Philip W Holland

Apologies for the delay, I have been moving through quite a few states with no update on the blog. Although the cop that woke me up at the Iowa rest area was nice enough, as has been just about everybody, and the landscape very pleasing, I found myself wanting to get out of there fast.

Too flat. Too much visibility. Nowhere to hide. Not safe. Fight or flight going nuts  I don’t tend to conform so it’s better to remain unseen. Time to leave behind this theology of dominion, the masters who labor and toil to rest in the shadow of their vineyards, and back to the reasonable forest ethic of leave no trace conservation.

Somewhere in Illinois, when the hills and woods returned, my limbic system realizes things are fine. Hills, forests, caves. Plenty of cover. Novelty and reward at every turn. Mushrooms waiting in the forest. Geological undulations. The good bouncy balls in that Chillicothe quarter machine.

Spent all day picking up porous green river glass in Peoria. Stopped back by Big Pete’s, gave the kid one of the bouncy balls. Left with a sweet acoustic bass, guitar tuner, a dozen eggs, and a chunk of his big block of obsidian. I had to replace his bouncy ball as one went over the fence. Two balls left.

Met up with a friend Taylor in Columbus, OH. Her kid gets the second to last bouncy ball. The last and best one is mine of course. Also brought a bunny puppet with a chewed ear. We mended it and it has a new home. Her bouncy ball didn’t need replacement.

Back on the road, powered by restlessness and the false sense of security from the live data fuel level readings in my diagnostic code reader. Crashed a family reunion that started setting up at Picnic Area 7 of Shawnee State Park where I had been simmering beans. I offered to clear out but got fed instead. They brought their own beans.

Onward. A night and all day above the Susquehanna River. Hiked quite a bit, the mushroom hunting is good here. Golden oysters. Boletus edulis. Never seen a ghost pipe in real life but they are everywhere. Green rocks in the parking lot, look like jade but might be serpentine.

Relieved to be within a tank of gas, although short notice, of my brother, according to the code reader. Hiked several miles on a trail around Springfield, PA, then headed out to find that I was wrong. Out of gas. That one review on my Amazon fuel pump was right that the readings were inaccurate. PennDOT saves the day, and now I await the return of the preauthorization from that time I should have gone inside to pay for gas. Usually happens within the day. This is day 4.

Finally got the web store set up. Lots of different things to set up, sign up for, sign into, link together, and multi factor authenticate. Hell. But now I can get back to the forest to my own technologies and post through their actually palatable user interface.

I still could use whatever anyone wants to throw me so that I can get gas and pay my phone bill in a couple days. My cashapp is $philipwholland, and my venmo and zelle can be done through my phone number 2149096097.

However much I would love to, I don’t intend to live off of your donations forever. I needed to take some time to be away from everyone and everything, with no accountability for my doings or my whereabouts. I intend to keep that up, as I have never been more at ease, while also creating and working in my own way.

Haven’t really had any problems since I drove away from all of mine, just things to improvise adapt and overcome. Life, uh, finds a way.

live carelessly pwh 06-16-25