A Living Magazine - Day 295 - Homecoming - Thornburg to Fredericksburg

Very nice night in a good place. I slept in until 9:00 a.m. I'm having stronger dreams again lately. Seems to be some kind of cycle? When I get back to Maine, I'm going to analyse the frequency of the dreams presented here and see if there is a pattern. 

I did the pack up and went to McDonald's. I was hungry, not having very much lately and long distance walking every day. I had very little money left. I've been trying to just have faith that I will receive funds when I need them. I despise begging on my hands and knees. And, if worst comes to worst, I'll just, um, beg on my hands knees. Ha! I got a Big Breakfast (eggs, sausage, hash brown, hotcakes and biscuit). It cost $6.06. 

I worked until about noon and then took off for the long 14 mile walk to Fredericksburg... 

Love it! My meal was $6.06 and I walked on Route 606. Some readers will also identify this

number as the supposed number of our planet in certain sources.  

For about a mile of this walk I followed a stream to the left of me. And, I saw quite a few little fish and even some bigger ones. I don't know much about freshwater fish. Maybe some reader can speculate what kind of fish that might be? You can't see it very well but there is a six inch specimen in the top left corner, right under the lip of the protruding leaves in this shot...

This is as large as the stream got--about six feet wide.

Most of the time it was barely one foot in width.

I wondered, as I wandered, how cool it would be to swim as little fish from places in the woods all the way to a nearby lake. It is kind of amazing actually. And, to think this was right along the roadside.

Now, the guy above was prepared! This line of stacked wood reached 300 feet from the road to the house, was 5 feet deep and 5 feet high. I worked out the number of cords: If a cord is 4' x 4' x 8 ' or 85 cubic feet, and this was roughly 5' x 5' x 300' or 7,500 cubic feet, then he had 88 cords! Burning 6 cords a season, it would last him 14 seasons. Ha! In Maine a cord of hardwood costs about $275. That would make the value of this guy's stash about $24,000. Probably cost him less if quantity was involved, but still. One season of burning 6 cords would cost about $1,650.

As a comparison with heating oil, an average-to-large house in Maine might burn 700 gallons in a season. Maine's price at this point is about $1.73 per gallon. That's only $1,211. Oil is a better deal. Of course, it is not renewable, where wood is. Both are dirty--emissions-wise, but oil is far less so. It is all very interesting. Green people (as I consider myself) might be surprised about these numbers. Just something to think about.

I would still choose wood (if radiant heat, like Liz and Logan use, weren't available) for an off grid house, because I believe I could use the coppicing method and not have to rely on an outside source for wood fuel. By FAR Liz and Logan's radiant heat fueled by thermal solar heaters is the very best choice possible. It is completely clean, free and extremely efficient.

These are all the kinds of things I have a lot of time to think about while walking. There isn't much else to do. I simply work out math problems in my head. I know I'm a nerd in this way, but sometimes it can be very satisfying and does pass the time...

One of the fancier roadside memorials.

This time we have a name: Eugene Yonts (7/1/82 - 9/14/97).

For the heck of it, I Googled this 15 year old, but found nothing.

It is kind of sad that sometimes people are completely lost to history.

Here is another. this time we have the info on her...

Deborah Ann Payne, 51, of King George County passed away Saturday, April 12, 2014. 

Debbie was a hard worker throughout her life. She loved her grandchildren, her dog she affectionately called “Bud-Bud,” and riding her Harley. She had a smile that could brighten any room. She was a fun-loving soul who wanted everyone around her to be happy. Her heart was the size of Texas and she would befriend a stranger on the street. She loved angels and she will now get to spread her wings and always be our angel in heaven.

King George County is just above and to the east of Thornburg. Maybe this house was owned by a relative of hers? But I wonder what inspired a roadside tribute? Perhaps she was killed along this road? My point? everyone has a story. Everyone is important.

Most of us will be forgotten eventually. It is touching to see these tributes along the highway, because they demonstrate our human need to express our love for those who pass away; to extend an epilogue of their life as long as we can.

About 6 miles south of Fredericksburg, I reached a huge branch of what I've been calling the Hypermall. The traffic was outrageously dense. Thankfully, I found that the few walkers in the community had made a trail where there was no sidewalk, and I used it gratefully...    

