Aunt Sandy and New Plans

The last couple days have been interesting but not particularly eventful, so I'll just go through the highlights:

First of all, happy birthday to my girlfriend Adaline!!

I saw my first skate competition at the local skatepark. It was pretty cool, but it was exactly like Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3 for Sega Dreamcast.

I spent some time with a large group of black people hanging out in the park, which was kind of interesting. A couple of them originally started teasing me about my 4-H goat shirt when one started defending the organization and started talking about how 4-H was where it was at when he was raised on his Granddad's farm in South Carolina. And yet another asked me a lot of questions about it, saying that was where the money was at. He was from Gary, Indiana. What was really fun though was when one guy asked how to spell a slang variation of a word, and they all started arguing about the correct spelling. It was pretty funny.

Later I saw this homeless guy walking down a dirt trail to this run down neighborhood. His name was Mike Murdock. Mike started up to this particularly run-down, kind of trashy house. When he saw me he said I could help him move in. He then proceeded to tell me to take a bike to the youth shelter, which turned out to be chained to a tire. He then started to sift through bags of clothes in the overhang shelter. I asked him if he owned it, and he said he was going to retire in the house since the people who lived there must be dead. I then pointed out the coop of live chickens in the backyard. Without considering that people must feed these birds, he told me to go collect eggs. I asked where he was from and he told me he was originally from Brooklyn, but mostly grew up in Colorado Springs. He played in a band most of his life that did covers of the Doobie Brothers and other similar bands. He told me to have a good life, and I went on my way, while hearing 65 year old Mike mumbling about how his grandfather was going to come visit.

While in the park listeinging to a Jazz concert, I met a man sporting a 70's blue pinstriped blazer and funny hat named Ray. Ray told me how he met his father for the first time after 65 years, which was interesting. I told him about what I was doing, and before I left he gave me 10 bucks.

I also finally met up with my Great Aunt Sandy who lives in town. She drew this picture of Jesus, which is actually made of the words of the Book of John:

She then told me how she had laid this print on the bed of three different critical care victims and said a quick prayer, and they all miraculously got better. We then got dinner at Waffle House, classic.

Lastly, I met a 20 year old named Luke while in Manitou. Luke told me how he has been travelling around the country since his second semester of college. When I told him I was trying to get to the Rainbow Gathering, he said he had been to several and he was the go-to guy for everything I needed to know. He then told me how hes been camping in the mountains for over a year, and we hiked up to his camp. It was gorgeous view, with nobody else around. I asked him if I could camp with  for awhile, and he said he likes company. So on Monday, I am going to live on the mountain with Luke for about a week. I may also be able to ride up to the gathering in the same car as him.