Fresh Brewed Coffee House
I went to Fresh Brewed Coffee House last night. It is my favorite Coffee House in Myrtle Beach. The owner, Kevin is a true humanitarian. He has opened up many (non-profit) Fresh Brewed Coffee Houses throughout the world to help people with addiction and other issues.
He has a particular knack for music and ALWAYS has outstanding entertainment almost every night of the week. Most of the time the music is FREE.
I also have to mention Kate. She is a barista at Fresh Brewed and has such a good heart. She is a very kind, sensitive, loving person. I LOVE YOU KATE!!!
Apache Campground
I am in Myrtle Beach until Wed / Thur. I was a little concerned about accommodations but the owner of Apache Campground was very kind and sponsored my camping spot in Myrtle Beach. The Apache is a BEAUTIFUL campground. Extremely clean and right on the ocean. A 2 minute walk puts me right on the beach. They also have the longest fishing pier on the east coast! If you visit Myrtle Beach in your travel trailer or just plan on using a tent, please consider the Apache Campground. They are letting me stay here at no charge out of the kindness and goodness of their heart!
Horry County Rape Crisis Center Candle Light Vigil
First, a few links…A local news channel did a story on the Horry County Rape Crisis Center Candle Light Vigil. I was a speaker for this event and I was interviewed by the reporter:
Also, I bought six cans of Vienna Sausages. I need to go through this journey as thrifty as possible and the Vienna Sausages are about 50 cents a can. Cheap protein, right? Well…
Thai Cuisine
>Had lunch at my favorite restaurant in Myrtle Beach…”Thai Cuisine”. The owner Lisa is so awesome…she has this motherly air about her…she is very soft spoken and kind. I just love her.
We sat and talked about my journey and she bought me dinner (refused to charge me for my meal). Wow. People have been so amazing.
This is my FAVORITE meal at her restaurant! Curry Chicken. It is the best I’ve ever had!!
Tom and Lisa
One of the Servers came over to me and we started talking. His name is Toto and he is a MMA fighter! We are just about the same weight. (130lbs). Next time I’m in for lunch or dinner I’m going to ask Toto if he can teach me a few moves to kick Bigfoot’s a** when I’m out in the forrest. Yes, I have a ridiculous, irrational fear of Bigfoot 
So maybe Toto can hook me up with some cool ninja moves!
So, a week into the journey, here’s what I’ve learned so far:
1. Mankind is inherently good. End of story. This journey has been like a razor blade through people’s outer shell. Once you get past that thick protective shell, there’s an amazing human being beneath.
2. The Honda Ruckus does not like to run at 15lbs tire pressure. The tires are like warm play-doh and it really slows you down. I forgot to check my tire pressure before I left. When Andrew the gas station attendant fixed my trailer’s flat, he also checked my Ruck tires. Both were at 15lbs. He pumped them up to 25lbs and I thought I got an 80cc engine upgrade…an entirely different bike with 25lbs pressure.
Between #1 and #2, I think #2 is the more important lesson…lol.
Julia’s Story
So I get up at 5:30AM and I am back on the road. I reached Myrtle Beach around 11am. I was speaking at a candle light vigil service at the Horry County Rape Crisis Center around 6pm. I got a well-deserved shower then set up my tent. I walked down to the camp laundromat and washed a load of clothes. I started talking to a lady named Linda. I told her what I was doing and she was shocked. She said “What can I do”? “Do you need anything”? I said “some hot food would be great”. She gave me $20 and sent me over to the camp restaurant. I had a hot ham and cheese sandwich…and it tasted awesome. Wow, do you appreciate real, hot food when you are living off of canned Vienna sausages and Ramen noodles…lol.
So I headed over to the vigil and met up with my counselor, (Tina, you ROCK).
I met a girl named Julia there and she spoke at the vigil. She is an absolutely amazing young woman. I asked her permission to talk about her in my blogging. She agreed. Julia suffered through an abusive situation for many years. Instead of letting that destroy her, she sought counseling and did things to help other people. She did missionary work in Honduras. She said the kids there were terribly terribly poor but they were happy kids. She said that if those little kids could be happy, then she certainly could be too. She also worked with terminally ill children who knew they were dying…but many of them were happy to be with their family and live out there limited days. She said again that if they could be happy, then she could too.
Julia, you inspire me because our stories are very similar…and if you can be happy then I can be happy too!
My counselor Tina
I am sitting at a Steak and Shake writing this…it’s after mid-night and I’m really tired…so more tomorrow!!
Vacant Motel
Journey updates for the past 2 days…rushing to publish this before my laptop dies!!!
LOCK AND LOAD!
I’ve had no Internet access or phone service for the past 2 days…was waaaay out in the sticks…so this is a big update.
Man…where to start?
I knocked out 220 miles yesterday! I was on the road the entire day! I made it into North Carolina sometime in the afternoon.
I stopped by a Honda Motorcycle shop and bought a 3.00 x 8 inner tube for the Ruck trailer…just in case…lol. When the guys found out what I was doing, they threw me a free t-shirt!
By evening I was beat. It started to rain and night was coming quickly. I could not find a campground ANYWHERE. I considered sleeping just off the road in the woods but it was raining hard and dark by that point. DAMN…going to have to get another hotel.
