Day 974

I have thought a lot about all that I have written down so far as I walked these last few days. And I how I have painted a very bleak picture of the future to my past self…You! I know you will never read this, but I owe it to you and the life you are living now (in the past) to try and paint you the whole picture. This will take sometime and many pages of handwritten scribble, but as I have said before this is kind of a therapy for me, and maybe one last thing I need to do. I have always been a some what negative person, always looking at the bad side of life, so I guess that is why I have gone on and on about all that has happen. But it is hard now, in this world when so many are in despair to look on the bright side of any thing. But I owe it to one, who for a long long time tried to teach me to see the good first and let the bad take care of it’s self. There is good in everything and everyone, sometimes you just got to keep looking and never give up, she did that for me.

My one an only……this is for you.

I walk during the day in the heat of the sun; I smell the musk of the road and hear the wind blow through the trees. The brush still rustles with wild life and you still see birds take flight and soar through the air; and when you do, you can see hope once again. I sweat as I walk and there is no air condition to retreat to, but it is a good sweat and with no cool man made air to make me weak, I grow stronger. I am resistant to the elements because I am part of them, just as a tree sways with the breeze I bend with my surroundings. I walk until I grow tired but there is always a place to rest at night because the earth is my bed. I look up at night and see the stars, they are brighter than I have ever seen them, no earth lights can now interfere with the beauty of the heavens above.

I have met many good people on my travels and as I think back I have met far more good than bad. Some of the simple people survived the ones that had the for-sight to not fall for the trappings of modern society. I have met some Amish in different states and their life’s goes on for the most part unaffected. They are good people and they always welcome me into their homes. Some how they have developed a network of trade with others of their kind in different states. I know this because when I stumble on one of there communities they always seem to know me. They call me the peace walker and always greet me with a smile.

Out west some of the Indian tribes still exists. The remote and poorest reservations began to learn to live off the land again. They took the leftovers from some of the nearby towns and started over. This land maybe theirs once again, but it will be many years I guess before that happens. They are determining to rebuild there society based on peace and they share with anyone that happens up on them. I found one tribe (or they found me) by accident, it really was an accident. I had fallen into a ravine (a very shallow one), hit my head and was laying there unconscious. The found me and nursed me back to health. I am called “old hippie who walks”. They laughed when they gave me that name and said; “you know we really don’t name people like that”, this coming from a guy called Charlie. He had an old guitar, I picked it up and we played and sang the old songs by fire light. That night I heard a child laugh again, it was a wondrous sound. I hope I make it out west again to see them.

People are still people (when I do see them); you have the good and the bad, and a lot of in between-ers. I try to look for the good in people and I’m rarely disappointed. It is all how you approach a person that matters I think, people just want simple respect. So if you can give them that, for the most part they will return it. The people I meet have had it all, everything they once knew taken away, through no fault of there own. But you can still see a smile from time to time and a simple act of kindness. Some times it comes in the form of a kiss on the cheek, like from my latest friends. And yes; I had a guy pull a gun on me the other night, but he was a man that had gone through hell. Yet in his last words to me he offered a brief act of kindness. And in that, there is hope.

A man my age should be in a nursing home, but I am as strong as I have ever been and my mind is clear (thank you Lord). I have out lived my Dad’s life span and (if I had been keeping up with time) I will soon have lived longer than my Grand Father I think. I don’t know why I have dodged all that has taken the lives of so many others, but there is a reason, there is always a reason.

I have seen far more these last few years, than I would have in a car, racing with time. My walk has taken me from one end of this country to the other. I have stood on the beach and felt the sea breeze in my face from both oceans. I have no important work to do other than just surviving. I am here to impress no one and I no longer have to wear a mask to hide how I feel. There is no money in my pocket for there is nothing I need to buy. It no longer matters what I want it is only what I need that is important and my needs are met most every day. I walk in peace with all and only defend my self if I have to. My life before had much weight and pressure, most self inflicted, I think our whole world had bitten off more that it could chew when it came to our life styles. My survival once depended on a man made system of paper money for trade and also of how much value I was to the person I worked for; if I was of no more value I was thrown away, like old trash. Now the weight is gone, nothing holds me down, I am free. Surely this was the way man was supposed to live; before he strayed.


