I woke feeling good about this sleep spot. There was a morning mist in the air, and even though I was relatively close to the street, having a car see me was very improbable. I packed up quickly, as it grew lighter with each passing moment.
I also felt good about my appointment the day before. And now (from several days in the future, and since its publication) I can tell you that the appointment was with a writer for the Gaston Gazette, Diane Turbyfill, and photographer Mike Hensdale. This was all arranged by my incredible and motivated editor and publicist, Fay Campbell. The story would be released on the front page in a couple days.
I went to Starbucks to do some work and double check the location of the post office downtown. I also checked out the bus schedule and saw that there was a bus leaving from Wal-Mart and headed back to the station which was right down the street from the post office. I set out to catch that sucker...
A sign left over from the time before Starbucks had been built.
Looked funny across the swamp where no one could park.
The bus arrived right on time. The website says fares are $1.00, but the driver informed me that it was actually $1.25. Either way, it was good deal and was going to save me an hour and a half worth of walking. It was about a ten minute trip to the downtown area from the mall...
Looks like tree had been taken out of the station plaza.
But the holes were ready for new ones whenever that might be.
The Gastonia bus station.
Once again, I was sorry to be here at this time of year and not during the summer. I had to use my imagination to see it with its leafy trees. It was a sweet Main Street, with little parks and nooks that caught my eye...
I could tell this city was proud of its arts and culture.
Neat! Sculpted brick work. I'm not positive, but the rounded edges of the circle
look like they may have been part of a smokestack at
some point. Maybe a Gastonian will fill us in?
I liked this, because of the small size of the Police Department office--very hometownish.
The building every fine town should have!
This was interesting too. They were renovating the building.
It is obvious that another tall building once stood to the right of it.
Again, if any Gastonians are reading this, please leave a
comment if you know the history and I will update this post, and give you credit!
Another small park which must provide some nice shade in the summer.
I got to the post office, which must be their original building. Sorry, I didn't get a shot of it. I only had to wait a short time before getting to the window. A very nice woman searched for my General Delivery package and found it right away. I hadn't waited long for it, having ordered the product (a dietary supplement coming from Chicago, Illinois) while I was in Kings Mountain, just before arriving in Gastonia. Now that I had my package, I needed to find a laundromat.
I knew I'd seen a place when I first walked through town, somewhere along Franklin (Route 74), between this downtown area and the east side. I really wanted to take the bus to it, but I was afraid I'd miss it. So, I walked back east...
One of two grand mansions along this part of Franklin.
The other (a white house) was shown on Day 223.
A small apartment complex. Nice to see apartments that aren't just square brick buildings.
I'd gone quite a way, and thought maybe I'd missed it, when behind a Wendy's I saw it--Franklin Laundry. The place was fairly small, but had a lot of machines. There were only two other people washing clothes. I'd received a donation to help pay for a room which I had reserved for the next night ,when it would be raining, but it still bothered me that I would have to slip my unwashed body into clean clothes for a day before taking a shower. I didn't want to dirty them on the inside. I wasn't too bad anyway. Sometimes the timing for these things (showers and laundry) can't be aligned and it is always a toss up. Do I buy a room and stay out of the rain, but not eat; or be able to eat for a few days, but remain dirty and have to sleep out in the rain? I had decided on the room and hoped some money would come in for food.
The way I do laundry is to carry a swimsuit and change into that while I wash my pants along with all the other dirty clothes that had piled up. I keep plastic store bags, two of which I use to stow my clothes. When the dirty one is bigger than the clean one I know it's time for a wash. I currently have three t-shirts, a short sleeve button down and my turquoise button down, a pair of stretch pants I use as long underwear, two pairs of wool socks and two pairs of underwear. I pulled out the sleeping bag and stuffed that in the washer too....
You can trust good 'ole number 20!
I settled in to watch Judge Mathis--good laundry type entertainment. I'd never see it before. I'm not a TV person anymore, so I feel like I'm out of the loop. It was funny...and ridiculous.
The washer buzzed and I got the clothes into the dryer. Usually I try to keep the heat on medium, but these machines only had high and low. Not wanting to spend the rest of my natural life there, I chose high, but kept an eye on things. The sleeping bag can't take too much heat or it will melt!
