Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Now that it's officially over I think a play by play is in order.

Friday, July 20th/Day 1: 34 miles
After crazy Willie kicked us to the curb too early in the morning, we looking at all of our stuff on the sidewalk outside and realized we needed more panniers to carry our crap and last minute stuff to ship home. Jenny drove me around for those errands, Remember kids, no non-americorps members in the van, ahhh stupid amerirules. We finally got on the road at 3:00pm. After, I believe 3 flat tires between us, we rode until we got separated. I took a ride from a fellow cyclist named Bill with a van to meet Scottie at a convention center parking lot. He had the 4th flat of the day and it was getting dark. We set up camp on a sliver of grass between the parking lot and the fence surrounding this convention center near Wheatland, CA.
Thanks to Jenny and Bill for the rides and to Bill for the rear view mirror he gave us.

Saturday, July 21st/Day 2: 56 miles
Woke up at around 5am to water on my face, rain? nope, sprinkler system. I woke Scottie and told him we need to move the tent, he said the rain would stop. After explaining we moved the tent into the handicap spaces a few feet away and went back to sleep. We made it to Yuba City where we encountered cool people at Van's Bicycle Center. We bought cyclometers and continued on to Thermalito Bay where we went for a swim before camping out in the woods off the side of the road outside Oroville.
Thanks to Nick and Glenn from Van's who were extremely helpful. They gave us tire levers and helped us install the cyclometers. Also a huge thanks to the Horne couple we met at that shop who offered to ship some of our stuff home. We gave her a garbage bag full of almost all our clothes. We asked what we owned her and she declined our offer. Thank You to her and her husband who gave a bunch of advice as someone whose biked cross country numerous times already.

Sunday, July 22nd/Day 3: 50 miles
Met up with unsavory character #1 in the morning on our way out of town. He apparently knew Kung Fu and had a scar to prove it. He also didn't enjoy the vices of weed and booze. I believe the direct quote was "Fuck weed and booze, I eat people. You know what kind of people I like?, Colored people." Then he said something to the affect that they taste better. "Not the woman though, they don't have blood, they just have iron." We kept riding, the direction he told us to go was correct at least. We made it to Chico. We spent about 4 hours in Taco Bell there, I felt woozy from the heat and I wasn't hungry when I should've been. I ate and felt better after sitting out the hottest part of the day. We headed out on to route 32. Unknown to us at this point but this was the beginning of three days of going uphill from about sealevel to about 8,500 feet. We spent the night in front of a gated ritzy community.

Monday, July 23rd/Day 4: 30 miles
Uphill all damn day. We made it to Potato Patch Campground. I borrowed a pot from some crotchety senior citizens. We made our first meal of angel hair that was donated from the Americorps kitchen. The pix say it all on this one. I cooked on the open fire, Scottie cleaned on the open river. I then returned it during their bridge game. This was also the scene of our first shower. Under the cover of darkness we took turns holding the spigot nozzle open on the maybe 2 feet off the ground potable water spigot. That spigot as well as both of us saw things we shouldn't have that evening. The resulting feeling of being clean is highly under-rated though.

Tuesday, July 24th/Day 5: 33.6 miles
Again, Uphill all damn day. We made it to Lassen Volcanic National Park. The campground at the entrance of the park was closed. We attempted to make to the next campground but the hills in the park seemed to get steeper. We made as far as the Bumpass Hell Trailhead. We took the 3mile round trip hike to see the bubbling mudpots and fumaroles, the whole thing smelled like rotten eggs due to the sulphur. I got real hungry for egg salad and Scottie tryed the sulphur water. Then we raced the falling sun back to our bikes. We slept behind the pit toilets at that trailhead. Scottie will add that I slept much closer them than he did. Yes it smelled but I didn't want to be seen and I wanted to be close to my bike. We skipped the tent and I'm glad we did because the choice between looking at the inside of a tent and the stars isn't a choice at all. Eventhough the moon was exceptionally bright that night.

Wednesday, July 25th/Day 6: 22.7 miles
We biked to the Lassen Peak trailhead also the summit (8,512ft.) of the road we'd been riding up the past 3 days. We hiked that 5 mile round trip trail. We saw snow at the top (10,457ft.). After spending the morning on the mountain eating lunch at the gift shop we bike to the end of the park, about 20 miles away. It was downhill all the way. We slept at the Manzanita Lake Campground at the east entrance of the park.

Thursday, July 26th/Day 7: Day Off/Rest
We spent the day checking out the Loomis Museum and Manzanita Lake. We did a short mile hike around the lake and got ice cream. We slept in the same campground.

Friday, July 27th/Day 8: 61.55 miles
While packing up to leave in the morning we see the campground host and hear over his walkie talkie someone explaining that there's only a couple bucks in the two payment envelopes. Shortly after there was a park ranger at our campsite giving us the third degree. We ended up with a ticket each for 75 bucks. After that we rode downhill (I hit 40mph) all the way to Redding. We went food shopping in Redding then continued on to camp illegally again next to Whiskeytown Lake.

Saturday, July 28th/Day 9: 56.1 miles
We made damn sure to get up early and get on the road before anyone harassed us. We stopped in Weaverville for lunch. We found a small movie theater in this tiny town and went to see the Simpsons movie. We killed the hottest part of the day in Weaverville then continued on. We passed a big hippie festival but we opted to pass on it. Scottie saw a black bear across the Trinity River. He yelled, I didn't hear and it scared the bear away. We stayed at Big Flat Campground, Yes we paid this time, it's not like we have a fast getaway vehicle.

Sunday, July 29th/Day 10: 46.19miles
We made it to Willow Creek. We had a potential contact at a restaurant called Cinnibar Sam's who was supposed to know the condition of a road to Redwood National Park. This road would save us riding two days out of the way. So we ate there but the guy wasn't working but his son said the road isn't paved but it's in good condition. We took a nap outside that restaurant and looked around the town, it's full of Bigfoot chainsaw sculptures. When we left the town we headed towards the "good condition road" on the Bigfoot highway. We slept on the Trinity River on an Indian Reservation near Hoopa.

