Sitting in Houston at the J
 

Sitting at the J in Houston, trying to Hitch a ride to San Antonio ;) IF anyone stops in, I am wearing a yellow shirt with dark blue pants and a black/blue jacket, say hi, give me a few bucks, or a ride :).

Huhhhh?????????

Wow, I was just thinking about you the other day. Hadn't seen you post in a long time. Sorry to hear you're in a bind. Can't make it there this time. Wanna tell us what you've been doing, and what happened? Alot of the guys here seem to frequent that area. I hope one of them stops and helps you out.

Hobo

from his blog. pretty much sums it up.

As the great James Goodson used to say......."This Is Sad.........This Is Truely Sad!"

OMG what happened to you? Good luck to you. That Flying J on 45 north of the city is a POS. If I was in that part of the country I'd give you a lift, but I'm sitting at the Flying J in Eloy where I meet you last year. Take it easy.

What happened??
Did you lose your truck or something?
Did you leave it running at the fuel island, and went inside, came out and it was gone??
I'd come by and get ya...but that's a pretty good drive. Houston is way down south of the globe.

Wow what a response! I've been out of a truck for a few months, O/O I used to drive for told me he was getting a truck ready, so I started hitching down to San Antonio from PA. At the Loves in Katy, TX right now. Getting OUT of Houston was not easy... My blog will say it all shortly, I am about to write to it.

What is so sad?

I read your blog and let me get this straight:
You decided to become homeless and bum around America thru truck stops and hang around drunk, high, off ramp champs?
WTF is wrong in your head? LOL Never mind. Don't even bother answering that cause I don't care.
I would say good luck but not this time. You are there by choice. That just solidifies my opinions about homeless beggars, they are there by choice and I am not going to give to some one who does not want to help them self.

Please disregard that if you are on some mission to make a movie or get famous or have some reason for doing this other then you just don't want to work and pay taxes for a living. LOL

Otherwise, youo done lost your ***ing mind LOL

"My goal is to live a simple life according to my beliefs

Interesting that your "beliefs" include stealing from hard working people.

Obviously every single thing..

I am sorry to hear about your difficulties. However, I am surprised that you would smoke a joint when you are going for a job as a commercial driver. :roll:

I'm reminded of the Welcome Back Kotter episode where Vinny's walking around saying "Gimme drugs, gimme drugs, gimme drugs"

Hobo i feel sorry for you doing a good deed to help out a BUM.

I agree Mike. I didnt know anyone beliefs were to be a homeless bum. LMAO what a joke.

If you think about it though it's a rather easy goal to achieve.
I could probably do it in less than a week......... if I really focused. :lol:

By the way Mackman, go the hell to work................ or help me find the soup line.

I'm sorry Matcat. I didn't realize.. Otherwise, I wouldn't have made the joke.
I hope you can make it to San Antone and get the job.

Its hard to get in and out of dirt jobs with all this damn rain we are getting. Im still looking for the soup line when i find it i will let you know.:D

that your broke, homeless and bumming your way to SA.

Hey...whatever floats his boat. I hope he lands another job.

If the few of you making some of the comments you are making had read the entire blog, you would maybe see it isn't about living free and easy. For one I don't believe in what we as Americans have become and are (in general). Now I am not really talking about us as drivers, but those that live a 9 to 5 day in and day out, living some routine and being comfortable in it and afraid to do anything else in life. Not to mention living life just to work so you can keep on buying things that you need to work even more to keep affording.

For me it is a choice of freedom, a form of freedom few will understand I suppose. I don't see myself as homeless, I see the world itself as my home. Yeah it sucks to 'beg' from time to time, and I haven't done so just to accumulate cash, when I have I did so only for food, it is one aspect I do not like to do, but I will do what I have to to survive.

My main goal in this journey was for personal reasons, which I see no real reason to completely explain here, but secondarily because I have a job offer down here, if this job doesn't materialize as it is supposed to, that is OK and I will continue on down the road until another opportunity to drive comes along.

