Los Angeles

I am in Los Angeles and I am too busy living my life to post it on a blog. I will try and find some downtime to let ya'll in on what has happened in the past couple of months. Mostly when I get some pictures, mostly.

Houston

Hey everyone:

As soon as I get a chance to update all the stories I will but I am just on here to announce a few things:

first off, I made it to Houston safely!


I guess it's time to tell the story of my robbery. I was on the phone with Casey Hunt one block away from the FSU campus when two guys who looked shady approached me. I thought for a second that the dudes were there to rob me but I am too trusting and thought I was a jerk for even thinking of it. One of the guys asked me for the time: I told him. It was ten. Then he rushed up on me and pulled out a gun from his pants. "give me your phone!" he yelled. I gave him my phone. Then he demanded for my money but I hesitated. I don't really have much money so all my money is important to me. He pressed the gun hard into my spine. Then he demanded again, "Give me your wallet." I still didn't give it to him so the other guy started screaming, "shoot him, shoot him, shoot him." So, after that I gave them my wallet pretty easily.

Then, they ran off. Their baggy pants didn't help the fact that they were slow runners. I could have out run them any day. I wanted to run after them, tackle them and beat them for my wallet but I used a little more sense and ran home.

I mean, what were they thinking? I am practically homeless with no job and little money and they are stealing from me? Not only that... they are stealing from me to buy 700 dollars worth of liquor. A luxury that I can't afford any more, really. I shrink my diet down to a sandwich and a grapefruit a day and these guys take everything I have.

Now, I was left with no ID, No SS, no money, no credit, or anything. And I am 850 miles from home.

I didn't even think to call the police but my friend Roxy did it for me. They were there promptly and started my case.

They stole a total of 700 dollars in credit before I could cancel my cards and they potentially can take more because they have my SS. They took a 50 dollar walmart gift card, a gift card to CPK, and a gift card to the movie theater (which was Jay's last gift to me before he died so I have been reluctant to spend it because it had so much sentimental value.) I lost an irreplacable picture that I had in my wallet for 11 years.

Luckily I had my camera on me which had all of my pictures from my trip and they didn't take it. I guess they didn't see it. That was probably the most important thing in my pocket.

I have officially decided to cancel the rest of my trip for the time being. I am going to go home on april 28th. I am getting a ride from my friend Tony. He is an angel because he is coming to Texas to pick me up. Hopefully when I get my money together again I will head out to California for the summer and then north to Washington and Oregon.

Thanks to everyone who has been supporting me throughout my journey.

Bryan

ATTENTION

I think I am going to cut my trip short, at least temporarily. Tonight i was robbed at gun point and have nothing. no money, credit cards, license, ss.

I need help or advice on what to do. all credit cards are canceled. Pray for me.

bryan

The break down

Greyhound did it for me again! The bus broke down at 1 30 AM in west palm beach. The second bus didn't come until 5 hours later. So I slept at the train station with no blanket, it was pretty horrible.

The next evening I finally made it to Tallahassee where I would see my friend Ashley for the first time in almost a year. This leg of the trip has been true college craziness. Going to bars and a comedy club and the circus are just a few of the amazing things I have done.

The best of all was when I went to Ashley's Sorority's Semi-Formal in Panama City. We took a party bus down where we listened to music and got crazy. Then we ate a fancy meal half a block from the beach so we went in the water after we ate. Then got our dance on which was awesome.

April Fools

On April first my Grandpa came down to Lake Worth to pick me up and hang out with me for a couple of days. I finally could stay in a place that I recognized as home. Having grown up going to this house in Stuart once or twice a year I felt extremely comfortable. They made me a huge dinner that night and forced me to eat two HUGE steaks which I managed to do somehow even though my stomach was so small I was full after only a few bites.

They continued to stuff me full of food the next few days at every meal then sent me on my way to Miami.

In Miami I got lost pretty quickly, but luckily when I asked for directions in a steel yard I was not only given directions but a ride to my destination. I walked a lot in Miami and on South Beach. I really didn't have fun in Miami but without a car the place was too expansive and overcrowded for my taste.

Then I would make it to Tallahassee?

A Savior

I have become accustomed to taking the tri rail down the coast of south Florida. A spent a day in Fort Lauderdale on the beach where kids were celebrating spring break. I was just another kid on vacation until I put my bag back on and homeless people were trying to hang out with me. I was depressed by the spring break. Everyone seemed so desperate to hook up and they were all completely shameless about it. I guess I didn't belong in a scene like this anymore.