Monday, July 30th/Day 11: 23.2miles
We made it to Bald Hills Road, the so-called good condition road. It's gravel and we have skinny road tires, not happening, plus it was all uphill. We walked the bikes about 6 miles up the hill. Then we met Evan, a kid driving by on his way back to college from the summer camp he worked at. He gave us a ride into Redwood National Park. We stopped and hiked Ladtbird Johnson Grove about 2 miles. We then continued through the park looking for a campground. We found Flint Ridge on the Pacific. The parking for Flint Ridge was high above the ocean with a beatiful view but we wanted to see the ocean up close. We found a trail that lead down to the water, after a 5 minute steep hike on an enclosed trail (the brush and such enveloped you) we found ourselves on a black sand beach with huge boulders scattered about. Scottie and I start running towards the water and stripping clothes off. We got about twenty feet from the wave and realized it was twice as tall as us. We immediately do a 180 and run in the other direction, but the wave crashed at our ankles. It swept us off our feet like a charismatic date. Then took our shorts off in the same motion, I almost lost my glasses, Icaught them halfway off my face and slid them back on. Scottie finished our ascent out of the ocean, pulling our shorts back on. Pacific schooled us in the age-old saying of, don't mess with mother nature. We looked around for Evan but couldn't find him, after a couple minutes of Scottie and I contemplating outloud, "What if he ditched us?", we see him down the beach crawling out of the sea, panting heavily. As we run up to see if he's ok, he exclaims "Thank you Lord for guideing me through that, Halleluyah!". By the way Evan was saved a couple years ago and now feels the need to spread the word about JC. We climbed a huge boulder and then went to set up camp, we had to hike our stuff in about a quater of a mile at the flint ridge campsite.

Tuesday, July 31st/Day 12: no bikes today
The three of us packed up camp and met Adam in the parking lot above the ocean. He was there to go "Bouldering" on the beach below. Evan had rock climbing shoes with him and chalk. So all of us spent the day on the beach climbing the big boulders on the beach. Thet let Scottie and I borrow their shoes and we all took turns, Scottie and I had little clue what we were doing but the learning experience is always welcome. We climbed and lounged all day. We parted ways with Adam in the early evening. Scottie and I bought Evan dinner at a restaurant in the first town we hit, before the food came Adam sat down at the table. He saw Evan's truck while looking for a place to eat. We enjoyed a meal and then pie together. Then we said goodbye to Adam again and drove to Oregon. We camped on a BLM dirt road off the highway towards Crater Lake National Park.

Wednesday, August 1st/Day 13: 48.51 miles
Evan dropped us off at the Visitor Center at Crater Lake. We said goodbye and thanked him for his hospitality, he shared a lot with us. Then we headed out to do the Rim Road, about 33 miles, follows the perimeter of the lake. We stopped to hike Watchman Peak (1.6 miles) and again to hike down to the lake via Cleetwood Cove (2.2 miles). This is where we jumped into the volcano. We made it about 2/3 of the way around the lake before we had to head for the nearest bike shop. The infamous Frankenwheel began it's reign of inconvience. We made it out of the park and slept at the junction of routes 138 and 97. We set up the tent in some trees next to a gas station.

Thursday, August 2nd/Day 14: 58.51 miles
We made it to about 17 miles outside of Bend, OR (the nearest bike shop). An uneventful day until the evening when Scottie and I got separated due to Frankenwheel and darkness. We slept apart only about 100 feet from the highway.

Friday, August 3rd/Day 15: 66.74 miles
We found out this morning that we were only like a quarter mile from each other. Finally made it to Bend, we had to walk Frankenwheel the last mile through town to the bike shop. Luckily the bike shop, had everything Scottie needed, the sales guy gave Scottie a stern talking too, like a father. "I can't believe you were riding on this. You're lucky you made it here." and so on. We got setup at that bike shop and headed back on our way. We made in to Madras and decided to camp somewhere once we got out of town. Well once we got out of town we found no trees or cover, just farmland and open fields. Not wanting to sleep in the open and be woken up by a farmer we decided to knock on a door and ask if we could camp on the lawn. It's about 9pm and it's completely dark out by this time. So we dismount the bikes, take our helmets off and walk onto the porch of a house that still had it's lights on. We stand side by side and with as much innocence and school boy charm as possible I explain to the woman who opens the door what we're doing and ask if we can camp on her lawn. To our surprise she opens the door, introduces herself as Donna and invites us in. Donna was nothing short of amazing to us. Here is the list of everything she did for us for the sake of brievity:
let each of us take a bath
made us yogurt with blueberries and homemade granola
did our laundry for us, she even washed it twice cause it was nasty
hand washed our gloves which were equally nasty
made us amazing spinach omlettes and homemade cornbread for breakfast
showed an interest in where our lives were going and gave us valueable insight and advice on how to get there (She's a teacher and traveller so we both got along quite well with her)
Thank you Donna so much

Saturday, August 4th/Day 16: 52.35 miles
We didn't leave Donna's house until around 2pm, she was awesome. Scottie and I were both in amazing moods today, I think this is the day Scottie first proclaimed that he could never be mean to anyone ever again. I agreed. We made it to just outside of Government camp in the shadow of Mt. Hood and slept by stream just out of view from the road.

Sunday, August 5th/Day 17: about 50miles
Made it to Portland today. We caught up with Liz and her friends. We had a shower thanks to her friend Josie, who she was staying with. After showers, there was sort of an informal "pissing contest" with yoga between Liz and I, then Scottie once he got out of the shower. "Can you do this pose?, well how about this one?, Ha gotcha." Well not quite that competitive. Liz just got certified at an ashram to teach yoga so that's what prompted that. Then we played "Would you rather..." over drinks. Scottie and I caught up with Jackie when she got out of work after that. She put us up and set us up like the gracious host that she is. We then went out to the themed porn party, Scottie and I were of course gay cyclists. It was pretty small but fun. Spent most of our time in a field out back and Scottie and I raided the fridge a couple times.
Thank you, Josie, Liz, and JACKIE for the housing for a week.

