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Imgur is hard to use on mobile when uploading multiple photos at once but here are some of the pictures so far http://imgur.com/tKuBUNi http://imgur.com/DiQZ1uc http://imgur.com/hObRZ9O http://imgur.com/qTMdjGj http://imgur.com/5SWSIu6 http://imgur.com/qtM3iz2 http://imgur.com/zT9F2Uw |
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Jul 19, 2016 00:40
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| # ¿ May 14, 2024 16:19 |
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So far I drove from Phoenix arizona to payson arizona then spent the day up there (that's the cabin in the pics), then missed a turn to Flagstaff and found a weird part of Arizona I hadn't seen before, stood on a corner in Winslow Arizona and then made it to Flagstaff and got on the train to LA, now I'm staying at a hostel in Hollywood with some German guys on a contiki trip partying hard, I gotta go to bed early and get on the next train to seattle, I might pit stop in Colorado Springs, after that it's off to probably Minnerapolis and then the east coast. If you're in a city with an amtrak station (you probably are if you're in the US) and want to smoke weed or drink a beer with me or get a pizza or whatever let me know what city you're in. |
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Jul 19, 2016 00:45
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Thank you FluffieDuckie but there is nothing to be concerned about I have a pretty awesome life waiting for me at home and wanted to take a trip fraught with peril just to say I did. Tonight I ate dinner with another hostel roommate from australia, he was really excited to eat Subway, and we talked about politics and travel and our love lives for a couple hours and walked around hollywood. I had a good time and I guess Hollywood is cool because I can meet comparatively more foreign people with different opinions and stories to tell out here. |
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Jul 19, 2016 02:33
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I woke up really sick today and missed my train because I went to urgent care, but they were able to diagnose a sickness I've been having on and off for years that no other doctor has and now I have meds. Since I missed the Seattle train I'm going to head down to San Diego this afternoon to hang out with a friend and then take the train to Seattle and be up there fri/sat |
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Jul 19, 2016 18:31
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Do you want me to visit your friends for you ?? |
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Jul 19, 2016 18:58
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Sounds like my kinda scum!! I'm on the train to San Diego now and will be there in like 3 hours. LA wasn't my kinda place... I think I would have been way in to it like 8 years ago when I partied hard. But I did have a cool convo with Australian dude, and never even learned his name. |
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Jul 19, 2016 19:21
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I really want to hang out with my friend in Seattle because I was supposed to move there with her and got waylaid. She's really busy at work and can only hang out on fri/sat, so I'm getting on the train up there tomorrow morning and that train will be in Seattle Thursday night, so I don't think I'll be able to stop around the bay area. I might catch it on the way home though, I've learned that I'm not a fan of long train rides and the one from Seattle to the east coast is like 4 days long, so I'm debating whether I even want to go out there or just stick to the west coast/southwest. I still need to go to Colorado Springs at some point to visit another friend |
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Jul 19, 2016 21:49
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I'm almost to san diego and I just found out my phone camera has a cinemagraph mode so I'm excited to take pictures of waves |
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Jul 19, 2016 21:50
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My phone died twice while writing a big post about this and it didn't save either time so I'll keep it brief : San Diego is rad and redeemed California in my eyes  Hung out with a friend at the beach (sunset cliffs) and smoked joints all day. Climbed down some cliffs to get there. Walked around Ocean Beach and got lunch. In a cool airbnb private room with 2 nerdy reddit folks and it was cheaper than any hostel I've looked at so I think I'm done with hostels. Had some cataclysmic nightmares with Amtrak ticket agents in the stations. One ripped my pass, another told me that meant the pass was void and tried to take it away from me. Argued with a manager and got to keep the pass then they told me it wasn't valid for travel to/from San Diego effectively trying to strand me here. Called their support line and got it all sorted out along with an upgrade to business class for my 38 hour long trip to Seattle up the PCH starting at 6am tomorrow |
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Jul 20, 2016 06:56
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People shouldn't be up this early on vacation |
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Jul 20, 2016 12:41
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Yeah of course Here are about 5 minutes of the San Diego coast condensed in to 30 seconds. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OK28dZhVzEc |
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Jul 20, 2016 15:49
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Finally time for the second smoke break Here's another video of the coast like the last one, but it's more interesting coastline https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rOsuXRXuoY |
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Jul 20, 2016 23:47
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I dozed off for a little while or else there would be some of rolling golden hills and cow farms on mountainsides at a 45 degree angle. |
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Jul 21, 2016 00:00
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Barking Gecko posted:If anyone wants to follow along, Shakill should be about to depart Los Angeles on the Coast Starlight, train 14. I'm really excited to do Seattle to GNP. There's no way I can afford lodging in GNP though so I hope I can reach it early in the morning and leave that same night on the way east or something |
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Jul 21, 2016 00:01
