Mondo Bungle

July 15

I woke up to someone trying to open the door, I jolted up and had to pack everything quickly. The sun was up and in full force, I guess I got more sleep indoors. All the clothes I'd hung around the room to dry had barely done so, most of it was still very damp. I hurriedly rolled up all the garments, shoved them into my bag haphazardly. Then I rolled up the sleeping bag I slept in and left in under the bench in here, rolled mine up (slightly drier than everything else), gathered my packs and stumbled out the door to the slightly brisk morning air of Utah. It was quite sunny as well, warm in the light and cool in the shade. Someone had been trying to get in twice while I was packing up, but looking around I didn't see anyone, no one waiting to slip in. Must have given up and left. Some guys gathered around to start a morning shift of work. Armed with lawnmowers, they finished their cigarettes and began their rounds. Before they did I asked what time it was. Eight thirty, they told me. The cashier from the store in town said he'd come in around nine, and drive me back if I was still here. I didn't want to leave right now, and would really like to find a laundromat to dry these clothes. So I waited, listening to the same songs I'd been for a while now on my 4 GB mp3 player.

He rolled up no later than promised, not that I had any reason to be impatient. Stopped, got out, and greeted me. "Do you still want a ride back into town?"

"Yeah. Actually if there's a laundromat anywhere I'd wanna go there to dry these clothes, didn't do much last night."

"Alright." He said. "We'll leave in a minute." A girl, probably younger than me by a few years, stepped out of the passenger seat.

"You can sit here." She said and walked around to the other side. I didn't want to have to stuff my wet and smelly bags in the back seat next to her but I guess that's what we're doing. The guy (I don't think I ever caught his name) started talking to the people mowing the grass, looks like he happens to be in charge here. After a few minutes he came back and we'd set off. He asked the girl if she just wanted to stay here, so I assumed they'd be coming back. She declined.

We made our way back into town, it was about a ten minute drive, if that. He dropped me off at the laundromat, just about a block away from the gas station at the beginning of town. I'd head in here and start my day drying my clothes, I think it was still before ten. He drove off with the obligatory "take it easy".

I was alone in here and maybe two machines were in use. I opened up a drier and packed it with clothes. Put in some change for I can't remember how long and started the cycle. While waiting I walked to the store for anything breakfast-y to eat. It was right around the corner from the laundromat. I bought a breakfast burrito and some orange juice for cheap and went back to my clothes. I threw away the food I had after it got ruined in the river, and what people gave me since had to be prepared. I didn't worry that much. I hadn't been worrying much at all since falling asleep in the rest room. It was an awful scene but that storm was over. I sat here nodding off in the laundromat while my clothes spun around in the drier. After it finished a first time, the clothes hadn't gotten as dry as I'd prefer, granted I had them in there for not that long at all. I dropped some more change that I had an abundance of for one more time around. I finished my breakfast and feel into a deeper sleep while other patrons shuffled in and out. The drier finished a second time and everything was dry, at least as dry as they were gonna get right now, I didn't want to wait anymore. There was an odd garment or two that retained a slight dampness but I didn't care. I rolled everything back into my bag and left the building. It was early and I didn't know what to do, where to go. I walked down the main street to get a feel for this small town and what it had to offer, which was not much.

I found a quaint library that looked more like a home than anything else. I went in for a little bit to complain to my friends about how I hate everything and how it is all terrible and stuff like that, the usual. I wasn't here long though. I left and walked back down the way I came, I bought I Pepsi from a small food store because I'd been craving a nice, cold, and bubbly drink. I got some non-perishable snacks here too, to keep in my bags for when I felt the need. I walked the length of this street one way and back and eventually came back to the entrance of town. Well, I guess I'll get back on the road. I walked up the street a bit, still within sight of the gas station and the Subway. This was a long ramp to get onto the highway, but if I went all the way up there I'd have nowhere for people to pull off and they'd all be going to fast already anyway. The traffic here wasn't very busy but I'd grown impartial to waiting.

Two people had stopped, asking where I was going. I knew the highway would split eventually down the road and I was trying to stay on the side going towards Wyoming. The two people that stopped were going the other way. That would become a pet peeve if I hadn't mentioned that before. I was here for probably an hour when a truck pulling a trailer stopped down the road, and a passenger motioned me over. It was three young looking gentlemen, asking where I was going. "I'm trying to get into Colorado, like, the Denver area I guess." I said.

"We're on our way to Rawlins right now. Are you going through there?"

"Where's that?" I asked. The passenger brought up a map on his smart phone. Rawlins, Wyoming, about 250 miles from where we were, right on the way to Cheyenne, where I planned on stopping before going south into Colorado. "Yeah, that'd be great." I said cheerfully.