Monday-Sunday, August 6th-August 12th/Days 18-24
I had a job for this week at FedEx, the Portland Hub. So I went there and figured out all those details, thanks for the ride Liz. I had to work the 3am-8am shift. I spent the week missing the nightlife with Jackie and Scottie cause I was in bed. I did enjoy my daily commute to work at 2am. The city is super quiet and it's fun to own the normally busy roads on a bike. I had a 6 mile ride each way, with the bike unloaded it was a cakewalk. I spent my days hanging out with Liz and catching up with Jackie when she got out of work. Molly was a welcomed presence with her friend Matt too. I felt lazy all week but it was relaxing. I wish I got to see Jackie more but we worked opposite schedules. Scottie and I did no hanging out by ourselves only with Jackie and Molly. I did yoga on Mt. Tabor with Liz and Buffalo. Scottie, Jackie and I went to dinner one night at Jackie parents house, always a good time to see other family's dynamic together. Jackie, Jackie's friend from high school, Molly, Matt, Scottie and I all went out to the Hooka place down the street called the Pied Cow. We all went to the Acropolis one night, the Acropolis is a steakhouse/bar/stripclub. The food is dirt cheap and really good, there are like 50 beers on tap and the girls are quality too. I went to the library almost everyday to use the computer, but you only get an hour a day. That's just enough time to do squat, especially when you haven't seen one in weeks. I rode my bike all around town and I got a ride around town from Liz and Jackie a fair amount too. Thank you to you both. Of Course on Sunday night, Molly, Scottie and I all did ZooBomb as mentioned earlier. Thank you so much Jackie for putting up with us.

Monday, August 13th/Day 25
Scottie and I were waiting for some packages from mom that didn't arrive on saturday. We finally got them on this day. We went through them swapped out bulky sleeping bags for fleece blankets. Made some other gear switches and stocked up on food from Mom and Corrie. Thank you Mom and Corrie for the ton of food you both sent us, it all got eaten. We packed up and said goodbye to Jackie and Molly. Then rode over to say goodbye to Liz, she offered to go to Mt. Rainier with us and drive, so... We fit both bikes and all the gear in her Subaru WRX, Scottie rode with the bikes in the back seat. Then headed up to Mt. Rainier. We camped at Cougar Rock campground inside the park. Thank you so much for the ride Liz.

Tuesday, August 14th/Day 26
We hiked the Skline trail and a bunch of convaluted circle trails around it, I lost track of how far it was. We were hiking among glaciers in shorts though. Scottie and I slid down the Snowy face of one. This isn't a mountain you can summit with out climbing or cold weather gear, so that didn't happen. Liz dropped us off at the junction of 206 and 7. She went South and we went North. We only rode a bit to get to a decent camping spot. We camped near some picnic tables next to what left of Alder Lake.

Wednesday, August 15th/Day 27: 66.74 miles
We got kicked out of the picnic area early in the morning. We made it all the way to Seattle today but not before Scottie told me he wasn't going further than Seattle over our lunch at Taco Bell. My heart sank but I felt for Scottie and what he was dealing with internally. More about that later. During ZooBomb someone told us to meet up with the Dead Baby Bicycle club in Seattle, so before we left Portland, Scottie sent them an email. They sent us back the address of their clubhouse, known only as the Church of the Bicycle Jesus. The rest of the day was a mission to find the church. We found it sometime after dark. Arizona Dave was on the phone outside and invited us and our bikes in. Everybody there was super awesome, they invited us onto the roof of there commercial space, up this rickety ladder. On the roof was a small get together of the guys who lived there, they fed us Knob Creek and PBR. They were super excited we found the church, they gave us crosses made from bike chain and candles with Jesus holding a tall bike with their own prayer they made up. It goes as follows:
Our father who's art's in heaven,
hollow be thy frame,
thy link's cogs run,
thy wheel be done,
on earth as it is in bicycle heaven,
give us this wrench
our steely thread
and forgive us our dents
as we forgive our denters
and den tees,
so why not lead us into temptation,
after all your delivering us from evil,
for thine is the kingdom,
the pedal power
and chrome plated glory,
forever.

Amen

Quite hilarious, yes I know there are a few mistakes in it but I typed it as is, off my candle, it's printed in this nice old english font and everything. They offered for us to spend the night and we accepted. We stayed up late and played with some of the wierd stuff in the clubhouse, like the exercycle (see pictures). When Scottie took his shoes off to get ready for bed on a church pew, TO threw up from the smell and told him he needed to wash his feet. While Scottie went to wash his feet, TO open the back and front doors and tried to air the place out. Easily the funniest event of the whole trip, I was rolling on the sidewalk out front.

Thursday, August 16th/Day 28: 16.92 miles
Originally, the plan was to head to North Cascades National Park after visiting Seattle but after what Scottie said we didn't know. Dave at the church mentioned touring the islands in the sound using the ferries. So that's what we decided. Scottie was feeling better about the trip. I told him that if he was going to head home, his best bet would be to do it from Seattle. I didn't want to get into the middle of Washington, or Idaho, or Montana, or Wyoming and have him decide he can't do it because he would be SOL for getting a trip home. Seattle was the last city we would see until Denver. He agreed, he did not want to get into the mind set he was in the day before and then have to ride for a week or two to get to an available ride home. We decided that we would go to Canada via the island for the last Hoorah on this tour. So we spent the day cruising around Seattle. We saw the Space Needle, the troll under the bridge that I remember from "Ten Things I Hate About You", a big statue of Lenin rescued by an American who saw it in a rubble pile sometime after the wall came down, and this weird shop that had mummies of people, dogs and a two headed pig in a jar. Then we took a ferry to Bainbridge Island from the downtown ferry port. We ate at a nice mexican restaurant and indulged in some adult beverages. We then slept in a field under a tree in someone's huge yard, good thing the tent is green.

Friday, August 17th/Day 29: 50.3 miles
We rode from outside the town of Bainbridge Island across Agate Passage and the across the Hood Canal Bridge, then up to
Port Townsend. Along the way met a guy also touring on his bike. He stopped to talked to us for awhile while we were fixing a flat. In course of us swapping stories he heard something and felt like he should donate all the cash he had to us. We couldn't say no to him, it was like 8 bucks. Thank you to him, he was very nice to us. In Port Townsend we met another guy on a bike and he showed his favorite spot in town. It was this beautiful park on the beach with all kinds of flowers. We actually got there just in time for the town's Shakespeare in the park series. So we watched some of the highly condensed version of Romeo and Juliet. We had to head back to the center of town to catch our ferry to Keystone on Whidbey Island. We took the last ferry to Keystone, it was dark when we got there. We happened to meet a nice woman once we got there who was travelling with her family in the campground next to the port. The campground was but she offered us some space on her campsite to set up our tent. She was also super nice to us. The campground also had the 3 minute for 50cents showers. That was my 7th shower of 29 days, felt good.

