Trial by Water

Lots of rain lately. Hard for travelin'. Hard for campin'.

When you are wet, you are cold. Specially at night.

Went over quite a few bridges. I like to take a picture when I do.

It's metaphorical. Crossing a boundary. The road narrows and becomes dangerous, but the bridge delivers you over a more difficult impass below.


Saturday afternoon, May 21st.
Eugene, OR.

Woohoo! College town Eugene, OR. Home of the University of Oregon.

Stepping onto campus is like returning from Mars; it's a whole other world.

Softball championships, mainland Chinese exchange students, Dodgeball on the lawn, and students socializing over picnic.

Individual study room at the library. Free electricity, free Internet, comfort, and privacy. I'll stay here for the rest of eternity, thank you.

Pour my cremated ashes into a little urn on a shelf in a study room and call it "Jonathan's Room". Pay Ulix a stipend to stand guard.

'Here lies Jonathan'

-- earlier on Saturday

I went to REI for a refund, then the mall for lunch. Ladies love horsies.

Finding a Nemo friend for Ulix.

Dessert and dessert are the best courses at Hometown Buffet! Ulix is watching his weight.

Bridge.

--- Back to Saturday night.... a few hours later, well, 10 pm.

OK. I'm sick of college life. It's all so meaningless. Priorities revolving around entertainment, socializing, and pay-to-go events.

A bicycle conga line across the street

When I'm at college, I'm just a creepy old man with a bear, staying in one place too long on a laptop. I feel isolated. Like an existential anomaly.

Student Union. University of Oregon
Eugene, OR.

Only two kinds of adults carry teddy bears. Pedophiles and the mentally disabled.

One gentleman patron at the public library in Portland loved Ulix. He was working on his laptop, some kind of faculty at a Christian private school. He made several jokes about my bear, then told me to take good care of him before he left. He was a nice man. But his attention to Ulix was throwing all sorts of warning flags for pedophile.

A male caretaker, probably a family member, led a mentally retarded person to use the men's bathroom in Salem. The disabled person was being difficult, not listening, doing the opposite of what was asked for attention. I felt sorry for the caretaker.

When I saw them, I was surprised to see it was a disabled woman. She was holding onto a teddy bear, like a child does. I thought, oh great, I'm carrying around a bear like a retarded adult.

Being mentally disabled shouldn't excuse you to not do what you can, because you don't want to. Just because your development is stunted, doesn't mean you're allowed to pout and whine like a child. A child is expected to learn proper behavior. An adult with mental disabilities, functioning at the level of a child should follow the same expectations.


Sunday, May 22nd.
Travelin' in rain to Cottage Grove, OR.

Full of angst, I walked out on University of Oregon in the dark at 11 pm and camped outside of Lane.

Lane Community College is a couple miles south of Eugene. Third largest community college in Oregon.

Good morning, cloudy sunless Sunday.

It rained through the night. I had slept on my forehead, knees pressed to my temples, strangling my thighs together to stay warm and keep from getting wet. I felt like a pious Muslim or something. My ankles hurt from kneeling.

Some cars in the parking lot near the machine shops. It's that kind of college, where they'll teach you to build cars and do real work along with book learning.

Has a gas station too.

And turkeys. High-pitched gobble gobble gobble.

All student facilities were closed and locked with security badge swipe access. The rooms with tables and electrical outlets were safeguarded from my trespass.

Was bout to leave, but a series of misfortunes led me back to the college. First I couldn't find my hat. Retraced my loop around the parking lot and found it. Then it started to rain. I ducked under some building eaves, where I chanced upon the recreation facilities, which was unlocked!

I expected a security personnel, or janitor, or random person with a college ID to ask me what I was doing at any moment. Used the bathroom to test the waters. Not a sound other than the fans inside vending machines.
 
I pulled up a table and chair to the wall outlet and charged my devices. An hour later, still there was nobody in the building. OK then, let's do some exploring.

Hallelujah, look what I found... gym lockers! That means free shower! It was a military shower, only cold water, but that was enough to de-slime my body. Yay!

I'm happy.

I didn't get much rest during the night, so after my shower in the athletic facility, I slept on a couch.
So what if anyone found me? If no one does, I'll sleep the whole day. I became aware how tense my muscles had been, once I started to doze and my body relaxed.

Hiding my stallion behind a couch.

A campus security officer woke me on the couch. The gentleman recorded my name and address from my driver's license, called in a case, etc. Standard procedure. He didn't explicitly ask me to leave, I noticed, but repeatedly stated only students allowed in the buildings. I assured him that I'd be on my way.

He seemed nervous. Like one of those cops who never made the beat, or after one day past cadet academy realized he wasn't cut out for confrontation and found the safest, out-of-the way place to become a security officer. His hands were shaking as he wrote down my information.

I, on the other hand, glad to have some company was cheerful and talkative. Told him where I was going and why I stopped inside while I gathered my belongings. He informed me our conversation was being recorded. I was fine with that.

He told me it was a long way to San Diego. Maybe the presence of my bear gave him pause to consider that I was mentally deranged. He told me to be safe.

As I walked out, he followed about ten paces behind. Making sure I was leaving, but not daring to approach. My bicycle fell over a few times as I plotted map navigation on my phone. I waved back to him as pulled out of the parking lot. He waved too.

Waiting out the rain at Walmart.

I bicycled twenty miles south and got into town just before rain started. The rain has since been on and off. I'm stopping for food and some rest.

I slung my saddle bags over my shoulders to walk into the market. Then I realize they invented shopping carts for that purpose. I'm dumb.

The thing about being smart is, it doesn't work when you are dumb. Like, I try to be smart about putting something somewhere, and then I forget that I'm not smart. Later, I can't find it because I can't figure out what smart thing I did.

It would've been better if I'd just done it the dumb way in the first place so I'd be able to figure it out afterwards. I screw myself over when I outsmart myself. That smarter, younger version is always two steps ahead of me.

I'm sitting under the canopy with park benches where Walmart employees smoke on their breaks. Several groups of them came and went while I've been typing away on my laptop. Some I talk with, some just talk to one another and I listen.

Death and work related injuries among their family seems to something they all have in common. Had to call out from work to take a brother to the hospital. Was wrapping a tow cable around a tree stump and a piece of metal sliced his scrotum.

Two Walmart employees were comparing their miscarriages. How many for you? Five. They told me I had cysts, and a bunch of stuff and stuff. I was in college, felt something wrong. Thought it was stress.

Turns out she was pregnant with all sorts of health problems. The baby had no chance.

Map

Today's progress. Rain makes the blankets heavy, and the road cling to your tires. The pedals turn slower just from the riding surface being wet.