more time later but we were both in some sort of sleepy state snug in our holes so it didnt seem that long to me. My grainer was pretty comfy with the pad i had brought from emeryville and some plastic someone else had stuffed in there, i had quite the nest. pure luxury. The train finally stopped around 7am on the north side of good old dunsmuir so we hoped off and hit the river fist thing. making it:
monday the 12th
the sun came out bright and early for us to do some great sight seeing around the mount shasta area on our way into dunsmuir. the train pulled into the yard and we hoped off around 6am
Q did some laundering and i clipped my toenails and we ate a tin of herring i had picked up at traders in emeryville with a healthy dose of tapatio on it. Then we walked up into town and realized that we really were on the far north side of town. so we started the 2 mile hoof twords manfredis deli 2 miles south. Dunsmuir is such a traveler friendly town. all the older folks waved or said hi, and all the younger folks just stared out of their tinted cars with the music bumpinthumpin. . one lady even said 'lookin good!" so we finally got to manfredis and Q got a 12pack and i got 2 sandwiches and some mac salad, then we headed down the old trail to the river from there. We saw a bunch of good art on the train cars down there, alot of it seeming pretty fresh.





we had to pas back over the tracks to get to the river and saw some hot carl, searius, fern, and even some racuun bcx from san diego.







so we hit the river again and had a right nice picnic. I waded around in the old Sacramento river for a while. It was cold because it is the runoff from the snow on shasta, and it was pretty rough and rocky around there, but refreshing! The rocks were slippery and there was all sorts of old metal from the big train days in dunsmuir, from the gold rush. speaking of rush, we basically heard a train airing up to go north and although we had sort of planned to camp out for the night Q got the itch to keep riding and i had to say i was just as down so we whirlwind rushed to pack up all our crap and ran out of those woods in a hurry and as the train slowly started to creep out of the yard, we scoped the last boxcar and saw that it was atrociously dusty in there, and i said pass , so we hustled 2 cars up to the next double open door box and when we saw that it had the same damn dust and the train was picking up a bit we said shit and jumped in anyways. Then the train actually kicked it for a minute about 10 feet further and i was able to walk up the line and take a few pictures, and found a crate and a cushion inside a car on another line and so i furnished our new digs with those prime items. It looked like a few of the trains in that yard, specifically the one with all the searius pieces on it got pretty proper raged because there were 30pack boxes and all sorts people trash in more than a few of the cars. So after about 15 minutes or so our train started moving again and i ran back and hopped on and we were headed north again. then of course as junk trains will do we stopped right outside the yard. Q said he had seen some sort of white truck so we watched for it but the only thing that came was the the passing train we were waiting for and then we were off! the dust appeared to be some sort of cement and officially sucked. anytime you moved it kicked up and the wind would intermittently kick it up in your face. we should have put of bandanas or face masks from the start. Other than that bullshit it was a great ride. Watching the lavabeds fly by at the foot of shasta will always be an incredible sight. We had one whole sandwich left that we ate when we crossed the oregonian border. We also had one warm Hamms for the sunset sesh. We got into Klamath Falls right around 7pm. you know when your in Klamath Falls because Klamath lake will be on your left and this big old rusty silo will be on your right. We hopped off and headed straight twords the lake, once we hit it, we stashed our dusty ass packs accordingly, and we followed the shoreline to town past the back of a water treatment plant, and then we veered right through a field and were at the market. We filled up our water bottles and picked up some 1.80$ chili, With a MBI 12pack and some mamba candy we were out the door and back lakeside. We saw this grey SUV driving down the line slowly twords the back of the train. It hit the end, kicked it for a minute and then headed back to the yard station. we grabbed our bags out of the secrect stash spot aka the bushes and sat on a mulch pile and drank a few beers. Then Q decided to explore this big old abandoned building and was somewhere on the other side of it when i heard the brakes of our same train start airing up. I start calling his name and packing as i realize that from us to the train was about a quarter mile. call him a few more times as i see the train start moving north slowly, when finally he rips over and starts packing fast. He manages to stuff about 10 beers in his bag and then we dashed. As we were running a jackrabbit came out of the cuts and ran practicly in stride with us, it was surreal. Then we hit the barbed wire fence. We hadnt had to deal with it when we got off because it ended a ways down but now it was our main advesary. I saw our only hope of catching this damn traina nd called out "the post!" and we went for it. At this point i ripped my sleeping bag wiggling through and Q dropped his water bottle and his hat flew off. I swooped his water knowing its importance and started running up the train to give him some room to jump on as i noticed that it was picking up speed. He finally did the belly up and i threw up his water and my bag and alley-ooped myself up and there we were on the very last car of the train, the same dusty ass boxcar i had turned down in dunsmuir, but NBD to Eugene none the less! So we settled in as we made our way out of southern oregon and started in on the beers finding that one had exploded in Qs bag somewhere in the hustle. A sticky situation fo sho. So Q got out the harmonica and i started slappin out some lyrics and we had a little jam sesh. Q busted out the guitar a bit later and managed to break a string. Then the temp dropped somewhere around midnight and i got in my bag around 2am and our train was rolling through downtown eugene around 4am. We got off downtown right past REI on 1st and Jeffereson while the train was barely rolling. There was a bridge park there with lights, water, and electrical outlets. We were comeltely covered in cement dust by this point and so we took a while beating out our clothes and sleeping bags and washing off in the drinking fountain. I plugged in my phone and camera battery and bushed my teeth and was feelin pretty good. I had to clean and a patch a cut i had aquired in dunsmuir and we ate our chili from Klamath. From roseville to Eugene all in about 24 hours. klamath falls to Eugene was 8:30pm-4:30am (7 hours)
so we started walking down 1st street deciding that there wasnt anywhere suitable at that park to sleep and headed twords the river. we passed the bike coop on the way.once we hit the river we took a left and found a sleeping spot as the sun was coming up. we smoked a bowl and i used my phone for a few minutes and then we got some rest at about 6am.

