A Living Magazine - Day 174 - Georgia On My Mind

The Mobile station was just the same as I left it; crowded, for being after midnight. There are "restaurants" in many stations. This one was no exception. However, I'd had a Subway sandwich the afternoon before, and was not very hungry. But I thought maybe some carbs would make me crash in about an hour and I'd be able to sleep on the way to Montgomery. So, I got a blueberry muffin and a lemonade. Soon it was time to zombify again. I joined the cattle line and reboarded the bus. 

There was hope among the passengers that we might actually get seats to ourselves. But, our hopes were dashed when the driver walked down the aisle telling everyone not to have bags on the seats, because the buss would be filling up. There was a collective moan. 

It did fill up and a large, wide gentleman plopped himself next to me. I was hoping to get the little petite woman behind him, but, no deal. His girth spread over the armrest between us. I was on the inside seat now and had the uncomfortable side air vent and window to lean against. I took the tent - in its bag - out of the pack and used it as a half-measure pillow. It worked fairly well if I squished it down from top to bottom, rather than laying it out lengthwise.

I kept almost falling asleep and then hearing myself snore and waking up again. It sucked. With crappy sleep the night before and no sleep tonight, I was going to need a good place to camp in Athens. I think there have only been three nights that I haven't been able to sleep, while camping. It really is my preferred way to sleep now. I sometimes wonder if I'll ever get used to a bed again. I'm sure I will, but it will have to be very firm, and the window will have to be open.

We arrived in Montgomery, and I thought about my little table standing out at the green island, where I slept for five nights while there. The station was empty, but no one on our bus was connecting to other buses, so we knew we'd all be reseated with our various "partners". I got off the bus and walked around. When reboarding time came, I was wide awake in America and knew I would stay awake for the rest of the trip. All I had on my mind was getting to Georgia. The next stop was in Atlanta.

I had unpleasant memories of Atlanta, having slept in the airport there on my way back from Florida once, when my connecting flight to Maine was delayed. there are few worse things than sleeping on the floor of an airport. 

I was pretty sure we'd be coming into a crappy part of the city, and sure enough we did. I had a five hour layover to get through, and figured if I was going to be awake I might as well get some coffee. So, I left the station and walked up the street, assuming there would be a McDonald's close by. 

As soon as I was one block away, a guy came up, eating pineapple from a can, and said, "Ya looking for a McDonald's?" I knew he was going to beg me. I told him I was all set. "Well, ya just look like ya came from Greyhound and ya'll probly hungry. There's a McDonald's just two lights up." I thanked him and kept walking, but he continued behind me, asking if I had a little change--presumably for the valuable information he'd just provided. I was not in the mood. But, I stopped, reached into my side pocket and grabbed some random coins, dropped them in his hand and told him it was all I had. This satisfied him. 

I got to the McDonald's and went in to see a dirty place, with trash on the floors, no regular trash can, just an open plastic bag. The woman behind the counter stood there looking at me, without a word. I told her I'd like a small coffee with five creams and four sugars. She tapped in the order and then stood there again looking at me. Having excellent ESP skills--not, I had to look at the register for the total and handed her money. She turned around, poured the coffee, threw some creamers and sugar in a little bag and handed it to me, still without a word. I thanked her, and she said, "Mmmhm". Checking my bag, I noticed there was no stirrer. So, I asked for one. 

Another woman turned around and said, "I'm sorra sir, we outta fokes, spoon, knive and stirs..." Seriously? In all the places I've been; through all the shithole parts of towns; from sea to shining sea, Great Lakes to muddy Gulf, never has a McDonald's not had "fokes, spoon, knive and stirs". But, you take the bad with the good, and was still waiting for the good on this day. 

I passed back out through the door, and as soon as my feet touched the sidewalk, another guy walked up to me and asked for "sity-fy cen" to "ket da buh". It was the old ask-for-an-unusual-amount-and-hope-to-get-more-with-a-poor-excuse gag. I told him I had nothing, and continued walking. He called after me sarcastically, "Has a nigh day!"

Upon approaching the station again, I walked past a woman who looked like she was waiting for a  city bus. She saw the coffee in my hand and asked, "Ah, MacDonna?" I smiled and nodded. "Wha buh ya'll weighin fo, baby?" I told her I was going to Athens. "Ah juss love me Athen." Then it came, "If ah ohny ha me three dolla, I cuh geh downtow." I suggested walking, which cracked her up, told her I had nothing, but wished her luck and then walked into the building.

Begged three times in thirty five minutes. This didn't improve my view of Atlanta. As I have said, though, I see things from a circumscribed perspective. I'm often on back streets and with folks who beg for a living (sometimes a rather good living). They nearly always have a mission or shelter to sleep at, get to take a shower every couple of days, get free food from churches around the area, and hold their steady job of begging during the day. I don't really blame them for settling into this lifestyle; becoming satisfied with the lowest common denominators. But, I do sometimes resent the way they try to manipulate passers by, especially if one of those is me. If they are entitled to get everything for free, and have no ambition to improve their lives, or offer some kind of service for what they get, then I feel entitled - as a fellow street person - to not be played by them. Oh well! 

The five hours was slow. The station was packed to the gills. I plugged the dead laptop into a charging station, amongst ten phones of varying sizes and colors. Then I sat down in front of the TV and watched the CNN ticker slide by. There was already a new story since New Orleans: The Swiss caught two guys with traces of explosives and chemicals, after being tipped off by US intelligence, and suspected they were plotting to bomb Geneva and Chicago. Lovely. The most neutral country in the world tightens its security.

