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!

Wintercount and CA

Wintercount was Awesome!

In the desert of Arizona four hundred something people gathered for a week to learn and play. Everyday it seems like there were 20 classes offered. everything from bow making to brain tanning to fire building. I was only there for 2 days of classes and only went to one class. I learned how to make a Dakota stove, basicly a cook fire that is under ground. The best parts were the community and the individuals. I was uncomforable when I arrived because it is a new scene for me. You can throw me into any city with nothing and I can live comfortably and enjoy myself, and I love the wilds, but if you put me in the woods with nothing... I will die. For all the time I have spent hiking and camping I have no skills to survive without modern tools. Nobody seemed to care if you live compleately off the land or if you are a weekend warrior. Two of my faviorate people where Doug and Matt. Both can walk off into the woods with nothing and live comfortably. I was blessed enough to offer both of them massages. Both, for their ages, had very healthy muscle structure and wonderful energy. Both of them offered to trade massage for the oppertunity to live with them and learn from them! We will see.

As for the next few months? I will be leaving LA next wendsay to bike up the CA coast and then to cut accross the conuntry to CT! I am so excited! I will be working at Great Hollow in CT! I have never been excited about a job before!

Things are going really well! Jaz and I are getting along splendidly. I have found the most valueable skill to avoid conflict is not to say things that instigate or feed into it. It's amazing how effective thinking before you speak is! I am staying with one of her friends because her family wont let me stay over. Acctualy they don't want to meet me at all :( I even shaved because I thought they would like me more without a beard :(

Sedona

I woke up last night with the feeling of soft rain on my face. I think my first thoughts were “Oh, Shit!” I hitch hiked from Gallup NM to Sedona AZ in about 5 hours. I have 2 bags, one for my sleeping bag, clothing, toiletries, computer, and sleeping pad. The other is for food and miscellaneous essentials. I didn't bring a tent. When the sun was falling I saw clouds in the sky and asked Rob “You sure it's not going to snow tonight.” “Yeah, I don't think so”. As I lay awake in my sleeping bag I thought about being present and “using all experience as fuel for practice”. Seconds later I was in my mind, hiding from the intense wind and rain. It wasn't to cold, or rainy for that matter. It was the wind. The wind that was whipping my sleeping bag into a frenzy and sucking the heat from my soggy down and blowing cold air into my breathing hole at what seemed like hurricane speeds.

My first ride was from an ex military Navajo man. He was born and raised in Gallup and worked on Apache helicopters all over the world. He was only driving a few miles and he dropped me off at an Indian tourist trap at the base of some beautiful red rocks. I waited for my next ride for over an hour. After finally deciding that I could walk to Phoenix faster then hitching and threw on my packs and took off. Within 5 minutes I was picked up by a young man running from his probation in CO headed towards San Fran to live out of his car and party. After cautioning him to the consequences we celebrated his new freedom. I have his phone number and I think I will call him in a year or so to see where he is. He was also ex-military. He dropped me off on the road to Sedona and within minutes a car stopped. Rob had lived in St. Pete FL for years and knew a hand full of my friends including Gene Cooke and Miguel who are good friends of mine. He brought me to the house of Hunter and Ayshea. I spent hours talking with Hunter as Ayshea gave Rob a massage.

Now I am sitting in one of the most beautiful spots in the world. Last night I slept next to Chimney rock and now I am going to explore Sedona!

Flashback; From FL to CO. Part 1

I was cleaning up my computer when I found this; a rough draft of trip from FL to CO. I am not going to clean it up much as I had originally planned. I was going to turn it into a coherent story... Nah :D

Gville arrive Mo
"Tubing" with Mike and Trevor. We were actually swimming the whole 3 hours until I turned blue and some nice people offered me a tube. Dumpstering. Bat Box! Thousands of bats! Buddha; Great graphic novel! Trout; cool guy who has an herb shop.

Bus Trip
Day 1 Fri 5th
Bob pick us up in Gville. Droped off motorcycle at Holt's. Arrive in Ginnie Springs.

Sat
Springs were awesome! Drove to Tallahassee.

Sun
Slept at Walmart. Anna Purna; Nepalese? restaurant for show. Snuck into the FSU theater building and explored for hours.

Mo
Karla; Jaz'es best friends sister. Truck stop; the bus was having problems.

Tu
Albany to Macon, to Cordelia. Somewhere in here we went to a really cool house to visit Don Wan. Bob's friend. It was really the land that was spectacular, nice lake with swing chairs hanging over it. I started my Loan process as Bob worked on the Bus. There were a lot of problems with the bus at this time.

We 10th
The Police woke us up. A guy who owned a BBQ joint across the street (Dooley's BBQ) from where we were parked gave us Breakfast and lunch and we talked for a while. Police stopped us because Jaz and I were on top of the bus. Bob and I dropped Jaz off in downtown Asheville. Went to Merrin's in Black Mountain. Met Abby and Ari at a coffee shop. Interesting, awkward. I liked them both.

Th
Coffee shop; spent a lot of time trying to get loans for school. Bus Painting; Abby came to paint my bunk.

Fri
Went hiking at Warren Wilson. The down town Asheville drum circle was great! Dancing! I met a religious studies professor from Warren Wilson and had a nice but short conversation.

Sat
Bob, Merrin and I went to Wild Roots, a small wilderness community. I was going to stay there with Jaz but decided that the best thing was to go with Bob back to the bus. Jaz almost stayed but ended up coming with us.

sun
Church decisions; I have no Idea what that means? Maybe talking about decision to leave the bus after a few more problems.

Mon 15th
Bob dropped Jaz and I off at a Starbucks in Knoxville. A man picked us up for a very short ride to a less desirable place to hitch from, it was slightly annoying but he meant well. Our next ride was awesome! Jack, an ex-infantry solider brought us most of the distance through TN. Along the way we stopped to walk around an abandoned mansion that had been burnt down. Right before he dropped us off we had lunch together and talked about his experiences in combat and seeing his friends die. He said his grandfather, who he was always close to, just died and he didn't feel anything. He is numb to death. Our next ride was an off duty policeman who was getting back from hunting. He and Jaz talked about tanning leather and things like that. It was getting late so we went to a homeless shelter for the night. Jaz and I were not allowed to stay together because we were not married so I slept in the mens dorm and Jaz got her own room. The only person in Jaz'es building was a grumpy old woman who's sole purpose in life was keeping me away. We were told that we had to meet across the street and she was trying to tell us we couldn't and watched us the whole time we were hanging out, even after her boss came and told her we were not breaking any rules. When curfew came I went back to the dorm. I was exhausted so I kept the conversation polite and went to bed. Breakfast had less then great food, but the conversation was lively and friendly. It was the most social shelter I have visited yet. I stuffed my pockets with food and we took off.