I woke up at around 10:30 in the morning.  Considering I normally didn’t wake up till noon and the past night had been spent drinking, I considered it pretty early.  J and his girlfriend, my friend’s whose trailer I was crashing in, had left for work already, so it was just me and our fluffy grey cat Beans.

Yesterday I had made an impromptu, yet unsuccesful, attempt at flight, but I ended up instead being bought drinks in a dusty tavern in the hills of Fentress County, Tennessee by a few old guys who saw me lugging up the road with my big Army duffle bag strapped to my back.  After their hospitality had worn out, I set out again, crossing the Kentucky line when John’s beat up red Chevy truck comes around the corner.  What could I do but climb in, apologize for taking off without notice, and accept the bottle of whiskey waiting back at home.  J’s girl was more upset at me for some reason and gave me a lecture, and when we all had our fill of alcohol, we went to bed and J told me not to leave that night.

Well, it wasn’t night anymore, my bad was still packed, and having got adventure’s sweet taste in my mouth, I couldn’t stay around.  So I ate a few crackers (all the food we had in the house), petted old Beans good bye, and shouldered my belongings out the door.

I walked out into the overcast day and started out the opposite direction I had went the day before, this time instead choosing highway 127, if you can call this two lane road snaking up the wooded hills a highway.  It goes north into Kentucky, which wasn’t the desired West, but it was the fastet way to get out of the state.

Not long after walking past the ancient Forbus General Store and the Pickett County line, to my surprise, an old red pickup stops.  I run to it and a middle aged man and his lady ask me where I’m headed.  I tell them Albany, KY.  They were on their way to Lexington and so Albany was on their path.  My first successful hitchhike!  I squeezed into the back seat and we made small talk.  They asked why I’m headed to Albany, and I lied and told them I’m going to move in with a few buddies and get a job up that way.  I was too embarassed to explain that I was going on some spiritual quest, fearing they’d think I was a little bit crazy.

When they heard I was looking for a job, they offered to take me into Lexington with them and get me a job at a McDonald’s that was opening up.  They’d even let me stay in the hotel with them till I got on my feet.  I considered this for a moment, but figured that since I didn’t have an ID (I’d lost that on a camping trip), it would be better to stick to the original plan.  I thanked them for their offer but told them myt buddies were expecting me and I didn’t want to bail on them.  They accepted this, and without much more talk, the let me off at the Shell station in Albany.

I was pretty pleased with myself having got my first hitch in, and I walked about the small town, at first thinking of stealing myself some DXM and spending the night there, but I decided I didn’t want to risk getting thrown in jail at the very beginning of myt journey.  So I made a promise to myself not to steal any on my trip, but as usual I would soon break it.  I kept it long enough to get out of Albany though.

I figured I’d better try to get to the next little town, Burkesville, and call it quits there. So I walked through town and back onto 127.  An old man picked me up.  He said hitchiking was a lost art and that he used to do it alot in his younger days.  I told him I figured it would be hard in this day and age, when everyone was a little more suspicious of everyone else, but that I was having good luck so far. He took me to the junction of Highway 90 and I thanked him.

The sky had cleared up by now and the sun was warming the day up, so I took of my jacked and started west on 90.  Now I was going the right direction.  I walked for a few uninteresting miles and then got picked up by a guy around my age who was going into Burkesville to pick up his girlfriend.  We didn’t really have much to talk about, but I was thankful I had made it to my destination, and it was a bit unreal to me that I’d really hitchiked and made it this far.  I wondered what J was thinking, and hoped he wouldn’t waste his gas trying to find me.  Even though he was my best friend, he couldn’t understand my wanderlust, but I hoped he had given up and let me go.

I was let off at a gas station and he went his way, and I went seeking a place to drop off my bag where I could spend the night.  I found a little woody area off the side of the road and set up “camp”.  Then I went back into town.  It was a Wednesday night, and I figured I could find a church and tell them what I was doing and get some help getting a meal.  I was a little ashamed for thinking that, but I figured it was either that or steal.  So I went looking for a church and found a little Church of Christ.  I had a few hours to kill before they opened up for the evening so I meandered through town some.  I saw a Dollar General and gave into my addiction and shoplifted my posion.  I found a little trail down to the Cumberland River that cuts right through the town and found a big uprooted tree along the banks and I lay on my back up on it and gazed up at the goldening sky and wondered at the day.  I was finally fulfilling this crazy dream of mine.