I woke up on day 33 again in Katherine's house on the air mattress. I laid there a while to enjoy my last bit of time laying on such a comfortable spot. I never know where I could end up that night being back on the move. So I soaked it in.
Katherine's mom had laid a couple shirts out for me so that I had something decent to wear to church. There was a dress shirt and a polo. The only shoes I have are my duct taped nikes so I decided to go with the polo as I figured the dress shirt would look worse with my shoes. So I got up and hopped in the shower. I hoped I wasn't interrupting anyone's routine to get ready by using the bathroom.
After I showered I got dressed and needed to pack my cart. I loaded my clothes into my backpack, and packed the other things they had given me to take(they gave me about 10 cliff bars to take). So after I packed it up it was time to go. Katherine came down and was ready to go and had asked if she could walk with me. I of course was happy to say yes. So I put my backpack on and we headed off.
The church was really close, it was maybe a half mile down the road. As we were walking there we had to look funny walking together. I was hauling my hobo cart that says "food" on it, and my beard and hair are out of control, and she was in a white dress with a flower in her hair and looked beautiful. I think the cars passing were confused.
We got to the church and I stashed my cart behind the bushes outside. I grabbed a dollar to give to the offering. I don't have much to spare but I want to pay forward at least a little of what I have received. We went inside and there were classes going on before the service. Katherine's dad was in a room with the high school kids and he wanted me and Katherine to join him. So we went in there and sat down. He wanted to share my story with the kids and give them a chance to ask me questions. So he shared what I was doing and I gave some input to them on how I have experienced God's presence in my journey. It feels good to share that with them as it is something real that I have lived through.
The kids asked me some questions and I answered them the best I could. I also showed them the video of Corey Fuller (the football player I met) and told them the story. They enjoyed that and for the most part seemed interested in what I am doing.
After the class we headed down to the service. It was a good message and it really made me think deep. I enjoyed being there with the whole family and getting to have our final morning together in the house of God.
When the service ended it was time to say farewell to everyone except Katherine's parents. I would join them in the church lunch, but Katherine and the rest of the crew were leaving. I said goodbye to them and it was a little sad. They were such good hearted people and had given me such a warm stay in Spanish Fort, AL. I was so thankful for what they did for me and felt sad leaving them. But I gave them all hugs and bid farewell. Katherine handed me $20 also. I really was uncomfortable when she did that and didn't want to take it as they had done so much already. I told her I couldn't accept that after all they did, but she said take it. We said goodbye again and they were off.
So I stayed behind and met a few more people. I met one of their aunts also. She had heard I was staying with them and she talked a bit with me and also handed me $20. I again, as I always do, said are you sure? And she said yes, and she wanted to help. It was so amazing how nice the people were. Even after all they did for me, which to me is worth much more than money at this point. They still insisted I accept this also.
So we headed to the church lunch and I hadn't eaten yet so I was starved. I made my plate so big that it almost broke the plate. Everything looked so good and I wanted all of it. I sat down and devoured it. Everything on my plate was amazing. I'm not sure if it's because of the lifestyle out here, but usually at pot lucks there are things that are good, then things that are alright. But here, everything was good, equally. Even though I was stuffed I went for desert too and pigged out on cheesecake and another chocolate dish. Again it was great.
I stuck around there and talked to some more people and it was a good time. A good social place to be after being alone for days. I was happy there.
It was afternoon and about time to hit the road. I went outside with Katherine's parents and gave them the shirt back. I said goodbye and gave them each about 3 hugs. I was so thankful that they gave my such amazing hospitality. Again I was sad to leave them. They invited me back anytime and I really hope I can make a trip back there sometime in the future.
So I went and grabbed my cart. I sat down and put some duct tape on the heel part of the inside of my shoes as they had holes in them that we're irritating my heels. Finally, I packed up and was off. I walked down the highway towards Mobile. I only got about a mile when Katherine's cousin Gair pulled over in front of me. He hopped out of his car and had a box full of cliff bars. He handed me that and also gave me a small pack size Bible. He said he hoped it would help and he wished me luck on my journey. That was rad and I was really happy with the things he gave me. He also said to stay in touch and he thought what I am doing is really cool. We said goodbye and I headed down the road.
I got maybe 5 miles down and my heels were staring to blister, FAST! I pulled off at a campground to let them rest. I was worried they might get worse and cause me to stop for sometime so I wanted to rest them to be safe. I sat on a bench under an overhang for a while. Within about 20 minutes it went from clear skies and mid 80's, to a huge dark cloud covering the whole sky and cold and windy. It was something I normally don't see in California.
So I sat there and the cold wind turned into rain. The rain was really heavy and the clouds were very dark. It didn't look like it would stop and I was starting to worry about where I would stay. When I walked into the camp ground I noticed it was $30 to camp for a night. There was no way I was spending that much of what little I had. I was drawing a blank.
The rain got heavier and the wind picked up. Now even under the overhang was getting rain as the wind carried it sideways right under the cover. I grabbed my things and ran to a bathroom about 50 yards away. When I got there I knew even to set up my tent wasn't an option as I would get soaked just putting it up. Plus there was nowhere out of sight. As I got into the bathroom it went from loud as hell, to silent. It was a new bathroom and there was a heater on in there and it was warm. Right away I knew.....this is where I'm gonna have to stay tonight.
I went back to the back stall and it was just big enough to fit my cart and me inside it. Thank God it was clean too. I went in and pushed my cart up against the wall. I just kept looking at it like "am I really going to do this?" and would realize it was about my only option. So finally I pulled my sleeping bag out and layed it down.
The space I had to lay down was small and I wouldn't be able to stretch out all the way. So I folded my sleeping bag in half and laid on it. I could only lay in a fetal position so that my legs didn't stick out under the stall door. Luckily nobody was coming in to use it. That made it easier. So I laid there switching laying on one side to the next over and over til I fell asleep. My iPod was also dead and there was no charger in the bathroom.
I woke up at least every 20 minutes all night. There were ants in there too and I would constantly feel them crawling on me. At one point I woke up in the middle of the night and saw that there were ants all over my cart. I sat up and saw a trail crawling right next to where I was laying of thousands of ants. I couldn't do anything and if I disturbed them they would have ended up all over me even more. I couldn't think of what they were after in my cart? I was dead tired and just fell back asleep as they continued to crawl on me.
Then later I herd the door open. I had no clue what time it was as my iPod was dead and there was no way of seeing outside. But judging on how tired I was I figured it was still night. The footsteps walked in and I bundled up quietly closer to the wall so he wouldn't see me underneath the stall door. I had locked it and just hoped nobody would come to this stall. Luckily he stayed near the urinals and never got close. I went back to sleep when he left. I slept very badly, and when I did sleep it was with ants crawling on me which felt like I was always somewhat conscious. It was a very rough night.
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