I just moved to Minneapolis a few days ago. I have a former Vice President teaching a class, I can scoot anywhere I need to go in under 5 min, and God is here. It's going to be a good experience. More on that later. In the process of unpacking, I unearthed some high school writing projects tucked away in a binder. I'm kinda fond of these, so I thought I'd post them on here. This is my first one, documenting the day I ran away from home.
Knowing it would not be easy for me to get up at 0430 hours, I set three alarms to go off five minutes apart, with the loudest one being last. Fortunately, the last one jolted me up at 0440 hours. Immediately after fumbling around to turn off the alarm, I checked the weather outside my window to see if I should even try to go. The forecast predicted rain all day Thursday and there had been a thunderstorm that night so I was a little concerned. It was still raining a little, so I decided not to ride my bike. I lived (barely) to regret that decision. I quickly jumped into the layers of clothes I had laid out the previous night and started to make my bed. I decided to manipulate my pillows so it looked like I was still sleeping and I laid a note I had written where my head would be.
At exactly 0500 hours, I shut the door to my house and headed out. Here's how well I had my day planned. When I reached the end of my driveway, I didn't know if I should go left or right. I went west out of my driveway and every turn I made during that trip was completely unplanned. At 0600 hours, I ate my breakfast of half a donut and a couple gulps of water under a building overhang in a park. Yummy. I kept walking down 40th Avenue until I turned east on Chicago Drive. I learned that the shoulder of Chicago Drive has a lot of gravel so when I reached downtown Hudsonville at 0700 hours, I dumped all the rocks our of my shoes. It was by Gemmens Hardware that I made my first human contact, a guy waiting for a sale to start. He said, "Hi". I said, "Hey". That was it. I walked back to Service Lane and continued my trek. There's a real nice Prowler at VerHage Motors, by the way. The brake discs are rusted, though.
At the intersection of Chicago Drive, 28th Avenue, and a few other streets, I decided to take VanBuren. My main motive for that was because I didn't know what was on that street. I wish I hadn't cared. VanBuren, as it turns out, is a road approximately two million miles long that is completely farm land. The only roads more boring are through New Mexico and Nevada. To top off the great scenery, it seemed like there was roadkill every 20 feet. After I had been on VanBuren for about two hours, I came to an intersection that I had not expected to see, VanBuren and 44th. Well, I got this ridiculous idea in my head to walk to Teenworks so I started out on 44th.
After about 10 seconds of walking through the grass my feet were soaked and that's where my day started to go downhill. I decided to take 8th Avenue to 56th. On 8th Avenue I picked up a walking stick so I'd look even more pathetic. 56th is probably as long as VanBuren but it has a lot more interesting things. Huge ponds, suspicious looking horses, and dogs that look like they're going to kill you until they run into their electric fence, thank goodness. By the time I reached Wilson, I had no motivation to walk as far as Teenworks. It was almost 1200 hours and that half a donut from breakfast was beginning to wear off a little. I decided to check out the happenings at the mall. First, I stopped behind the old day care center at 56th and Wilson to sit down and dump more rocks out of my shoes. It was the first time I had sat down in six hours.
In a little bit I had reached Rivertown Crossings and had my second human contact, a lady that gave me a weird look. No words were said. I had planned ahead, expecting my shoes to get wet, so at the mall I changed into another pair of shoes and socks I had bought. I sat down in the food court and noticed two things. First, every muscle in my body ached like I've never felt. Especially my shoulders and left knee. Secondly, I noticed that the Mexican food restaurant in the food court is operated by Orientals, and the Chinese food restaurant is operated by Hispanics. After I listened to a few of my Cosby cd's, allowing my muscles to relax, I decided to start up my trek again.
I picked up my staff where I had left it in the bushes outside the mall and decided where to go. I already knew my knee wouldn't last very long so I decided to take Wilson to the Grandville Library. This is here my story draws to a close. Just after I left the mall, it began raining for the first time since early in the morning. I thought walking with an umbrella and a staff looked really weird so I had to ditch the staff. If it would have only looked a little weird, I would have kept it. But I looked really strange. A little ways from the library, my other knee gave out so I decided that the library would be the final stop in my day. I called my house from the pay phone inside and asked someone to come pick my up. My knees have never hurt worse. When I got home, I iced them for three hours so I could fall asleep. Later, I drove the route that I walked and figured that I walked 17 miles.
Now, the moral of the story. Well... there isn't one. First of all, I would not call what I did "running away". Running away is a defiance of your parent's authority, without plans to return. I told my parents at the beginning of the year that someday in the year, I would "run away" for a day, but be back that night. I would not suggest doing what I did unless you tell your parents beforehand and have their consent. It was a fun experience that I won't soon forget, but my knees won't forget it either.
So there it is. high school writing. Back when I was young and naive and thought a long walk would be one of the tougher things I would experience. Devil's Gulch blew that out of the water. (yes, a gulge. a gorge and gulch combined) And I just finished reading 'Between a Rock and a Hard Place' by Aron Ralston, which is the best survival story I've ever read, and a tad more intriguing than my drivel I put on here. Well if you've read this far, I hope you enjoyed it.
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