From Lancaster PA it is roughly 18 hours of straight driving to Britt. We, meaning Hobo Mike and myself, started out Sunday morning. Most of the ride is on I-80. My plan was to make Toledo Ohio the first stop. The weather was nice, usual road construction and all those trucks. Funny thing I noticed that all the classic rock radio station near Cleveland play hard rock, a little too hard on my nerves while driving 70+ mph bumper to bumper.
I had online reservations at the Quality Inn in Perrysburg OH.. what a dump. The first room smelled like urine..and the rugs were so stained, I didn't want to walk barefoot on them. We got another room. The next morning back on I-80, drove to Cedar Falls Iowa. This Quality Inn was clean and very nice.
Finally driving in northern Iowa, sunny day, corn and more corn and beautiful wildflowers on the side of the roads. Saw lots of hawks souring in the breeze. It was nice. Britt is 18 miles west of Clear Lake, where Buddy Holley died. It is a small town. The first thing you see are the large cement silos of the co-op, cross train tracks, turn left off main street and see the red box car. This is where the Hobo jungle is. In the center is a somewhat sacred fire. I set up my tent on the field next to the jungle, which at times is loud at night.
It was great to see old friends, some brought hobo walking sticks they made or jelly and cookie to sell. I helped set up the kitchen that evening. Hobo Mike was off "campaigning".
At night people play guitars and harmonicas, singing train songs mostly.
Thursday morning I signed up to cook breakfast. There was supposed to be 5 of us, one was still passed out with beer, two came and disappeared, one cracked the eggs and disappeared,
and one sat and campaigned, guess who that was? I cooked 30 pounds of bacon and fed 40 people.
Thursday we met SOCKMAN. (Tom McNamara). This man goes around the country giving out socks to homeless. People send him socks and money to do this. He wears a bright yellow shirt. I was very impressed that he would do this. He sold his house, traveled 17 states and has given out over 6000 pairs of socks. He has a website and has been in the news.
Thursday night , the younger tramps got very drunk and woke the whole jungle up with yelling.
Friday morning is a memorial at the Hobo cemetery . There are about 30 hobos there, and a sign with hobos who passed and are planted other places. It is a moving ceremony as all the hobos walk pass each grave, tapping it with the bindle stick (walking stick). After the ceremony, the hobo met to discuss some issues, like what to do with screaming drunk people, and the fact there was no one who signed up to run fro Queen.
Yep, I thought maybe I should so I put my name up...Later we saw the Bo Lump, our 90 year old former Queen was also running...well at that point we knew she would win, so I didn't campaign. I did make a couple of signs. My hobo name is Blue Star Cate.
Friday night was the fire lighting, the current King and Queen spoke and then there was music.
Saturday is the big day. All the Hobos got on the float for the parade. I had my sign and our friend Jason from MN held up Hobo Mikes. I bought some candy as others were throwing it out to the kids. There are old cars, HS band, farm machines, horses, funny bands all in the parade. It is the best parade I've seen. After the parade, everyone lines up at the town square gazebo for Mulligan Stew. The town makes enough for 5000 people. They start cooking at 3 am. This is a very small town and many are involved in making the Britt Hobo Days special.
After everyone eats, it is time for the King and Queen elections, Each candidate has 2 minutes to give their pitch. Queens go first, Cate is called first..yea.. my speech was ok. been awhile since I've been up in front of people. The others for Queen were, Mad Mary, Sassy,and Bo Lump. The audience claps for each person and the judges say who won..this really gives the judges all the power to pick who they want.
Then the people for King said their thing. Texas Hobo Mike did really well , I helped him with the speech where he gave a shout out to Sockman. Czech Hobo told his story of riding trains to get out of communism. I knew the judges wanted him in, so he won. Depending on who you talk to, Hobo Mike WAS second. The process is political.
What we need next year is to get about 75 people and salt the crowd for Hobo Mike. He deserves to be King.
Saturday evening I sat with 3 retired nuns, one who was a rock hound and we talked about places to go, places we collected. It was fun.
The evening was more music and then the first rain all week began to fall. I was cozy in my tent, listening to the rain sound on the tent.
Sunday morning, before more rain came, I took down the tent and we moved out. The ride home we listened to CDs instead of radio. The Dead got us to Gary Indiana for the night. There were many motorcycles going east from Sturgis. The second day it was blues, with Buddy Guy , Etta James etc..got to Hermitage PA, right on border OH.
Then home.. good trip
All photos courtesy of Hobo St Louis Frank . His website http://www.ratpackstlouis.com ..Hobo tab has lots more pix.