Saturday, August 18th/Day 30: 61.60 miles
We got up a little late today and had to haul to make it 35 or so miles from Keystone to Anacortes to make the last ferry at 2pm. We made it, crossing of the beatiful Deception Pass in the process. We rode the ferry from Anacortes through the San Juan Islands to Sidney B.C. Once we got to B.C. we found the Lochside regional trail (the bike trail from Sidney all the way to Victoria that I heard rumors of on various ferries). We rode that until we hit a community bike shop called Recyclistas. We stopped and talked to a couple of the guys there unloading a truck. They mentioned a bike art show and bands playing that night. So we toured around Victoria, had some food and went back to the art show. Scottie wore a sign that said, "We're on a bike tour from Sacramento, we will trade stories, jokes, etc. for a place to stay." It worked, we had a couple of girls that couldn't offer their own place, so they were hustling for us. A thiry year old couple named Leigh and Sherry offered us a place. So after a few bands had played we followed them on their bikes to their apartment. It was like 1am and raining. I'm glad it didn't rain to often on this trip cause my glasses and rain don't mix well. Leigh and Sherry gave us our own room and a queen size bed. They let us take showers, do laundry, and offered up any food they had. THANK YOU Leigh and Sherry. Either of us had slept in a bed for a long time. Beautiful room too, there are pix.

Sunday, August 19th/Day 31: 11.35 miles around town
Sundays for Leigh are bike polo days, yes bike polo, like real polo, only no horses, bikes instead. This sunday happened to be a tournament at the local park. So after Leigh, Scottie and I had breakfast and tea we headed to Topaz park. First we had to pick up Leigh's bike polo bike, yes he has a separate bike for it. It is gear differently and the rear brake is on the left side so you can hold the mallet in your right hand. Scottie and I traded in our bikes to use a couple of bike polo bikes for the day. Bike polo is played on what the canadians called a lacrosse court, street hockey rink to us americans, see pix. Scottie and I were both terrible at it, but we both played on randomly selected teams in the tournament. We played all day, for like 7 hours or so, on and off. Someone brought and made tea and had lots and lots of finger foods, all cream cheese based. Tea was served in nice ceramic matching tea cups and saucers. They tryed to make it as much like the sidelines of real polo as possible eventhough this was all on bleachers. My team won the mini tournament of all the teams that got knocked out of the first round of the real tournament, the three of us got shot glasses from the local thrift store. Scottie and I won the team that traveled the furthest to get there award too, it was a practical guide to self-hypnosis, AWESOME. Thanks to everyone at bike polo too, for being patient with us and welcoming. After bike polo we went to get our tour bikes and all of our stuff at Leigh and Sherrys' place. They had company for the evening so Scottie and I headed over to Sam's house. She had said we could stay with her and her roommates if we still needed a place, we saw her at the bike art show and at polo. She let us sleep on the couch and futon in her living room. Thank you Sam, Chase and Azin.

Monday, August 20th/Day 32: 17.34 miles
We woke up after Sam and roommates had gone to work, Scottie made some Ramen that we had for breakfast. Then we decided to leave our stuff at Sam's place and tour the city on foot. We went to Craigdarroch Castle, built on Victoria's highest point. It's beautiful, we toured through that then headed for downtown. We walked all around downtown, we saw the Empress Hotel and the Capital Building across the street. We walked through all the local shops and stores and then headed back to Sam's to grab our bikes. We packed up, said goodbye and headed back up the Lochside Regional Trail to Sidney. We thought we were going to catch the last ferry to Vancouver, but that ferry dock was a few miles away from the one we were at. We just barely made it in time for the last ferry but we were at the wrong dock. We ended up sleeping on the porch of the visitors center because it was raining but not before we talked to this intense guy who had been living out of his van for five years. We stood around and talked to him in the rain for almost 2 hours. He was 64 years old and has only worked 7 years of his life. He was a bonafide hippie who was in the Haight for the summer of love in '69. He had some choice quotes, like; "Don't procreate, you've heard of Plan B right? Make sure she takes it, wait, no, slip it into her drink." Yeah, the guy was nuts.

Tuesday, August 21st/Day 33: 22.72 miles
We decided to just start heading back to Seattle 'cause Scottie had train tickets for Friday. So we took the ferry from Sidney back to Anacortes. From Anacortes we headed back the way we came up. We met Caleb, another guy on a bike tour from Idaho, at Deception Pass. We hung out and rode with him all day. We all camped behind an RV store in the brush. He had a stove and cooked and we shared food, good times.

Wednesday, August 22nd/Day 34: 48 miles
We had a cooked meal again for breakfast thanks to Caleb. Thank You Caleb, again. We rode with Caleb all the way to Keystone, 'cause he was headed to Port Townsend. We parted ways there, then Scottie and I rode the rest of Whidbey Island to Clinton, WA. From Clinton we took a free ferry to Mukilteo, WA. We ate and lounged in the park by the ferry dock for a few hours. In the park I played frisbee with this kid named Eric. After awhile of frisbee and talking, he said we could crash at his house. We didn't realize this house would be a 45 minute walk with our heavy bikes on train tracks. It was well worth it though, this house was right on the sound. From the back deck it was cliff, train tracks and then cliff to the water, beautiful view from all three levels of the house, how many houses have a view of a beautiful view from the basement. When we got there, he made us wait outside while he asked his mom if it was ok, that was hilarious. She was ok with and very nice to us. We got pizza, showers and we got to do laundry too. Then we layed around and watch Forrest Gump. They were super nice people. Thank you Eric and the family

Thursday, August 23rd/Day 35: 40.5 miles
Eric made us breakfast and we sat around to watch the end of D3. We wished him well and rode down into Seattle. We hung out at the space needle and the library. We met up with Action Jackson at some pillars in the middle of the city. We hung out for a bit but I think all three of us were really tired. Scottie and I parted ways this night after we said goodbye to Action Jackson. Scottie had a train to catch the next day and I was headed to Portland. The goodbye was sad but we were both annoyed with each other, I think I had some rage due to an early trip ending. We were also having an ongoing philisophical debate that stemmed from watching Forrest Gump, that was taxing as well. I slept in some park on the outskirts of the city. I didn't really sleep though, it was wet out and I was uncomfortable without the tent.

