My Favorite Debt
Mar 9, 2009 hitchhiking, reading
I picked up a hitchhiker this morning and he identified me immediately: “You’re a Cedarville student, aren’t you?” Is it that obvious? Do I just radiate repressed fundamentalist vibes? But Samir assured me it was just a guess based on probabilities: C.S.U. students speed by, C.U. students pick him up. He’s living at Wilberforce but [...]
Tags: Cedarville, Central State, hitchhiking, Holocaust, luck, poker, randomness, Wilberforce, Xenia
Halfbeard’s Inane Weekend Moralizing
Jun 26, 2008 hitchhiking
Jehovah-Jireh… God will provide. Do you believe it? I went to a friend’s wedding this weekend in Willoughby, Ohio. The number of bachelors I know is dwindling steadily. My sister, en route to a wedding in Warren, took me to the NE outskirts of Akron so I could hitch the rest of the way. I [...]
Part-Time Hitchhiking For Fun And Profit
Jun 24, 2008 hitchhiking, reading, theology
I’m back in Columbus again after a weekend in Cleveland/Sandusky for Dan Gifford’s wedding. I hitched a bit both ways for a total of about 100 miles. The rest via rides with Katie, Kraig, and Brenton. I will do a trip report tomorrow since I’m too exhausted tonight. Here’s some Douglas Coupland (from Life After [...]
Tags: Dan, faith, hitchhiking, religion
The Gospel from Outer Space
Jun 17, 2008 hitchhiking, personal, reading, theology
Back to our regularly scheduled programming. Here’s an excerpt from Slaughterhouse-Five by the inimitable Kurt Vonnegut: …The visitor from outer space made a serious study of Christianity, to learn, if he could, why Christians found it so easy to be cruel. He concluded that at least part of the trouble was slipshod storytelling in the [...]
You Shall Know My Velocity!
Jun 9, 2008 hitchhiking
Wwwho’s in Ssseattle? THIS GUY. I arrived at 10.10am yesterday via a Spokane-Seattle Amtrak train and was completely FUBAR. For brevity’s sake I won’t explain, but it did involve paramedics (one of them suspiciously Luke Seelye-esque), vomiting, and a minor panic attack. After medication and a 3-hour nap at Bryce Bahler’s house, things turned around and [...]
Big City Blues
Jun 4, 2008 hitchhiking
Hi friends, Halfbeard the Barbarian checking in from a public library in Spokane, Washington. I arrived at a rest stop last night ~1.30am Pacific time and have essentially not slept for 36 hours (save for several cat naps when I holed up in a single-occupancy, lockable handicapped restroom to escape the cold). June 3rd I woke up [...]
Almost to Rushmore
May 30, 2008 hitchhiking
Your favorite vagabond is in a public library in Rapid City, South Dakota… no cell phone reception, but at least the intarweb tubes reach out here. I spent Wednesday in Cactus Flat, a non-town that is comprised of gentle prairie hills and no cactus. There I played with prairie dogs and probably contracted rabies from [...]
Nobody Hitches Anymore
May 28, 2008 hitchhiking
It seems every time my siblings update for me, I somehow get internet access immediately thereafter. Right now I’m stealing intarwebs in a hotel “business center” in… drumroll please… Sioux Falls, South Dakota. (!!!) My Memorial Day was terrible… after the popo (F.T.P.) kicked me off the 90/94W on-ramp and threatened jailtime, I spent 6 hours in [...]
The Journey Continues
May 27, 2008 hitchhiking
This is Katie Cole reporting for Kevin. I heard from him on Sunday night as he was settling into his tent and bracing himself for a wild thunderstorm at Dane County Park in Madison, Wisconsin. After a week of rest and rejuvenation in Elgin, Illinois with a college buddy, he had set off that day [...]
Trampin’ tales
May 18, 2008 hitchhiking
Hey friends, this is Kevin. I’m somehow in Chicago, having arrived last night. This has been one of the craziest weeks of my life. I will give a more detailed trip report later since I took pretty good notes (but failed on the photographic front). I’ve revised the purpose & rules of this trip so [...]
Tags: Chicago, hitchhiking, Indiana, Nate
The Beginning…
May 17, 2008 hitchhiking
Kev’s little brother, Kraig, here… We dropped Kevin off on the side of Route 35 in front of Hawkins Appliances just outside West Alexandria, Ohio on Tuesday, May 13th at 5:11 PM. He was in high spirits and his little belly was full of greasy small-town food from Barney’s diner. His final words, strangely enough, [...]
“Beware thoughts that come in the night.”
May 13, 2008 hitchhiking
My nocturnal thought was to walk across America. This half-cocked plan finally becomes a reality today. My first ride will be hitched with my brother, who will take me as far West as his schedule allows. From there… freedom. “A man who couldn’t make things go right could at least go. He could quit trying [...]
Boiling water redux
May 9, 2008 hitchhiking, personal
Quick update on the stove situation. Since I’m strapped for cash and my backpack is ridiculously full (4.9k cu ft) and heavy (42+ lbs), I nixed buying a “real” camp stove àla MSR’s Pocket Rocket. As mentioned below, the Sterno idea went busto too. So I made a semi-pressurized alcohol stove using an empty [...]
Tags: DIY
They call me the seeker
May 9, 2008 hitchhiking, personal
An update on my walk across America: I’ve been slightly delayed, and wont be leaving until Sunday or Monday. Yes, I’m really doing this. No, I’m not sane. I have 98% of my gear bought & packed. My backpack comes out to just over 40lbs. This looks like a manageable number on paper, but it [...]
No guru, no method, no teacher.
May 2, 2008 hitchhiking, personal, theology
For those of us who have lived by the cry Fuck the noise, what to do when we suddenly find that the Noise fucked us? We go walking I guess. On May 9th I plan on walking out my door in Ohio and starting a three-month trek to Seattle. I’ll be leaving on St. Christopher’s [...]
Tags: Hazel Motes, pilgrimage, Thoreau, walking