That is the good I see, when I’m not focused on the bad…………


Go to Day 977

Day 970

After my last night of writing the next day I put what pages I had in a empty can, buried it and placed a rock on it, just like I did with my first time capsule. I did not want to tear up what I wrote (even though I came close), so I left it behind. Just as I hope somehow some day what I write will cause me to leave all the bad memories behind as well.

As I came into the tiny town of Jackson it looked somewhat normal. I walked around town and cars were still in place, parked in front of businesses, just like the owners had come into town for a normal day of shopping. I don’t know the story behind this town or what happened to the residents during or after the fall. But now it just looks like a ghost town that people just left suddenly. Everything has a thick coat of dust and grime, but other than that nothing seems out of place or looks like it’s been looted. I went into a few of the stores in town and collected a few items that would get me back in the routine of eating on a daily basis like I try to maintain. I came to an old house off the town square and decided to take a chance on seeing what was inside. To my pleasant surprise I found nothing. No bodies, no bones, nothing but a musty smell greeted me. I turned a knob on the stove in the kitchen and heard the hiss of gas. Sure enough, there was a propane tank out back that somehow still had gas in it. I also noticed a well in the back with one of those old pumps with a handle sticking out of it (like the ones you used to see in those old westerns). I walked out to it, gave it a pump or two and water came out. I looked up and breathed a thank you.

That night I fixed a meal on a real stove, I bathed with hot water that I heated up and poured in an old tub and then I laid down and slept on a real bed. With my belly full and my bones not resting on the ground, I begin to think that night I could stay here, I could stay here for awhile and maybe rest.

The next day I looked around the house and found some old photos. The family that lived in this fine old home was the Winzers. From what I could tell, this old house had been in the family since the late 1800s. Most of the pictures on the wall looked like they could have dated back to the 1920s or 30s. I decided to walk back into town and pick up more stuff and maybe have another big meal that night. But I began to hear things.

At first in sounded like someone was walking behind me, but when I turned around no one was there. Then I would hear a door slam, but still saw nothing. I passed it off as the wind or some wild animal and went on with my shopping. Once back at the house, I lit a few candles and prepared for the dark. I was in the kitchen fussing over the stove like the cook I used to be when I heard footsteps again, but this time it was inside the house. I slowly walked to the front door and saw out of the corner of my eye a man standing in the middle of the living room. When I turned around to face him head on he had a shotgun pointed straight at me. My mind raced and came to the conclusion that my rifle was upstairs on the bed. The man had a wild look in his eyes, his teeth were a dark shade of yellow (I knew that because he had them gritted at me), and his hair was in all matter of disarray and looked like an oil slick that could catch on fire if exposed to an open flame. He spoke. “You know your trespassing.” I said, “Sir (I address him this way even though I had 30 years on him at best), I saw no one in this town until just now. I thought I was the only one.” “Well, you’re not,” he said in an elevated tone. “I can see that,” I said “and I apologize.” “This is the Winzer house and you need to leave,” he said, never changing his bead on me with that shot gun. “Are you Mister Winzer?” “No,” he said. “He is out there,” and he pointed outside towards the east. “Can I speak to him and apologize in person?” “No, you can’t. I speak for him. I speak for the whole town.” “Okay, Sir,” I said again. “I will leave if you will just let me get my stuff. I will be on my way right now.” With that he nodded his head, lowered the gun and walked towards the front door, but then he turned around as if a moment of civility struck him and said “ Leave in the morning if you like. Old man Winzer won’t mind. He’s not using the place anyway. No one uses anything any more.” With that he opened the front door and walked out, not even bothering to close the door behind him. I heard him mumbling, “No one uses anything, no one uses anything, no one uses……” and he kept repeating that same sentence as he disappeared into the night. I rushed upstairs and got the rifle; it stayed with me the rest of my time in Jackson.