No I am not doing this for the idea of a movie or a book or anything, though I am keeping intense notes and one day I do wish to write a book, but I still don't know yet what the subject will be, and I am sure my adventures in life will play a role in how and what I write.

Now as far as me smoking some weed, I don't really care what anyone thinks of me about that, it is something I enjoy and I will do so, not while driving a CMV no, but I am not in a CMV right now now am I? If I where I wouldn't smoke, it's really quite simple. I value my CDL and I would never do anything to jeopardize it, I have never failed a drug test and I never will.

What it boils down to, is I got tired of the type of lifestyle most people live, I got tired of the 'routines' we all fall in to, I got tired of the comfort zones I setup around myself. So I set off on a journey, to learn whatever I could out of the experience, to see the world from a different perspective.

Whatever your opinion is of me, good for you, I don't care, all I care about is what I think of me :). And make no mistake, this is not an easy way to live, but the freedom and the experience is well worth it.

As an update, I am now at the Petro in San Antonio! I made it here!

You do realize how long it can stay in your system I hope.

I don't know you but I wish you the best and hope you find what you're looking for. You're young and single with nothing to lose so yeah, if you want to travel around from truck stop to truck stop then all the power to you. Just don't do anything stupid if you get desperate. And be careful.

Let us know if you meet up with any Arrow drivers :smokin:

Rofl, I think most of them found their way home by now :).

Yes I know how long it stays in the system, what I smoked would be gone in a week, if it even shows up. The more you smoke the longer it takes to get out of your system. But I don't want this discussion to be about that!

Congratulations on making it to San Antonio. I will mention something about the marijuana. What you do is your business. However, some carriers are doing hair tests as part of the pre employment drug testing. It is my understanding that drugs can stay in your hair for months. Although you say that you won't do anything to jeopardize your CDL, you do enjoy smoking a joint. In this profession it can be very dangerous for your career to smoke dope. Even if you are caught smoking or in possession and not in a commercial vehicle, it could be a career ender. I have interviewed a number of people who thought that they could take drugs and not get caught. I am not judging you but questioning why you would take such a risk?

You are right, it is a risk even between employment. You are also right, hair tests can show back for years! They could do a hair test on me right now and won't see anything, because I haven't smoked since I last shaved my hair other then in the last week, and it takes a while for the hair to grow out and show anything, it also doesn't show low quantity usage, so even then it wouldn't show.

Like I said, I don't want this conversation to be about that. I am a responsible person, I don't drink and drive, I don't smoke and drive, when I do drive I make sure I am well rested, and ready to go.

I just think it is so sad that there is such a stigma about weed in this country, a drug which has more beneficial values then negative, which is much less impairing then alcohol, and never made anyone do anything crazy, you don't see pot heads out there killing people, or robbing people, or doing much of anything stupid, but you will see a lot of alcoholics doing these things.

But my personal beliefs and opinions are just that, my personal, everyone is entitled to believe and feel what they want.

Very interesting decision you've made, please keep us updated.
Stay safe out there.

gcal said:

Why I picked THIS one is anyone's guess.... but, here we go: :roll3::hellno:

I read his blog, too. And... I've MET him and had a discussion with him about trucking.... especially concerning the O/O he worked for THEN.... and probably still does (or one just LIKE him.)

First, he was "homeless" when I met him. As I recall, he.... like MANY here.... gave up his apartment to "live in a truck." Being single... this was not so hard to do.

THAT O/O... like SO MANY.... was just a POS who was stringing him along for his CDL, and wanting him to WAIT until he had a truck to put him in! THIS experience sounds like an extension of that. I'm not sure WHY Matcat has to settle for these LOWLIFE O/O's unless, of course..... it was that FOG incident!!! He made a ROOKIE mistake.... and he is paying for it.