tuesday the 13th
We woke up around 1pm and i took a nice little dip in the willamette. then we walked through this botanical garden and stopped in over at the bike coop. you could rent a pennyfarthing or a recumbent or or regular bike for the day there! we got out of there after eating some bomb tacos and went in search of a laundrymat for obious reasons and a post office because i had a letter to send to my ladyfriend. we heard that the post office was on willamette/6th. we found the laundry mat and put as much of our stuff as we could in the washer. once we were out of there i found the post office and mailed leci a letter. then we went looking for an internet cafe and in looking found a cool music store where Q could buy a new guitar string. We were looking for the internet spot because I had Leci email a few friends of mine that lived in town and i wanted to see if they had emailed me back. Then i got a call from my buddy simon who lived in town, It turned out he still lived in the basement of this big coop house called the lorax across town from where we were. on Alder and 18th. so we made plans to head over there. We got there and there were all sorts of kids in the alley, and i saw his canoe on the side of the house. I found the guy Nathan who let simon use his phone to call us and then we rolled down to the basement to find simon, his girlfriend Jaime and their cat cozy. So we sat down and smoked some trim joints with them. a bit later we went to the local market and got stuff to BBQ and sat around their half buried fire barrel that night and made potatoes and links in tin. Q and i slept in the attic of the lorax, which is a 4 story communte with a toolroom, bikeshop, jamroom, and simon and jaimies room in the basement. But yeah, Q and i both slept on beds up in the attic.