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We have cows, I'm just not a cow boy. |
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Jul 21, 2016 01:29
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I should quit smoking but I like it :
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Jul 21, 2016 01:29
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I actually quit smoking once but started again when a crazy girl faked a terminal illness to cover up cheating on me. |
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Jul 21, 2016 02:06
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We had been on again off again for like a year but it never worked, I wasn't in to her I was just lonely, and she was emotionally abusive. One day she started to scale back on talking to me and apologized saying she just wasn't feeling well. As the days went on she would talk to me less and say she was feeling increasingly worse until eventually it was more like "hey I'm sorry I haven't talked to you in a week I'm in the hospital and they're trying to figure out what it is." I started to freak out and got really worried but she refused to tell me what hospital she was at, she'd just say they sent her home, then she'd mysteriously be back with the illness being worse the next day. Eventually she had chosen an illness with a high mortality rate and told me they diagnosed her with it and it was getting worse and blah blah blah, she basically tried to break up with me by saying she was going to die and I should move on and find someone else and forget about her. I wasn't having any of that and kept asking what hospital she was at and she kept refusing to tell me so I called her mom and asked and found out the whole thing was a lie. She called me months later to apologize and tell me that she had met someone else and spun a yarn about how she just really liked me and didn't want to break my heart by telling me she met someone else. It's all as ridiculous as it sounds and the dude dumped her like a week later and she was trying to get back with me but I told her to gently caress off and we haven't talked since |
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Jul 21, 2016 05:10
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I've literally never had a 'normal ' relationship in my life until the girl I'm seeing now and it's only because of her support and encouragement that I'm even on this trip so things are finally coming up milhouse |
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Jul 21, 2016 05:15
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After spending all day on this train and reflecting I'm cutting my trip short. I really can't imagine a worse way to travel than Amtrak. I've had one singular thought through every waking moment on the train and it's this : I've been in jails that were more pleasant than Amtrak Business Class. Frankly I'm pretty shocked that Amtrak offers residencies to writers. Everyone I've talked to on the train shared a similar story. They all hate it, they all only do it because they have to. I just can't imagine someone taking a trip on one of these trains and writing something about it that could be used promotionally. Half of the poo poo on the trains doesn't work. Bathrooms are all hosed up and sinks will shoot water all over and flood the room. Most of the power outlets don't work. The food is bad (it's literally just microwaved frozen burgers, pizzas etc that they charge about 4x supermarket price on). There are all kinds of delays. I haven't had a good experience with any of the ticket agents in the station and only one good experience with them on the phone. I've now ridden four separate trains and tried business class and they all had these same problems. Being in the cities is fun and I got to hang out with a few friends but the idea of any more time on the train is giving me a panic attack, which sucks because their schedules and routes are sparse enough that getting home is going to mandate 3+ more straight days on a train. I wanted to do this because I thought it would be more fun than an office job but I would have rather been at work than doing what I've spent most of my time so far on this vacation doing. As much as I want to keep checking out cool places in the US it's not worth it if I have to do it on the train. I'm probably going to pay out the rear end to fly home from Seattle just to avoid another 38 hour train ride followed by a 12 hour train ride to get home. The experience was still good and I'm glad I went. Since the whole trip was sort of inspired by Paulo Coelho I will end this post by paraphrasing him; what I've learned is that this is not my Pesonal Legend, which is an incredibly valuable, if costly, lesson. My Personal Legend is back at home in the arms of someone I want to be with. |
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Jul 21, 2016 09:28
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Yeah if I am doing this again it would be a road trip. There's something profoundly insulting about being dragged through these beautiful mountains and forests and not being able to stop for a minute to explore a path or smell the flowers. Being on a train makes me feel like I'm on a trip that's being dictated by someone else and I have no freedom, there's no sense of joy or wonder or accomplishment from it. It ends up feeling so spiritless and manufactured. That's not even considering how drat uncomfortable it is. I've slept barebacked on rocks and stones before and had a better night's sleep. I'm going to fly back from Seattle because I would rather shoot myself than spend 50 more hours on a train. I got what I needed out of the trip; I got a story to tell and I learned about myself. |
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Jul 21, 2016 16:02
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The train is getting held up for an hour and a half in Klamath Falls and I couldn't be happier to get off this thing for a while |
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Jul 21, 2016 16:21
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I think instead of flying back I'm going to continue on to Glacier National Park and try to get a short seasonal job at a lodge. |
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Jul 21, 2016 18:41