I got one more night’s rest (if you can call it that, because I kept one eye open for old yellow teeth). And the next morning, I walked on, but I’m thankful for the supplies. I even thank the town and I’m sure old man Winzer as I passed this mass open grave with one handmade coffin after another placed in a row. That’s what the man must have been pointing to that night. That poor wild-eyed man must be the only one left and got the thankless job of laying all his friends and town folk to rest. All that work must have taken him years, but what else did he have to do, I guess. He must have left the grave open for when his time comes because at the very end was an empty coffin with no lid. What that man has seen and done is enough to drive anyone crazy. I almost went crazy myself, but my walk freed me from that. That is one gift all this walking gave me, is freedom, I‘m not stuck to a town, house or anything. I left it all behind. Joplin once sang (her version I always like the best) “freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose”. I think Kristofferson wrote the song though, but the words ring true none the less…..

Great, now I will have that song stuck in my head as I try to sleep tonight……but at least it’s one of my favorites……..


Go to Day 974

Day 967

I told myself once before I would never get in this situation again, but yet here I am. No food and none in sight. I just knew all those little communities out side of Sioux Falls would have convenience stores but the ones left standing were picked clean, so I walked on. There are no more big towns for awhile, so I will just have to hope. My next hope is Jackson, a blip on the map that I should reach sometime tomorrow. I have picked what berries I know are safe on the side of the road and took a chance on the ground being safe as well. It was mostly tilled and cultivated ground that was contaminated, but it’s hard to trust anything that’s grown, still most wild plants are safe. I killed a scrawny old jack rabbit yesterday that made the mistake of stepping out of the brush. Not much to eat, but I picked his bones clean last night and now I wished I had some left over. Left over…like I still have a refrigerator and Tupperware to keep it in……that all went away when the day turned dark.

Imagine one day you’re sitting in your nice comfortable recliner watching TV and then the lights go out. No storm outside, but not to worry this has happened before so you pick up the phone to call the power company. No dial tone, so you pick up the cell, no service. Well it will be alright they will get to it eventually, but the power company never comes to fix the problem. Your cell never gets service back and now the batteries are dead and you can’t recharge it. No radio, no TV, you can’t get online, you're completely out of touch. You pull out an old battery radio but no one is on the air. This goes on for a day or so and people begin to venture out of their self absorbed cocoon of a life and you figure out this is more wide spread than thought. You begin to talk to your neighbors and find out they can not go to work because the power is out there and they were told to go back home. In fact now you’re hearing that the whole state maybe has no power. It’s now comes down to the only way you can get information is by word of mouth. And no one knows anything. You get in your car and ride around a little and find out that it is true there is no power any where in town. No gas pumps are running, no stores are open; in fact some stores even have chains on the doors. You go back home now and begin to think about survival. How much food do we have? How many batteries do we have? How much gas do we have for the camp stove? Oh no how much gas is left in the car and truck? You have family two states away….that’s when you look at each other and realize what you have lost; all of the sudden you're cut off. What used to be a several hour drive has now become a week or so away, if you could walk it. You just know this is temporary, it has to be. But the days turn into weeks……….you spend your days in a dark house with no air conditioner praying that something will happen, that things will get back to normal. Your neighbors tell you about what’s going on in town. The National Guard starts to open up the stores and ration food. The lines are long and frustrated store employees are trying to handle transactions with pencil and paper. The Guard would only let you get the essentials, non perishable food, candles, only what you would need to survive. That’s when you find out that the whole country is with out power. How can this be? But suddenly the National Guard is called away to bigger cities where looting is rampant and marshal law has been put in place, so you find out very little more. You get some news from a neighbor that has an old hand held CB radio. It seems some kind of computer virus has knock out all power grids and all communications. People start to wonder if it was terrorists, are we under attack? But that is soon forgotten; because…… That’s when the screams started, those horrible screams……… I promised myself I would write all this down, I’m just trying to get it all out so it stops echoing in my brain. This is where I usually wad up the paper and throw it away. I used to tell happy, funny stories, my fam….. People used to love to hear me tell a funny story. I guess happy endings are no more. That’s it, I’m done depressing myself……………….

