By: AISLING DOHENY, Lake Voice It all began summer 2004 and Edward, 19 years-old at the time, embarked on a series of adventures. He refers to those adventures as “different ways of traveling”.
“I had just moved down to Milwaukee from Spooner with $400,” Edward said. “I don’t even know how to explain what happened.”
Edward spent much of his high school and pre-college years traveling the Midwest and east coast with an array of different bands.
“I come from a poor background, and touring gave me a wonderment of travel,” he said.
Recently, Edward was running out of money working at a factory in the city when he and his friend Jason found inspiration from an anonymously authored book called Evasion. The plot of the book follows one unnamed man as he train hops, hitchhikes, shoplifts and dumpster-dives.
Edward remembered how he and Jason would stay up late and talk about the book – fantasizing about making it their reality. So, one summer afternoon he and Jason subverted the 40 hours a week culture packed a couple messenger bags of shoplifted cliff bars and set out towards the nearest train station.
“There are people who talk about traveling, and then there are people who actually do it,” Edward said. “We didn’t’ have any money, but we didn’t let it stop us from doing what we were interested in.”
This was in 2004 and iPhones were not around. Edward and Jason did not pack any electronics, not even a deck of cards.
“We were totally unprepared,” Edward said. “Less is more.”
They hid out in the bushes for a little while and waited until the train slowed down to hop on. They didn’t check where the train was going.
“We had this mentality that wherever the train took us was where we would end up.”
The train ride got longer and longer. All they could do was wait and see where they ended up. Eventually, Edward and Jason ate all their Clif Bars and ran out of things to say. After about a day and a night’s trip, Edward and Jason wound up in Missoula, Montana.
Thoughts on politics can only distract a person for so long, and the first thing Edward and Jason did in Missoula was dumpster-dive for bagels outside a corporate grocery store. After that escapade, they sought shelter at an abandoned warehouse nearby. They stayed in Missoula for three days total before jumping on the next train.
Train-hopping lasted about a month as Edward and Jason boarded different trains every few days. Most trains brought them to smaller cities around the Midwest. Edward and Jason spent many hours hanging out in bookstores, patronizing 24-hour diners and sleeping on roofs.
“When I talk about it now it sounds so boring, but at the time there was this sense of surviving and it was exciting,” Edward said. “This was the year I learned to sleep without a blanket.”
For food Edward and Jason would shoplift local markets or hang out behind restaurants.
“I completely condemn shoplifting now,” Edward said. “But we were always sure to only steal from corporate stores.”
Only one time Edward got caught thieving in his cross-country ventures.
“I was going for a bike-lock at Target, got caught, but I ended up locking the employee in their own office and escaping,” he said.
Edward and Jason did ultimately return to Milwaukee, but not for too long. The adrenaline and sense of adventure were addicting.
“I had gotten acquainted with the idea of being intentionally homeless,” Edward said. “Jason decided to hitch-hike out east ‘cause there was this concert he wanted to see, so in a funny way I guess I ended up following him.”
According to Edward hitchhiking varies greatly from train-hopping because with hitchhiking you have to rely on the kindness of strangers.
“We’d hang out by highway entrances with cardboard signs, and at all times a good 99.9 percent of people don’t pick you up,” he said. “You’re just waiting for that point-one percent.”
Edward recalls getting stuck in Ohio for four days when it was down-pouring.
“I found that hitchhiking east was harder than hitchhiking west,” Edward said. “I starved more and got picked up less.”
Edward and Jason split up at one point. Edward found himself alone in New York City. Edward appreciated New York for the vegan restaurant's, basement concerts and outside staircases that led to roofs.
After a week in the big city, Edward headed back out west. He made it to cities like Portland, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. He even managed to find work in California and he stayed there for over a month.
Edward remembers the people he met. IRS agents who hated tax season, truck-drivers who made him roll joints for them and religious groups who preached the word of the bible.
“I think it was hard for people to understand that I was happy doing what I was doing,” Edward said. “I think they thought I was hurting, and people kept trying to help me out – and it was hard to refuse help at times, but I really just wanted that sense of adventure.”
After about a year of train-hopping and hitch-hiking all around the country, from Washington to Texas to New York, Edward felt it was time to return home to Milwaukee. It’s hard for Edward to summarize these adventures, but overall he said he learned a lot.
“I learned how to be alone,” he said. “I also learned how to feel safer in the world around me.”
Edward says his trip was not without consequence, though.
“I do think that I damaged a lot of friendships and burned some bridges. I damaged my reputation a bit, too, I think. I became that hitchhiking anarchist and I actually did end up doing some jail time for the things I did.
When asked if he would do it differently a second time around, Edward’s answer is a solid no.
“I was living it out, and my advice to anyone who wants to travel would be to just do it, find a way.”
Edward currently lives in Duluth with his partner and two sons.