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The sleeping situation makes it rough, yeah. I can't sleep on this train without murdering my back and neck, my blanket is too small and it's freezing, etc. A sleeper car would be a big help. Even still, I feel like I was kind of lead in the wrong direction with this trip. Amtrak made it sound so adventurous, like I'd be able to get off at each station and explore the town around it. It's not turning out to be the great sojourn I expected. It's more like window shopping. I still don't like the train in the daytime but I don't hate it like I do at night. At night there are no smoke breaks and sleeping is uncomfortable, it's too dark to see anything out the window because they leave too many lights on in the train. You're just sitting in a metal box with nothing but your thoughts and the clack clack clack of train tracks. At Klamath Falls I met two people who are doing the exact same thing as me. We sat around and chain smoked cigarettes and discussed The Alchemist and reflected our lives as the Baker or the Crystalware shopkeeper. People who have been held back from learning their personal legend by forces of complacency. I can say a lot of bad things about the train, but the trip itself has been been a real splendor. Having those hours of solidarity was exactly what I needed to clear my mind and helped me look at what I'm doing as less 'crazy' and more 'deeply spiritual', though another thing I've learned is that these two are the same beast by different names. I got what I wanted out of it either way, but what I wanted wasn't what I expected it to be. My Fatima is back home and my Pyramids ahead, I don't really see a reason to stop now, and I've come to terms with the fact that I don't need to continue on the train. I don't want to be complacent in the comforts it does offer. I can disembark at any time and it won't be the end of the world. My boy Nick Drake just sang me through the Klamath Marshes, and that was nice too. 
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Jul 21, 2016 19:12
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Also this is my Power Song right now  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oT2YZSVdic |
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Jul 21, 2016 19:24
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I'm in Portland staying with a friend and his wife right now and I go to Seattle tomorrow then glacier national park in Sunday. I forgot weed is legal in Oregon now too |
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Jul 22, 2016 06:25
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My plan was to just walk around Portland today but of course it's raining
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Jul 22, 2016 15:34
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I've been lost in Powell's for like two hours, someone send a rescue party |
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Jul 22, 2016 18:12
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I'm going to pass on Glacier because drat, I'm just exhausted and ready to go home and write my book. I've experienced more in the last week than I have in the last decade and accomplished what I wanted. Going to fly home from Seattle tomorrow, or maaaaaybe go out to Colorado to visit another friend but that's just more time on the train and I don't like that. |
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Jul 22, 2016 21:53
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Smoking on the train isn't what makes me hate it so much, I got over that after a couple days. I don't find it comfortable, I didn't pack right (it's freezing and the blankets they sell on the train are bad) and I just don't find it an enjoyable travel experience, I feel like I could get just as much of a feel for a place by looking at pictures as I can on the train. Like 95% of my fellow passengers were loud, conservative middle-aged or elderly women who complained a lot and kept asking the conductors irritating questions (like calling them over and talking over the announcement about the dinner menu and price to ask what the dinner menu and price of dinner are, then complaining about the constant announcements). I did meet some cool people though and had some of the most profound discussions about life I've ever had. I met them at the smoke stops rather than on the train itself. There were a lot of funny moments, humorous characters like the Santa Claus looking guy with tourettes whose tic was making fart noises with his mouth, life-affirming revelations and lessons learned. I read some cool books and learned a lot about myself and what it means to find your place in the world. I want to write a fictionalized retelling of the story and the events that lead up to it 
deep dish peat moss fucked around with this message at 22:47 on Jul 22, 2016 |
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Jul 22, 2016 22:44
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Yeah I've refused to tell anyone anything about it. I know that trick!! |
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Jul 22, 2016 23:12
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One of the books I read was Although Of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself which is like a memoir of a road trip with David Foster Wallace and it put me in the right place for writing. |
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Jul 22, 2016 23:15
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I didn't know that but yeah,it's called The End of the Tour. I'll have to check it out when I get home. |
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Jul 23, 2016 00:32
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Jason Segel was a really good choice to play DFW but in the trailer it sounds like he forgot the drawl
deep dish peat moss fucked around with this message at 01:02 on Jul 23, 2016 |
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Jul 23, 2016 00:59
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Yeah I got off the train and flew to my home state and I'm adventuring here. If anyone wants to travel with my ID and pretend to be me for the remaining 5 train rides be my guest, you can have them |
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Jul 27, 2016 23:13
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Count me in, I want either one half of the loot or all of the reputation points. |
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Jul 27, 2016 23:19
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| # ¿ May 14, 2024 16:19 |
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I don't see the trip as a failure, I spent a week traveling and stayed in 3 different cities and hung out with old friends until I was out of money and then I went home to sit in the woods and write a book |
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Jul 28, 2016 21:16
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