A Couple More Cents A Gallon

Howard and I could really make a splash, leaving Baton Rouge...

Over The Bridge
I woke up this morning, by the tracks, where we had slept on the random chance that a train headed across the river would stop right in front of us... 
Howard had already gotten up at his usual time (6:05 a.m. -no alarm clock necessary...) and gone off to get a cup of coffee and a newspaper.
I hadn't slept very well, having woken up at least a dozen times, because of the cold, which I wasn't quite equiped for (I had gotten rid of some heavy stuff a few weeks ago, when the first 90 degree day of the year arrived; seeing it as ridiculous)
It probably got down into the low 50's last night. I woke up feeling that I was coming down with a cold; this is the third chilly night in a row that I didn't sleep comfortably through- trying to smoke a cigarette made my throat tickle, causing me to cough so violently, that it took the pleasure out of it; despite the high caffeine content energy drink that I was consuming.
Two trains passed during the night, none of them stopped.
Trains A Pain
I decided this morning that the trains are "too hard to understand" in Baton Rouge, and told Howard so much, to which he replied "OK." Many of them never leave the city, the ones that do, often wizz by at high speeds, and the rest will deposit you in a rail yard that is as hard to escape without police interference, as a Nazi concentration camp.
I decided that we would go to the truck stop with a sign which read "Over The Bridge," as that is our aim.
The Mississippi River, that great natural barrier, is doing a good job in keeping us trapped on this side.
You can't walk across the bridge, unless you can do a tightrope style thing along the one foot wide strip of concrete; fall one way, get pulverised by a vehicle driven by someone who is tweeting; fall the other way, plummet 400 feet into the Mississippi River -pick your poison.
Howard would probaly get struck by a vehicle AND tossed over into the river...and would probably survive, swim to shore and be right behind me again, asking "Was that the Mississippi I fell in?"
...Yes, the one you read about in Huckleberry Finn...
This morning, the sign paid no dividends. We were right at the truck stop, which we found to be not that busy. Maybe their fuel is two cents a gallon more than other places; enough to cause most people to say **** that, I ain't paying no $3.72 a gallon! (not realising that the difference, should they pump 10 gallons, for example, would be 20 cents, and that they will be burning 7 times that amount by doing a U-turn and going back to the station where it was cheaper...)

Resigned To Re-"Sign" Tomorrow
I suggested to Howard that, since we had put in 3 hours trying to get across the bridge, we could call it a day; go to the nearby Dollar General to stock up on provisions, then to this library, where I could print up a map of the other side of the Mississippi, to use in case we do get across tomorrow, and then I could play some more at the same gas station, since I was down to less than a dollar in cash, no cigarettes, strings ready to break and harmonica reeds starting to mess up on a couple notes...pretty dire...
So, that's what we did. We went to the Dollar Store, where Howard disappointed me by buying only non food items (canvas shoes and a book, I noticed) so that I couldn't offer to buy his food on my card in exchange for cash.
He came to this library.
I went directly to the store, where I played and made about 7 dollars in about 80 minutes.
I haven't bought cigarettes, feeling that I need to put aside the 7 dollars for strings, unless I want to put myself in a situation where I am trying to make money with my sound "compromised," to say the least.
When I leave here, I will most likely go back to the store and play some more.
I need to print up a map from Google, which will show me what is on the other side of the river; especially music stores and libraries and places that sell Pepsi and Jalepeno and Cheddar Cheese Cheetoz. which is half of Howards diet (and he wonders why he suffers from headaches...)
That (printing the map) I go do now...sorry that I have not had time to make this post pretty with fonts and colors and pictures, but, these are desperate times here.
Tomorrow, I have determined that we are going to stand right out on the side of the road leading to the bridge over the river, so that 100 times more vehicles will pass us and see the sign than the number that will stop at the Mr. Lucky's truck stop, where fuel is a couple more cents a gallon....