Wow.... STILL speechless! :cool:

I can SEE how you have this denigrating opinion of the homeless.... although MANY these days used to be bankers or TRUCK builders... but, the fact that you emphasized that your opinion was "solidified" by the fact that they were "homeless" (as so many ARE...) shows a totally irrational discontent with anyone who may have fallen on hard times..... and tells me ALOT about you. :hellno:

Please disregard MY statement if I've misread YOU, as you imply you MAY have done.

I don't think he is on a "movie mission." I KNOW this guy, and his current situation is NOT for "personal ECONOMIC gain. I believe it is a cross between a "statement" and an "education." At the LEAST.... it is a "March Madness" of transition into the rest of his boring life!

Mackman said:

Please don't... Mackman. I'd do the same for YOU! :hellno::rofl:

It was a very interesting night... when I met Matcat. And, it only cost me a pizza and a little "spending money." When I drove up, he was standing next to a guy (and his truck) whose job it was to CLEAN the parking lot! Mat was making him feel important. THAT guy even thanked me for showing up! :hellno:

Matcat doesn't WANT this to be about "reefer," and I agree with him.

He doesn't WANT this to be about an O/O who USED him.... but, we all know that SOME of them do.

Matcat CAME onto this board with a story of total stupidity (accelerating into a fog!) and asked us to HELP him understand where his life would go NEXT.

Are we ALL so "perfect" that we won't NOW continue that education and learning experience? Mat is a very "likeable" guy.... but, you don't have to LIKE a driver (or a CAD member) to LEARN from him! But, it DOES help!

I am not sure that marijuana is any less impairing than alcohol. Most whom I have known who smoked it seem to be more laid back than other drugs. I never got into the drug scene. I think that I barely missed it while growing up. Alcohol was still the drug of choice for my generation. In any case, I am not one to judge. I believe in live and let live. I was merely pointing out the obvious.

I hope you find what you are looking for, matcat. There are quite a few drivers who are living out of their trucks these days. If you don't have any bills it is a great way to save some money. Without the usual household expenses you could put back a good nest egg and still stay in a motel now and then to get out of the truck.

Back in 1991, I knew a guy who only smoked weed on the weekends that he spent out on the peninsula, in Sequim WA. His parents had a motel there, and he and his wife would put together "party weekends".

A few days after one of those "weekends", Scott was down in Tacoma, working out of a load rack on the "Tideflats". It was about midnight, he was driving the newest truck in the local fleet, and failed to stop at most of the railroad crossings. If you don't know, the Tacoma Tideflats is chuck full of railroad crossings, tall old warehouses...and few lights (at least in the early 90's). Scott was down by the Weyerhaeuser Logyard, running across a set of tracks that ran between to old Weyerhaeuser warehouses. He didn't stop to look or listen, so he didn't see the Union Pacific freight train that was rolling between 2 of those warehouses....with it's lights off. Union Pacific trained that brand new tank-trailer! Bent it around the front of the locomotive.

It turned out that Scott wasn't nearly as good at hiding the weed in his system as he thought he was....and neither was the Union Pacific engineer....who had the same "weekender weed" habits as Scott. This all happened right after UP had a massive accident down alongside I-5 in Kalama WA. Both of them lost their jobs. Both of them almost went to jail. The UP engineer crapped his drawers during the accident.......or so the story went, as told by Scott.


That brand new trailer was hauled back down to Paramount California, where the manufacturer's plant straightened it back out, and is still on the road today. It is being pulled by it's second owner, Associated Petroleum. The last I heard about Scott....he finally got an LTL job....3 years later.

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

:clap:

:clap:


Now....that is funny!! :clap:

Matcat is doing something I have thought about doing a number of times, and never did. Not the smoking weed, but just bumming around. Actually, what I had in mind would be much more "on foot". I went through the area west of CO in UT, on I-70, in the area of "The Black Dragon", and thought a number of times about just making my way through it, getting lost in it, and seeing what I could find and what all there is to see. I know there are relics there, scattered few and far between, and I'm sure there are a number of them that civilization has never found.

