{"id":230,"date":"2013-04-23T15:24:26","date_gmt":"2013-04-23T15:24:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eyeslikecarnivals.com\/?p=230"},"modified":"2013-05-01T13:43:19","modified_gmt":"2013-05-01T13:43:19","slug":"230","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eyeslikecarnivals.com\/?p=230","title":{"rendered":"America feels big this morning, hitchhiking across"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"IMG_4191\"<\/a>
\nLeaving San Mateo Fairgrounds for the east coast, at my bunkhouse door with a stuffed duffle bag and a book bag this morning.
\n\"IMG_4206\"<\/a>
\nMy bunkhouse trailer this morning. Franklin’s bicycle. The Rabbit’s plastic bottle recycling bags. A propane table-top stove. I lived behind the blue door for five jumps with Butler Amusements in metro-San Francisco, on the edge of Silicon Valley.
\n\"IMG_4184\"<\/a>
\nOur ‘reefers’ house 15 Mexican carnies stacked three bunks high, five deep with a kitchen, a refrigerator, lockers and two showers (hope I get better pix of Mexican quarters in the future<\/em>).<\/p>\n

___________________________________________________________________________________
\nWilliam Shakespeare died on this day in 1616 at age 52. I used to commemorate today every year when I lived at the Belden-Stratford in Chicago, which has a seated Shakespeare statue across from its entrance.<\/p>\n

I’ve just turned 54 and I’m hitchhiking from metro-San Francisco to the East Coast. I don’t know exactly where I’m going but I’ll be looking for carnival work along the way.<\/p>\n

I mention my annual Shakespeare ritual because it is what I normally would do today and what I’m doing seems so odd for my age.<\/p>\n

I’ve been working in the San Francisco\/Silicon Valley area for the last month and a half. I didn’t get confirmation of my Los Angeles carnival jump so I’m hitchhiking to the east coast to make sure my year of working coast-to-coast in carnivals lives up to its mission early on.<\/p>\n

My duffle-bag is too heavy. I’m only carrying two changes of clothes but the sleeping bag, tent, laptop and camera equipment make it a burden. I won’t be walking far without effort.<\/p>\n

I’ve hitchhiked much of the USA, eastern Canada, Europe and North Africa. So I know there are cold nights, wind, rain, desert sun and generally harsh weather ahead.<\/p>\n

Facing backwards with my thumb out, the westward wind will be in my face.<\/p>\n

Yet I don’t know how it will feel. I was in my 20s when I last hitchhiked cross country.<\/p>\n

I’ve chosen the southern route this time, heading south along I-5 to Los Angeles, then west along I-40 until heading north again in Tennessee on I-81 toward I-95 and the Washington D.C. to Boston corridor I’m seeking.<\/p>\n

I’ll be traveling through California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee and places northeast. <\/p>\n

Who will I meet? <\/p>\n

The country looks big on the map this morning, feels big.<\/p>\n

-30-<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Leaving San Mateo Fairgrounds for the east coast, at my bunkhouse door with a stuffed duffle bag and a book bag this morning. My bunkhouse trailer this morning. Franklin’s bicycle. The Rabbit’s plastic bottle recycling bags. A propane table-top stove. I lived behind the blue door for five jumps with Butler Amusements in metro-San Francisco, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s4qqmC-230","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eyeslikecarnivals.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eyeslikecarnivals.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eyeslikecarnivals.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eyeslikecarnivals.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eyeslikecarnivals.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=230"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/eyeslikecarnivals.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":293,"href":"https:\/\/eyeslikecarnivals.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230\/revisions\/293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eyeslikecarnivals.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eyeslikecarnivals.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eyeslikecarnivals.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}