Tuesday, June 24- Life as a Street Kid

It's 6:30 PM, and I'm on the bus, riding out to Cannon Beach. I have a splitting headache--I guess that's what I get for drinking a 'space-bag' of cheap wine with Tag, Radar and Jeramiah.

I became a Portland street kid. After Tag and I went on a short ride around town on our bikes, he took me to "the 420 tree" where we met Radar and his daughter. We headed back to their camp where Jeramiah, the well-respected ring-leader of the crew almost got in a fight with Dark Horse, another kid who apparently made the big mistake of calling Jeramiah a 'punk-ass white boy' when they were downtown earlier in the week.


Snake, the camp dog, got incredibly sick. It was probably from eating whatever the hell these kids had spread all over their camp: beer bottles, candy wrappers, cigarette butts--molding crusts of bread. Snake's owner, Jessica, borrowed my head-lamp so she could doctor her dog in the darkness.

Two hours later, I got my headlamp back and was finally able to set up my tent and crash out.


I didn't wake up until 1:00 this afternoon. When I crawled out of my tent, they were passing a pipe around the pic-nic table that they had stolen from Washington Park. I pulled out my Pepsi-can stove and made myself some oat-meal, and they were all impressed by how convenient it was to have a stove for a hot meal. I promised to make them one when I come back.


After packing up and getting ready to walk back into town to do more exploring, Jeremiah came back to camp with some more pot, and by the time 3:00 in the afternoon rolled around, I decided that I needed to leave to do more exploring around the city.

The rest of the day, I lived as a tourist. I rode my bike around and took plenty of pictures. I also treated myself to some delicious Portland coffee from a local shop.


Tonight, I plan on staying in a state park near cannon beach. I should be getting into town at sunset, and I'll enjoy the coast until last light before night riding to a camping spot up north.