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Work 4 Peace,Hold All Life Sacred,Eliminate Violence! I am on my mobile version of the door-to-door, going town-to-town holding readings/gatherings/discussions of my book "But What Can I Do?" This is my often neglected blog mostly about my travels since 9/11 as I engage in dialogue and actions. It is steaming with my opinions, insights, analyses toward that end of holding all life sacred, dismantling the empire and eliminating violence while creating the society we want ALL to thrive in

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

On the road again...

Dave meets us at the Springfield Amtrak Station, which he claims is close to his business. He has driven my truck to get us.

I look into the camper - and I am shocked. I knew it had been broken into, but I didn't fathom the damage they had done.

Immediately I see that my antique Mexican Indian Blankets are gone, as is my refrigerator. But worse, everything is tossed onto the floor of the camper: the food that was in the cupboards, papers, bedding that is left.

Doors are broken off hinges and fronts of drawers gone.

I am heartbroken.

The same is true for the cab of the truck: everything - that wasn't taken - has been strewn all over the floor.

Dave starts up the truck and immediately, I express my concern with how loud it sounds. Dave 'reassures' me, he knows diesels and this is just a diesel noise.

It is almost dark now and still drizzling - but warm, thankfully.

We park in front of Dave's business, I give him the rest of my cold cash to pay for the work they've done on my truck, and he leaves us there.

Jasi plays outside while I try to get the camper in some kind of order so we can sleep in there tonite.

I finally decide just to dump everything in large garbage bags - the vandals have left a bunch there - and toss into the back of the truck for now.

When I can finally get to the beds, I discover the bottom bunk looks like someone tried to set fire to it - or else had a hot pot sitting on it. The sheets are destroyed, the sleeping bags gone, and the memory foam hard and stained there.

We can only sleep on the top bunk - the sheets are still there and I recover some blankets from the back of the truck - they didn't figure out how to get into the back - thank you Shazam!

We drive to the first rest stop and eat. It is dark, Jasi is very tired, and the truck sounds too noisey to me.

Jasi falls asleep when we get back on the road - I decide to drive while he's sleeping and make it back through St. Louis and on to the next rest stop, where we try to sleep on the top bunk.

We used to be able to fit up there, but I'm nervous, I'm going to fall off, break my back, and be unable to drive us home. So I make a bed on the floor, where there is more space and no danger of falling.

We wake up to a beautiful, glorious fall day - just before the sun gets up!

Our adventure awaits....

Jasi & I catch a morning plane to St. Louis, MO - we're on our way to a road trip adventure!

Finafuckinly, after almost 5 months of waiting and waiting, broken promises, unfulfilled deadlines, a couple of breaking and entering, wrong and missing parts, my truck is ready to roll!

We land in drizzly but warm St. Louis, gather our luggage, and board the Metro Line to the Amtrak Station. Here at the Amtrak, we can catch a train to Springfield, Illinois, where my truck awaits our arrival - as do the Sangamon Diesel folks.

I plug in my computer and Jasi's Nabi at the counter of outlets provided for Amtrak customers. A young woman has her computer and phone plugged in next to ours.

Jasi has to go pee - so we ask our neighbor to watch our computers and around the corner we go. Jasi's pee turns into a poop (this child has famously long poops) but no rush - our train doesn't depart for another 2 hours.

He has finally completed his deposit in the toilet, and we head back out, only to bump into the young womon hurrying to find us - someone has grabbed Jasi's Nabi and ran out the door!

The 'security' officer has called the police. He demands my information as if I'm under arrest. Then he lectures me about watching my things. As if...

Jasi & I speak about why this person would grab his Nabi - maybe he is hungry, maybe he doesn't have a home - for sure he must be desperate to grab something that might net him $20 if that much, and probably jail time if he is caught.

I don't know how much my daughter spent for this piece of technology - it really comes in handy, when flying or traveling long hours, entertaining Jasi with books, stories, games. Now it will feed someone maybe.