On day 34 I woke up in the bathroom stall at a campground east of Mobile AL. When I woke up and finally decided to get up after waking up all through the night, I sat up and wiped probably hundreds of ants off of me. I was still very tired but I was ready to get out of this place. When I got up there were thousands of ants all over my stuff and all over the floor all around me. I found where they were going and it was the side pocket of my backpack where there were 2 lolly pops from a lady in Florida who gave me a bag of stuff. I pulled them out and threw them away. Then I used my hat to get as many of the ants off as possible.
I brushed my teeth and got ready to go. When I opened the door to go outside of the bathroom I could tell it was early. The sun was just rising. So I headed down the road. It was nice because it was pretty cool and I figured if I could get my walking done early I could miss the heat. Even though I was tired I set a good pace.
A couple miles into the walk I suddenly saw something in the weeds next to me a few feet off the shoulder of the road. Alligator!!!! It was about 7 foot long and thick too!!! I jumped back a bit! My goosebumps and hairs all were stiff! I looked at it and realized it was dead. Near it's tail the bones were exposed and it was dried out. Whew! But at a glance it looked alive! I looked at it a while and took a picture then continued.
I walked over the small bridges along the 90 where all the rivers from the delta went into the bay. It was a nice walk. As I neared Mobile I had to head north a few miles as the main bridges (big bridges) to get to the city had no walking access. So I headed north as the 90 went up and then after a few miles crossed a large bridge into an industrial area in north Mobile. My iPod died just before the bridge and I couldn't remember the exact route directions. So I kept an eye out for outlets. But there were no stores of food places and it was all industrial stuff.
So I had to wing it and just sort of kept heading west. I went through neighborhoods and weaved through small roads and worried I was going the wrong way and might end up having to walk extra to find my way to the original route once I found a charge. The area was rough also and some of the cars passing had me a little worried. Most the houses either had bars on them, or were abandoned. It was pretty sketchy.
Finally a while passed and I hit a main road and there was a McDonald's. I went in and found an outlet to plug my things in. I also ordered 2 mcchickens as I was somewhat comfortable with it having more money now. I had gone about 15 miles and across the street was a big church that had a good spot to sleep so I figured that would be it for walking on that day.
I hung out in there most of the day. Around 5 or so I went across to a dollar store and bought duct tape for $3. I took my time sitting outside the store and duct taped the soles of my shoes pretty thoroughly. I put a good layer over the entire soles and really stuck a bunch of pieces on there good. When I was doing that a homeless lady passed by me. She was a black lady with a few teeth and looked in pretty bad shape. She asked where I was going. We made small talk and she was pretty friendly. She never asked for anything but I sort of impulsively pulled $5 out and gave it to her. I was a little nervous to do that. But after a few minutes I realized paying it forward and sharing what I have been given is the right thing to do. This made me feel better and I was happy I helped her. She looked like she needed it more than I did at that moment.
I went back to the McDonald's and hunout there a while longer. It was dark and the crowd inside was pretty wild and loud. Very entertaining. A man came in with raggedy clothes and held a nice electric guitar. He also had a backpack with an amp in it. He started playing and he was good! He was playing iron man, jimmy Hendricks, all kinds of good stuff. He was really good. I pulled another dollar out and handed it to him. He also looked rough and only had 1 tooth compared to the lady before who had 3. He played a while and everyone inside was loving it!
At about 10 I decided to head to the church. When I came outside the McDonald's I noticed 2 guys standing behind a building in a shadow. I saw them earlier inside the McDonald's. As I walked towards the street I noticed they were behind me. So instead of going to the church I walked past it and they followed me. When I noticed that I turned around and walked towards them and was going to head back near the McDonald's where there was traffic. As I walked towards them they crossed to the other side of the street, opposite of me. And kept going. I stopped and watched and they never turned around and kept walking. At first I thought they were following me, then I thought maybe it was just a coincidence. Not sure.
I walked to the church and the front had a landing with bushes around it. I laid down there and it was hidden from the street. I just hoped nobody saw me walk up to it. If not I didn't think anyone would see me from walking down the sidewalk or driving by. I fell asleep there after laying a while and hearing some crazy people walking around and yelling and stuff. It was still a pretty rough areas to be in. I passed out eventually on the concrete
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