Go to Day 970

Day 963

I have crossed another state line, Minnesota or (MIN-NA-SO-DA) as any good Yankee would pronounce it, making sure to use ever possible syllable (in the south we would just run it all together for simplicity sake). I saw a sign just before I decided to set up camp for the night that said I was about 20 miles from the town of Worthington. I got through Sioux Falls unhurt, but I was just lucky or maybe it was all that praying I did, I will chose to believe the latter. I heard gun shots as I came into town. I was up on the highway, contemplating if I wanted to walk into town and see if I could pick up more supplies when I heard shots. I eased down into a ditch and perk up my ears. It sounded like a gang on the hunt. Some kind of dispute over who own the rights to a store. A store I guess they were trying to loot or protect from looting or something like that. But what ever it was, there was for sure a stand off using guns which meant I did not want any part of it. After all mankind has been through, he still chooses violence when faced with a decision on how to relate to another human being. John said it best; “give peace a chance”. What ever was in that store is not worth another human life. God will we ever learn? It looks doubtful…… I decided to stay put until dark and walk on through town at night. With no lights and the moon under clouds I was able make it to the other side of town unnoticed. For once I’m some what thankful for our new dark age.

We have been plunged into the new dark ages (as some have called it). Remember the old saying never put all your eggs into one basket; it has been around for a long time. Wisdom from past generations, it puzzles me how we never learn. Remember the turn of the century; when everyone thought all those computers were going to shut down, because it could not read 2000 or the date could not turn from 1999 to 2000 with out starting over….something like that (I can’t remember, it has been so long ago). At any rate people thought it was going to be the end and all the computers would crash, but nothing happen. So we went on and continued to digitize the world. Everything went digital, all our documentation (we called it going paperless, the green thing to do), communications (radio, TV, satellite), pictures, music, we digitized everything. Everything was on computers, all our information reduced down to a binary code. When that was not enough we also decided to tag things with digital information. That way we could keep up with stuff and the tags would have all the information we would need to keep track of whatever. Everything from what you bought at the store to what your car was doing at any given moment (cars were even emailing people to tell them when to change the oil), it all was tagged. All these tags were talking to computers through radio frequency all over the world. It was progress and progress is good right? We (you and I), have often thought about how mankind became so advanced in the last 150 years when he has been on the planet for thousand upon thousand of years, why so many leaps forward in such a short period of time. Less than two hundred years ago we are reading by fire light and then the electric light is turn on and we explode with new technology. Why? I don’t know and I don’t have the answers, I just know that when man tries to build a tower towards heaven, he soon will be in for a humbling experience.

One of the biggest falls in that long line of falls during The Effect was the RFID Virus. It spread so quickly and took down so much; no one could recover from it in time. It was our fault; we had to have all that information, everything, at our fingertips. All that information we could not live with out. We could not be satisfied with tagging just things; we had to tag ourselves as well. It started when we tag pets (just to keep track of them in case they got lost), then we tag livestock and finely people. We were sold on how simple everything would be if we had the chip. There was talk of it becoming a law that everyone had to be tagged. But there was no need people were lining up for it. Just a simple visit to the Doctor and that was that (most credit card companies were even paying for you to have it done). It was suppose to have all your information (medical history, social security number, bank and credit card information, everything) on this little innocent chip just under your skin. Then you could go to any store, a computer would scan the tags on your purchases and the tag in you, deduct the amount from your checking account (or charge it to you credit card if you wish) and you would not even have to slow down as you leave the store, how great it that? We would soon find out……..

I can not write any more tonight, thinking about this is too painful. I’m tired, hungry and I’m out of food. I was hoping to get stocked up in Sioux Falls but that did not turn out as planed. I have been looking for a store at the exits, but I have not found much. It won’t be the first time I have gone to sleep hungry and it won’t be the last…………..


