Karl Danielson is from Washington.
Matthew Champ is from Ohio originally.
They both live in Camp Verde now, well, Rimrock for Champ, but they were both hanging out last Wednesday afternoon under the ramada downtown off Hollamon Street.
They were shooting the breeze while passing an acoustic guitar back and forth to strum a few notes.
The two said they were a bit bored but it was better at least to be bored among friends.
“John Lennon said time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time,” Danielson said.
Danielson made his way down here about a year and a half ago on an Amtrak train.
Back up in Washington, Danielson said he had lived in the forests of Washington state, right there on the Olympic Peninsula.
“It was the best times of my life,” Danielson said.
He lived in a tent and walked out to the highway to catch a bus into town every so often for supplies.
At one point Danielson said a group lived on some property with the owner’s permission in an old surplus army-style tent from the 1950s or thereabouts.
Both of the friends are out here trying to look out for their families and help where they can.
Champ just graduated from his junior year as a student at South Verde High School and said he was a bit bummed that the principal, Steve King, wouldn’t be returning next year.
This summer, he plans on going to summer school to try and earn some credits toward his eventual graduation.
He also has to continue to undergo physical therapy and more knee surgery as he recovers from injuries sustained in a head-on crash last November on State Route 260, a crash that took the life of his little brother.
To read the full story, see the Wednesday, May 27, edition of The Camp Verde Journal.
