leaving and breaking: a travelers tale

coming into it, i knew august was going to be a month that held some rough patches. however, i was not planning on them beginning the first day of the month. yes, right this moment, i am typing from my truck while waiting for aaa to come tow me because it appears the driveshaft has fallen off. now now, i knew there were some problems happening in this truck, i was hoping that the dumb thing would hold up until i got to indiana. not the case.

shit.

since i have been planning for this, i am not really too put out right now, and certainly not mad. but it is a rough start. especially since i had a rather pleasant last day in st louis. i spent most of the morning just bumming around the house, writing and relaxing, and then when alison got back from work we went to lunch and then rode bikes around the neighborhood.

the low rider, and me

but not just any old bikes, mind you. she rode an adult tricycle and i was on an old school low rider. it was a pretty hilarious sight to behold, and not the easiest thing in the world. it took a few minutes, but eventually i was able to make the low rider go with the pedals (not just walking it while sitting). the left pedal wouldnt revolve all the way becasue it was too close to the arm, so it kept trying to push my foot off and that made riding difficult, but i managed. eventually i figured out how to correct that and it became rather easy, except for going up hills. that was impossible.

the tricycle was another story. i have tried to ride one of those before, i am not sure when but sometime in portland and i remember it being very hard, but that i was able to do it. this time, no way. i was able to get on it and turn the pedals but i wasnt able to make it go straight. i just kept going in circles, it was the hardest bike i had ever tried to ride. and i felt like an idiot for that, because clearly it should be easy, its three wheels! but, i think my problem is that i kept trying to balance as if i were on two wheels and i shifted my body weight improperly for maneuvering. or i am just an idiot.

that didnt last very long, but it sure was fun and tiring. when 5:pm started to roll around our activity for the night was ripe. our mission, was to conquer city museum. city museum is not like any museum i have ever been too or that i have ever heard existed. it isnt so much a museum as it is a playground. the first time i was there was in 2005, it was at night, and adults only.

notice the free bracelet

this time it was still light out when we got there and we were supposed to pay to get in. what they have are bracelets. blue ones give you access to the museum, orange ones get you on the roof, and another color gets you into the aquarium. in the trash can just outside the entrance we found a number of once used bracelets that we were able to fashion on our wrists. we only got blue ones, that saved us the price of admission $10 each. kind of like sneaking in, but we just went through the front door waved our bracelets and the museum awaited us.

this time there were also kids present. actually, it was mostly kids. my only other experience from here was adults only so i had assumed that it was mostly adults that enjoyed this place. with all the kids running around and the whole world of this place open to us we decided to go first to the bar. i generally just drink beer, but you cant roam this place with beers, so we started talking about shots. i am not a shot person, but the bartender helped us a little and we ended up with a shot of jamison each. to take the edge off.

after the jamison and some winces, we climbed the steps. i think the first room we really came to was the skate park. this is a skate park similar to any you would find in the world, except this is indoors and only for people to run and play on. we ran around in the there and slide down the ramps, it was joyous. i convinced some smaller kids to roll down the ramps instead of sliding down, what fun. then i noticed a door that led off somewhere. i couldnt see where, and there arent many off limits places, so i went inside. alison followed and soon we were on our knees.

the door led to a maze that was pitch black and went underneath some risers in the next room, the maze conveniently got smaller the further in you ventured. also, the maze went under the skate ramps in the skate park. how awesome. after that crawling, however, our knees were sore and we were barely even into the museum. we went back out and found a slide to go down, incidentally this was also the slide that we convinced naomi klein to slide down when we were here last.

once down we found the door to the outside and immediately started climbing up the welded structures that veered off in all kinds of directions, there seemed to be limitless options and we just took the first in our path. up and up we climbed through welded tubes and tunnels, eventually we made it to the airplane that is welded outside. we played the controls for a bit then went to the space shuttle. that place had been pretty well taken over by the birds, so we found a different path down and went back. we found some slides out there and enjoyed them. there was a balance beam that crossed over water that many kids were trying.