Everything worked out fine. Within a half hour I pulled the clothes out, folded them, stuffed the sleeping bag back into Saggy the wonder pack, and was out the door, walking east again toward Starbucks. I still had a way to go and half-thought the bus might be on its way back. And, it was. But it passed me while I was between signs (something that has only happened about a hundred times!).
Eventually I reached Cox Road and took a deep breath before running the gauntlet of rush hour traffic (it really was rush hour this time) to get across Franklin. Somehow I made it. A car even - gasp! - stopped and let me enter the Walgreen's parking lot so I could use the fifty feet of sidewalk that almost led all the way to the Starbucks driveway. For a driver to do that is not a small favor. He/she must be willing to sacrifice a bit of dignity in the process, as cars pile up behind, revving their engines and honking; as if the ten seconds they spend not going as fast as possible will somehow ruin their lives.
At Starbucks I got back to work. Another person had donated for a second night in the room. I was pained by trying to decide on the room vs. food thing. Finally, I decided I'd try to get the room on this night and have it clear through the next night. But the Super 8 was full. That would mean--back to the woods. This really wasn't so bad. It would give me another opportunity to buy a second night later the next day--or not.
As I was putting my credit card back in the wallet, my little pile of fortunes spilled out on the table. These are from the last months since leaving Allyson's house near Minneapolis. The funniest one is at the top of the right column, with my favorite being the next one down...
I left for the daily meal around 6:30 p.m. Of course, I went to the Dynasty Cafe again. I was very hungry when I got there. All I'd had since eating there the night before was a small bag of popcorn.
On this night, I would learn of the sushi chef's "cloud shelf" (my name for ingredients above the top shelf). The sushi was so good that I brought over my handful of extra change that had been accumulating (minus the quarters) and dumped it all into his tip jar. He bowed modestly, and as I placed a few pieces of sushi on my plate, I saw his gloved hand reach down and put a temakicone (hand-rolled cone of sushi) on my plate, with a long juicy piece of lobster tail sticking out of it! Being a Mainer, I appreciated this gesture even more. Tip the sushi chef--it's worth it.
For the rest of the meal I made the most of my anti-Chinese-hangover-buffet-system. When the hour had grown late, I left, walked down the parking lot and crossed over Franklin to the grass strip on the other side. I walked until I saw the same small path that had led into the woods the night before. It was due to begin raining on this night, so I set up the tent with its small blue hiking tarp...
Bottom tarp was tucked under the staked tarp/fly (the orange cover shown),
and the tent was ready for the blue hiking tarp.
I wanted to see if the blue tarp would stick out.
So, I took this shot between the tent and the road.
Because I'd set the tent up in the same spot - being too lazy to excavate a new one - the matted down leaves did not provide as comfortable a cushion as the night before. I made a mental note of this. Then Saggy got placed inside followed by me. I always take off my shoes by sitting with my feet outside the tent door flap, then shaking them and tapping them together. They go along the left side of the the foot end of the tent; toe to heel. I fell asleep normally, expecting to be awakened by rain later.
[I can now add all of the Gastonia sleeping places, since I'm out of town and the Gazette article has already been published. Working backward, they can be see in Day 225--the same one as on this 226 night, Day 224, and Day 223. Look for the yellow arrows in the Google Earth images at the end of each of these posts to see where I actually slept.]
_______________________________________________________________________
PLEASE CLICK ON OUR SPONSOR ADS BELOW FOR GREAT DEALS!
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
PLEASE CLICK ON OUR NON-PROFIT CAUSES TO SUPPORT YOUR COMMUNITY!
_______________________________________________________________________
Support Dawna Lamson's Simply Smiles fundraising campaign!
From her page...
Help me support Simply Smiles by making a donation to my Win A Trip campaign! With your help, you can send me to Oaxaca, Mexico or the Cheyenne River Reservation in South Dakota to work with Simply Smiles. The process is fast, easy, and secure. I truly appreciate any support you can provide. And, no matter the outcome, it will benefit a great cause!
If you can't make a donation at this point, help me reach my goal by sharing this page on Facebook and Twitter! Or, even better, send an e-mail to friends you think might be interested in contributing and include a link to my page!
Thanks so much for your generosity!
This will be a wonderful opportunity for Dawna to provide a brighter future for impoverished children, their families, and their communities. It's easy to give! Just click on Dawna's picture below.
_______________________________________________________________________
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.