on the road, again.

travel day

As i looked around again at my Tramp camp on this beautiful warm Florida morning I poured my second coffee into my camp coffee cup, just not my favorite coffee cup, that one was packed away ready to go on this long ass trip. I'm hitchhiking back up to New York state with Lori. We're not a couple. I'm just helping her out by getting her far far away from a extremely abusive relationship that she got herself into. She wants to go and get back together with her husband and kids in Wisconsin. 

 I'm going to miss this camp. It's been comfortable and cozy and it's kept me safe and dry the whole time I've been here. The camp has two dome tents set up in it. One is mine that I brought with me when I thumbed here from Florida's west coast, and the other one was here when got here. It was left here by some other street tramp, bless his or her heart. That's the one that I've been staying in. I haven't been staying in it the whole time that I've been here though. I set up my tent, stayed in it for two weeks and waited for who ever owned it to come back. When I was sure they weren't, I put a big tarp between that tent and my tent. I also put a big tarp under and over my tent as to avoid rain seepage. After the person who owned the tent didn't come back, I moved into it and used my tent to store my clothes and stuff in. The tent that was already here in this small patch of woods off the interstate was bigger then my tent. It had a big tarp over it like a roof and one big, long tarp extending out in front of it to make up a living room with a large table and chair. It also had a camp stove to cook on. It even had a mattress in the tent. It was very comfy. I was happy no one came back, it was hooked up. 

It's 6:20 am. I had been up sense around 4:00 am mostly cause I couldn't sleep much anyway. I was to excited. Today was going to be unlike any other day has, since I've been here in Orlando. Today is traveling day. Today is also the day that I have to rescue a woman from an abusive boyfriend. Never done that before.

Usually, I would get up, have a couple of cups of coffee and a few cigarettes after getting dressed. Then i would go to the Waffle House down the street, to get my breakfast. Then I would go try and fly a sign and see if I can make some money. I always did pretty good at that as long as I could avoid the police. I've had to walk off a corner many times in spite of doing good because of Po-po. 

I liked being here in Orlando it's definitely an interesting and cool place to be. There's other homeless people that make tramp camps here along the OBT.
There's Mark. He's from some where in upstate NY but I don't remember where he said it was and that's the reason why we get along so good. Just like Lori, he's a real bad alcoholic to. Drinks all the time, from the time he wakes up to the time he goes to sleep, whenever that is. Never seen him sober. I'm really surprised the guys never got hit out there on the OBT. I doubt he's gonna have a very long life, not that it matters to me anyway I ain't never gonna see him again after today. 

Then there's Pete. He's a real cool dude. You can tell he's been tramping for a long time just by the way he acts. He's real talented to. the men can really play the guitar. I mean, he is good. I don't know why he don't do something with his talent. He sets out front of a Wally world playing his music while people throw money into his instrument case. What ever floats your boat I guess. 

Then there's Lori and her ass of a boyfriend Max.
Lori needs to get away from Max because he's always using her for a punching bag. She also told me that she needs to not only get away from him but the drugs that he's been feeding her. She never did any drugs before she met him but he got her hooked on crack and selling her ass. She knew I was going be leaving to hitchhike back to NY and asked me if she could go with me. So I agreed to take her. 

"Hey Lori, wake up in there. We got to get ready to go" I yelled to her. She had slept in my tent. I had cleaned it out anyways because I had gotten all the clothes and stuff that i needed to take with me.
"I'm up" she said "I've been up for a while." "Yeah me too." I said
"You want some coffee while it's still hot?" I asked her as she was climbing out of the tent and zipping it back up. "Yes please, that sounds good."
"How do you take it?"
"Sugar and cream if you got it"
"Yep, I made sure not to pack up the stuff for coffee until we get ready to leave cause I don't do well without my coffee in the morning."
"I know what you mean" she said letting out a little laugh as she was taking her first sip of coffee.
"What time is it?" She asked.
6:43. So what's the plan for this trip? You still want to go?" I had to ask her just to make sure.
"Oh HELL YEAH!" She yelled. "I have to do this, I have to get away from him. I'm so sick and tired of being beat on and treated like I'm lower than a dog. As a matter of fact, he treats his dog better than me. Hell I don't know why we even got that stupid dog. We're fucking homeless and this dumbass gets a Pitbull. 'We need it for protection' he says. 'He won't eat much' he says. Shit to if I'm well fed. That fucking dog ate more and better than I did. I hated that dog." She said. I could tell she was on the verge of shedding some tears.
"So what's our first move here?" I said to change the subject and get her mind off of Max's bullshit.
Lori wasn't a pretty woman and she had a tenancy to drink way to much, but she's a good person and damn sure don't deserve the kind of shit that she's been going through with Max.
Lori also suffers from some kind of thing that makes it so she has to wear a colostomy bag. All I know is, yikes. She showed it to me once. That's all I needed to see.
"Well first we got to go to the mall" she said "And just why are we going to the mall?" I asked her with an extremely inquisitive look on my face. "We're supposed to be getting the hell out of town."
"I've got to get my money from doing those surveys," she said, "I should be getting about $200 from them people. I can't pass that up, but I got to get to that money before Max does or I won't have it."
"Well then," I said "I got just a little more packing to do and then I'll be finished here and we can get going." "OKAY" she said and poured another cup of coffee.