A Living Magazine - Day 157 - The Land of Loans and Lawyers

I woke up early as I always do on a travel day. The only thing I had to do that day was make sure I caught the 1:15 pm bus at the Birmingham Greyhound Station. Still, I packed up quickly and said goodbye to the birds and the Golden Flake field...

I had breakfast at McDonald's and studied all the Google and other information I could on Montgomery (the Greyhound station location, Maps, Satellite, Earth 3D, and Street Views--for the sleep spot), and then weather, libraries, and something pretty important for resupplying: Wal-Mart.

 Montgomery had everything I would need, but these things were spread out across the whole city. Greyhound was located in the southwest of town, Wal-Mart was in the southeast, while the library and downtown areas were way up in the north. In the next two days I'd have to make a triangular path in order to hit them all.

I got to the Birmingham Greyhound station about an hour early...

Apalachee Don. Never heard of him until this day.

I sat around inside the station and watched MSNBC heavily rotating how afraid we should be as we travel, interspersed with medical ads and Black Friday discount ads. The place slowly filled up as 1:00 pm approached. I had to go outside and take a break from the din of the TV...

Ah, fresh air, under the towering presence of banks.

Finally, the garbled intercom announced something unintelligible, but I could just barely make out the words, "Montgomery" and "Gate A". Good enough for me. I lined up as close to the front as possible.

Soon we were on the almost-overbooked bus. But, thankfully, I had the double seat to myself (and Saggy--the wonder pack, of course), and we were on our way... 

Great bus driver; let us have a break after only an hour. 

When we arrived in Montgomery, I got online at the McDonald's across the street from Greyhound and re-checked my info for the city. I desperately needed new socks, new underwear, new gel insoles and wipes at Wal-Mart, so I looked for the closest patch of green, then viewed it from the Google Street View, and saw no impediments to making a camp spot there. Only problem was it happened to be located six miles east on Route 80. I took a deep breath, strapped on the pack and headed out for a two hour walk.

This is not a rich town. About 30% of the companies along Route 80 are not only closed, but their windows are smashed in. The preponderance of short-term loan places, ambulance chaser billboards and barely struggling businesses was, frankly, astounding...

Had laugh at this. The place is supposed to be called "Beauty Warehouse."

I'm not sure about the downtown area, but this southern part of town is almost exclusive black, and (as studies have shown) that is the best place to set up payday, title, and pawn loan businesses. Trick the poor folks into going even deeper into debt. Charge them 50% interest, then take their cars and valuables, ruin their credit scores, and force them deeper into poverty. Feed the monster...

Loved this! How many ambulance chasing billboards can one bloodsucking lawyer stuff

onto one onramp area? There were two more on the other side!

I went into Wal-Mart and easily found my items, though I was surprised at the cost for socks, at $7.00 for two pairs. But, I couldn't really complain, since that is the price of a breakfast at McDonald's. And, the socks will stick around longer than my breakfast did. Ha!

The sleep spot was easy to locate after a rather rough slog through the thorn vines, thorn bushes and thorn trees. I was quite happy to see a lack of insects and spiders. I accidentally stepped on a huge ant hill, but removed my foot before the hordes attacked. The ant hills were much larger than in Birmingham--some, being twenty four inches tall! But, so far, the ants inhabiting these mini-cities were relatively docile and kept to themselves. When peering at the top of a mound, one only sees a few sets of antennae flickering out. They aren't swarming around. They have made a living from digging underground, carrying beetle larvae and nutritious seeds back to their city centers.

Nice neat tent.

Didn't really need the tarp, since the temperature was a dry 65° F, but I didn't know if it might fall later that night...

Listening to a podcast, via tree tablet holder.

I finally had a chance to take off the socks I'd been wearing since my wash in Nashville nearly two weeks earlier. I threw them away in my trash bag, wiped off my feet thoroughly and put on the new socks. Then, I cut the gel insoles to size, removed the squashed worn-out smelly ones and replaced them with the new ones, leaving the boots to dry in a tree outside. I took off my underwear, did a full wipe down, and put on one of the two pairs I'd just bought, throwing the old away. Now I had an extra pair of underwear and socks in the pack; and clean ones on.

The sleep spot was not absolutely ideal. There was an apartment building right across the street, but I couldn't ask for anything better on such short notice. I resolved to check out the rest of this island of green the next afternoon. The next day, I would be running out of money, and the regular anxiety about funds began to creep back in. Still, sleep came quickly. It had been a long day.