Back to the City

I finally made it back to Queens, wet and a little weary. Bear with me on this one folks, it might get a little long, the last five days feel a bit like i got dragged through a hurricane. From Maine, I was making great time towards Buffalo. I was getting rained on most of the way, but I was headed to see Yonder, so I was all smiles. It was Saturday morning, and I had about 250 miles left, with plenty of time to make it for the show, when I had the first of several encounters with New York's "finest." This cop pulls up to me on my on ramp to I-90, which is a tollway, and tells me that I am not allowed to be anywhere near the expressway. The on ramp I was on was really just a big highway interchange in basically the middle of nowhere, and there was nowhere for me to go, so the officer gave me a ride to somewhere I was allowed to be. Unfortunately, this happened to be some back road in the middle of upstate New York, and the cop didn't really give me anything in the way of directions towards Buffalo. I spent the next several hours walking ten miles up this road trying to get back to the highway, enjoying the beautiful scenery, but still pretty pissed about the whole situation. By the time I finally got back to a highway, i realized there was no way I was going to make it all the way to Buffalo in time, so I started heading back towards Troy, NY, where Yonder was playing the next night. I made it to Troy about 4 o'clock in the afternoon, and after about a half an hour, decided that Troy was not really worth hanging around in for 30 something hours just to see a band i would be seeing in a few weeks anyway. I think this decision was sparked by the bout of loneliness i had been feeling all day. Having spent the last week sharing a bed with someone i care about very much, waking up alone in my hammock on the side of a highway had me feeling a little depressed and lonely. The rain and the cop side tracking me were also both contributing, and I was a little bit burned out. The prospect of wandering around Troy all afternoon by myself, then finding a hobo camp somewhere, then wandering around all day the next day alone didn't seem very appealing, and i was only a couple hours north of the city, so I decided to head back a little early, feeling that there was still plenty of light to make it back with. I caught a puddle jumper down to Albany, the next town away, and the capital of New York. The ride was a really cool guy on his way to play a gig in Albany, and he gave me a little bit of pot for the trip, then pointed me in the direction of the nearest on ramp. As I walked around the corner of the on ramp with my thumb out, my spirits sank a little more. Sitting on the side of the road, 50 feet away, was a squad car with it's light already on, investigating some pile of trash on the side of the road. I immediately turned around and walked back the way I had come, but it was too late. Within a couple of minutes, the cop had found me and was demanding i.d. I gave it to him, then he instructed me to go stand in front of his car where he could keep an eye on me. As I set my pack down, i felt his hands patting me down. Before i could protest and exert my 4th amendment rights, he felt the small pipe i had in my pocket and informed me that would now have to place me in handcuffs while he searched my stuff. He told me that I was being momentarily detained, not arrested, and that I would be on my way as long as I didn't have anything else illegal. Hoping to get some points for honesty, I preemptively told him about the small amount of pot that was stashed in my tobacco pouch, knowing that in the state of New York, the amount I had would probably not even warrant a ticket. He thanked me, placed my belongings on the hood of his car, and placed me in the back. For anyone that has not ever had to be handcuffed in the back of a squad car, keep up the good work. It is probably the most uncomfortable, degrading places I have ever been. I guess that is all a little redundant, but man does it suck. Anyway, my license is clean, and the cop had already found everything in my possession that was illegal, so a few minutes later he let me out to one of the more interesting encounters I've ever had with a cop. I walked up to the front of the car to grab my pack, and noticed my pipe and weed still sitting on the hood. The cop walked over and we had the following conversation:
"Well, why don't you decide which of those two things you want to keep, put it into your pocket, and throw the other into the woods."
"Wait, you mean i get to keep one?"
"Yeah, I know this whole situation probably really sucked for you, I'm sure it would be nice to have something to put your mind at ease."
"Well, yeah, definitely, but, really?"
"Sure man, what they don't know can't hurt anyone."
"Well thanks a lot man." I grabbed the pot, put it back in my pouch, then tossed my pipe into the woods next to the road.
"Now my town line ends about a half mile up, I don't want to see you hitchhiking here again."
"Fair enough, why don't you give me a ride there then."
He kind of smirked at this, then smiled and replied "You want a ride? Sure, why not man."
So I hopped back into the car, and he dropped me off literally on the side of the interstate, with no place at all to walk, then told me stay safe, stay off the road, and drove off. It was one of the strangest juxtapositions I had ever experienced, so i rolled a little joint and smoked it on the side of the highway with my thumb out.