I fit in more with the homeless people but they kept asking me to "blast" with them (which I am pretty sure it means heroine.) So, I couldn't hang with them too long but they did give me a lot of advice on how to take care of myself on the streets and where the best shelters are.

On the 27th I wrote this in my journal:

"I am in such a complete state of homesickness and loneliness that I am not sure if I can operate logically. I am making short cuts on my trip and I am not moving forward. I want to cut out the keys and the everglades because I don't have the heart? Anything to get me home sooner, I have missed so much awesome stuff with easy living and I question if it's worth it. Just get me to Tallahassee where I know someone."

Luckily God heard my cry because that day I got a call from a man named Rusty who offered me a place to stay in Lake Worth with him. So after I watched the last spring training game of the season I got on the bus and headed south to Rusty's.

3/25/08

I am a chameleon! I stayed in The Embassy Suites hotel and I was treated like a millionaire. I looked and felt like I belonged. I was given whatever I wanted. Of course that was only one night so I packed my things up and started walking.

I came to an intersection where a man in a Mercedes was stopped. He looked at me with deep fear in his eyes and locked his door so I could see. He was scared of me, a person who he must have assumed was a homeless person.

Not even a half hour later I ditched my bag in the woods and buried it under some leaves and walked on a college campus. I felt like a student. I got many smiles from attractive students: A sign of approval that I must be a student. Then when I was in the library a kid asked, "Do you have 90 cents on your card?"

I have figured my role on this trip. I am a chameleon and I am going to take advantage of it to continue getting by.

But what happened before I was stuck on the streets?

I left Bradenton in the morning and took a long and terrible bus ride to West Palm. I had memorized the local bus schedule so I got on a local bus and met up with my friend Debbie from Sam's who was in town for Spring Training. From the bus stop is was another 2 mile walk to her hotel where I met Debbie, Debbie's mom and her friends.

We talked all evening in the lobby and ran into many sports stars. The best was when Hal Mcrae was making a cup of Coffee and we asked him how the cardinals looked this year and he said, "just okay. You know, just okay."

When I left the girls for a minute to check my email they had made me up a plastic bag full of food! Then they offered me to stay at the hotel for a night in my own room. I politely refused but they told me that I had to and that they were going to get me a room anyway, they already decided. It was pretty amazing, especially because I was homeless the next night and here I am in this fancy hotel living the life.

Breakfast was whatever I wanted to order and it was free. I could actually get full! It had been a long time since I had felt that feeling.

We watched the cardinals trump the nationals in a slow placed game but a great victory.

I have a lot of catching up to do.

I haven't had a lot of internet access in the past couple of weeks so I have not really been able to update. I also don't have a way to load my pictures so I can't do that right now either.

Urban Camping:

I ended up Urban Camping the next couple of nights. When I say Urban Camping, I really mean being homeless. It just sounds a lot better when I say urban camping because it sounds like something I wanted to do. I wasn't able to find anyone to couch surf with so I was forced to camp even though I was in the city of West Palm.

I wasn't able to set up my tent because I was trying to hide from other homeless people and police. I just slept out under the stars near a pond surrounded by trees. It was really uncomfortable and I didn't really sleep the first night. Luckily the state of Florida is under a drought warning so I only got sprayed by sprinklers at 4 AM sharp one of the nights I camped out. That morning I watched a spider spin its web and a raccoon scavenge for food.

Oh and there was an animal that slept in the bush next to me that was quite loud during my entire camping experience.

Urban Camping

ONly have a second to update this. I urban camped last night for the first time in Florida. I found a secluded spot near a community college and slept under the stars. It would have been easy except the animal in the bushes next to me decided not to have a good nights sleep.

One last update before I am gone again for awhile.

If you would like to track where I have been and what I have done I have created a map of all of the places. Just copy this link into your browser!

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=104353616372927495628.000448fb295734a17bdad&ll=26.480407,-81.23291&spn=7.06677,10.997314&z=7

Pictures!

1. My new friends on a walk at night.

2. Lazy Easter Day on the Kayaks.

3. Crazy dogs next door.

4. 1500's rifle being fired.