the view from the top

we tried as well, and i was very happy i didnt fall in, there was a moment at the end that i almost lost my balance. what is awesome about this place, aside from little to nothing being off limits is that if you fell off this beam, you would be soaking wet. consequences. we were out there for more and then decided we wanted to do the rooftop, the new addition. this cost $5 each, but since we hadnt paid to get in it was worth it. we took the elevator to the top and went to the ferris wheel first. we rode that around and it was nice, but it wasnt pointed in a good direction. i could see the rooftop that i used to get into the rams stadium from there, that was memorable.

then we went up to the fastest slide they had there. it was about 50 feet of slide and at a pretty intense angle, there was a line, but we got on and shortly we were next. the slide proved to be a whole lot of fun, so we decided to try it again. but first, the slide starts from up and goes down, right! from the top we saw that underneath was like a tire swing, but bigger. so we walked down there to check it out and we saw the best thing ever, a sign that read "10 story spiral slide this way." HELL YES!

we wanted some of that so we went ahead and got on line for that. i had forgotten at the time that we took the elevator up and i was wondering where the hell a ten story slide would end up at. the line for this was rather long, so we waited and eventually we got up to our turn and went down. how fucking amazing. i was yelling and laughing the entire way down, and it was a long way. when i got to the bottom i kind of rolled out and was super dizzy i almost fell over. and when i regained my senses i looked around.

there was a large organ, and we appeared to be in a subterranean basement, it was so dirty and old and dusty, i was astonished that we made it there. immediately i wanted to do the ten story slide again so we climbed back up ten stories of spiral staircases. it didnt seem that far, and i was surprised when we made it to the top. the line was still there and we decided to check out the rest of the roof because we werent walking up ten flights again. we went down the big slide again, jumped on the bus that was welded in such a way that you felt like you were falling off the building. we went through some stone lily pads up there and then did the rope swing thing. eventually we were ready for the ten story slide again.

and when we went back to it, no line whatsoever. it was great. and the second time down did not disappoint in the least. it was, if anything, funner. once down we started exploring this basement area. the big organ was off limits, but we got the staff to play some songs on it. they were prerecorded. we were in what felt like a cave and there were crevices and places to crawl and it was never ending. eventually we found the end. that was meant to be a joke, but as i write this my humour level is low.

eventually we made it back to the first floor near where we started. i was amazed at that, it felt as if we were really underground. there was a water cave right near where we popped out and alison made friends with a little girl who knew the museum back and forward on this level. she told us all about this water cave we were in. there is a pool that is damp about a foot deep and a path around it. it isnt very big, but every 6 minutes or so a bucket fills with water and tips, creating a flash flood int he area. by bucket i mean about 1000 gallons of water that come rushing through a little rived to flood this area. i didnt get wet, but most others did.

does this place ever end? the answer is no. the little girl adopted us and showed us all around the cave part. it was extensive and we eventually got separated. i ended up in between the first and second floors contorting my body in ways that it shouldnt go, and i probably looked ridiculous. however, i found my way out, alison had sent the little girl to look for me and she found me just as i found alison. we rested for a moment and consulted the clock. we had been playing there for about three hours. awesome.

i was tired, but didnt want to quit. i wanted to go back to the skate ramps and run around some more, the little girl did to and she somehow convinced her mom to let her come with us. crazy. bit the second coming of the skate park was short lived. i was more exhausted than i knew and after only two or three times running up the ramp i fell and cracked my thigh on one of the bars. i felt like i looked like and idiot, and i was in pain. i sat for a few moments and then decided that we were probably done there.

alison said goodbye to the girl and we were out the door. there wasnt much bounce left in our step. gingerly i took off my bracelets, i wanted to keep the love alive and pass them on. a car was pulling in and i tried to give the bracelets to them, but they kind of refused and the security officer was alerted to our giving bracelets away. he said we werent allowed to do that, so we walked on. a little further down the block some kids were walking up and we tried to give the bracelets to them, they were into it, but the security guard was onto us. the kids took them but i think the security guard confiscated them before they made it in.

they call me "mix master"

oh well. we went to get nachos next. at no other than the atomic cowboy. after those, few drinks, and the band, we had work to do. we flyered the cars up and down the block for a planned parenthood benefit the next night. that was fun, really, but shortly after i finished my entire body started to ache and i felt the effects of a day at the city museum. we went home and called it a night.

