I've spent nights where logic would not enter.

This is a line from one of my poems & it describes the next night of my trip.

I'd really started to deal with toll booths. during the day I had spent $15 more or less on tolls. I was going to stay at a different motel 6 in Philadelphia. I thought I followed the directions in the Motel 6 guide (my bible). I went through a toll booth that charged $20.50 & had to immediately turn around because it over shot the motel by 2 exits. When I got to the motel's office 2 other tourists were there bitching because they had done the same thing. They didn't have any ground floor rooms (stairs still give me problems) so I decided I'd go on to Baltimore. It was around 3 p.m.

On the way to Baltimore I needed gas. Got off at an exit & the 2 gas stations there had no regular gas, only diesel. Got back on the turnpike, now I'm running on empty. Exited the next place that showed gas, same story. Didn't want to run out of gas on the highway so continued on streets in the area until running on fumes & found a little gas station with gas. Now I was far from the highway & had to go this way & that to get back. Got into Baltimore at twilight. The freeway I want to get to the motel is seventy something. It disappears into a "bad" neighborhood. I wander around poor black parts of Baltimore for almost 4 hours. I know there must be middle class people & white people in Baltimore but I never saw any. Now it's like 10 p.m. Screw this. I get on the turnpike & drive through the edge of New York & New Jersey & into Connecticut. For the first time since Texas the night is cool. I stop at a service stop, it's 2:30 in the morning & sleep in the backseat. I'm comfortable & sleep well. When I wake up at six, my back is in terrible shape. So when I get to Hartford I stay in a motel 2 days recovering.

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