wednesday the 14th
In the morning i went up on the roof and took a nice long pee and saw a drawing i had done up there 2 summers ago on the cimmeny was still there. we rolled downstairs and chilled with simon and the gang for a bit, and then i ran into the bike guys named babydude and asked if there were any good bikes to ride, he directed me to a loaner mt. bike and a sexy tallbike painted camo green, and allegedly built in the 70s. its rear triangle was extended for stability. so then Q and i bounced out . the rear 27 on the tall had a little wobble to it in the hub so we decided to head to the bike co-op. we were also on the mission to find paint. i tightened up the hub and realized that it still had a crunch to it , i opened her up and saw that there were some really cheap sealed bearings that had been tightened in to tight. there were metal shavings everywhere. so i said "shit" and tightened here back up as proper as possible, and after a few tacos we were headed to the river. On the way there the back wheel seized up comepletely! Luckily it was quick release, so i popped it off and rode back tword the co-op while Q stone cold kicked it on a bench in the park with a wheellest tallbike for a conversation starter. I got back and pulled out the axel to see what was up and the cones had tightened in and ruined the bearings and races, so the hub was deemed dead. so i went looking for another rear 27" and at first it looked like i was shit out of luck but then i found a nice perfect old sears roebuck looking wheel that looked like it had never ben ridden. It was true and it had a nice cassette. So i bought that one for 3$ and was on my way back to the park. i switched her up there and we were on our way to find an open swim spot on the willamette. found one and jumped in only to find a log hidden in the water as i jumped in. so we were on to the next mish to find some spray paint because we had gotten the ok to paint some walls on the cambel club, which was the coop across from the lorax. we bought 6 cans for 20 bucks and we switched off riding the tallbike on the ride back. we got back and smoked a trim joint with simon and crew and then we started getting set up to paint because we wanted to take a few hours doing that and then try to get to the trainyard by nightfall. We went to town and buffed up the walls, with what was around, they even had a paint closet! Q started a pirate ship and i started sketching out a piece. It ran right up the stairs.simon brought out some speakers and more and more people came out to chill in the alley. we hurried to finish before sunset and sipped on beers as the sun dropped. Then as the coop kids started the grill up it was decision time. stick around for the night or or head for the train yard. we were on this trip to ride trains so we hustled to pack in an attempt to catch a bus but of course didnt see it so we walked about 4 miles aross Eugene to the yard, loceated on the north side of town.We stopped at a gas station first and picked up some rations , then we watched some grainers move around town and do some work. we saw a 7/10 whistle blower and felt a little like we were folleowing him around. so we showed up on the wrong side of the traicks, literally, so we had to jump over and run across the south throat of the yard. then we walked up to the first southern bridge and decided to kick back on the unfortunately thorny bushy embankment next toit. it had gotten to be around midnight by now. Q found a little bush nook and got some sleep I sipped a mickeys trying not to be anxious. we saw a few southbounds and one north bound with no rides on it! there were also a few workers driving around and working on trains down by this southern most bridge, it was much to be a good northbound catchout anyways. It was gettin to be around 1am so we decied to walk a bit further up the tracks, i wanted to see if there was still a big cavern dug out of the bushes that me and a few buddies had dug out a few summers ago. so we slung the packs up and on and hoofed it up the yard. only then did i begin to notice that any bushy jungle reminants along hte tracks had been demolished and all there was was low deadly blackberrys and the shitty tore up dirt that we were walking on. so where the fuck were we going? to look at some trains at least! so we finally hit park ave, and we see the park ave market down the block so we go to check it out, i hadnt discovered it 2 summers ago. It was closed of course so we sat there feeling a bit tired and fatigued and sipped on our mickeys. contemplating our fate. so we walked back twords the tracks and checked out our only option for a place to wait for trains, which was a large field on the end of park across the road from the tracks. we set up camp behind a a screen of bushes, and busted out some chili. we relaxed and rolled out the bags.and then it came: to one nice IM train of the night right around 3am maybe. I told Q i would go look for rides and i found a 53' well and ran back and we started to get packed, then it rolled the fuck out without us. I kicked myself for not telling Q to pack up before i went to check rides, and i packed a bowl and attempted to re-relax, although all i wanted was to be on that trian . soon we decided to switch spots a little further back in the filed to a bunker of a blackberry bush. Then i made a bed out of all this cus hay, and no trains rolled north , but i did get some sleep.