i had decided and told alison that i would leave today, saturday the 1st. the city museum was our last adventure together. in the morning i did laundry and we went to the farmers market, when we got back i folded my laundry, collected my stuff and left. leaving is always sad, but i thought that everything was on schedule now. it was the first day of a new month, i was moving on again ready to start the hardest month of my journey to date. august. now, as i started this post, i knew august held some trials, but my god, why so many today?

so, my truck had been running pretty poorly recently. it had started to tremble something fierce whenever i was going above 40 mph, and that was most of the time. in addition to the trembling the engine was getting louder and the truck started to hiccup around 75mph. by hiccup, i mean it would jerk for some reason and kind of buck a few times. i left off the gas and it would stop. it was annoying, but i figured if i could make it to indiana then i could be somewhere safe and have someone look at the truck/fix it. the truck had other plans.

i left stl and made it to springfield with no problems, just the usual stuff. i just went to the capitol there and took the tour. it was the worst capitol tour i have been on yet. i didnt explore the town at all, i was just so nervous to get the truck to indiana before something terrible happened.

as i was driving away the trembling and shaking was so bad that my rear doors shook open while i was driving. this happened before, but then i started locking the main door so it wouldnt open. well the truck found a way around my plan. after it happened once, i tried my best to do something, but really just closed the door and locked it again, then i got on the highway. not 5 minutes into it the doors shook open again and this time contents spilled out the back door. my cooler, some bags, and other artifacts. i pulled over quickly and walked back to where the majority of the stuff was. i was able to salvage a bar of soap, the inside handle to one of my doors, two beers, the bottle of whiskey, and the cooler.

then i decided i had to figure something out. the shaking was going to just keep opening the doors and i couldnt keep stopping and picking stuff up. so what i came up with was a bungee cord on the outside handles with both doors locks, that worked pretty well. i made it about forty miles before the real catastrophe struck. i was cruising and i found that the faster i went the less trembling there was, and this was my main concern. however, the faster i went the more frequent and severe the jerking would become. in a fit of stupidity i decided that i would force the ttruck through the jerking, no more letting off the gas, i wanted to ploug through it and get it over with.

and then a particularly bad spurt of jerking came, this time i was only going about 70mph, and felt that if i could push through it maybe a rainbow would be at the other side. well, i laid on the gas and i got to about 75mph before i started dropping speed, but i kept pushing the gas and gaining a bit more, the jerking became viloent and then stopped. there was a crashing noise and then metal on asphalt, i was losing speed and giving it gas did nothing. something had gone wrong, the truck was broken. i pulled over and sat in the cab for a few minutes before i decided call aaa.

this is what it looked like

i didnt even get out of the truck, i didnt want to see what it looked like. i called and told the lady that my transmission had fallen out. i didnt know what was going on. i was kind of laughing kind of freaking out. i was in the middle of nowhere between springfield and decatur illinois. i didnt want to be stuck here, i had places to be. and what if the truck was irrepairable, it would be horrible to have to pack it up here and start again on some other form of transport. after i told the lady my deal and as best i could where i was, i decided to get out and see what was what. i had an hour to kill anyway.

i was on the expressway and cars were whipping by me, but i crouched down and saw a large pipe that had come from the underside of my truck attached on one side, detached and laying on the road on the other side. i tried to move it but it wouldnt budge, it was either very very heavy or wedged. after looking, i didnt think it was the transmission any longer, so i got out my book and starting trying to figure out what it was. it was the driveshaft, just laying there. i knew it was going to be expensive to fix something like that and it was just after 5:pm on a saturday, so i would also be completely stranded wherever the tow truck left me in decatur. things were starting to feel very sour.

i got in my truck and starting writing, i didnt get very far when i saw the tow truck coming up on me. i put away the computer and got out to meet my new friend john. he confirmed that it was the driveshaft and when he looked at it he said that it appeared that it was only the universal. the universal sounds like a large important expensive thing to me, but it turns out not to be the case. it is a small part that allows the tires to move in one direction while the driveshaft moves in another, i think. he asked where he was towing me to, and i told him where the aaa lady told me to go. he scoffed at that place a little and told me it was expensive.