Go to Day 967

Day 959

It has been two hard days of traveling, everything I have is wet. Usually this time of year rain is very scarce in the plains. But I knew when I saw those clouds with tops up to thirty thousand feet or better that I was in for a storm. The wind caused the rain to beat me hard from the side on the highway, so I tried the ditches but that was not much better and made the walking very difficult. I dropped my pull sled after the soaking I got yesterday and just kept what I could. There was not a lot left after I gave most of my cans to the Canadians. Most of what they had was powdered stuff (milk and eggs), as well as dry cereals, rice and oatmeal. He said they had not thought about cans. I told them about how long can stuff lasted and that beans was the best source of protein they could find out side of meat (just one bad side affect is all, but when you alone who cares). I warned them about watching for the date it was processed. When they ran out of safe food to can they stopped but a few still kept canning after the drop dead date until they were forced to stop. Drop dead date, I can’t believe I phrased it that way, how ironic.

The Canadians turn out to be nice people after all, we spent most of the next day talking and getting to know each other, which was good, almost made me feel human again. They, like I did not want to talk about the past, so we just mostly sat around and shared ideas. They hoped in California to find enough land to grow what they needed and build house or find an empty one. He told me he had a soil testing kit so he could make sure the ground was safe and they had bought enough seeds with them to start. He said they use to have a green house before and raising plants was kind of a hobby that would pay off for them if they could find a warmer climate and good ground. I told him it sounded like a good idea. They asked about me and I told them I was just reliving my childhood and seeing the country one last time, just walking my remaining life away. The young lady seem to warm up to me and tried to speak to me in her broken English at times. When we parted, she looked at my walking stick and asked about the symbol I had on it. I told her someone special gave it to me. And I put it there to remind me of once upon a time when we thought we could change the world. We said our good byes and after he shook my hand she reach up and gave me a kiss on my gray whiskered cheek and said “you good man”. I watched as they road out of sight and prayed they would have a safe journey. It has been a long time since I thought of the word good applying to me.

Well I’m wet, smell like an old dog and I’m bone tired, so I will put up my writing stuff and try to sleep in this leaky tent. I have stake it down by a patch of trees so I should get some shelter from the wind and rain. I hope it stops by in the morning. If it does I should be able to make it most of the way through Sioux Falls tomorrow. It is a good size city so more than likely I will see more people. I just hope I don’t run into any fools. Looks like my old plastic bag is worst for ware, but maybe it will keep this paper dry until I can fine another one.

Go to day 963

day 956

My days of being alone and not seeing any one has ended. As I walk along I-90 about 20 miles out side of Mitchell, I saw something way out in the distance (you can see for miles upon miles in this part of the country). What ever it was, was on the west bound side of the highway and was keeping a straight course, so I decided it could not be an animal. I pull my rifle from the holster under my backpack and chambered a round and click the hammer back to the safety position. I carry a sawed off 35 caliber marlin, the butt stock has been hollowed out for weight and I have installed a custom lever action (yes that’s right I still have it, the gun your Brother gave you after you killed those three dear in one day, but I have made a few more changes to it). I carry it for protection (and hunting when I can find clean game); it seems to make enough of an impression on people that I have rarely had to use it (so far). As this thing traveling towards me got closer I realized it was someone on a bicycle. Then when it got in plain view I discovered it was two people (a man and a woman) on a tandem bicycle with a trailer being pulled behind it. They came to a stop on the other side of the highway and we stared at each other across the medium. This went on for what seem like several minutes (I guess they were as shock to see me as I was them). I had my rifle in my right hand (pointing toward the ground) and my walking stick in the other. Finely the silence was broken by the man. Friend? He said. Then I said; that’s up to you, but you will find no violence in me unless you plan any. He got off of his bicycle and extended his hand as he walk across the medium, I stood still and laid my rifle down (as a gesture) and offered my hand as well when he got closer (but I kept my glove on until I could get a good look at his skin). It turn out that they are very friendly and seem normal. Since it was late in the day I offered to set up camp under the bridge that crossed over the highway a few hundred yards back so we could get to know each other.

