Ready to roll
“Who’s Joe?” I asked Bill one day, he looked at me, shrugged his shoulders and shouted over to Carmelita,” who’s Joe, Carmelita”, Carmelita shrugged and said “dunno”. I’m still trying to work out what the mystery was? There never seemed to be anyone hanging around at the end of the bar, I never saw anyone claiming even to manage the place, so no one seemed to be in charge, although if Carmelita had her eye on you, you were in strife! Beautiful big dark eyes, dark complexion, jet black hair half way down her back and a smile to melt a man’s heart, just don’t upset her. Her cousin Mina equally as beautiful, I asked her one day what her heritage was, Pilipino, Mexican, American Indian, and I think the odd Scotsman or Irishman was in there somewhere to!…coffee coloured people by the score…I have my suspicions, Bill somehow didn’t fit, could have been him, he was usually having a drink with Charlie, now my favourite would have to be Charlie. “So, where are you from Charlie”? “Vietnam”, “hang about, didn’t you tell me you were from Indonesia, last time I was talking to you?” “Ah well! You know, somewhere around there, it was a long time ago, I’ve forgotten!” Maybe Alaska was the man?, Alaska was usually over by the pool table and usually counting money, a bit of a pool shark I think. When I was introduced to Alaska, he didn’t say a word, just gave me a wink, like he and I, knew something no one else did and gave me a card, with a u tube site for a video, Americas got talent, might have been 2010 or 2011. I checked it out; there he was up on stage with three crosses, He liked to get up in the bar, couldn’t dance if his life depended on it, red hair half way down his back with a headband and the look of an American Indian. I think maybe everyone in there, owned a little bit of Joe’s bar.
I had checked out Insurance on the internet, before I got the bike and it told me no problem son, 100 dollars and it’s yours, until it came time to do it. No US licence, no insurance, no social security number, no Insurance, no address, no insurance. Once again I don’t compute, I tried a few different companies, same deal, here we go again. I’d been lucky at rego, half way through the process, the lady I was dealing with started to shake her head, “I’ve just got to make a phone call”, no that won’t work, she put the phone down, “errrr we need this, we need that,… this, that, this, that”, I pleaded with her to find a way, “Mary! Over here, what can we do with this gentleman, was I in trouble I thought? No! Mary, bless her heart, was able to manipulate the computer instead of the other way round. Here’s to Mary, I hope I run into a few more Mary’s along the way. They were throwing me out of the hostel, I’d more than overstayed, the limit was 15 days, I’d been there at least 25, it was time to go. The sun had been shining for a week, on the day I left it was raining, the first rain Henrietta’s probably ever seen in her lifetime. It wasn’t bad at first, I was riding around Seattle on a final endeavour to get insurance, before I left, one last try, same result, ok I go without insurance? I got on Interstate 5 and I was heading south, I was on the road again, Seattle was past, I had two weeks before I had to leave the country, a ride down the west coast was on my mind, as far as San Diego I think, as far away from this fucking cold, wet rain as I can get. It was chucking it down now, the trucks were flying passed me on the 5 lane super highway. I had puddles in my boots I couldn’t see…coz I still haven’t got a full face helmet…welcome to the new bike sucker… I have to stop, Olympia up ahead, that’s it, Olympia for the night and in the morning? Let’s see.
I am…. THE LONESOME TRAVELLER….travelling east….BE HAPPY!