Mondo Bungle

July 11

Woke up all twisted around in the tube. I lied in here for a minute then pulled myself out. A couple of the same Lovelock kids I saw last night were at the park again. I fell out of the tube, disheveled, and packed up accurately. I knew where the on ramp was, and that was my spot, but I'd hang out for a bit. I walked to the other side and sat on the grass in this park, as more Lovelock kids gathered. A girl my age said and hi to me and I waved. With some money I had, I shopped for some things at a Safeway across the street. Dry foods, canned foods. Back to the park. The two water bottles I was carrying were empty, and I filled them up at a drinking fountain in the park next the same young girls. They probably thought I was homeless with all my stuff, but then again I'm not exactly "homeful" right now. I just made up that word, dig it. "Hey dude," one said. "You want this water? I just opened it, didn't drink any of it."

"Well, sure. It's probably better than this water." I accepted the bottle and walked back to my things, under a tree. They were sitting at a table in Lover's Lock. It seems a ton of people come here and put locks on the chains set up, and throw away the key, to signify eternal love. This was happening everywhere I guess.



"Welcome to Lovelock, the heart of Nevada." I liked the place well enough. Not the most exciting or interesting, but a lot cooler than god damn Fernley.

I left the park after a while. Before stopping at the on ramp, I went to the truckstop across the street. Downed an energy drink and a sub sandwich for breakfast. I had an idea to write poems for people for a quarter each to make money along the way. I set up outside the place at a table, wrote "25 CENT FREE VERSE POEMS" on a piece of paper and made a sign. I bought a notepad while I was in the store which I'd use for writing. My first customer came after about ten minutes. Handed me a quarter. "You want a poem?" I said. she nodded. "Choose a topic."

"A topic huh. Okay, your poems."

"A poem about my poems, alright." So I jammed one out, and gave it to her.

"Right on, dude." She said, and handed me another dollar and some change. Sorry if I don't remember all the poems, they're all made up on the spot but everyone loves them. She was an older lady, with two other people. They went into the Port of Subs and sat outside at a table next to me. The man of group turned around with a dollar.

"Write me one? Oceans, fish, aquatic stuff."

"Alright." Jammed out another and handed it to him.

"Did you sign it?"

"Oh, I forgot about that."

"Well here, this is gonna be worth millions some day." I signed it, Loren Z. "Hm. I like it." He said after reading it. As they all began to leave, the other woman of the group handed me a dollar.

"Any topic?"

"Mhm."

"Um, black cats." I wrote one about black cats. "Cool, nice shirt by the way." I was wearing a Lost Boys t-shirt. "Take it easy."

"You too." I said. They drove off in a small blue car. Soon, a man and daughter came up, the daughter handed me a dollar for a poem. "Choose a topic." I said. She looked at her father and back at me.

"A topic? butterflies." I wrote a quick haiku about butterflies and handed it over. "Thanks." She smiled, probably somewhere around eleven years old. Her father then handed me a ten.

"Good luck, pal." He said. I sat out here some more, wrote two more poems, and a worker came out.

"You can't do that out here you know, you have to leave." At that very moment a shaggy young man walked up as well.

"Hey this guy can stay here if he wants, you greedy bastards gotta stop holding us down man. Hey, this guy's doing poetry." He said to other passers by. "I've got a topic man, marathon running." I gave him a quick one, he had no money on him but asked a companion who came up for a quarter. "This guy's writing poetry." She handed him a quarter which he in turn gave to me. Then he sat down with me at my table. At this point he would go on a tirade about corporate America, greed, culture, all said in such a ridiculous fashion that you couldn't take it seriously. His other companion then sat down, a pretty stereotypical indie looking guy but not an indie guy. Flannel shirt, light beard, fedora. I liked him though, and he was much more laid back then the other. We had a conversation, I told him I was going East and he suggested going to Boulder, CO. They would all agree, so I made that a destination. After some more talking, they said they should get going. They were going West. I got seven dollars from them before they took off.

After that I went to the on ramp across the way. I set down my bags and waited, tossing one of my half empty water bottles into the air and catching. It was probably a good hour before I got a ride, a truck pulled up with two burly gentlemen. "Where you going?" The passenger said.

"Uh, Winnemucca."

"Well we're going to Elko so we can drop you off on the way."