**Disclaimer - i realize that by writing about this experience I might make a few of you a little disappointed. I've been trying not to mention the drugs because that's not at all what this is about, but this experience had to be written about, so now that's "out of the bag"**
I felt very strange about the whole experience, but the sun was back out, and I was back on the move, and I was actually starting to feel a bit better about things. I was still an easy hitch away from the city, and after some good jamming on the harmonica, I was smiling again, ready for whatever came next. Over the next two hours, two people stopped, but they were both heading north, and i was still thinking i was headed for the city, so i turned them down. The sun was starting to set, and I realized that I had killed a lot of the time that I didn't want to spend in Troy, so I turned my life over to fate. I exclaimed out loud to the world "Alright, wherever the next car is going, I'll go with them. If they are going south, I'll head for the city, if they are going north, I'll go back to Troy and see my favorite band in the world." I felt pretty good about the decision, and within 20 minutes or so, I snagged myself another golden ticket. Walking up to the car, I really had no idea what to expect. The car was a shiny, new looking white 4-runner, and the driver was a guy with short hair, and a striped polo shirt, so like I said, I had no real idea what to expect. Little did I know, I had just been picked up by the wild card "Even Steven" ("with a v, for vixen.") I hop into the car, and tell him I'm going wherever he is. His response is to invite me to a party at his brothers house. Never one to pass up a good party, I accepted, and we were on our way. The ride was pretty short, just up to the Saratoga Lake area, and we spent it talking about life on the road. Steven works out of his car, and we empathized about not having a bed and a couch to go back to at the end of the day. We pulled up the house, a really nice ranch style out in the middle of the woods, and i hopped out, most of my doubts long gone. We walked out to the backyard, grabbing some beers out of the STOCKED fridge, and I got my first real taste of upstate NY. It was his brother's roommate's girlfriend's birthday party, so it was mostly just a bunch of good friends hanging out drinking beer and throwing horseshoes. I immediately made a bunch of good new friends, and we spent all night playing shoes, playing beerpong, drinking "cocaine ladies" (a deliciously dangerous drink made up of 6 kinds of creme booze, vanilla vodka, and a splash of milk) and throwing around one of those cool glow-in-the-dark frisbees. I passed out in a corner at some point, I'm not really sure, but i held the beer-pong table all freakin night, which is probably why I don't remember falling asleep. I do remember the several buckets of fresh-baked clams that kept coming out. I have never been to a "clam-bake" and oh my freakin god. I probably scarfed down twenty of those little fuckers. Delicious. So then I woke up the next morning to find the occupants of the house out on the back deck enjoying what was left of the beers. A few minutes later, Steven walked out in his boxers and handed me another cocaine lady to start the day with. We spent the morning drinking and enjoying the beautiful sun finally decided to spend a whole day with us. Eventually, Steven had to be getting back to life, and promised to drop me off at the concert venue in Troy. Thank again to all of you guys up in Saratoga for showing me such a great time, you guys are fucking awesome. So back to Troy. On the way, Steven told me that before I left, i had to try Vermont's "Magic Hat #9," one of the northeast's best micro brews, so just before he dropped me off, we stopped and picked up a twelve pack. We drank down a few in the parking lot outside the show, and then Steven left me to get back to work. Even Steven, the wild card. Thank you so much man, stay cool, see you next time. Now, i found myself at the venue, with 4 hours to kill and 8 beers to drink, so i posted up next to the door and started trying to make friends. I've never had such a hard time giving beer away, but I got to hang out and chat with Yonder's bus driver for a while, chatting about the road. At one point, Jeff Austin got dropped off on the corner, looking like the crazy party animal that he is, and wandered around for a few seconds trying to find the door. Eventually, I made some friends who let me stash my pack in their trunk, we finished the beers, then were the first ones in the theatre to get the best seats in the house. Revolution music hall, in Troy, is a really cool venue. There is a small dance floor downstairs, with a badass balcony that rings around the upstairs, 20 feet away from the stage. We got a table on the balcony directly centered on the band. It was my new friends first Yonder show, and the boys certainly didn't fail to blow us all away. We got a "Come Together" cover, "After Midnight," and the "Crazy Train" that I have literally been waiting four years to see. Fucking awesome show. I LOVE Yonder Mountain String Band, and anyone that reads this owes it to themselves to find a way to make it to a Yonder show. After the show, my friends were heading north, and I was still trying to go south, so we parted ways, and I got my thumb out at the entrance to the lot. Thanks for sharing your first show with me guys, I'm glad you had such a blast, and the show is up on Archive already, so check it out. Within ten minutes, my next ride stopped to grab me, and guess what, it was another golden ticket. The Dan's picked me up, and told me they were heading to Albany for the night, to do some more heavy drinking, and then Dan Loper, the driver, was heading back to his hometown of Pine Plains the next day, and that I should come to both. We made it to Albany, found a bar serving a "5 dollar burger and beer" special, then played pong for a few hours till we all passed out. The next day was what really turned this ride into a golden ticket. Dan brought me back to Pine Plains, NY, a small, really beautiful upstate town. We grubbed out at his parents house, then he took me up "Hick's Hill" to his friend's home, where I got introduced to the Hicks Hill crew. The house was the family home of Molly and Jonah, and sat on 30 something acres of forest that backed up to state land. The property had at one point been part of the commune up the hill, and had been part of over 100 acres, but at some point, things got weird, as they do, and the family dropped out of the weirdness to just be a family again. Everyone had to go split off and take care of things for the day, but were all coming back together that evening for a bar-b-que and party. While everyone was out, Molly showed me around the woods they had all grown up playing in. These kids had the fortune of growing up without all the bullshit filters that suburban America forces on you, and were legitimately some of the nicest, most well rounded people I have ever met. At one point, even Molly had to go into town to take care of some things, and left me alone at the family house. We had already become friends, but still, for anyone to have that kind of trust in a stranger is a very rare thing these days, and it made me respect them even more. Eventually, the whole crew came back together, and we spent all night dancing, eating, drinking, and making merry. There was this field just under the back deck that filled with fireflies at night, creating a truly beautiful sight that pictures did no justice to (those pictures are forthcoming, I'm still missing a cord.) I met the beautiful amazing activist Brit Sisco, who is right now campaigning for climate change awareness, fighting the good fight for almost nothing. We had a really great time together, and then she drove me down to New Paltz, NY the next afternoon to start working south. Thank you so much guys for truly changing my perspective on upstate. I wish you all the best of luck in all your endeavors, you are all fucking amazing people who I can't wait to see again. From New Paltz, it was a pretty easy couple of hours back down into Jersey then onto a bus into the city. With the exception of the torrential downpours i got stuck in (I literally haven't seen rain this hard in years) I made it back safe and sound into the madness of the city. "Safety, obscurity, just another freak in the freak kingdom." Now I've got a few more days to dig the city with Dylan and my family, then its time to head west. Damn, anyone still with me at this point, I think you just read chapter 6 in the book... (and the spellcheck isn't working on this computer right now, so i did it manually, but if I missed anything, sorry mom...)