Friday, August 24th/Day 36: 63.15 miles
My first day of solo riding. I made it to Roy, WA where I visited the library and had a pizza tray of nachos at the local tavern. I played a waitress in a game of pool. Then I headed south. I found a nice bike trail that ran from Yelm to Tenimo. I took that until I came to a clearing full of RV's and tents. I stopped and I asked around, I was at the local Bluegrass festival in Rainier, WA. I talked to the fire chief about camping. She's was real nice she set me up right between the two safety nets on either side of the dunk tank. The other fireman were setting it up for the next day for a fundraiser. They told me I could get breakfast at the senior center in the morning too.

Saturday, August 25th/Day 37: 87.96 miles
I woke up to a woman saying you look cold and threw a giant blanket on top of me, then fell back to sleep for another couple of hours. I slept fine, I wasn't actually cold but I'm not gonna turn down a blanket. I packed up my stuff in the morning as the fire truck came to fill the dunk tank. I left the blanket with the firemen 'cause I couldn't find that woman and I didn't really remember what she looked like anyway. I went to the senior center and they fed me two big plates of breakfast for 5 bucks, I was excited about that deal. I headed out from there back onto the bike path. I stopped in Centralia to get a better map. I looked around online at a local copy place andfound the map for the Seattle to Portland bike race. I used those maps to get all the way to Portland. I went over the Lewis and Clark Bridge into Rainier, OR, I know there were three different Rainier on this trip (Mountain, town in WA, and a town in OR). I found a frisbee golf course and park but I got kicked, so I slept in the back corner of the parking lot after the guy left.

Sunday, August 26th/Day 38: 62.03 miles
It was only 45.05 miles to the Gelber house in Portland. Jackie's parents graciously offered to let me stay with them until I got a job and a place. THANK YOU endless amounts to them. Once I unloaded my bike and got settled, I had to go to ZooBomb. I participated in the so-called badass challenge, where instead of taking the MAX up the hill you ride up. I rode up and down once and came back to sleep, IN A BED.

For pictures (These are more interesting than my storytelling, I promise): Marc's Photos

So...Yeah it's over, I'll miss it, I'll do it again. I'm sorry it wasn't longer or more epic, but we did bike over 1200 miles. I'm sorry I didn't get to see and visit as many of you as I thought I would. So now I'm in Portland with a sweet resume but no job yet, therefore no place, but I'm applying to schools too for the winter and fall.

MARC

Thursday, August 23, 2007

I swear I just saw George Clinton...

In the seattle public library. It's funny that tour we announced tour
was over but still have stories to tell. So I'm in the library and I see
what looks to be the head of a cockatoo coming up the escalator and I
think to myself, " I gotta check this freak out". So what do I see? A
black man with a a grey beard but multi colored weave in jeans embroided
with eccentric patch work and a basket ball jearsey. Next to him are an
older man and women, both in business suits. HAD TO BE HIM. Nobody copy
that style but the p-funk all star himself.

So yeah we went to canada and it was awesome. People were smoking weed
in the streets, the traffic lights were flashing green and we( marc and
I) won the " team who traveled the furthest to be here" prize in the 1st
ever vancouver island bike polo tournement.

What?!? Yes we happend to me another crowd of bike punks who took us in
and treated us like one of their own. We even got to sleep in an actual
bed. More on our northern trip later. I need to find a taco bell!
--Scott E. Blozie

Thursday, August 16, 2007

I'm not giving up, I'm finished...

So after serious deliberation Marc and I have decided to end our fight
against terminal employment disease.

Why? Well a few reasons. For those of you who know me somewhat better
than just the casual friend you'll know that a few years back I used to
get panic attacks, which are quite difficult to describe. Have you ever
seen a televangelist breathe the spirit of christ into someone, it's
like that but scary not being able to control your own body.

Yesterday while riding I broke out into uncontrollable tears through the
day and at one point fell off my bike and had serious trouble breathing,
my own personal warning that a more serious bout was about to come. It
took me about two and half years of professional guided help to get
these under control and its something I don't think i'll be able to do
on my own.

While I can't explain it exactly why this came about I think it has to
do with a few reasons:

1. Part of the reason I origanlly got these was due to an anxiousness
and overwhelming feeling I would get around people or not having the
chance to "have my own space". Spending everyday with someone and living
in extremely close quarters (a 6x6 tent) only catalyzed that
uncomfortable feeling.

2. By not getting my own space, I become quite irritable and rather
unpleasent, which I believe would not be fair to Marc, one of my
absolute closest friends.

3. For about a week and half now I've had pains in my chest and throat
which I can only believe comes from not reading and writing on a daily
basis, my passion in life. This my sound absurd, but if you are really
dedicated to something, you'll know what I'm talking about. The
enviroment I'm currently living in does not allow me to do those things
to the degree that I want.

4. Part of this trip was to really understand what's important and what
the next step in our lives will be. I know where I want to be going in
life and for a lack of better term, every day riding will almost be like
a waste. Not that I don't love riding, there are just other things I
want to do.

5. If I were to continue riding, it would just feel like work, which is
the exact reason we set out on this tour to avoid work.

This trip has been nothing but amazing experiences that have brought
about a completely new understanding of life. Just last night we stayed
with a bike club called the dead baby bikers at their holy place, the
church of the bicycle jesus. They even gave us their own bike chain
crucifixes and had us recite the bicycle jesus prayer.

Are we just closing up shop like that? Hell no; for the next week we'll
be touring the pacific rim of canada before returning to Seattle, where
Marc and I will go our seperate ways. Expect a few more updates.
--Scott E. Blozie

Monday, August 13, 2007

Some more photos







You can see the whole sets here and here

10...9...8...7...6...5...4...3...2...1...ZOOBOMB




The tradition of Portland and it's amazing bike scene, Zoobomb.