i asked if he knew a better place and then a glitter came in his eye. he asked if i wanted to get on the road quick and i said yes, he said that he could fix this problem of mine. and he could do it right now, we would tow the truck to his house. i figured, what else could go wrong/have i to lose, so i agreed. in the tow truck we started talking money. i was prepared for something like $300 but the figure he gave me was absolutely astonishing. $40 for labor. we would stop and buy the part on the way, it turned out to be $10. i was practically throwing in the pickup truck leg of this trip and john said he could get me back on the road tonight for $50.

once we got to his house, it was a different story. he had a large confederate flag on his porch, a couple of trailers in the yard, about five dogs, and one of those large kiddie pools that are for adults. he backed in and dropped the truck, and then started to get to work on it. i was impressed and felt that i was getting out of there in the next half hour. not so. he was working on it for about an hour and a half, pounding away with a hammer and yelling at his kids and wife to get him tools and other things. i was just sitting on a picnic table reading a book. i felt out of place.

and then the call came. see, he is an on call tow truck driver. he said that he was almost finished, and that he needed a tool anyway. he sent his wife to pick up his friend with the tool and he went on his call. i sat there on the bench until tyler came up. tyler is their oldest son, and he was a chatterbox. he wanted to know why i was in his yard, where his parents were, and all that jazz. i told him everything.

stuck in hillbilly nation, alone.

eventually his mom and the friend with the tool got back and the friend got under my truck and started saying that everything was done improperly. he thought i was johns friend, not his client. luckily john came back pretty quickly. the two of them got under the truck and in about a half hour were done with it. i was surprised and also a bit apprehensive. i didnt have the greatest faith in the job they did, but the new guy assured me that it would be good for 100,000 miles. i gave john $40 and drove off. it was nearing 9:pm, it was dark, i had no idea where i was and i was trying to figure out what to do.

i was hungry, and i didnt want to drive very far in the dark. but, overall, i was relieved that $50 and a five hour detour was all that became of my truck falling apart. i alternated between laughing hysterically at the situation i was in (at all the situations i have been in) and being thankful that i was on the road again. so i found a main road, calculated where i was and then got to the expressway again. i figured i would just drive to urbana champaign and find a place to park. the drive was uneventful. the engine was still loud, but no more jerking no more trembling. i was pretty apprehensive, waiting for the driveshaft to fall off again, but it didnt thankfully. i got to uc and just started weaving around looking for a good place to park and internet. i was having a hell of a time finding either.

eventually i gave up on the internet and found a nice place on a corner around a number of other cars. i park and jumped in back to start typing. and thats where the story should end, but nope. not this day.

i was back there for about ten minutes, just typing when i hear a knock on my door. a knock on my door is unlimitably more scary than a knock on the average home door. someone knew i was in here and i couldnt do anything about that. i answered the knock without opening the door. the guy asked if i was sleeping here and i said yes if that was okay with him. he said it was then walked away. after that i went back to typing and though nothing of it.

then about ten minutes later i heard someone read my license plate number out loud and then a bright light was shined onto the truck. fucking great, the cops. i was upset. the dummy that said he was okay with me sleeping here called the cops on me. at least he couldve told me so i couldve left, you know? its not like i wouldve put up a fight. so, i took down the draperies and opened the door. the cops asked me to get out, so i put on my shoes and jumped out. they ran my name and told me i couldnt sleep here. we bantered for a bit, and i did this because i wanted them to know that i wasnt intimidated. yes, i understand it is awkward that i live in a truck, but that doenst mean i am any less of a person or that i will shrivel in the beam of your maglight. i talked some shit to them about the guy who called them on me, told them some of my story. they said i couldnt sleep on the road, and maybe i should go to the rest stop on the expressway.

then they both also told me that if i parked somewhere else on the street and no one saw me that i could just sleep on some other street. i told them no duh, i wasnt trying to be seen just here, and i have only been caught once before but that guy was okay, i know not to let people see me. they gave back my license, apparently i am clean, and sent me on my way. i drove around for a while, trying to ditch them in case they would drive around the streets i was near and eventually i just parked to come finish this.

this is just the first day of the month that i think will be the hardest. we have a number of buttons to button.