5. Kayaking in pouring rain.

6. Pirates and Yankees.

7. Kayaking for my first time.

8. Creature I found in the ocean.

Happy Easter

3-23-08

Hey everyone! Happy Easter. My Easter wasn't so lonely after all. I woke up pretty depressed that I had no one to share the holiday with but I ended up joining Sam's grandparents for easter dinner (after a beautiful park bike ride of course)

After dinner we went Kayaking in the canals near their house and into the ocean! When we were tired we went back and relaxed in the hot tub.

Bradenton Florida

3/17/08

Sam, Heather and Mike were hosts to me when I stayed in Bradenton. They live in a pretty nice house with a pond in the back yard in a quiet neighborhood on the west side of town.

After lunch Mike showed me around town. He took me to the beach and we dipped into the water. Later Sam took me to the pool hall (where most of the kids hang out around here). We played best 3 of 5 and Sam won. It was also St. Patricks day and Sam isn't 21 so we just grabbed a couple of beers and took them to his place and bbq'ed. Late night we went for a walk around the winding neighborhoods. The whole time I was thinking of my cold friends in Missouri as I flopped around in my sandals and shorts. It was a good night.

3/18/08

Today I borrowed Sam's bike and took the 17 mile loop to Anna Maria Island to go swimming. It was a beautiful day and the beach was packed. I saw an Iguana in a tree nearby and they are apparently not indigenous to the area. I spent most of the day taking pictures and appreciating my climate.

3/19/08

I woke up kind of late today but when I got up I rode my bike to Desoto National Memorial just North of Bradenton. On the way an 18 wheeler wasn't paying attention to the road and took a sharp turn into a parking lot and almost hit me. I had to bail out to avoid getting hit; I missed the truck by a foot. I got to watch a lady fire a rifle from the 1500's and I watched a film on the history of the area. I went on a nice walk along the Manatee River/Tampa Bay. I biked back to the house against the wind which was blowing hard... it was horrible. I was on the lowest gear and it hurt to pedal. When I got home I picked a grapefruit from the back yard and it tasted so wonderful.

At night Sam and I had planned on seeing the Pirates and Yankees play at the spring training camp but Sam got a call. It was from his boss (he cleans boats for a living). Sam had to dive to the bottom of the bay to retrieve a man's wheelchair that had fallen in. It gave Sam a bundle of spending money before the game. The Pirates lost 12-9 but it was still a fun game. We got back to the house and Mike insisted we go out to the local bars, so naturally I joined him.

3-20-08

In the afternoon I joined Sam and his Grandma on a trip to St. Petersburg to buy Sam's new truck. I loved Sam's grandma, she was really cool. She seemed to have lots of traveling stories and was a creative writing student in college! We clicked. For dinner she took us out to BJ's Brewery; great beer and the best pizza I have ever had.

3-21-08

Mike, Cheryl (Mike's girlfriend) and I went to Emerson Point on Snead Island. It was an ancient Indian mound. They had built mounds with see shells along the shore. We hiked a bunch before Mike had to work. So we headed back but Mike ran out of gas. At night Sam, Heather and I went out to eat and we all shared our personal ghost stories.

3-22-08

Today we got up early for the world famous all you can eat sausage and pancakes on the beach. I could only eat two plates but it was amazing. While we were eating some dolphins came up to the pier. It started raining so it looked like we wouldn't be able to go kayaking. Mike came through anyways and we went kayaking in the rain! The rain was coming down hard but we didn't care, we were having a blast. We found a bunch of horseshoe crab shells and Sam is going to mail me one. On the way back I saw a school of fish jumping across the water. About 50, 8 inch fish. At the car Sam realized we were locked out so we had to wait for a towing guy to break us in.

I made it to Florida!

the bus ride to Florida wasn't too bad. There was only one real delay: About 20 miles outside of St. Louis a man decided to do some crack in the back of the bus. He was proptly (2 hours later)arrested. No one was happy about this. Everyone was just angying at the guy who told on the crack head. "Let the man do his crack in peace!" they all shouted.

A strange fellow I met in Atlanta told me he was on his way to Spring Break to sell Alcohol to minors and to do all of the drugs he can find.

These stories will be my everlasting opinion of greyhound.

I FINALLY ARRIVED IN BRADENTON FLORIDA!

3/18/08

I wandered aimlessly south from the greyhound station. I was lost and scared about my sleeping situation. But loneliness didn't sink in like it has on the bus. (I left everything and everyone... it's a sad thing.) But I was SMILING! I can't remember the last time I smiled that wide. I had no idea where I was or what I was really doing here. My pack was heavy and cutting into my back and the sun was burning my newly shaved head, but I loved ever scared moment.