They say they are from Canada and are headed towards southern California for no other reason than they wanted to see the ocean and maybe start over there. They have a funny accent and speck French to each other (which I find kind of annoying and rude) so they must be from around Quebec, but they have not said as much. He does most of the talking and maybe she does not speck enough English to feel comfortable talking to me. I’m sure I am quite a sight and smell to boot, but I can’t help it. But they have been nice and friendly to me and even shared a meal with me. Eggs they had eggs, they were powered, but If I closed my eyes and squinted just right they almost look like the real thing (of coarse they did not taste like it), it was a nice change. I brought out for the occasion my last can of potted meat (they ask if the date was old enough and I assured them it was) and we had a feast fit for a king (a king of a broke third world country).

They asked me if I had been to California and I told them I was there about four months ago. He also asked what I thought about settling there and I told them that it depended on the area. Most of the forest has been burnt, (with no one to put out the wild fires) and the sea winds are kind of bad on cretin parts of the coast, but I assured them they would be able to find a spot. I ask why they left Canada and the woman hung her head (so I know she can understands me). To forget he said, and a silence fell on our little feast, I can certainly understand the need to forget.

Now they are in their tent and I in mine. I hear them whispering and I wonder what it’s about. I don’t think they mean any harm, but I have thought that before and had it not turn out so pleasant. I will keep the rifle close and try not sleep so soundly tonight. It must be nice to have someone to talk to on regular bases. I get tired of mumbling to myself. I will see what happens in the morning, but it would be nice to visit some more and get to know each other a little. I think they look to be in there early forties or late thirties, so they must have just been starting out as a couple when it all started. At lest I lived most of my life in a normal world (that we all took for granted). What do I know, they could have just met and decide to go to California to shack up and get away from who ever. There I go thinking the worst of people, just habit. Someone once tried to teach me to see only the good in people (and through her eyes I could). I still want to see the good in this world, and the day is coming soon when I will again see goodness once more in the next world…I long for that day, but I will walk until then, walk towards the Son…………

Go to day 959

Day 952

After leavening the sleepy little town of Chamberlain well stock with food and fresh boiled water. I decided to walk the rails all the way to a town called Mitchell South Dakota. There I can pick up I-90 again. According to my map the rail road runs parallel to 90 anyway and it will be a nice change of scenery. I say sleepy little town because I never saw anyone, alive that is. Even though I made a lot of noise breaking into the hardware and grocery store. Most of the town look abandon like everyone just pack up and left, but I would find out that was not the case. As I was going past one of the churches I made the mistake of taking a look inside (it had been awhile since I prayed at an alter). There it was, what look like a whole congregation sitting in their pews, in a prayerful position; dead. I recognize the boils and that awful skin color. Each was in a different stage of decay. I froze in my tracks and back out the door. I spent the next fifteen minutes gagging and throwing up…….I hate the sight of it, I have seen it to much and I was hoping not to see it again. After that I kept getting the feeling I was being watched, eerie feeling so I was glad to move on. If anyone was there they did not let themselves be known.

So many towards the end ran to the big cities when the jump became so wide spread. They were just looking for a cure, but no one was working on one, no government, no CDC, no one. It mutated so fast, we would hear about one species of animals getting sick and it would jump to another and then finely humans. The jump was one of the last straws in a line of many disasters. It killed most of the livestock and that disrupted the food chain even more. It has been hard for those that tried to survive out in the country, when you can’t even rely on eating what you grow or raise. There is some comfort, I guess, in knowing that each one of those poor souls last dieing act was to get to church and pray.

No one thing caused the world I live in today to be like it is. It was a series of events. A domino effect, one fall, then another an another. You can see the start of it, if you will open your eyes. Look for the signs of the times to come, pay attention to the signs!

