Homeless in Portland

Well, after a two day hitchhike with truckers up to Portland, OR, from Los angeles, I am finally here in Portland, and with Gus, my travelling partner. Here is the story so far:

After getting dropped off in Santa Clarita by my good and longsuffering friend Tim, I was able to get a ride at a truck stop after only an hour and a half. Then, I was dropped off near Sacramento, and tried to sleep in the truck stop, but couldn't. Thank God, I got a ride in the morning from a nice trucker named Ishmael. He dropped me off in a lovely little town called Weed, in northern Cali, under beautiful Mount Shasta. Wow--it was amazing. I was so tired, I decided to camp out in a field near the truck stop--this was at about noon. (I wasn't hungry, because Ishmael had bought me some lunch). Then I got a ride up the next morning, and surprisingly, the trucker was willing to take up another hitchhiker along with me--a girl named Tiffany, who had a dog along with her! He dropped us off in Portland about 6 pm last night, and I decided to eat dinner at a local mission. Unfortunately, the mission's policy was to have people listen to a 45 minute evangelistic sermon before we could eat. As some of you may know, I am less than thrilled with Christian organizations which require people to listen to their spiel before letting them recieve services. If the spiritual stuff was voluntary, so that the homeless could attend if they wanted to, I would be cool with that. Of course, the problem is, probably no one would come! :) Which is why they make it mandatory. Unless, of course, they changed the whole thing, and made the spiritual aspect more of a discipleship course instead of the same message over and over again each night. Anyway, after the meal, I had to find a place to sleep, so I started wandering around the city--it was dark and kind of wet, and I went under a bridge, noticing a number of people already camped out next to the train stop. I kept on wandering around, looking for a spot where there would be less people. As I went under one bridge, I noticed that there was one empty space (not filled with a person sleeping). As I looked at it, deciding whether I wanted to sleep there, I picked up a spot of cardboard to clear the spot, hoping it wasn't some kind of marker that someone had left there to reserve their spot with.
RRRRRRRRRaaaaaaaahhggghhhn
Suddenly, a big black dog leaped out of nowhere, growling and barking at me. Thankfully, he didn't have a mind to bite me, (perhaps because my feet took to flying for a couple seconds). Apparently, dogs are helpful companions/protectors for the homeless. After that, I bunked down in a little corner that had an awning next to a building that had a sign on it: World Trade Center. I was able to sleep there for an hour and a half before getting woken up by two men who were I guess security guards for the building. I was nice to them, and they were nice to me. So, off I went, travelling along the edge of the Willamette River, looking for a good bridge. Finally, I made my way under an overpass, and found a dirt spot with no one there, and was able to sleep for a good 9 hours. After packing up, I made my way around the city, accomplishing various tasks like--eating at a mission, going to the library so I could send this to you all, and!!! finding my long lost companion Gus through G chat at the other library in the city. :)