I found out that bus #40 was the one that went there so I went to a bus stop that the #40 bus stops at and waited. There were several other people waiting at that bus stop too.
Shortly after I sat down, 2 guys walked over who were dressed looking thug and gangster-ish. The guy who did the talking was a white man with many tattoos and a buzzed haircut, the other guy with him didn't say anything. Standing to the side of where I was sitting was a fat black man with some sorta oxygen tube thing in his nose. The other guy started talking to him because he knew him. He asked the fat black man if he had seen somebody because he was on a man-hunt and had been looking everywhere for him. He said that the guy he was looking for ripped him off $100 and that if he didn't have his money when he finds him he's going to cut his face open!
He was mad and started saying all this stuff like "I trusted him! We never had a problem before!" some other random guy who was walking by at that time overheard the story and yelled "Listen to the devil's side, CUT HIS JUGGLER!" "nah, I just need to teach him a lesson and cut open his face" he said, then those 2 guys walked away.
Shortly after they left another guy sat down next to me and murmured "hey, you wanna buy some weed?" I had never been high in my life and I admit I was curious to know what it was like but I was only focused on getting to Niagara Falls before dark and finding a place to camp.
"no man, I'm good" I said. "I know you want some" he said with a smile.
Now I have to explain something before I tell the next part...
Before I left home, my friend Blake and I were hanging out. One of Blake's friends that he's in college with was having a party and Blake invited me to go with him.
A guy I met at the party had a bandage around his arm. He said he got it from a pain meditation ritual. At first I thought he was kidding or making an accidental injury sound like he got it from being a bad-ass. He showed me and group of people the mark on his arm and explained that it was a ritual Buddhist monks do where you let a cone of incense burn all the way down on your skin. Obviously the lower it burns, the more it hurts. It's a mental challenge to let it burn all the way out. ..
I then said something like "wow, that's something I'd probably like to do someday" and he said that he had incense cones with him and we could do it now!
I felt obligated to prove to myself that I'm just as tough. It was an experience. Yes, it was painful. But I loved that pain and smiled while feeling awesome and tough. I ran to Blake and said "dude, come burn your arm with me!" He see's that as his manliness being tested. A few others also decided to do it too.
Blake got his here instead of his arm
Blake decided to get his done where it wouldn't be noticeable since it could affect how professional he might look at work.
Afterwords, I was telling people how spiritual it was to do it. Blake said "It's not spiritual, It's us being stupid." Now that I think about, it was a stupid thing to do. But maybe it could also be spiritual and stupid at the same time depending how you look at it. It's stupid because it causes self harm and a risk of infection but on the other hand it's getting stronger by getting past a mental obstacle. Also It's funny to think of us doing stupid things together...
OK, so the point to that story was, I had band-aids on my arm covering my burn. It was on my right forearm. The guy trying to sell me weed looked over at my arm and was like "Ah, I see what you did there." I believe he thought I was covering needle marks from shooting up drugs. "No, I don't do that, this is just where I burnt myself." He was like "oh, ok sure." We had a conversation. I told him that I was a wanderer and then he asked "are you on the streets?" -__- I was getting tired of people asking if I'm homeless. I explained I had some money but I'm trying to live off it for awhile. " you could pitch a tent" he said. "yes, I got a tent." I said. Then he said if I needed a place he had an apartment I could crash at for a couple nights and he had bitches I could fuck and we could get high!
He was lowering his voice so no one would hear. A woman sitting on a bench nearby looked over and said "I know you're up to no good!" He looked at her and said "what? no" and she was like "yeah right" Then he started laughing and said to me "you see, this is why you gotta be careful, I was lowering my voice." He looked back at her and said "I know you couldn't have heard me! how'd you know?" "I just can tell" she said.
The guys' bus came. He wanted me to hang with him at his place and he was fun to talk to but I couldn't trust him and he could get me into real trouble. I told him I wanted to go to Niagara Falls that day but I might be in the same area in a couple days. He went on his way and then I started talking to the woman. She basically said that he was no good and after my money and probably would've sold me crappy pot.
I told her that I was going to the falls that night. She said "well, there ain't nothin' there but the falls. you'd be better off staying in Buffalo. There's a lot of poverty and weirdo's in that area, you'll see." Even if the area was bad, which would be disappointing, I wanted to see the falls and the park. It was going to start getting dark soon. I probably didn't want to get there right as it was getting dark if what she said was true.
If I went the next day, I would have all day to figure out where I was going to camp. So, I decided to take her advice and stay in Buffalo. I got up and walked toward the hostel I saw earlier.
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