From Mississippi, Richard drove me through Lousiana and right into Kilgore, Texas. Richard works offshore and heading back to Texas where he worked (but lived in Mississippi). We ate dinner at a truck stop near Longview on interstate 20. They served a huge plate with salad bar and soup for $6.00. The price of gasoline, charge for laundry machines, and cost of soda proved Texas was one of the cheaper states to live, yet Texas wasn't a poor state.
As we were driving, Richard introduced the company he worked for and assured me I could easily get a job with them with my degree and work background. The company's headquarters was in west Houston. Only an hour ago, I was standing on street hitchhiking, and now I have work opportunity after arriving home. To be honest, I wasn't too sure about working offshore, but I completely understood there were people who have nothing and would take an offshore job without hesitation. Today, I was extremely blessed.
Shreveport, Lousiana was where many Texans who live in the northeast, such as Dallas and Fort Worth, visit for their gambling needs. Richard commented, "I'd rather just see a lottery than the casinos. With the lottery people are given a little hope, but they know they most likely will not win. Casinos can destroy lives." I totally agree with his viewpoint on casinos.
Richard, a year older than me and a biology major from Ole Miss, enjoyed studying history and the bible. I learned quite a bit from him even though I may not share the same insights.
Kilgore seemed to be a pleasant town. The biggest oil discovery happened in Kilgore (with Beaumont being the second largest). Nowadays, Kilgore was a small town with a nice college. Richard dropped me off around 8:30 pm, and there was hardly daylight left to hitchhike; therefore, I walked to the very edge of town and found a path leading into the woods.
This turned out to be a great discovery. Well, it may not be a great discovery if you're not travelling with just a backpack. The food at the truck stop didn't sit too well, and I had to dig a hole for a bathroom break. Luckily, I loaded up on water at a church about half a mile earlier. After nature duty, I walked a little further into the woods and found a nice pine tree area. Pine tree forests make great camping spots because they are spaced well apart and the ground was padded with fallen pines.
The odd thing was the cactus. I hadn't seen cactus in a while, and surely would not see any in Maine. I kept getting poked by invisible-like needles, but managed to set up the tent for the last camp before home tomorrow. At least I hoped to make it home tomorrow since it was only another 200 miles on highway 259/59. As much as I've always dreaded being chained down to Texas, it felt incredible to be here after 2 long weeks.
In hindsight, I could have spent the couple of weeks completing the Appalachian Trail from Andover, Maine, to the summit of Mount Katahdin, and then taken a bus home. But things would have totally been different- the vicissitudes each day of hitchhiking home from Bangor, Maine, to Houston, Texas, was worth the trouble. A couple of weeks before leaving the trail, I was already drained from being on the trail too long. There were some incidents of obnoxious people while thumbing a ride, but I was thankful to everyone who picked me up, and among those people, some of them were very generous with their time and effort.
