A Living Magazine - Day 301 - Homecoming - Fredericksburg: French Fries and Catch-Up

I woke up, packed up and hit the road. The destination on this day was a different Starbucks, just outside the city limits, near the Salem Baptist Church Battleground, on Route 3.

I had much to do. I was totally out of money, except for a few dollars on my Starbucks card. So, it would be a "hungry day." I did have a McDonald's Monopoly tag for free medium French fries, which I jealously held onto in my wallet for later that afternoon.

I had no idea how I was going to move on to Washington, but just assumed maybe someone would donate enough for the train ride (about $20). I worked at Starbucks catching up on the blog. I also did some preliminary planning for the Mid Atlantic leg, checking out maps.

There wasn't much to the day. It was Sunday. Come hell or highwater, I planned to leave Fredericksburg on Tuesday. This would be my last night sleeping in Hypermall area. The Amtrak station - if that's how I was going to leave - was downtown on Lafayette. So, I planned to find a place relatively near it on Monday--something that would prove much more difficult than I'd thought. 

In the late afternoon I headed back to McDonald's...

I won't explain the irony of the name of this store.

I'm sure you could guess, if you read this blog frequently. 

I got my free French fries, and ate them slowly so that I could feel more full by the time I was done. I had to sacrifice another chunk of pride by posting a request for funds at Facebook, then took off for one more night in this second sleep spot.

After climbing down from the bridge to the woods, I set up the tent as I had before, and drank the last of a Gatorade that I'd saved and poured water into at the Starbucks bathroom. Climbing into the tent, I felt okay. I'd been in the hunger situation so many times before that this seemed a very mild version. I fell asleep under the half moon of the cool April night air.