Continued from "Pittsburgh", I guess I'll start off on Monday, August 21st, 2007. This is the main part of my journey, and I'm not sure I'll be able to fit it all in one Part, I remember more as I write, exploring my memory. My MP3 player was my best friend from this part and on, I had finally gotten a hold of some new triple-A batteries, which it consumed pretty quickly.
When I arrived in Dover, Delaware, it was mid-day. It was the same bus station I had arrived at the first time, and they remembered me. I accepted their offer for a Taxi service this time, and decided to meet up with Devin. I remember being more happy than excited, it was a content, settling feeling, rather than a anxious, nervous, heart beating moment. I arrived at the Super Fresh where Devin and I had first met, and she had given me directions to her house, but I had no idea where to go. She told me to meet her halfway, but I was still clueless, but eventually found her crossing the field behind the plaza. We hugged and kissed, both very happy to see each other again. I was so filled with emotion, that I didn't take the time to think about what was going through her mind, and just kept going. She helped me with one of my bags, as I followed her to her house. I stored my bags underneath a tree next to her house, near a fence, out of sight.
She gave me a tour of her house, showed me to her room, kitchen, and we sat around in the living room watching TV and playing some games. We continued to kiss, and cuddle next to each other for nearly the entire day. Without going into detail about what we did, I'll just say that it might have been a little too fast. At around 9pm, it was time for me to leave, but I hadn't a clue where to go. I had heard of a homeless shelter, made a few phone calls to find it, and then called a Taxi to come and take me there. Devin and I said goodbye for the night, and the taxi driver drove me to The Shepherd Place, a non-profit homeless shelter, located at 1362 South Governor's Ave. I didn't learn street names or locations until later on, it was very dark and all I cared about was finding a place to sleep at night.
I arrived, while talking to the cab driver, he mentioned that he wasn't sure if I was going to be allowed in at this hour, since it was after curfew for this place. He insisted on waiting outside until I got in safely, and would wait outside for 10 to 15 minutes just in case. The man who answered the door, an old black man named Mr. Lewis. I walked in, to the left was stairs leading upstairs to where the Men slept, to the right was the living room with many seats and a television, and straight ahead I followed him past the lobby into the office. The lobby had a television as well, with the kitchen on the left, and the Women's section down the hall. The office was small, I sat down and he had to interview me in order to register me for staying there. The policy for this place was that after 30 days, I had to have a job and be able to start supporting myself. It was required to work around the house, help out with chores, clean, and be in by curfew unless it was work related.
I had told Mr. Lewis that I was from Massachusetts, and he immediately thought about Boston. For the rest of the time I was there, that's how he remember me, as the kid from Boston. The biggest thing he pointed out and was astonished by, was that I was 18. He sighed, and asked why there were so many 'babies' coming in here lately. I told him that my parents didn't like my decision to pass up the Military, and that I was recently spoiled. Mr. Lewis made it very clear that I wasn't like anyone that had came into there before, and that he didn't think I would make it on my own. After putting in my information and registering, I went upstairs to, and passed a couple rooms and a bathroom to reach Room 4. I went in, there were two bunk-beds, I slept in the bottom one, closest to the door.
The next morning, I decided to dress lightly, and head on down to where I formerly walked around at, near North Dupont Highway. Near the international speedway, I came across a huge Hotel called Dover Downs, apparently it was a Casino. I decided to finally go inside, I thought it would be already since I was 18 years old. It was a very long walk across the huge parking lot, but I entered the lobby, and I checked out this computer that had job opportunities at the Hotel, such as cooking, cleaning, dealers. I moved on after applying to some places and headed into the Casino floor, where there were a ton of Slot machines. I walked around checking out all the machines, they had a lot of Blackjack tables. It wasn't too busy, as it was the middle of a summer Tuesday. I sat down and played some cheap slot machines. I probably used about five dollars until I won a small amount and cashed out, almost breaking even. I got up and on my way out a security guard questioned my age. I showed him my driver's license, which was a Massachusetts one, and it confused him quite a bit. I just told him I was leaving, and he mentioned that the age requirement here was 21, so I just left anyway as I was.
My first time here in Dover, I remembered passing by a bike shop that sold BMX bikes on the side of the highway that the Red Roof Inn was on. I didn't have too much money, but I went there to buy a bike. I chose carefully, and talked to the employees there for a bit, and ended up walking out with a pretty cheap and nice blue Haro BMX bike to ride around on, along with some matching blue AXO dirt biking gloves. I loved this bike as soon as I rode it, and went biking for the rest of the day, being careful of course. With my gloves, I felt like a pro, as I had been previously experienced with BMX bikes in the past, especially Haro bikes. I decided to ride to Devin's house to say hello, since she invited me to.
When I got to Devin's house, we met up in the back yard. She sat outside on her steps, right outside her glass door. She sat on my lap for most of the time, but also sat next to her, kissing and hugging like usual. Her kisses this day were a lot more intense than usual, but I was getting very uncomfortable sitting on a concrete step for an hour. I insisted on going inside and just sitting on the couch, but she declined. Her excuse was that it was a mess in there, and she doesn't want me to see it. I knew something was wrong, because when I requested to just leave the door open so that I could sit on the carpet, she still declined. Instead we just sat outside, talking about our future. She said that she was willing to wait a year before going to college to spend time with me, I don't remember why though. It was a nice conversation that ended in both of us being happy, but I was still worried about her true intentions. When her mom arrived in the driveway, we were forced to part ways, and I went out the back and took my bike through some back roads while she went inside. I went back to the shelter, and locked my bike up outside, and underneath a porch in the back.
I met my roommates, one was a black guy wearing all gangster clothing with a heavy accent, and the other was a puerto-rican curly haired guy, both in their late 20's, or early 30's. There had been another black guy previously there, but hadn't been showing up lately, so they switched beds and I ended up moving to the top bunk closest to the door.
Everything I'm writing here is to the best of my memory, with the help of my journal. Some events may have happened on different days, at different times, but they did happen. As I mentioned before, you may read this within minutes, but I didn't miss one second out of every minute I spent alone, with nothing to do but think. Time went by very slowly when I was there, and it seemed like a lot longer than it really was. In the next part of my journey, I am very unorganized as far as events happening at certain times, because there was this character that I met who I had forgotten all about until now, that was actually a big part of my journey, and remembering him is unlocking a lot of memories that I had forgotten.
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Buzz Killlington
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