His purpose is different then mine would have been, but not that far off.

Wish you the best, Mat.

I've wanted to explore the black dragon myself, I might head out that way when I get the chance!

I understand water can be a bit scarce in that area. You might have to be prepared to collect your own supply at night. It also looks like rattlesnake heaven. Easy to catch, but takes a bit of care that you don't become the main course. And, I can't say that waking up to find one of them in my sleeping bag would be a dream come true, either. But, there is enough area there, a guy could spend a lifetime and never see it all. For that matter, you could get really lucky and find gold there too.

I guess this thread is just to much over my head. LOL
I just can't understand why someone would put them self in a situation like this and then.....o nevermind. LOL
I am not gonna say anything else. LOL I will stick to my beliefs and you do te same. :Lets agree to disagree.
Keep the oily side down and drive on...

And then what?

Anyway, my reasoning was hit well on by Golfhobo... but I will expand a bit on my philosophy and reasoning...

First off, this country is dead, it was shot in the head and is in the process of falling to the ground. I personally see no come back, no return of the economy. I personally believe we are in the transition to third world, and I want a jump start on self sufficiency. I have plenty of knowledge, now it is time for me to personally put that knowledge into experience.

Secondly I am a gypsy, I cannot sit in one place for long, and for me long being more then a few months. I cannot live comfortably in a routine, I hate it. I am not happy unless I am on the move.

Thirdly it is a journey to learn about myself. what better way to get to know yourself then to put yourself in a position where you must take action every moment to survive? I can be quite a lazy person, this is one way for me to break myself out of that too. Can't be lazy and survive this way.

Fourth, I have a rather hippie mentality in a lot of ways. I see everyone work their arse off so they can buy all of these things that they need to work even harder to keep paying it off. There is no time for life, life becomes all about work, work hard so you can continue to live to work even harder. I don't believe in that, I believe in working for what you need to live, but not to live just so you can go on working. What good is that boat, that RV, that 4x4, that big ole house, that Lexus, that whatever toy you have if you never have time to enjoy it? In fact I hate materialism, not to say I don't like having money or toys, but to make it a god, to make it so important in our lives, it is a farse to me.

I never got into a truck just to make money, I did it to travel, the true definition of a paid tourist. But I did so with the utmost of professionalism.

Recently something inside of me gave way, I realized something about me, that showed me I needed to get away from the norms of society, and I grew the balls to do it.

I realize most people will not understand it, that you are happy in your normal routine. That is good for you, I can't live like that. The way I am now I feel like I am in true freedom, and I am so happy it is beyond explanation. Now don't get me wrong, there are moment's I have to resort to doing things I don't like, like pan handling, and I hate doing it, but in the name of survival I will, until I find a better solution to be more self sufficient in that area.

Quite honestly I do not think I will be getting into a truck as a driver anytime soon... I want to, but at the same time I don't. Maybe in the course of hitching I will offer to help drive, or even stick with someone for a little bit of time if they offer to pay me for helping them to drive, but that will be the extent of it for now.

One day when I am ready, if this country is still around and there is an economy for it, I will buy a truck, but I don't see that anytime soon.

I got 5 cars, waverunner, 3 atv's, arcade games, house, and all sort of toys and gadgets. 'm never home to play with any of it. Matcat, I see your point. I like to eat and have sheets, so I keep woking, but I agree with your idea of, quoting Fight Club, "things you own, eventually own you".

There may be something to this...I don't know, but maybe it explains why Shania doesn't show up at my door in the middle of the night,
telling me how she's been pining for me while on tour making a million bux a night. http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l2...nd10/shrug.gif

I'm not a rich man, so she has no other choice but to slum it with me.
I hope she finds that appealing. :D

Matcat . . Last I heard, you were working on a new DDL . . is the beta version up for testing? In the meantime, you might consider heading to Fargo/Formorehead . . they're going to need some help with sand bagging.