A few hours later Sam... a fire fighter I had contacted online called me and picked me up. He said I could stay with him for the next week. So here I am! In his house.

Sunset in my hosts backyard.

I'm catching up!

It was my first trip on a greyhound and I wasn't at all sure what to expect. I didn't except to see underwear in the middle of the terminal and a lady with her ass hanging out of her pants... proudly. So obviously, this is where the stories began:

1. In Albequerque the bus driver tried to leave several people behind. People were shouting, "not everyone's on the bus!" he replied, "I don't care... this bus is moving." So several passengers chased after the moving bus until it stopped.

2. Then some older man lost his CD player. The bus driver said, "Who stole this man's CD player? Come on now. I know none of y'all listen to country and you know that's what this cracker listens to." The whole bus laughed at the man's misfortune. Greyhound could have cared less about the man's missing luggage.

3. There was a huge snow storm the following night. I mean... HUGE. at least 6 inches sticking on the highway. For some reason the bus driver felt it necessary to push on. We passed by at least a dozen accidents. I don't know how we made it. We were the only car on the road.

4. In the morning a man by the name of Russel joined me on the bus. He had gotten out of Jail that same day and was ready to start his life. I warmed up to this guy pretty fast. He bought me a snickers and offered me some soup at the station. He was living out of a trash bag.. it was all he had left because his ex-girlfriend stole his belongings while he was in jail. Poor guy. He lives in Talahassee. I can't wait to visit him.

5. When we got to a stop an elderly man asked about how long our break was going to be. the security gaurd replied, "You wanna say it to my face mutha fucka. I will beat your face in with this stick." The poor old man just asked a simple question....

6. Another girl was bragging about smoking weed with her paroll officer.

7. In Joplin Missouri a man had realized he was on the wrong bus (only because greyhound changed the schedule). So, he decided to go to the front of the bus and attack the driver. The driver threw him off the bus and had the police come and arrest him.

"At this point I am in a daze. I have no idea how much I have slept in the past few days. Way more than normal? Way less? I really have no idea. I don't have a way of telling time and I have changed time zones twice. I barely notice the difference between day and night. I have no concept of time anymore." I wrote this in my journal just before arrive in St. Louis.

And then I finally got home.

I've started my life.

I am sorry to anyone who wondered where I was the past couple of weeks. I haven't had the time to write about where I have been. I hope to be able to keep up with this better from now on though. Also, I must add that I don't have access to my pictures but they will come soon.

I left St. Louis at the end of February to do a cross country road trip with my friend Drew (he is moving to LA from Chicago to persue his career.) The trip was fun, but it was really his trip. We went to his childhood home in OK City. And stopped at Cadillac Ranch (A place in texas where a bunch of graffitied cadillac's sit half burried in the ground jetting to the sky.) because that's the car he drives.

It was nice... to be off work and not really sure where I was going to be the next morning.

My favorite stop was in Lake Havasu City, Arizona. In the late seventies a property developer bought the London Bridge and had it shipped brick by brick to the small Arizona town. He built a small English style village near the bridge to attract visitors. Now, the town is booming as a retirement community and resort-getaway for californians. The city was rich with interesting people and beautiful mountains/river/lake/buildings. I was truely in awe.

We arrived in LA the next day but as soon as we parked we walked to Green Dot Films to have someone drive us up North near Cal Arts to work on a commercial shoot. We arrived at the shooting location at about 3 in the afternoon and didn't leave until 6 AM. It was good to see Casey and the Legs and all of the people I hadn't seen in awhile.

Over the weekend Casey, Pix and I went to Apple Valley to our favorite hot springs. We hiked down the two mile trail sometime during midmorning until we got to the river (you have to get across a river to get to the springs). The water temperature of the river was about 35 degrees (snow melt run off). The three of us were afraid at first to cross but eventually I just charged through the water. It wasn't so bad... and the hot spring water was right there. So, I decided to jump off a rock and go swimming in the river. It felt so good. I felt human.

On the otherside I met two new friends and locals to the area: Dave and Berlinda. Some of the coolest people I have met in awhile. It's people like them that keep areas like the hot springs from becoming trashed by disrespectful people. I can't wait to see there house (dave built himself) when I visit them.