Squat the Planet (aka StP) was a website that I used to publish my travel stories as I wandered around the United States, mostly by freight train.
Below you'll find all my writings from 2001 to 2007, in chronological order. If you enjoy them, please leave a comment and tell me what you think. Thanks for taking the time to read these stories, and I hope it inspires you go see what's out there.
If you're interested in networking with other people in the underground travel community, please take a look at the message board!
Monday, August 6th, 2001
I suddenly realized that I was wasting my life, filling it with things that didn’t matter. The next morning I threw some clothes into my pack and left. I never looked back…
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Saturday, August 18th, 2001
I found myself in Portland, where I could crash on a stranger’s couch and explore the town. This is where I met Dave Tedder, and together we decided to hop a train east to Chicago.
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Wednesday, August 29th, 2001
In five days we had made it halfway across the country just in time for the Permanent Autonomous Zones (PAZ) conference in Louisville, KY.
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Tuesday, September 4th, 2001
A week later we were back in Chicago. I ran into Seth Tobocman while taking Liz to the hospital. Liz and Jakie left for Philly that night and I waited for Tasha to pick me up on her way to Minneapolis.
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Monday, September 10th, 2001
Six hours after leaving Chicago we got to Mankato, MN, home of Tasha’s boyfriend, Tick. We spent the next few days dumpstering and robbing the corporations blind until we heard the horrible news…
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Friday, September 14th, 2001
We spent the next few days dumpstering, sleeping under bridges, sneaking into college dorm cafeterias, and hanging out at the Hard Times cafe. This is where I hammered out the first few pages of Squat The Planet.
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Monday, September 17th, 2001
Tasha drove us back to her hometown, Lansing, Michigan. We made the rounds in the dumpster diving scene, and discovered one of our biggest finds yet…
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Sunday, September 30th, 2001
Natasha dropped me off at the Trumbull theater in Detroit. My plan was to hop a few junk trains to Philadelphia, but instead I got stranded in downtown, sleeping in a junkyard in the cold and getting the worst flu ever.
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Saturday, October 6th, 2001
I arrived in Philly to clear skies and a warm sun on my back. After seeing Jakie again and meeting a few people, I eventually moved into 1503 squat in west philly. But every mecca of activism has it’s problems…
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Monday, January 14th, 2002
I took a bike messenger job in lower Manhattan. What followed was mountains of cash, booze, drugs and the best new years party ever.
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Saturday, February 9th, 2002
I hopped a train south to Baltimore, and after a few weeks I knew almost everyone in Towson. I even convinced quite a few to hop trains with me down to New Orleans for Mardi Gras.
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Saturday, February 23rd, 2002
A few of the kids went to Atlanta while Fode, Tick, Natasha, and myself stayed with AJ and Curtis for a few days until we left to hitchhike down to the regional Rainbow Gathering in Ocala, FL.
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Tuesday, April 30th, 2002
After two and a half months of waiting for court dates, I was finally free. I felt really lucky to meet so many great people while I was there, but god, Savannah is such a fucked up weird place…
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Tuesday, May 14th, 2002
A few of the kids went to Atlanta while Fode, Tick, Natasha, and myself stayed with AJ and Curtis for a few days until we left to hitchhike down to the Regional Rainbow Gathering in Ocala, Florida.
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Friday, May 31st, 2002
Things got a little slow in Towson, so a few friends and I made plans to join the protests at the G8 meeting in Kananaskis, Alberta. The entire trip was a disaster and we never made it past Philly.
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Sunday, June 30th, 2002
A lot of our hijinks were spawned from our passion for dumpster diving, which eventually led to something I never thought possible…
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Monday, July 15th, 2002
The squatting scene in Towson was somewhat short lived, but the parties were made of legend. Fueled by National Bohemian… of course.
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Thursday, August 1st, 2002
We decided to hit up the west coast for a while. The going in Philly was pretty slow, and some of us gave up and went home. Darkstar and myself eventually prevailed and we were on our way to western Maryland.
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Saturday, August 10th, 2002
We got stuck in Cumberland for a week, ran into a few kids from DC hopping west, and with them ran into some other hobos just as we were running down the hill towards the train that would be taking us to Chicago.
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Saturday, October 5th, 2002
The Croatan Earth First Rendezvous in North Carolina would be the last big blast for us that fall. We headed back to Baltimore as the winter slowly took over, and forced us into hibernation.
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Tuesday, April 1st, 2003
It was time to escape the mountains of western Washington and see the world once again. Bean joined me as we left for Portland, trying to find a train that would take us to sunny California…
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Thursday, May 15th, 2003
Our ride dropped us off in Ashland, Oregon, and when I found out my friends from Los Angeles couldn’t travel with us this summer we decided to kick it around town for a while, leading to a reunion with an old friend.
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Friday, June 13th, 2003
We swapped stories and booze at the hobo gathering and before we knew it, it was over. After a brief stop in Redding, we continued on to Sacramento to protest the GMO foods being pushed at the USDA agricultural conference.
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