I was in such a remote area that I couldn’t even find a motel!
I came up on a convenience store and stopped to ask if there were any campgrounds or motels in the area. The attendant was really nice. He made a bunch of phone calls from the office to find me a campground or motel. His name was Tug. What a cool name…and when you see his pic below, you’ll know why they call him Tug. He is one big guy.
Tug knew of just ONE motel in the area. It was only a half mile down the road. He made a call and they had a vacancy. I jumped on my Ruck and headed over.
I arrive and immediately have a bad feeling. The outside was really run down and there were several broken down cars in the parking lot…well, it wasn’t so much a parking lot as a big area of sand and grass.
I went into the office…again, not so much an office as some really old lady’s LIVING ROOM.
She grabbed the key to room “1″ and said “Let me check it first”. She unlocked the door and opened it…I heard her mumble “Oh, my”. under her breath and close the door. She said “let me get a key to room “4″.
I’m thinking “What’s up with the “Oh, my”? ….she then proceeds to check room “4″. Apparently, room 4 passed and she handed me the key. She then immediately got in her car and DROVE AWAY. I thought that was weird because she was the only person at the hotel. I was the only person there. I walked in the room and almost puked. “What the hell is that smell”?!?!
It was cat urine and mold. What a pleasant combination…lol And where the hell did that lady go? I want my $40 back.
I had a feeling she was going to make herself scarce …so I though, ok try to make the best of it. Maybe look around and check out the rest of the room. Let me give you the grand tour:
Ok, so outside of the deplorably tacky decor, it looks sort of ok, right?
Notice the “pest control” sitting on the desk. The “refrigerator” was a styrofoam cooler covered in cat scratch marks.
moldy ceiling
Dead cockroaches
So I call my sister laughing my ass off…then she started laughing her ass off…”Kimmy, this is hilarious…it’s like a really bad movie”. “I think I’m stuck here for the night”.
So I try to do the Wan “I accept that” thing and I can’t. I started thinking – “Maybe I can just set up my tent in the parking lot”. After a half hour or so, I realized that I was really was stuck there for the night. So I resign myself and accept it. I got one of my tarps and put it across the bed then set my sleeping bag on the tarp. I covered my face with the sleeping bag so I would not have to smell the cat pee and mold.
Keychain of Hope
Here is a pic of my friend Jimmy and I wiring up the trailer at 1a.m. in the freezing cold, the night before I left:
Dinner last night in my tent. Damn…still no matches. Cold Spaghetti-O’s. (still better than those awful Vienna Sausages!)
Today I woke up in Teddy’s back yard at 6:15AM. Teddy and I headed over to Sheetz for some coffee. We hung out for a while and he got me back out on Rt 250E.
Before I left Sheetz, he took a photo of the other shirt I had made:
Needless to say, by lunchtime I was STARVING. (canned pasta for dinner and coffee for breakfast doesn’t go very far) With no place to stop and cook, I had to go to Wendy’s. That hamburger tasted like a t-bone steak…lol.
I finished eating and asked the lady sitting across from me if I was near Richmond VA. She said it was about 10 min down the road. We started talking and I told her about my journey. Her name was Anna and her adorable 4 year old son’s name was John. She paused and said, “Here, I have something for you”. She reached into her purse and took out her keys…attached to the keys was a beautiful keychain of the Blessed Virgin Mary. She said, “Here, I would like you to have this” and she took it off the keychain and handed it to me. To be honest, I was fighting back emotion…the keychain was beautiful. I told her that the bottom point of my heart shaped journey was the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City. She said, “See, it was meant to be”.
Here is a photo of Anna and John:
A photo of the keychain:
THEN – a few minutes later, a lady walked over to my table, look at me and said “God Bless You” and laid down a 20 dollar bill and walked away. I was barely able to thank her and she was gone. What an emotional afternoon. This is only day three and I am at a loss for words. All jokes aside, someone needs to create an emoticon of a smily guy crying cuz I’m gonna be using it A LOT.
Afterwards, I was riding through Richmond with my yellow shirt on and people were waving, giving thumbs-up and honking like crazy (honking in support…not because I was impeding traffic…lol) I had my thumb on my horn the entire way through Richmond…honking back!
I could not find a campground nearby because I was in the middle of a large town…so no wilderness camping either…so I had to break down and get a cheap hotel room:
Is this legal? lol
Dinner:
I bought SIX CANS of those DAMN awful Vienna Sausages…so five more days of little soggy hotdogs…lol…
AS FOR MY ROUTE:
I am in Petersburg VA right now on RT 301. I need the easiest, quickest, safest way to get to Myrtle Beach. I need to stay on two lane highways if possible. I have to be in MB by Thur afternoon at the latest or I could miss the Candle Light Vigil at the Crisis Center. BTW – all are welcome if you live near MB!
If any of you are along my route, I’d love to connect and get some lunch or dinner!!
It is 9:30 PM and I am beat! I am headed to bed but I promise I will answer all of your posts and PM’s in the next day or so…I can barely keep my eyes open…lol.
Looking forward to another great day tomorrow!
Tom