For now, after my visit in town I am well stock up. I also found plenty of duck tape. It can repair almost any thing, from a lose sole on my shoe to a rip in my backpack. I was hoping to find some new shoes, but they did not have my size. I was able to fine a bicycle tire and some tubing to make another pull sled. One of my better inventions. I fashion a carry all of such that is made by fixing a tire to on end of some v shape tubing that I attached to my shoulder straps, the whole thing is behind me as I pull it along. Then I can carry more supplies on a sling I put between the tubing. This counter balances the weight and the tire rolls along keeping me from having to drag dead weight. Plenty of cans and water makes for a heavy load. But I can drop it all when I get in a part of the country were the exits are not so far apart. I thought North Dakota was desolate last year but south may have it beat. I will be passing though Mitchell tomorrow and back on I-90 and my tire will roll better on pavement. I came up on some abandon train cars so I’m spending the night here and will listen to the wind blow all night I guess. It's a ghostly sound, the wind howling at night, like Hendrix once wrote "will the wind ever remember the names it has blown in the past". But this box car will provide better shelter than my tent could at any rate.

I have had to live alone at different times, traveling , or just trying to keep a job. I never did like or get use to being by myself. Most of my life was spent trying to keep my head above water all because of a system of greed we had set up in this world. Now my curse is to walk this earth alone......I wish some how I really could get a message back to myself…..I wish………

Go to day 956

Day 949

As I walk today I came up on the Missouri river were it meets Francis Case lake which puts me about 140 miles from Sioux Falls. The wind has been brutal the last few days so I decided set up camp a little early and stay the night under the old Oacoma Bridge just out side the town of Chamberlain. The water flowing past was nice to watch and I drifted off to sleep. The dream must have been a result of my surroundings. I found myself on one of those camping trips we use to take on Boggs Creek in the north Georgia Mountains. The time was then but I was as I am today, but no one seemed to notice. This could have been an enjoyable dream, but I spent it trying to warn everyone of the future. No one believe me or paid any attention which made me even more frustrated until I found myself screaming “PLEASE BELIEVE ME, IT WILL HAPPEN, IT HAS HAPPEN”. I woke up with a start and heard my voice that was still echoing off the bridges under side. I hate dreams!

I’m going into Chamberlain in the morning to see if anyone is around, maybe pick up a few supplies. I still have not seen anyone, but there could be someone in town, and if so they maybe a little skittish, so I don’t want to surprise them. If it turns out to be a lot of people (which I doubt because I would have already heard them). Then I will move on and get back on the highway. I don’t want to push my luck and get cornered into having to defend myself. People are not trusting at all any more and you can’t blame them. But I have run into a few that are still, well human.

I made a decision that will maybe keep me from doing what I have done in the past to my writings. I am going to leave what I have written so far in one of my empty cans, bury it and place a rock on the top as kind of a time capsule. Kind of like throwing a bottle with a note in it out to sea. My little message in a bottle through time. I will leave my first one under this bridge in the morning. Who knows I may dig it up and read it over, when or if I’m ever through here again.

I don’t want to go back to sleep, I don’t want to dream………………


Go to day 952

Day 947

Did not get very far the last few days, I don’t walk to get any where fast I just walk to move forward. I do have a plan though not a very good one I guess, but it has served me well so far. I walk the south in the winter and the north in the summer. I started out on I-20 going west, which broke me in very quickly. It was just after Christmas when I decided to do this; such a lonely time. It never has been my favorite part of the year any way, except maybe when I had someone to share it with. You will find I refuse to write or talk about family and our lives before; I keep all that information in a special place in my hart. At first the long miles through Texas and days of never seeing anyone or any thing not to mention the cold nights (even southern winters can be cruel), well let me say it was the test of a life time. But it all has been a test, this life I have lead since the fall.

I am in the Bad Lands of South Dakota now; on I-90 somewhere between Rapid City and Sioux Falls. I side track off 90 as I came into Rapid City last week to see Mount Rushmore only 20 to 30 mile one way. It seems to be holding up well unattended, just like I remember it. The Black Hills is nice and cool this time of year but I needed to push on and the highway is best for that. The weather is mild and the days long. I stay to the highway because even though the exits are far apart I have a better chance of finding food at the old gas stations and convenience stores off the exits. There is not much food to hunt for here and my rifle is not design for the long distance shooting required, more suited for the pine thickets of South Georgia (remember those days) than this part of the country. So I will get by on my cans for now, if they were just not so heavy. Funny what you learn to survive on. A land of plenty turned into a land of not much left.

