3-10
Yesterday went well. We biked only 8 miles the day before. After the accident we decided not to bike further and slept in the city, behind a dentist office. Jaz was not comfortable with the location at first but I told her it was one of the nicest urban camp spots I have ever slept in and she relaxed a bit. Urban camping is never wonderful though. We soon discovered the loudest air-conditioning unit I have ever heard and of course the road was not to far away.

We woke up on the wrong side of the sleeping bag. People were starting to move about and I wanted to get to a more legal place quickly. Jaz does not do anything quickly. I left so that I wouldn't get grumpy but ended up getting grumpy later anyway. I threw a hissy fit behind a bike shop and then made breakfast. We were both pretty grumpy when a guy pulled up in a truck. This just in “I'm turning into Dandelion (Jazes nick name for me). Pretty soon I am going to stop farting and start meditating.”
The guy with the truck owned the building and asked us if we were camping there. I started explaining what happened in our defence. It was not needed though. He started talking about when he biked across the country in '85. He helped us with our bikes and when the owner of the bike shop came in he gave us some stuff and let us use his tools. I had already met a really nice guy while preparing breakfast but didn't yet realize that it was “nice people day”.
In the course of the day every interaction we had was more then pleasant. We were even prayed for in front of a subway and stopped by a police officer “just to chat”. When Jaz saw the cop she “freaked out” and he had to turn on his lights and siren for her to stop. Jaz had just J-biked while I biked around and my thought was “Oh, Shit. Here's the end of a nice day.” It wasn't. We met many more super friendly people before the day was over.

3-11
When we woke in the morning we were low on water and in the desert. We tried to finnish our oversized portions of lentil soup I cooked the night before. We got some free lentils and so we are carrying them all. I want to dump them because they weigh so much but, hey, it's food. Also the Vitamins we are carrying, I am happy because with our somewhat spotty diet at least we know we have all of the vitamins and minarals we need. The spotty diets not so bad really. So far we find plenty of food, usually one thing at a time though. A few days ago we got 6 loafs of bread, and yesterday it was citrus for example. I have now almost doubled my original weight with citrus fruit. I have over doubled my original weight because Jaz's ankle was slightly re-injured in the accident and I am carrying a lot of her weight. The weight's not so bad until I'm biking uphill. Like yesterday, we were uphill all day. At night we discovered that we could have taken an easier route and got directions from where we were. The rest of the night was all down hill, through Yukipa. Yukipa sucked,excepting the bike shop there. We went to the library to use the internet and they had no wifi. I was shocked. Then I looked around and saw that everybody looked white trashy. I asked at reference where we could find wifi and they said there was only one place in town, far away. So we left and went to the “health food store”. I don't want to talk about it. On the way there we tried to talk to a few locals, most of whom stared at us but would not acknowledge us. We even biked up to and stopped next to a group of young adults sitting at starbucks. I said hello and they ignored us. Pretended like we weren't even there. I couldn't believe it! Then I saw a girl working at a grocery store and talked with her, she was the first person who didn't look away when I looked at them since we left the bike shop. We asked if she knew of a place we could shower and she said her friends were “not very open”. After getting kicked out of a gym trying to use their showers we took a sink bath. It felt so good. We slept in a field last night and were covered with frost in the morning. We are relaxing and taking it easy until Jaz's foot heals. Minimal biking each day.


Look at Jaz's blog for pictures. Jazart.blogspot.com

Ill fated bike trip.

So far nothing has gone according to plan.

We have given up our bikes and are traveling the country by grocery cart!












But really...
After spending twice as long in LA as was originally planned we started up the coast towards San Fransisco. After about 15 miles Jaz says "How much do you want to go to San Fran?" "Whatever." Is my usual reply.
We ended up spending the night in a cave in Malibu creek state park. It was beautiful.
The next night found us back in Glendale, LA. Since we had gone west along the coast we are passing through LA again.
I strapped my back pack onto my bike so I don't have to hike to camping spots with full hands anymore. The backpack is sticking out an extra 6 inches on each side. When I was pulling by Jaz the pack caught on her bike and knocked her over. She was not badly hurt but her tire got warped and she hit a thorn that flattened it at the same time. Pain in the ass. We are consistently behind schedule and regularly biking into the night.



The West Coast!


Me at the Yogananda temple in Santa Monica.


By Jimmy's Apt in Venice Beach.

Venice Beach!

Hare Krishna Hare Rama

After a "nice" long talk with Jai I spent then night at the Hare Krishna ashram. They like the word nice there it seems. Nice, it's a nice word I guess. :D

Jai was great, I have never had an open minded conversation with a Hare Krishna before and Jai was well educated and sincere so it made for great conversation. Prasada was delicious, chanting was fun and humorous, what more could I ask for.

I woke up at 4am this morning to practice with the Hare Krishna's.

In the afternoon I took my bike to the shop. The bottom bracket was squeeking so I wanted to check it out. It turns out there were no ball berings in it! You should have seen the face of the guy who was helping me!

Then I biked around LA. That part of the day sucked. And I still have not found a place to camp yet.

I had to get back on to add this! I thought that it would be a good idea to bike by the Santa Monica Mountain National Rec Area to see if I could camp in there. Bad Idea! I biked up a few hundred feet as cars screeched around the corners. The climb was the scary part but the decent was probably more dangerous. I flew down! At first I was thinking about my horrible trip though N Thailand on a motor scooter. "Kill me" speeds in the dark on somewhat shoty roads. When I realized that Ganesha Sharanam had been going though my head in the back ground I relaxed a little. Instead tightening up when I made a corner I shouted Hare Bo! It was fun! But... I don't recommend it and I don't plan on doing it again!

LA

We took the trip to CA in stuffed minivan with a topper and tee pee poles on the roof! My bike and our bags were all strapped to the tee pee.

Jaz's house. Wow. The supreme master is everywhere!


Craig in Glendale. Jaz's Friend.
I spent the first day in LA in a room trying to turn my sleeping pad into a back pack. I failed.
Craig and I walked around the Americana. For hours one night, in and out of stores. They have a 3 story Barns and Nobles there!

Biking LA! I met Josh who also just arrived in LA. He showed me how to use the public transit. Then after 6 hours of biking and many stuff stowing issues arrived at Jimmy's.


I used to live with Jimmy in his New Collage dorm room with Selena, Val, and Jag. I knew Jimmy the least. This was the first time we had one on one time. He is one of Mike Jones' best friends and now I know why. We had the best "intellectual" conversations I have had in a long time!
Jimmy is getting married to Sarah soon. She is smart, pretty and I was stoned when I met her so I don't remember more then the fact that I liked her. :D

The second night, when Sarah arrived slept in the bushes in Santa Monica.

Because Jimmy's apartment is hardly larger then a rich persons closet I left around 1am to find a place to crash for the night. I rode to the next town east and spent the day and night in the mountains there.

Today I have been biking the rich parts of LA. It seems like all people do here is shop. Pretty boring. Everything is pretty here though. Even the dumpsters.


I am going to go to the Hare Krishna temple for kirtan and dinner.



This was from the hitch to AZ. I had to laugh, I had to take pictures!
We stopped in Leisure World to visit Hakim's favorite aunt. Then we got lost, at night, for an hour, after he went an hour out of his way to take me to Wintercount. Thanks Hakim!
Since I didn't get pictures of the minivan you can immage a minivan version of this car! With a bike and a hoola hoop attached! For both rides the insides were so stuffed that we had to throw the packs on the roof to be able to fit inside!