What was much worse than the suspected terrorist plots was the pernicious parade of ads. I pulled out my little notebook and made a list as they came on, cycling over and over again it wasn't hard to catch the ones I missed the first six times they been shown. I wanted to see the kinds of companies that can pay for so many spots. 

Here's the list, in order of most popular industry, frequency of repeat in two hours on CNN, and after my research for drug ads and related health issues, the associated percentage of the US population affected is shown in parentheses...

PHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRY - 21 Ads

Harvoni 4x - hepatitis C (2%)
Humira 2 x - arthritis (20%)
Prevagen 5x - memory aid (5% have cognitive impairment)
Abreva 4x - cold sores (57% have HSV-1, 25% have HSV-2--that's a lot of people)
Qunol 2x - supplement for high blood pressure (29%)
Vanda 2x - sleep aid for totally blind people with "Non-24" (0.04%)
Nicoderm 2x - smoking cessation (18% smoke tobacco, 70% try to quit) 

HOSPITAL CARE INDUSTRY - 7 Ads 

Cancer treatment Centers of America 2x
Bright Star Care 3x
Brookdale Senior Living 2x 

FINANCIAL INDUSTRY - 5 Ads 

Prudential Retirement Funds 3x
Quicken Loans 2x 

AUTO INDUSTRY - 2 Ads 

Auto Trader 1x
Volkswagon 1x 

FOOD INDUSTRY - 2 Ads 

Golden Coral Buffet 2x 

TECHNOLOGY INDUSTRY - 1 Ads 

Expedia 1x 

TRAVEL INDUSTRY - 1 Ad 

Norfolk Southern Trains 1x

DISASTER CLEANUP INDUSTRY - 1 Ad 

Serve Pro 1x

That's 40 commercials in two hours, or 20 an hour. Most are 30 seconds long. That's about 10 solid minutes of commercials an hour. That means if you watch 6 hours of TV a day (a small amount for some folks), 1 of those hours can be counted as solidly commercial. And, if you are tuned into CNN in the early morning, apparently 52.5% will be for pharmaceuticals, 17.5% will be for hospital care, 12.5% will be for financial services, 5% will be automobile related, 5% will be food related, 2.5% will be for technology, 2.5% will be for travel, 2.5% will be for disaster related (are you kidding?).

These are the types of things I do when I'm bored. So, according to my admittedly jaded and probably-error ridden observations on this early morning, Americans need drugs, need hospitals, need loans, need cars, need buffets, need internet, need train travel, and need disaster relief. Not the prettiest picture. But, these are only what advertisers tell us we need.

Apparently, poor, bored travelers also need to "Cut the Rope" and try to pick up small stuffed animals with their huge amount of spare change...

When my transfer bus arrived for the two hour ride to Athens, we boarded, and mercifully each got our own double seat.

I took some shots of Atlanta as we drove away...

Georgia State Capitol Building.

When we arrived at the Athens station--about 1:00 pm, I deboarded and thanked our good driver. It was hot and humid outside. McDonald's was just down the road, so I walked there. They had no outlets, so I worked until my battery almost died. During the couple hours I was there a serious accident happened right out on the Atlanta Highway. No one in the restaurant heard it including myself. It was only when I got up to use the restroom that I saw the results out the window, and several people, hamburgers in hand, with their noses up against the glass. I grabbed my camera and went out to do some photo rubbernecking...

Not sure what was up with the guy and his dog.

I think he was a witness--the man, I mean.

From what I gathered (and I searched widely for more information in the two days since and found none), the black SUV swerved trying to make a sudden turn into the Goodwill Store parking lot, but heavily clipped the silver car, then flipped over. No one died, three people were brought by ambulance to the hospital, one looked seriously injured. Don't know if texting was involved.

I left McDonald's right after sunset and walked down toward the Starbucks I'd seen online, wanting to go in to charge my laptop and do more work. But, it was completely filled with college age students. So I looked around the area for some other place to charge up, but couldn't see any obvious possibilities...

Across the street was a nice looking piece of land. I decided to scope it out as a sleep spot. Walking alongside the road leading off of the highway, I saw a tall chain link fence. No entry that way. But, when I returned to the highway side, I discovered that the fence ended and there was a small trail leading in. I did the pretending-to-look-at-my-watch thing, and then slipped into the woods when no cars were stopped at the intersection.

Once in the darkening woods, I saw roughly spaced colonnades of thin pine trees. There was an open spot where a grocery cart was left, tipped over with a hundred or so crushed cans spilled across the ground. Nearby, a brown shirt hung in a tree. Obviously, someone else had once used this land as a refuge.

My method for finding out how long it had been since a spot was occupied, is to check the dates on food wrappers. I found an Oreo cookie wrapper and the date said "Exp. 1-2016". Guessing that Oreos had a longer shelf life than one month, I surmised that it had been at least six months since the oreo-eater had been there. Of course, I had no idea if he/she was also the can crusher. I observed that the cans had a light layer of pine needles on them, which probably meant they had been there for a few weeks, as all the orange needles were completely off the trees by the time I was doing this investigation.

I determined that it was unlikely anyone would be around the spot on this night. But, just to make sure, I trekked well-away from the shopping cart, heading much farther into the woods, coming across a nice spot with the 5' x 8' space I needed. The ground was level and softly covered with fallen pine needles. There were trees to hang stuff. Yup, this was gonna be it!

I stood around and thought much about the weeks to come while doing my characteristic pacing. Eventually, I got tired around 8:00 pm and turned in for the night. I slept on top of the sleeping bag until temps cooled down at about 2:00 am, then crawled into it for the rest of the night.

Athens Sleep Spot.