The beginning of our journey
@danilamarilu and I woke up at 8 am to get all our stuff ready to go. We packed our bags the night before so we were mostly ready.
We packed 2 big backpack, 2 sleeping bags, a shared tent, a bag of food, my guitar and my digeridoo
We left to meet up With my friend Arturo, who was going to hitch out with us, to depart northwest. His mom offered to drive us out north for a while to get us started.
While we were driving, She told us about the times in the 90s when she went to the rainbow gathering and remembering when Jerry Garcia died.
She dropped us off an hour north of Dallas , giving us plastic "silver"ware before saying goodbye.
We then positioned ourselves by the highway and put out the magical universal hitchhikers thumb with a sign saying "North"!
After a while a van stopped for us, with plenty of seating to accommodate all of us and our luggage. We thanked him and hopped in.
The gambling man with the golden heart
He introduced himself as Bryan. He told us that he was traveling to the winstar casino in Oklahoma, then he was traveling to Oklahoma City to meet up with his friend after a couple of hours at the casino.
He had a strong belief in the bible, Jesus, and helping others. We talked aboutphilosophy, propaganda, and truth-seeking.
When we arrived he gave us the option to take our stuff or keep it in the car. We decided to keep our stuff in his car, so we could enjoy the casino for a while.
When I walked inside I remembered how
Big the casino was from last time I went there many years ago.
All three of us started registering, which took a few minutes. Since Bryan was registered and was very eager to start gambling he said he would scout out machines for us to play.
When we finished registering, Bryan was no where to be seen. So we decided just to enjoy ourselves without him.
After an hour went by and we lost the little amount of money we were willing to spend, we decided to look for him again so that we could get our stuff and leave.
We called, texted, looked around, walked around more and Paiged him on the speakers; no success to any of our attempts.
I went to look around again but started realizing how big this place was. Talked to staff and they said it stretched 2 miles long (biggest in the U.S.). So I just took a break looking and gambled on a slot machine.
Right when I stopped looking and won five dollars Bryan walked up to me. He told me he won 45$ and was gonna try his luck with the cards. He almost walked off to gamble more but before he did I told him to wait. I finished gambling the rest of my money on the slots and then walked with him.
I kept on trying to figure out when he would be leaving to OKC. Everytime I asked he said," in a couple of hours or when I start losing".
After seeing him sit down at another table to win back money he lost I realized that he would be gambling for a long while.
I asked for the keys and he gave them to me. Arturo and I went to the car to grab our stuff.
We went back inside to say our goodbyes to Bryan and told him to call or text us when he was leaving the casino. He said ok and wished us luck on our journey.
We grabbed our stuff and left the casino, walking straight towards the highway.
As we were leaving the parking lot a man named Michael gave us ice cold water bottles out of his truck . Then he asked if he could pray with us to bless our travels, we happily agreed. He prayed for Jesus and the father(God) to watch over us.
After we received he told us that he wished he could help us more but he had to go to work. We said it was fine and thanked him for his support.
We continued waking until we reached a spot right off the highway after the on ramp. Putting out that magical hitchhikers thumb and flying the sign that said "OKC Please".
Even though we were becoming tired , we had strong resolve and a blessing to help us continue on our journey!
To be continued in part 2 of my hitch hiking adventure
Check out part 2 here
Oh wow, this is so amazing, and I am happy that you did this!!
It is great for the soul!
Yeah, it was an amazing adventure. Thank you, was very cleansing for me :)
Namaste!
Blessings to you too ^_^
Thanks for writing about this. I've been contemplating taking a trip to this year's rainbow gathering... Went to a couple of them in years past when they were in the northwest area (my very first in 2008 Wyoming blew my mind with the vision of the magic people could create coming together in the woods!), and this year looks like a good time to go to Oregon again. Thinking about heading out either tomorrow or the next day. So, we might be crossing paths soon...
Your welcome, I am glad I pushed myself to write this then. Definitly go if you feel the calling. My first rainbow gathering was in palenque Mexico in 2012, so you experienced 4 years before me. Yeah it is a very magical loving community. It is great time, if you come out let me know. You saw the picture of my traveling crew ;)
I feel like I got left hanging :D
Haha indeed you did :p gonna try to finish part 2 today.
This is sweet, looking forward to reading part II!
Thanks, realized my story was pretty long. So I decided to divide it into two parts :p
safe travels. Cant wait to find out whats next.
Thanks, going to start writing part two now.
Nice travel story..... From your article and comments @bitscape I am dying to join rainbow 🌈 gathering..... Someday..... Looking forward to reading 📖 part 2....I am new here in this esteemed steemit platform..... I am a Travel & Photography Blogger.... I have some own experience wanna be share with you..... I think you liked it...... https://steemit.com/introduceyourself/@bluec/hello-steemitians-my-name-is-atin-and-i-m-excited-to-join-the-community-with-my-travel-kit
Yeah, it was so amazing and empowering. Definitly worth the travel and time. Awesome welcome to steemit. I might check it out when I get the time. Blessings to you.
Good post. So interesting. Keep sharing the content
Thank you, I appreciate the support and encouragement.
Such a great post. Hitchhiking makes the life change and it's a really good job You did sharing the experience You had, making other people think that it's a cool thing. Keep on posting.
Thank you, I agree. Hitchhiking opens oneself up to the unknown, usually only receiving good things or at least that is my experience.