If you're here on a Sunday night you HAVE to go Zoobombing. I've wanted to do it since the first time I was here a few years ago, I asked Jackie what that pile of bikes outside Rocco's was for. She responded that Zoobombers ride the MAX up with them and then ride those minibikes down the hill. I looked at her like what a good idea. Well this time Scottie, Molly and I got to do it. We waited at Rocco's for 45 minutes or so and finally, the man with the combination to the bike pile showed up. We slid in casually in hopes of claiming a "pile bike". After some debate among the locals and the tourists, Handsome Dave as he's called gave the tourists the bikes cause the locals can do it anytime. After his long speech about dangerous and scary the bomb down the mountain is and how crashes can and do happen. He made us fill out some info including our birth date in case we get knocked unconscious, the fireman or EMT has something to check your brain function with, AWESOME. We had to write down our addresses as well just to give them something to harass us with if we didn't bring the pile bikes back at the end of the evening. After that we ride off on the mini bikes to the MAX station in our miniature parade of about 80 people altogether. We weren't all in the same place at the same time except at the top of the hill for the first couple of runs. When the gang gets of the MAX we have to pile into and elevator to the top. Then it is a short walk to the top on trails. The top is interesting, it's a bunch of crust punks and DIY kids and a random array of others. Everyone was really nice about welcoming us to the tradition and asking us how it was. I talked with a kid about the different welding techniques and we got to ride one of the tall bikes. Also at the top there was a big meeting about how the cops are cracking down and a specific list of rules they wanted everyone to follow. They sent down scouts thought to make our ride more enjoyable. No run ins with the law happened that night. Other than that it's just common courtesy on the way down, "on your left", when passing or "on your right" when passing.



The whole experience just taps into the core elements of joy and fun, like going down a slide, WEEEEEEEEEEEE! That's the majority of it is going down a hill really fast. Then you add the tiny bike, the "thick as thieves" camaraderie, and the smell of burning coaster brakes at the bottom. It's amazing, being in this giant bike gang bombing down the mountain at 30mph trying to avoid the speed wobble and blowing through stop signs in the middle of the night. I'm glad there were no bugs out cause I had a shit-eating grin from ear to ear all the way down the mountain both times.

we have more pix here:

http://s6.photobucket.com/albums/y244/Maestronoodles/ZOOBOMB/


Marc

Saturday, August 11, 2007

http://s6.photobucket.com/albums/y244/Maestronoodles/

my pictures

Marc

Thursday, August 9, 2007

Live from CAMP Fight TED



My explanation of the red woods.

Some pictures of our trip

You can see some photos that I've taken by checking out this site. Scottie's photos. I'll get around to explaining the photos a bit later.

Wednesday, August 8, 2007

Greetings from Portland

So We've been in town for roughly three whole days and it's safe to say that I do love this city while only having experienced a small fraction of all its splendors. In my short time here, I've already eaten some really excellent food, drank a dirty stick water tea that numbs your mouth and experienced probably the the most amazing evening of Karaoke ever; you bet I sang Van Halen. The highlight though was the gaggle of dot-commers there celebrating going international with their website. They did a rendition of the ultimate bar tune, piano man. It was amazing. All of our stuff is a mess around the house so I cannot seem to find my camera, but I promise pictures once i do! I'm off though to go have students of oriental medicine practice fake accupunture on my body in exchange for a twenty dollar gift card to trader joe's. Yes I am whore, but you would be too, given the situation.

CHEERS,
Scottie

Monday, August 6, 2007

And they descended upon the city...

HERE ARE SOME ENTRIES I WROTE BOTH PRESENT AND PAST. ENJOY:

Day 17 and 18 (Today, August 6th)

So were taking a pitstop in Portland and it's been quite the big to-do
thus far. I've been in town for roughly 18 hours and already slept on a
couch (Yes!), went to on the better parties I've experienced in some
time and had a yoga history lesson/ competition. Oh yeah I had another
shower too, that was pretty good too.

I think that I will check out Powell's, the notoriously huge bookstore
and start in on Harry Potter. I found out the copy I obtained was
totally bogus. I had a hunch though, the writing seemed exceptionally
poor.

That's it for now, if you've been here before and can recommend a place
to check, please call,text, IM, or message me. Hope you all have a
beautiful day!

P.s. I changed the features of the blog so anyone can leave comments,
not just bloggers. So please leave some comments of support or anything
interesting we should know about.

Day 16
"It's More Than a Feeling (more than a feeling)"

Anyone know that song, believe it was by Boston. I'll have you all know
I'm in quite the singing mood today (Saturday), in fact when I awoke
today I found myself singing showtunes. "Oh what a beautiful morning, Oh
what a beautiful! I've got a wonderful feeeeeeling, everything's going
my way"

Anyone? That's from Oklahoma. A bit of trivia for you all, I was
actually in a production of Oklahoma in sixith grade but missed one of
the performances due to a stomach virus. I played the roll of a cowboy
and had no speaking parts but did have to learn a ragtime dance
routine.

So why are we in such good spirits, you ask? Marc and I had the utmost
pleasure of staying with one of the nicest, and most engaging women we
have ever met. After coasting through the mean streets of Oregon's farm
land we decided it was getting dark and time to close up shop. The
trouble was The terrain was quite flat, leaving us with little cover to
hide.

We decided to knock on the door of a nearby house and ask to camp on
their lawn. A young girl (19 is my guess) answered and quickly ran away.
I'm sure most of you would if you saw us, but then Donna answered and
invited us in. She got a good look at us and said we needed baths, but
not before eating yogurt and granola. We ended up sitting around
chatting until midnight about a plethora of engaging topics. She even
did our laundry for us! So we camped on her lawn and then spent all this
morning until the early afternoon, talking up a storm, eating omlettes
and homade corn bread, I mean she even ground the corn herself. It was a
little sad getting back on the bikes and leaving Donna, but we all had
things to do today and there's no use getting all sad about nothing but
good times.
--Scottie

Friday, August 3, 2007

The death of Frankenwheel!

In Bend, trying to get new tires as mine has totally hit the shitter. We
had to sleep on the side of the highway it was so bad last night. I
don't want to get all new wheels but that may be my only choice. Whish
me a cheaper option!
--SEB

Thursday, August 2, 2007

Mountains,Mayhem and Two Glorious Days with Evan Almighty

So it's been quite a while since our last update so here's a day by day
break down of our journey since leaving Chico,CA:

<b>Day 3</b>
Left Chico and proceeded up route 32 which os more or less uphill for
about 60 miles. Slept outside the boundries of a gated community.

