Here is a story for you...
I was living in Battle Mountain, Nevada, and I was working as a cook at a casino, and it is cold in the winter in Battle Mountain, and I was not making any money, I was only getting five dollars per hour, I was living in an old travel trailer with no electricity, no running water, nothing, I had to pay five dollars at the truck stop to take a shower, and so I decided to go to Florida and try my luck in Florida, I had nothing to lose, I was very poor with no hope of ever rising at the casino, so I jumped on a Greyhound bus and I went to Orlando, Florida.
In Orlando the first thing that I did was to go to a barber shop to get a hair cut, so that I would be presentable as I went job hunting. And then I went to a pawn shop and I bought a cheap beach cruiser bicycle to get around.
Then I got a cheap motel room, and early the next morning I went to Walt Disney World to apply for a job.
I rode my bicycle right down the side of the highway to get to Disney World, it was probably illegal, but I did not get in trouble.
The lady at Disney World said that the only job opening was for cooks, I was tired of working as a cook, I had been a cook for two years for low wages, and I was tired of it, I was working like a slave and I was sick of it, I wanted to make some money. But, I was open to whatever I could get, I had to work, I did not have a benefactor to take care of me. I was on my own in the world. So, I told her that if a job opened up for a cook that I would take it, I told her I was open for anything.
Then I went to look for a cheap motel to stay the night. I struck gold that night, I ended up at a really nice hotel, with valet parking, and everything, it was a nice hotel, and I had a jacuzzi bathtub in my room, and it was cheaper than the cheap motel that I had stayed in the night before. I scored. I soaked in the jacuzzi, and I loved that hotel room, the bed was great, the television was nice, it was a great room. What a blessing that was. But, I was running out of money, and I had to find a job fast or I was going to run out of money and be homeless and hungry.
I put in applications for a job at everyplace I could find. But, no one hired me, and I ran out of money.
After I ran out of money, I went to sleep in a field, I built a camp fire, and I slept on the dirt next to a camp fire. Florida has alligators, and I was lucky that I did not get eaten by an alligator. The next morning I went to go have some breakfast, and I went to the bathroom at the restaurant to shave and brush my teeth and get cleaned up.
The restaurant was a Roy Rogers restaurant, and I told them that my brother married Roy Rogers' granddaughter, and they thought that was cool. I filled out a job application at the Roy Rogers restaurant while I was eating breakfast, and then I turned it in to the manager.
The manager looked over the application, and then he told me that I needed to soften my heart, and that I needed to thicken my skin. I had no idea what he was talking about, I just needed a job.
As I left a beautiful waitress at the Roy Rogers restaurant told me that if I found a job that she needed a roommate, and she said that I could move in with her and live with her. She was a babe, that would have been great. But, I could not find a job.
The economy was not very good in Florida at that time. I applied for a job at every business, but no one hired me.
So, I rode my bicycle from Orlando to Cocoa Beach, to see if I could get a job there. I applied for work all over, but I still could not find a job. Then I went to a Blues club on the beach, and I spent my last three dollars on a cappuccino which I drank while I filled out a job application to work at the Blues club.
As I was filling out a job application and drinking my cappuccino, a guy came walking in with a guitar case, and there was a band playing, and he plugged in and played with the band. The band was "The Groove Monsters" and the guy who walked in to play with them was Jimmy Page from Led Zeppelin. They jammed all night. I sat on the beach in front of the club and listened to the band play all night, and then I went to sleep under the boardwalk.
I was out of money, and I could not even afford to eat, so that was the end of that journey.
I rode my bicycle to the Greyhound station, and people can send you money with Western Union, so my Mother was going to send me money to buy a bus ticket to get back to Battle Mountain, and the casino said that they would hire me any time.
As I was riding to the Greyhound Station, I found a pair of vice grip pliers on the ground, and I picked them up, and I found an allen wrench on the ground and I picked it up. It turned out that those were the perfect tools to take my bicycle apart, and I found a cardboard box that was perfect for it, and I was able to put my bike in a box so that I could bring my bike back to Nevada with me.
I rode the Greyhound back to Nevada, and I went back to work as a cook at the casino. I rode that bicycle to work.
Eventually I quit the casino and came back to California to train to be an actor and filmmaker, but that is my story about my trip to Florida. I ended up hungry and homeless, but I had the experience of seeing Jimmy Page live jamming with the Groove Monsters, so that was great, and I had a beautiful woman who would have let me live with her if I would have succeeded, and at least I tried.
Salute,
Tony V.