"Let's go, man." I tossed my bags in the truck bed and got in the back seat. We all introduced ourselves and left on our way.

"Why are you going to Denver, you have friends there?"

"Uh, no, not right now." I said. "I don't have much reason honestly." They laughed. The driver turned up the radio and we made it deep onto the highway, for the most part it was a quiet drive. Occasionally they'd talk amongst each other. We drove for two hours before stopping into a large seeming town. We parked in a Walmart parking lot beside a gas station and all got out.

"We're in Rock Springs right now." The driver told me. "We're dropping this trailer off here and going to start a job in Rawlins." We waited here while negotiations to drop the trailer were made by phone. Eventually we'd drive around looking for an ATM. It wasn't too long before we lost the trailer and got driving again. We stopped in a small town a few miles away that I forget the name of, as we forgot to get gas in Rock Springs. I bought another beverage.

We drove probably another half hour and made it to Rawlins, it was like four o clock now, so somewhere my sense of time got mixed up. It's not too late though so it didn't matter much. They treated me to some pizza here in town and let me go at a travel stop. I was right on the edge of town and I went back to the highway to keep going instead of venturing inward. No reason, there's really no reason any other time that I do though, to be be frank.

I was waiting on the road for longer than usual. It had just started to get darker before I was picked up. A man in a sedan pulled over, said he wanted to stop some time ago after passing me before, then turned around, ended up having to circle a few miles around the whole town, and I was still here.

"I'm a conversationalist." He said after I got in the car. "I'll drive you as far as you want but you gotta be able to hold a conversation, I drive around everywhere, it's my job, and it gets boring."

"I do what I can." I said. "I'm not just gonna not reply to something you say." He laughed and said alright.

"Where are you going anyway?"

"How far are you going?"

"I'm going all the way to Pittsburgh tonight and I'll take you anywhere in between."

"Well I was just trying to get to Cheyenne tonight actually." Although with the opportunity arisen I'd been momentarily tempted to go as far as possible, but probably not, at the same time. I wasn't having the best time so far, but whatever.

"That's do-able." He said. "We'll pass through there before too late."

It was a hundred or so miles to Cheyenne and I think we'd make it in less than two hours. This guy had a fair amount of interesting stories to share. Most of the way there we discussed UFOs and other odd things. He told me of some of his own sightings of unexplained things in the sky.

"I remember back in high school, walking home at night after a football game, I saw the most peculiar light hovering above me. Not far, mind you, yet it also didn't seem very close. A pink-ish orb, no bigger than the footballs they were playing with earlier. Hovering a little bit further above the streetlights at a steady pace. I didn't know what to think of it. There were some band kids walking a ways ahead of me and the thing zipped past them and soon disappeared into the sky. I sped up a bit, asked if any of them saw it, but they all shook their heads. The next day at school, one of them came up to me. 'I didn't want to say anything last night, I was still too weirded out and no one else noticed anything so they'd probably think I was crazy, but I saw it.' Sure enough, he described a pink, hovering orb, same distance above us, same size, the same thing I'd seen without me describing it myself. We don't know what that was, but damn, it was odd. Things happen though. Things pass."

It was before nine when we pulled up to the outskirts of Cheyenne. He pulled off and let me out under a street light. "Well here ya go, hope you keep going safely." He drove off right into the heart of town while I was out here on the side of the highway, guess he figured I would want to try to keep going out here instead of taking me into town. So I tried to do that, for a bit, but no luck, and it was getting late now. I started to walk towards the town. I didn't have a very good path, pedestrians aren't really supposed to be out here. I trudged through some tall grass away from the road but still following it. Now I came to a creek that I definitely had no desire to cross. I walked up an incline back to the road that lead over the water, but with no room to walk on. Making my way here I managed to step both feet completely in the cold water. At the top on the bridge I sat and took my shoes and socks off hoping they'd dry some as I was tired of wet feet. I ate some canned peaches I remember I had. I really love peaches, canned or otherwise. I put my still wet footwear back on anyway, hopped over the railing when I saw an opportunity, and quickly walked across the bridge. On the other side I hopped back over and made it into town on an easier path.

I came to a travel hub, two stations not for from each other. It was about eleven, but I didn't give up on looking for a ride, as there were a lot of people pulling in here traveling through the night. I made a sign for Boulder, which was a ways south. I didn't have any luck. An old woman recognized the sign, said she was short on gas at the moment but going into Denver, and that if she could make it she'd drive me there. That never fell through. I sat outside for an hour, she was still out, told me I could go inside and wait where it was warm. I went into the travel stop, found a waiting room with television and seating. I decided to stop for tonight. I ended up falling into an uncomfortable sleep in a booth with my bags. Waking up occasionally throughout the night as truckers and the like passed through to watch some TV. Morning can't come soon enough in times like this.

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