<b>Day 4</b>
Woke up and had to ask for water from somewhere inside the gated
community. A nice women gave us some extra water bottles and sent us
off. After a hard day of slowly going up hill we soaked our bones in
Deer creek, the water was extremeley cold and the most refreshing thing
I've felt in some time. We eneded up camping at a place called the
potato patch. We met a rather scragly looking man named steve and his
daughter, leigh anne. She was packing a fat bowl while talking to me so
I was hesitant to think he was her dad, guess I should not make
assumptions. There we had our first home cooked meal, angel hair pasta,
which we ate with our bare hands. This also marked the first day we had
a shower, actually it was more sitting under a faucet, we dubbed the act
"making love to the spigot". It wasn't pretty.

<b>Day 5</b>

After leaving the campsite site it was more up hill until we hit the
deer creek falls which was this cool little water fall area, complete
with scuba divers. We eventually made it to Lassen but by that time my
legs were tired of the punishment I put them through. We ended up
sleeping on the ground behind a bathroom. It was actually kind of nice
minus the sewage smell. The day was all aches and pains though, before
hitting the hay Marc and I went hiking on a trail called Bumpass hell
which brought us down into part of a volcano where sulfer escaped from
the earth in the form of stinky steam. I was so thirsty I tried drinking
a tiny bit of the water. Bad move on my part.

<b>Day 6</b>

When we awoke we found out we only about a half mile from the summit of
the rd, which is where you can hike to the highest point in the park,
Lassesn Peak, which we did. They even had snow there, which got Marc all
fired up since he was in the south during winter time. Here at the base
was this wierd guy with a tiny dog asking us about all of our
electronics, making us feel a little uneasy in regards to the safety of
our belongings. After the hike it was down hill for about 15 miles,
which was very refreshing. We ending up camping at Manzita lake a the
very edge of the park. Two very nice women let us borrow their cooking
gear and we made a dish I refer to as egg slop surprise.

<b>Day 7</b>

This was an off day. We ate ice cream and took a short hike around the
lake, nothing too painful. I discovered a new author named Wallace
Stegner(sp?), who I will have to read more of once I get a little
private time. The nice women also gave us some leftover beans and rice,
which made for an awesome dinner. We also had our first hot shower of
the tour, though it was only three minutes. A good day all around.

<b>Day 8</b>

We tried to leave the park in a rush but didn't make it seeing as we
were stopped by a park ranger and given tickets for only paying about
five percent of the camp fee. Like I said kids, crime doesn't pay! After
that hold up it was a downhill ride all the way to Redding which was
roughly 50 miles. This felt like the hottest day yet, probably because
we cam out of the mountains. In Redding we bought groceries and a few
supplies and hit up a bike shop looking for new tires. No luck for me,
although we did meet Ron, the most bad ass bike dude I ever met. Dude
was wearing a fanny pack, cut off sweat pants and a motorcyclist's skull
cap. Awesome. He told us where we could camp along Whiskytown lake. The
trip there was kinda cool, lots of old saloon type bulding made of wood
and old brick, very photographic. I even saw a couple taking wedding
photos in the ruins of an old building. When we got to the lake we took
a quick swim and went to sleep.

<b>Day 9</b>

We got off to our earliest start from whisky town and rode all the way
to Weaverville, a quaint little logging town which I recommend if you
ever want to get away for a week and just chill out. To avoid the
hottest part of the day we saw the simpsons movie in this tiny little
theatre. Check it out if you haven't, it's worth it. From there we
journied on and even passed this hippie festival called tribal stomp. We
asked if there was anything we could do to get in for free but it would
have required too much of a run around so we kept riding until we hit a
camp site, which we paid for this time.

<b>Day 10</b>

This day went off pretty well until I realized I lost part od my
derailur so I couldn't change gears, after about an hour we fixed the
problem and rode to Willow Creek in search of a man named steve who we
could talk to about a road we needed to take. We didn't find him, but
did run into his son, who helped run an eatery called Cinnabar Sam's. He
told us it might be back to take the long way round, but that would have
added way too many miles. Willow Creek is also a part of Bigfoot County
so the town was decorated with several variations of Bigfoot. After
leaving town we rode though the Hoopa Valley indian reservation which
was kind of depressing. The roads were littered with lots of garbage,
broken liquor bottles, run down mobile homes and other things pointed to
signs of blight. There was even an old fashioned camp meeting revival
complete with tent on someone's front yard. I would have liked to see it
just to see what kind of stuff they were preaching. We slept by the
river side.

<b>Day 11</b>

We woke up later than we wanted to, thinking it was earlier due to large
patches of fog blotting out the sun. After leaving the reservation we
made our way to bald hills rd., which we had questions about. Everyone
we asked seemed to say a different story. It wasn't even close to being
paved. We eneded up pushing our bikes six miles uphill before a guy on a
dirt bike stopped with a flat tire. We helped him a little bit before
his friends picked him up. He said he'd give us a ride when he came back
in a few hours, and as he got into the car we noticed he was carrying a
gun. Marc thought it was real but judging by its design I'm pretty sure
it was just an airsoft. Still creepy none the less. After about another
hour a young man in a giant red truck pulled up. This was Evan. He
offered us a ride and we ended up visitng all of the Redwoods with him.
He was Alabama raised living in Montana, on his way home after working
at a religious camp in Cali. We ended up going elk spotting, bouldering
and swimming in the pacific ocean with him. He had a lot to say about
his faith which made Marc very uneasy/annoyed. I was just glad he
believed in something. We all camped not too far from the ocean.

<b>Day 12</b>

We all spent the day at the beach, just relaxing a buch. We met another
guy named Adam and his dog, Maude. Later we ate in crescent City, a
beach town on the coast of nothern alifornia. It was a really refreshing
day. We drove into Oregon with Evan and camped out off the road.

<b>Day 13</b>
Evan brought us all the way to Crater lake before we said out goodbyes,
he was good company despite being somewhat preachy. I felt Marc had
enough of all his wisdom and Jesus music by the way he rushed getting
everything off the truck. From there we saw the lake which was easily
one of the most beautiful things I ever saw. The water was probably the
bluest I've ever seen. A plaque I read told me it had something to do
with the way the water reflected color. After that we went down to the
docks and jumped off twenty foot cliffs in near freezing water. Yes we
jumped into a volcano. We did some hiking too. We didn't make it all the
way around because my front tire is nearly trashed and were in a slight
rush to get me a new one. the current one has ben dubbed "frakenwheel"
due to its mangled appearance. We slept behind some trees in the back of
a gas station.