thurs the 15th
then the sun hit me a few hours later and i was up again. I woke up a bit before Q and decided to scope out the field a bit. Then i found the shpaught. there was a hole in the blackberries in the farback corner fo the field that turned out to be a, entrance that opened up to a sealed off jungle campwhere you could watch trains and still be out of view. there was even a bunch of somebodies stuff there that had maybe dropped out of highschool, stayed there a bit and then moved on from their worldy belongings. or something. the downside was that the shpaught was located along the backside of some fences of some houses, and there was an older chatty housewifeand her friends right on the pother side of the fence from us for a good part of the day squakin about how nice the garden was and so on. So after discoving the place and scoutin aroundit a bit i ran over and told Q i found the shpaught and the sun was already creepin on where he was sleepin. so we moved up in der. Then we got a bit more shuteye since we werent out in the open and it was still early. Then finally around 10am or si i got up again and built a seat by placing a piece of iron pipe inbetween two tree trunks horizontally. we passed the day listening to the woman rant and rave about her hmarvelous back yard. I also intermittently napped and did some writing. I also found some hedge clippers and proceeded to do some detail interior work around the jungle. We picked up some refreshments from the market around the afternoon time and then it showed up. she was a beautiful junker string and somewhere on the back there were two canadian grainers with porches facing eachother. so we swooped. Luckily i had filled the waters and got some raviolis, rolls and strange malt liquors called 'stacked" just minutes before at the market. It was a bit of a high profile train boarding, but after sitting in a bush all day it was to perfect to pass up. Soon enough we rolled out of the yard on our way to PDX!
Eugene-PDX 9pm-6am
We came to a rural siding an hour north and i used up the last of my paint walking up and down the line while we waited for higher priority train to go by, love ridin junk. We sipped on the malts and watched the miles and towns and lights and darkness fly by. we retreated into our cubbyholes when we would hit any major populated areas. there was a long rural stretch around 2am and Q was jammin out his guitar in his grainer hole across from me and it was the most surreal beautiful reverberating sound. it made me want to have my tape recorder real bad. we jammed for a bit on my porch where i sang and Q plucked and then around 3:30am i retreated to my steel cave for a bit of slumber. i awoke to some south portland neighborhood siding, and after a half an hour we started moving north again. i remeber watching the early bird workers driving by, and the sun was coming up. it was around 5am. Next we stopped in some old looking IM yard finally after a bit we once again jolted to a start and headed deeper into the portlandia metropolis. We passed the tazo tea building (cant miss the smell) and then jumped off right across from burnside skatepark. 2nd time i have dont his. we took the long way to actually get there, and we jumped on the last car to get a bit further down the tracks. we got to burnside park and the clock struck 7am We set up up at the chill spot and we BBQed the last 3 hotlinks we bought in Eugene, we warmed up a can of raviolis and ate the last tin of herring. then we smoked a few bowls and attempted to sleep in the chairs up there for a bit, and then moved to the ground.

friday the 16th
then i woke up with about 6 kids skating and sitting around me around 10am. I had a nice convo with an older postman/skater about all the great resources of portland and long term relationships, while Q borrowed a board and shralped for a bit. Then Q and i decided to roll out. We found some food carts downtown and i grubbed down hard on a Hawaiian plate. Then we went in search of this fountain i had seen in downtown before and ended up finding this completely different waterfall fountain. I swam around there a bit while Q napped, after that we hoofed it the few miles to a buddy's house in the northeast where we met My girlfriend and her friend who showed up in her car.
that pretty much wrapped up my summer ramble

we spent 2 days at my buddy drift's property where he was the only straight guy at a gay commune, in north PDX. My girl and i got our own little 2nd story room, Q slept in this big net and my girls friend caught the couch. We ate chicken soup and drank tea, and some sort of delicious almond champagne and made merry. The second night we watched the phantom of the opera which drift was giddy to watch with us. we also played with his chickens and white turkeys and chased around some lamas. I traded him some art for some green And Q and i got to make some copies of this sweet treasure map drifty procured. Then we got out of town. via car. We dropped Q off right on the other side of the train bridge in vancouver washington where i vaguely remembered catching a train to seattle. He caught one later that day and would then take a bus to chill with his buddy in everett and then take trains all the way back to the bay. Me and the girls took shifts all the way back to the bay and the hashy smoke rose with the sun as we got back to the homestead.

cant wait for the next ramble