"Oh, that would be even better."

"You're going to Elko too?"

"I'm just going as far as I can."

"Well get in." These were two middle aged, working class kind of guys. I hopped in the back, put my large bag beside me and the small one on my lap. They had a cooler in the back taking up room. We all introduced ourselves, and I told them the story. It was 250 or so miles to Elko, and I was happy to catch a ride all the way.

They were listening to Metallica's Garage Inc. on CD. When "Whiskey in the Jar" came on, the passenger said: "Ah, this is a good one." and turned it up. This made me laugh to myself. They talked to each other a lot during the long drive. I was mostly quiet. After that CD was over, the passenger looked through a case for another. He was naming stuff off, all very general and mainstream hard rock and cooler stuff a hard rock fan might enjoy. AC/DC, Pantera, Nirvana, Stone Sour, Ugly Kid Joe. Oh well.

We stopped in Battle Mountain for food, they bought me lunch here. Also gave me five dollars around this time. Battle Mountain, and Carlin, and all these little Nevada towns all seem the same. the drive wasn't all that scenic, the desert stretched forever, flat and dry. As we got further though, mountains would be popping up. They told me about different places that I might pass through along my trip.

It was around four when we made it to Elko. they dropped me in the beginning of town. I thanked them as they drove away. "Don't drop him too far from the highway, that's his lifeline!" I heard. I went into a Subway to use the restroom. now I would begin my exploration of Elko. I walked down the street I was on. It extended fairly far before reaching the downtown area. I turned into town to hear live Basque music being played from a street corner outside a restaurant. People were dancing to it happily. There was a wine walk going on today, and many people walked the streets with glasses. I walked some more, made it to the main street of town, and walked down for many blocks. As I kept going, I saw a playground and a field which I turned into. It was a large park area. Sports fields, a skate park, and other things nearby. I sat at a bench to rest my aching feet. I was here until dark. I didn't know where I'd go, so I stayed here. I didn't set up a sleeping bag anywhere, just wandered, sat in different places. While walking around the playground, I met a young couple hanging out here.

"Who are you?" I was asked.

"My name's Loren. I just got into town today. I don't live here." I told them what I was doing and one girl came up closer to me to see my face. She seemed melodramatic, that I had nowhere to go and nothing to do. Or I could just be completely unworried for no good reason. She was upset for me, but I assured her I was fine, and that everything I do I do by choice. She was way hot by the way, her girlfriend not so much. We shared some small talk for about twenty minutes before they would leave.

"If you're still here tomorrow, I'm gonna come back. I'll be here, early." she said.

"I'm sure I will be." Then they walked off into the dark of night. So I was alone now. I took the other unisom I had to help me sleep somewhere, and scraped my pipe to smoke some resin because I always love getting high. I had my stuff on a park bench, which I walked over to and sat down near, on the woodchips. I nodded out for a bit unintentionally before I was dowsed with sprinklers. I jolted up and got out of the way with my things. So I walked around some more, swung on the swings, nodded out in various places, and before I knew it, the sun started to rise. I slept more inside the tower of the playground. I wanted to wait for the girl to come back. as it got brighter and the sprinklers stopped, I went back to the same bench from before. I leaned up against my bags and started nodding the hardest I think I ever have, children were playing on the playground. I had no way to tell the time, but I stayed for a while, and the girl never showed. She might have later, but I left.

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Wpnfire

Are you going to stay on I-80 and head across the desert into Salt Lake City? I have this weird fascination with deserts and I’ve always wanted to see the Great Salt Lake Desert.

EDIT: apparently you’ve already gone through Salt Lake City.

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Last.FM

My RYM Ratings

My Glitchwave Beta Profile

Mondo Bungle

I'm behind on entries so stay tuned

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LoathsomePete

So how many buggerings have you had to endure?

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Last.FM
101 Albums That May Not Change Your Life, But I Really Like And You Might Too

The Batlord

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Psy-Fi

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She's a Brick House

Mondo Bungle

There could be an entry today :O

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The Batlord

About sucking trucker dick? Otherwise GTFO.

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Mondo Bungle

Alright

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Mondo Bungle

Anyone still interested? Sorry for leaving you high and dry. Still have entries and notes for the whole adventure that I could post.

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