Day 20

       I woke up Monday morning on a park bench. I heard some people walking around me. It was a crew of people picking up trash for the city. I woke up and noticed there was a bunch of trash next to me. I didn't want them to think it was from me so I picked it up and threw it away before they got there. I packed my bed up and headed to Starbucks. 
       I wrote there a little while and was texting Ashley. I also ate so much pizza it was coming out of my ears. I was there for a while. I finally decided around 4 that it might be cooling down a bit outside and I would walk the rest of the way to the 49er truck stop. So I took off from Starbucks.
       I walked an hour or so in the heat and finally got to the truck stop. I headed right to the empty firework booth near the truck exit. When I got there I saw a man laying down with gear like mine and a women next to him with some bags. The woman was dressed nice and didn't look like someone living on the streets. 
       I sat near the exit and put a sign out that said north. After a little while the man woke up and saw me. He asked where I was going and I said Oregon or Washington. I asked where they were going. The guy was heading to salt lake and the woman said she's just going wherever. I had a weird vibe from her. The woman left her stuff there and walked to the station across the parking lot. The man came over to talk to me. His name was chuck. He asked me a few questions about my travels. He was coming from new mexico. Chuck was a retired marine of 14 years. I asked him who the lady was. He said he just met her that day and that she is crazy. He said she kept talking about how she stays away from tv's so her family can't read her thoughts back home. I asked him where she came from and he said outer space. He said even though she is beautiful that she was seriously so looney he was getting sick of her. I saw her talking to two guys in the parking lot and wondered what she was saying to them. She eventually came back to her bags. Chuck said he was going inside to get a drink. I told him to take a few slices of pizza from my bag so he did and said thanks. He went into the station.
       The girl eventually came over to me and asked where I came from and if I was having fun. She said she was thinking of heading to Santa Cruz. Then she walked away. I didn't really talk to her because I felt uncomfortable from what chuck told me. 
       I sat by the exit for a few hours with my sign. It was pretty slow and my butt was numb so I took a break and laid on the grass. While I laid there near the girl a security guard walked up to the girl. He told her he had multiple people saying she had been soliciting sex to them inside the truck stop. He told her she needed to get her things and get off the property. I couldn't believe it. She was really quite and didn't say much, she just grabbed her things and went across the street to a chevron and sat on a bench. 
       It was about sunset. Chuck walked back out to where I was. He said he had a good spot to crash if I wanted to be somewhere safe. I was originally thinking I would stay in the firework booth but kept thinking that the people selling fireworks would walk in the morning. So I decided I would go with chuck. We walked towards a storage unit property down the road. We walked by the lady and she came up and walked with us. She was asking if we wanted to get a hotel room with her and that she had money. She had no camping gear and I kept wondering where she has been staying at night. Either hotels or trucks probably. We both said we had a spot already and no thanks. She went into the super 8 down the road.
       Me and chuck found a good spot between the storages and highway 80. Chuck cleared out some sticks so we could put our stuff down. We made our beds and laid down. 
       Me and chuck talked for a while and I learned about his life. Before he was born his father died in Vietnam. He was raised by his grandfather in Indiana on a dairy. He got his girlfriend pregnant when he was 13!!! He also had kids with her when he was 15 and again at 18. She was 2 years older than him. His oldest son is 31 and he is 44. For some reason I laughed for like 10 minutes about that. He has 6 kids total all when he was young. He joined the marines and served 14 years in 7 different countries. He walked really slow and obviously had many injuries. He was run over in Iraq and also blown up. 60% of his spine is made up of dead peoples bones and put together with pins and plates. He was a tough dude. He owned a house in Indiana but gave it to his daughter. He has money that he gets every month and is not really poor. I asked chuck why he was on the road and he said since the military he has severe PTSD and can't stay in a place more than 2 days or he feels like he is in prison. He said the road is his therapy and he would rather camp outside then stay indoors. Sleeping indoors made him crazy. 
        He had a sharp mind and some really good views on the world. He has seen a lot and was educated. He said he is not homeless. He shed his blood all over the world to call this place home and he stays wherever he wants. This is his home, the home of the brave and he has earned that much. He was upset because cops give him trouble about holding signs. He never asked people for anything but only displays information. He said it's no different than a pizza place with a guy outside holding a sign, except his sign is cardboard and homemade. He said he has been through a lot serving this country and has earned the right to do that. And that the authorities who give him trouble usually have no idea. They just think he's a bum.
        He told me new world order is in progress and it has been slowly trying to take our freedom away for a while. That Obama is only placed into the presidency as a piece of that puzzle. He predicted that when Obama is re-elected a skin head will shoot him and it will cause a start of a revolution. A revolution we need. He believes that people like me who lived on both sides of the fence and are young can be a leader of survival when that time comes. ( I'm just telling you what people say to me ). He was telling me about the world leaders. 18 people who control 98% of all the globes money. That they decide when wars happen because they fund them, and they fund countries. But our revolutionary war will happen in the next 5 years. 
       He was really giving me respect for what I was doing. He thought it took courage and thats what I'm finding in life some people will never figure out. He told me I am lucky to be figuring it out this young. He said that when you give up everything the world then gives you a reward and a life full of happiness. I didn't have a strong opinion on anything he said but just mostly listened. But I sure feel like since I have made this decision, it's been a miracle what has come my way. I thought this place was full of dark and that by doing this it was gonna be much harder and more painful. But it has actually been 100% opposite then what I expected (mentally). 
       Me and chuck really connected and were able to bond on many thoughts and certain subjects. He is a great guy and I was lucky to meet him and hear his story.
      Chuck smoked a bowl of weed so he could sleep from all of his pain. We finally crashed at about 11