Finally, when I was really feeling the burn, I came up a hill and saw my Starbucks destination up ahead...

Starbucks is just to the left and in front of the CVS.

I went in, but they only had two tables with outlets--very rare for a Starbucks. I needed to find a Walmart nearby, since my socks were falling apart. And, there happened to be one two miles away and to the west, along with another Starbucks. So I headed back out.

Fredericksburg has tons of Civil War history. The Battle of Fredericksburg was fierce and as I walked by these markers along the trail to the mall area, I didn't realize I would be camping right behind the battleground on this night...

Passing over the bridge across I-95, I saw rush hour traffic was backed up due to an accident...

I bought my socks and headed back out toward the woodsy part of Cowan Boulevard (where I'd seen the historical markers). This whole time in the western part of the city I was blown away by the size and extent of this branch of the Hypermall. So, I made this short video...

...and the next day posted this statement at Facebook when sharing the above...

This entire mall was developed in the last 7 years (in 2009). I have been seeing massive amounts of commercial property for sale, lining every major highway in America. 

One can only imagine what 20 more years of Hypermall growth will look like (Hypermall: defined as a single mall of the future, developing from the malls in each city of the US, and slowly expanding to meet each other's borders). 

Okay, so I'm a cynical person, with an anti-materialism agenda. If you are happy with the fact that eventually every corporation will have a branch every five miles, in this country, and believe that nothing is more important than the unchecked growth of consumer culture, thing-fetishism, and unbridled commercialism, the next few decades are going to be your heaven. 

Your kids will go to business school rather than get a liberal arts degree, and most of them will work in the retail sales of things to themselves. They will work for the lowest possible wage that corporations are allowed to pay, and 90% of the profits made will be   funneled to the top of the pyramid. 

Meanwhile, resource extraction will be chopping every forest, digging every mine, and using every last drop of fossil fuel to ship mostly plastic things all over the world (adding to CO^2 in the atmosphere), to feed the Hypermall. THINGS will be sold to people - dropped in little plastic bags - who use them a few times then throw them away. 

And the system will become so ingrained, embedded in the economy and culture, that the thought of reforming it will be impossible, since everyone will rely on the Hypermall society. 

Maybe, just one possible vision of the future. Again, heaven for those who only care about the outsides of things in the world, and hell for those whose inner world once depended on the peace of nature, simplicity, novelty in art and music...

I want to mention something about this statement. It wasn't meant as a rant, but a friend of mine took it that way. She confided in a private message that it was good that I could rant and "get it out of my system...hit the reset button." Now, I want to be very clear about something (and I don't mean to put her on the spot, when she reads this, but I think it needs to be said)...

My descriptive statements about what I think are wrong with the direction of this country, may or may not be "rants." However, they are very serious statements. I am not blowing off steam, nor do I need to "get it out of my system." I always, day and night, feel sick about what I see this society doing to itself. It isn't some psychological issue with me. These things must be said. Others say it in their own way. I say it in these ways. I will not stop doing this. I have been consistent in my views of the terrible materialism of the American consumer culture.

Unlike those who drive everywhere, sleep in a house every night, experience the world through a screen--whether TV, computer, tablet, or phone... I see the world as it really is. I've been the sit at home spectator and now I have been the guy viewing all of this from the outside. If someone "cringes" because of the intensity of what I say, it should be recognized by that person that this is REAL. How do you know? Because I'm telling you that it is. I don't lie, and I don't exaggerate about this. If someone thinks that I'm overblowing these commentaries about American excess and ant colony behavior, thing-fetishism and commercial brainwashing? Do what I do. Then, and only then, will you have the objective perspective to judge accurately just how far I'm going or haven't gone with my commentary.

When I got back to the place where I saw a field on Google earth, I walked up into it, but found that another person had set up a tent there. I continued on through the woods, over a stream and up a steep hill, directly adjacent to those historical markers shown above.

There would be rain on this night, so I got the tarp up on top again. I have to be honest, this is the first time I ever felt uncomfortable, physically and psychologically for the whole night. There was something not right about this place. I felt a psychic echo; something dark and defensive was there. I don't know what it was. This area saw a lot of death, and it seems to have locked in the terrible energy from those war days. I vowed not to sleep there again.

Fredericksburg Sleep Spot 1