drove the hell out of cincy as fast as i could after that conversation with anthony. ended up in carrollton, ky. figured it was a good sign that the town had my name in it. there was a state park in town but it was $19. wasn't feeling it. decided to crash in the parking lot of a wal-mart just up the road. was quite peaceful actually. fell asleep pretty quickly. (picture taken the next morning)
anthony king was the second homeless guy to come up to me at oktoberfest. first one was a white kid maybe a few years older than me. his opening line, "hey man, this is crazy; all these people. i'm bi-polar i just can't deal with all of this. you got any money, man. i'm homeless." to which i responded, "actually, i'm homeless myself. i'm living out of my car right now." "oh shit really? well thanx for your honesty, man." felt odd to tell someone i'm homeless but it's the truth regardless if it's under different circumstances. shortly afterwards i start photographing a young girl dancing on the checkerboard stage and a guy walks right in front of me. "hey man, you want to take my picture?" "sure, if you would like." "na, man i was just playin. so are you a photographer?" "well, i think i'm trying to be one." asks if i saw him dancing with the baby earlier. nope. he starts explaining how it was magical. how this 2 year old was just shaking her booty, and then the parents, who were white, started dancing too. and everyone around just started taking pictures. "and that's what life is about," he said. 
well i did decide to drive out of lexington even though i kind of liked it. it has a pretty downtown area and just a decent vibe about it. but i left and drove into cincinnati. checked out the university there--too big. too ugly. had thought about going there at one point for an MFA, but i don't think so anymore. drove around town some and wanted to check out the downtown riverfront area but i kept taking the wrong exit, 3 different times, and wound up heading back down into kentucky. but damnit, i'm a stubborn fuck sometimes, and i really wanted to see it so i turned back around just to take the wrong exit again. but i saw some downtown streets blocked off and a bunch of people and figured some kind of festival was going on. when i was at a red light, i asked a couple of guys on a motorcycle what it was all about. they looked at me oddly and started giving me directions to it. and i was like, "no, no, WHAT, is it?" and the driver says, "uh..OKTOBERFEST? 'THE' OKTOBERFEST? just the biggest one in the world, thousands of people..." to which i responded, "Oh really!! AWESOME. thanx man." and they again looked at me like i had come from another planet. i think they eventually saw my NC tag and probably realized i wasn't from their parts, so my ignorance was probably excused. anyway, parked the car, and investigated.
for some reason, something about this bench, under this tree, attracted me. i took a couple pictures but it didn't capture the magic of it. this one is pretty goofy, but it makes me smile cuz it looks like i'm waiting for someone to sit down next to me. whoever 'someone' may be...
woke up this morning to the sound of people walking by my car. i kept thinking they were trying to look in. breaking in didn't seem to freak me out, just people looking in. couldn't move a muscle. just kept hearing noises and voices while not being able to move. eventually, i managed to open my eyes and gratefully found no one around. just hearing things in my dreams. i laid in 'bed' for a while looking out the car window chasing the sunspots in my eyes and making them dance along the treetops. got my shit together. took a shower at the campgrounds and left, thanking god i got a shower in....and also it was all free. there wasn't a camp dude around when i got there last nite and no one ever came by to collect money or register me this morning, so i managed to high tail it out of there not having to spend a cent.
travelled 400 miles by the end of the day, most of it in west virginia. camped out at the beech fork state park just outside of huntington. first night sleeping in the car. would've set up the tent but i arrived just as it was getting dark and i didn't want to mess with it. a bit cramped and hot sleeping in the Death'bed'. it started pouring down rain in the middle of the night so i had to roll up all the windows, but the sound of the rain i think put me back to sleep pretty quickly.
stopped off at the virginia welcome center while it was pouring down rain. stood outside for a few minutes and walked around getting all wet. best feeling i've had in a while. nice cold hard rain all over me. came back to a fogged up car; thoughts of cincinnati or elsewhere.
loved chris's bathroom decor. felt like i was in the middle of a murder mystery getting out of my morning shower.
made it to raleigh without any problems. thank god. more importantly i made it out of raleigh without any problems. was worried the road trip would end before it even got started. but regardless here's the haps-first off raleigh is hot. hot and sweaty even at 10pm. but i met up with my ol' pal chris (pictured here), who i hadn't seen for ages. we caught up and chatted for a bit then i crashed in his spare room. Woke up, he gave me a box of nutri-grain bars for the road (first breakfast of the road trip) and a cd of his band, maple stave. www.maplestave.com. good wholesome math rock. it is good, really. we said our goodbyes then i was off driving around raleigh to drop off a painting of a certain miss campbell to her paps, who i hear is a hotshot lawyer in raleighwood. not that i would know though. unfortunately, i didn't get the chance to meet him, but i chatted with all the secretaries for a few minutes about the painting and they were all sweet and complimentary. except that one in the back, that bitch. no, they were all nice. anyway, left the painting there for him as a gift and then split. got mixed up in town, was going to try to stop by another friend's house before i left but got lost and ended up on i-40W headed straight out of town. so, i just went with it.