On the Run and On the Move, Part 1: The Mad Scramble to Prepare to Leave Detroit

Our sunset last night in Acapulco

A little over a year ago, John and I left Detroit for good, for what was supposedly greener working pastures in Oregon. A connected family member of John's told us that the work was plentiful for high pay, we just needed to get there.  Considering our pay in Detroit had just been reduced against our will and our boss there showed signs of taking advantage of our situation, we were hoping for the best out west.  The plan was always to end up in Oregon, for at least a short time on the way out.  Now with the Detroit situation turning sour, it was seemingly time for us to move on.  We weren't prepared for an off the grid winter in the D, anyway and the goal was to be in Acapulco by the Anarchapulco conference, which was in February.

In the 6 weeks we spent in Detroit, our bond with the neighborhood misfit pitbull Renegade deepened.  He went from a friendly visitor to an adamant guest.  We had dabs, food and love for him and with that combination he decided he would rather be with us than his owner.  Considering he was dog originally stolen by someone who doesn't really see him anymore, Renegade doesn't really have an owner.  There were repeated incidents of Renegade being apprehended against his will in those six weeks, dragged down the street with a rope broken leg be damned. This situation came to a head with a police encounter, which I'll share soon. We resolved it was time to leave and started making plans to do so.  The plan from the beginning was to bring Renegade if he was with us and if we had the space to do so.

We called John's family member once more to ask to make sure everything was good for us in Oregon before we headed west.  She assured us there was more work than could be handled, which got us started.  We told her to expect us within the week and immediately started trolling Craiglist for a rideshare to Oregon. We found one pretty quickly leaving to Oregon from Detroit in our time frame, so we contacted her. 

After some emails we arranged our ride, which included space for bags(which led to packing, featured in this article: ).  The cost was supposed to be half of gas costs, which really ended up with us paying the majority of it. The ride also included space for Renegade, if we had him. Normally we wouldn't be interested in taking someone else's dog, but Renegade wasn't honestly anyone's dog.  Before us he spent time at home being ignored, or out in the neighborhood scaring the shit out of everyone just by being near them. He chose us and wouldn't take no for an answer, stealing our hearts in the process.  We were the only ones able and willing to help him, as he was realistically dying from his injuries before we showed up.  His caretaker even thanked me, as he couldn't deny the improvement.  We decided if we had Renegade in our possession when we left Detroit, he'd come with us to Oregon and eventually to Acapulco.

The morning before we left, Renegade let me know he needed to go on a trot.  This was when he went off to use the bathroom and walk himself, essentially. He was an old dog set in his ways and long ago he decided that if his owners wouldn't walk him, he'd walk himself.  Before this day he had taken to going on these trots at night as he was less likely to be apprehended, but when nature calls you have to go.  I let him out the back with a good amount of apprehension.  He was nervous too, as he looked around a bit before leaving the area.  He disappeared into the alley and I waited.  He didn't come back.

It became clear by that evening that he wasn't coming back, as he probably was apprehended.  If we were to be around for a few more days, he'd come back.  The trouble was we were leaving the next day.  The other trouble was we were scrambling to get ready, or more specifically to get our money together to be able to go.  We were pre-arranging sales of our cannabis we trimmed for with our community members, attempting to get the funds together to be able to pay our portion of the costs to Oregon. We had 2 bigger deals set up for the following morning.  It was seriously cutting it close as we had to leave within 2 hours of getting the money to go.

That evening I resolved to go over to the house where Renegade lived, to offer to purchase him.  Despite the woman of the house claiming we repeatedly stole him, this incident is the only time I ever entered their property.  I knocked on the door and waited until Renegade's caretaker answered the door.  I asked him if I could buy Renegade and he refused.  I asked again and he refused again.  Right as I turn to leave, Renegade came up behind him at the door attempting to get out.  He closed the door and that was the last I saw of Renegade. 

I went to deliver some orders to a friend in the neighborhood.  She used to live in Fireweed but didn't currently, for many reasons. She was on probation so she couldn't smoke, but she made us an offer with the intent to sell it to friends so she could help our efforts to leave.  Another friend, who I was actually planning on hanging out with that night privately to say gooodbye to was there too, and we got on the subject of Renegade.  

I told my friend(the customer) the story and she teared up, being a dog lover.  My other friend backed it up saying she had never seen a dog cry from being loved like Renegade. She was there during the police encounter and other things with Renegade so she knew the truth of the situation between us and the dog.  Having been one of the few people in the community to interact with Renegade before us, she knew that he had indeed picked us. There were jokes made of late night breakins to apprehend Renegade, although we knew better.  

I went to bed with the hope that I'd here a thudding at the door at some point, signifying Renegade's return.  He's been known to show up at odd hours of the night.  I didn't sleep that much that night, partially due to the fact that I was subconciously listening for Renegade.  He never came.  I was also nervous for the events in the morning, as we still didn't have enough money to leave.  Anxiety mounted in the morning as we prepared to make our final deals and leave our home. 

One of the people involved in the deal was an old man, who I can't name but I'll just call him Party Party.  Anyone from this neighborhood that knows him will know who the hell I'm talking about, and it's fine for the purposes of the story.  He was known for changing his mind last minute and he did this time too, probably cause he didn't trust the middleman.  He told us he couldn't help us due to a bank error, which essentially left us stranded in Detroit, unable to afford a ride out.  When he learned of this, he found a cash stash in his house and made the transaction happen, with tears in his eyes and an apology. 

I went to the neighborhood dealer next with a few jars of my best stuff.  I was about 50 dollars short for the ride at the time, and that left us with nothing for once we got to Oregon. I explained the situation to her loosely, as she knew vaguely of our arrest and our southbound intentions.  She actually threw us a little weed when we told her as a sorry for what we are going through when we first mentioned it, 6 weeks before.  She agreed to buy the weed despite her own recent police troubles, mainly with the understanding that we needed it to get out of town.  She demanded the green jar as part of the deal and wished me the best of luck.  With her purchase, we had a bit of money left over. 

With the extra money we bought a pen for smoking oil, to use on our travels.  We had one when arrested and resolved to get another one, as there were decent cheaper options available.  I asked a community member for a ride to the nearest head shop and he agreed.  I ended up getting a generic glass dome style pen for about 40 bucks, which was a steal compared to what our last pen cost.  I also purchased two larger dab containers, for the purposes of transporting our medication. 

I returned home, to package our dabs and show off the new purchase.  We tested it out and were pleasantly surprised.  Final dabs were taken and the bong was packed. We sat waiting for our ride, just now finally ready to go just as she was supposed to show up. I'll end this here, the next part I'll share will resume when our ride share partner arrived.