It has been oh maybe 30 to 40 days since I have seen another person. And I don’t like seeing people any way, you never know what they are thinking and I have always made a bad first impression myself. That is why I walk around the cities if I can. Too many stuck to the bigger cities and chose to live off each other, just could not abandon the old system of greed. Looks like this country is headed back to the way it was before the white man. You think about that out on the plains, you wonder what it was like when the Indians hunted the buffalo and lived off the land. Nature has a way of purging the land of any animal that gets to be too much for the land they live on, makes you wonder if man is headed for extinction since we have abused our land so much. Of coarse my thoughts is still out on the subject of whether it was nature, man or God that caused it all. From what I read in my bible, what has happen is not like the Revelation, as I understood it. But that part of the Bible has always been one for much debate. Who knows what John saw and from what point of view. But what has happen has been the end for human kind as we use to know it, and it has opened eyes and that in its self has been a revelation to many. People always run to God during disasters. I’m thankful He has been there all along for me, or I could not have gotten this far.

I’ll be pushing on towards Milwaukee; I will stand on the shores of Lake Michigan again before I turn south; maybe if I’m lucky I could find a boat with enough fuel to take a ride out on the lake. Maybe by pass Chicago that way…….yeah right, always the dreamer. Going straight into Chicago did not turn out so well last time, lesson learned. Now that I’m writing again I hope I can find some more paper and a few pens. I hate reading over my writings, I never could spell, but who else will see it any way…..

Go to day 949

945 days and counting

I have tried to write before, but I get frustrated and tear it up. Who wants to hear what I have to say (as if anyone could read it), after all it’s to late now. I have lived to long and seen too much…..much more that I ever thought I would. I must some how get it out of me, purge my brain of it all, before my end. I have often wished I could send a note back to my younger self, as a warning. But I don’t know if I would listen or could do anything. After all I was a nobody, just one of the millions upon millions that use to live in this land. So I have decided I would write my little dairy of such, as if I was writing it to my self long ago.

So, past self this is to you, cherish your life now, for as you read on you will see your end of days will not be what you expected…….

Remember when you use to go on those family trips back in the sixties. Every year for many years Mom, Dad and their friends and you would go on those see America trips. You saw every state out the window of your dad’s new Pontiac Catalina. Well me, (your older self) decided to spend his last days on this planet, doing the same thing once again, but this time on foot. I have been walking for over two and a half years. Walking the desolate highways, side roads and trails of this once great nation, seeing what’s left seeing all I can with these old eyes of mine. I just was tired of sitting and waiting to die, I had nothing left, nothing more to lose. So I just pack up and left, carrying only what I could and using my old walking stick to steady myself. I was weak and to old for such a trip. Maybe so, but you would be surprise how quick you get stronger when you walk all the time and every effort is put into just surviving. You would find that hard to believe now, because you’re fat and content and have it all. I know, I know you think you have had it hard, but you’re in the prime so don’t waist it, don’t be content. Because it can all disappear in the wink of an eye. The land you live in now has plenty and is wasting plenty. Too much leads too much greed, and greed will lead to a great fall. I wish I could tell you how long it has been since the Great Fall. But I don’t remember, I don’t keep up with time much any more, just days. Time is kind of irrelevant, there is no place to be, no place to be late getting to. I could tell you the year when it started, but that would be kind of be like seeing what’s in the wrapped up present. But this is no gift you want to open. It was Pandora’s Box. Once open, no one could put humpty dumpty back together again.



Enough of that did not mean to scare you. It’s just too much has happen to write about it all tonight. I’m tired now; think I’ll have my latest can of what ever. Can food, great idea, it can survive any thing. There is still plenty of food out there you just got to know where to look. At first I got a lot of can food from the old mega stores, but there slim pickens now. So I just find what I can’s I can (sorry for the pun) and make them last as long as I can (sorry I can’t stop). You got to have a since of humor, it serve you well back then and you will need it now. More to come, later on down the road…………….


Go to day 947