Day 19

       I woke up sunday morning under some trees in a park. I was still in Sacramento. I heard something walking near me so I turned my head to look and saw a German shepherd. It was on a walk with it's owner and had ventured to me. I heard the man yell for the dog.
          I packed my things up and headed to Starbucks down the street. When I got to Starbucks I washed up in the bathroom. I was gonna spend a good chunk of the day catching up in sending my journals to my cousin now that I had Internet again. I typed for a while sending them over.
       A woman came into Starbucks and ordered a water. She sat next to me and plugged her phone in. She sat there a while then eventually asked me questions about my sign that said I was on a journey. I told her about my journey and why I was doing it. She was amazed and thought it was very brave and courageous. She then really opened up to me about her story. Her name was kim and was 41. She was a crack addict from the age of 16 to 39 and has been clean now two years. She grew up poor her whole life and was in the party scene early on in her teen years. She was homeless by 18 and has been living on the street since then. She said all the years she was on crack she was a soldier for the devil. She came to a point in life where she broke down and begged god to take drugs away from her life. Since she asked that she went through a series of events that ended in sobriety. She has been a believer of god since then and says she has joined his army. She never goes to church or reads the bible but has god watching over her 100%. She now shares much of the things out of little she has. She said since she has done tha,t things she needs have come to her much easier than ever. She said it's so important to give back and that is how to spread gods love. She lives in a tent down by the river in a park with her boyfriend. She has been happier than ever since she has been clean and when she let god start to work in her life. Her words were really powerful and I had goosebumps many times during our conversation. At the end of us talking she said she thinks I am a strong soldier for god and that meeting me gave her more power in her faith. I told her I am searching for truth and what this world really is. She said I will find it and she thinks I already have been. Her certainty was really strong. It was cool to hear that from someone like her who has lived through the dark side of this life so long and has now come into the light. It feels like people who have lived that way have a stronger sense of the struggles of getting through the dark side. To me that is fascinating and the stories are so amazing to hear. We talked for 2 hours. She gave me half an orange she had. Then she took off.
      I continued to write my emails. A man and two kids sat outside and were eating. They had a box of pizza and were all grubbing. I kept looking at the pizza and it looked so bomb. I wondered when I would eat pizza again and figured it might be a while. That's for sure one of my favorite foods.
        I sent emails all day until 8 when Starbucks closed. I went to a laundromat down the street to use their wifi and sat down for a while. A security came in and sat down. He asked me if I was traveling through and said he never seen me around. I told him I was heading north. He asked some questions and we talked a while. He was really cool. At this point it was about 10pm. He asked how I eating the road and I said I kinda snack or hit value menus here and there. He asked if I ate dinner? I said I had some trail mix but not really a dinner. Then he said something that shocked me. He told me if I go behind the building at 11, little Caesars next door takes all the Hot and ready pizzas out to the homeless for free. When he said that I thought I would check it out. We talked a while then he had to make his round and left. When he left It hit me. I remembered the guy and his kids eating pizza and me watching them at Starbucks. I got goosebumps.
       The security returned about 20 minutes later and said he talked to a kid that works there and he would make sure to have a few slices for me. I was pumped! 
       So at about 10 minutes til 11 I went out back and sat by there back door. I sat there a minute or so when I saw a homeless man walk by. He was barely staying on his two feet and talking to himself. He would stop once in a while and crack up laughing also. It was freaky and his laugh was like a witch. I saw him sit by a fence and pull something out of his coat. It was a piece of tin foil. He put something into it and then he lit a light to heat the foil (freebasing). He did that for a few minutes then he was ko'd up against the fence. I took a picture but it came out black. I also noticed a man I saw drinking coffee in Starbucks earlier walk up. He was in clean clothes and was cleaned up pretty good. He walked up to the dumpster and jumped right in. I was surprised. He moved stuff around and then jumped out. He pulled out a can of something and cracked it open and drank it. That was really out of nowhere.
     After that a little car drove up and a young kid asked me if I knew where to get coke. I told him no. Then he drive off quickly.
       The back door of little caesars opened and a employee saw me sitting there and closed it right away. He opened it again and said I couldn't sit by the door. He told me to stand by the dumpsters across the way. I told him no problem and I did.
        There were two guys on bikes over there. They told me that a few days ago a homeless crackhead rushed the door when they opened it and so they don't want anyone sitting there. So a few minutes later the employee came out and he had a huge stack of boxes. I was thinking they would bring a box or two and I was going to split it with the two guys. There were 12 pizzas! Full hot and steaming pizzas! There were also an order of hot wings and breadsticks. I was shocked! I honestly couldn't believe it and I was laughing. Especially from seeing the people eating pizza earlier and really craving it. Each of the two men took two pizzas each and left. I was hungry so I kneeled down and munched a slice right there. It hit me all of a sudden, I was next to a dumpster eating pizza off of the ground as a homeless man. I had a big cheeser smile and was extremely happy. Never thought the day would come in my life where I would enjoy that as much as I did. It was pretty amazing and again I had goose bumbs. 
        I packed two pizzas into a grocery bag and stuffed them into my backpack. It felt weird leaving 6 untouched pizzas in the dumpster. I left walking towards the truckstop and had a huge smile on my face. 
       On my way a man on his bike stopped next to me and handed me a prayer sheet. He said god bless and peddled off. It was random but I told him thanks.
       I walked about half way to the truck stop and stopped at a Starbucks to use Internet one more time. From there I went to a park I found on gps and fell asleep on a bench. I was out.