<b>Day 14</b>
Today has been a solid biking day heading towards Bend, which we should
reach by dark. Right now Marc and I are sitting in the library in
Lapine,OR waiting out the hottest part of the day.

Hope to write more a little sooner, sorry for the lack of updates, we've
been living the life. Pictues and maybe even some videos to come, once
we hit Portland.
--Scott E. Blozie

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Ask and you shall recieve. Snow in july. We biked to 8500 feet then hiked to 10500 feet. Lassen Peak.

Sunday, July 22, 2007

This kid is wild like Mowgli. I Just learned how to post from my phone. More updates to come. Marc

Greetings from Chico

Hello everyone in the blogosphere(what a stupid fucking name) before I
give an update on the trip thus far let me briefly sum up the rest of my
train ride.

After the ex-patriot got off in Reno, I met a lovely woman named
Chantelle. For the last four hours we had a chit chat about this,that
and everything under the sun. The best part was when we both realized
that we have a mutual understanding that everything is awesome, even the
stuff that sucks. She's actually a folk singer, check her out on
myspace; I think her site is www.myspace.com/chantelletibbs. Hopefully
shell check out the blog and correct me if I'm wrong. She also had her
own clothing line of pretty cool stuff. You can check that out at

www.wearmenaked.com

Upon getting off in Sacto, I found that in transit both my mirror and
cyclometer were broken, SHITTY. Anyway I quickly put my bike togther and
headed out. When I left a girl complimented my helmet. When I looked up
I noticed she was wearing a chicken on her head?!? I'll leave it at
that.

I wasn't able to get to Marc's graduation because the directions he gave
me were partly freeway. Luckily I found a trail that dropped me off
about 6 miles from his base. So I rode it all the way to the end...in
the wrong direction. When I got my directions right I rode for about 6
miles then came to a detour in the trail, made of sand, and I ride a
road bike. OOF! Finally I got to Marc's road; for all the CT natives out
there, imagine an even longer and shittier Berlin Tpke. So of course my
tire popped, leaving me to walk about 2 miles where I met this kid who
was all kinds of messed up. Imagine if a fraggles were real and were
having really hard teenage years, and bad dental work too.

The next day we left for tour and let me tell you, I have a firm grasp
of what someone means when they say "train wreck". I think we popped 5
tires total and only made it 20 miles. We ended up sleeping in the
parking lot of an ampithetre cuz I made a wrong turn and Marc and I got
seperated, though a nice cyclist named Bill gave him a ride with his
stuff. In the middle of the night water came shooting in the tent and I
thought it was raining but the sprinkler system was right next our tent,
blasting us with water.

The next day was smoother, although we did make a major stop to do some
serious bike repair. Shout outs go to Glen and Nick who run Van's bicyle
center in Yuba city. After hearing about our tour, they gave us some
free supplies and even fixed Marc's derailur(sp?) for free. We also met
a nice couple- the woman's name was Angie, I forget the dude-who took
all our excess stuff and will mail it home for us. Thanks Angie, you
rule! We rode for another few hours and had to sleep in the woods.

Today has been a signifigantly better ride, although the pace is
grueling as the temperature has been averaging 98 degrees since we left.
We also met unsavory character number 2. When riding there was a man
wearing khaki shorts, boat shoes and a polo, but he was wearing the polo
like a cape. Here are a few direct quotes we got when asking for
directions.

"Your're going the wrong way, believe me, I know kung fu."

"Look at this (points to scar on his arm) I had to kill him, guy pulled
a knife and so I said put it down, but I had to kill him, and now I'm
thirsty."

"Fuck booze and food, I eat people. You know which ones I like best?
Colored people, but not women, their blood tastes too much like iron."

Did I mention this conversation was bout 2 minutes long? Yeah that's a
lot to handle.

In other news Marc is wiped out from the heat but I think its becuase
he's not eating. Hopefully we'll get to Lassan Volcanic tomorrow.
-- The Jelly Bean Dream

Thursday, July 19, 2007

Ye ship has landed...

I was expected many more hot blonde people with wearing swimwear,
carrying surfboards, less fat people roofing in the industrial part of
town. Well this is Norcal.

I've arrived and am now charging my phone, then I'll get my stuff, set
up my bike and head to Marc's graduation. Let the ride begin!
Scottie

To all the youth reading this...

Crime doesn't pay! It costs 77 dollars for the upgrade.

After trying to sneak in another shower this morning, I was disturbed by
a knock on the door mid scrub.

"Scottie, we need to have a talk when your done" a voice, presumably
roger's, said.

When I came back Roger was sitting with the conductor and Morgana and it
was explained to me that our options were to pay for the room upgrade or
be escorted off the train, with police assistance, when we reached
Winnamauca. Roger opted for jail time, but I, more easely startled,
opted for room.

The thing is when going to the shower I saw a man reading the newspaper
in sunglasses and a coat-I swear he had a fake moustache on too- sitting
at the front of the car who was not there when I went to bed. A fucking
spy! They planted a spy, one of the conductors who was hellbent on
teaching us a lesson. Morgana tried to get him to let us slide, but
RULES ARE RULES.

Luckily enough though, breakfast and dinner came with the room. And we
boasted our capture, while the other members of the train came in to
hear our tale. Despite being the obvious scoundrels, the passengers
regarded us as heroes. Modern day Robin Hoods.

The quote of the day came from the Morgan Freeman sound alike who runs
the dining car.

"When do they start serving lunch?" Roger asked.

"Believe me you'll both be the first to know." said the MF wanna be.

"How will you find us?"

"Believe me, I and everyone working on this train, know everything about
you to by now"


Illl hit Sacto in about eight hours.
--Scott E. Blozie

If you ever get the chance...

Cross the country by train, I've been gone two anf half days and have
already seen so much.

Salt Lake City was cool, said goodbye to Mike and Issac then hit the
town for an hour so with roger. We passed skid row with all the homeless
and managed to find a wendy's, my first warm meal all day.

Got back on the train had a long talk with a woman from redding all
about youth, relationships, having children and the more glorious
moments in American history. From there Roger and I had a drink and shot
the shit. After all we didn't get a sleeping car instead we got
distracted by watching a blazing wildfire from our window.

I'm about to head to sleep and maybe talk to two pretty girls pending
they are still awake and I can muster up the courage.
--Scott E. Blozie

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

Scotch-bot reporting for duty...

Under command of Leuitenant Issac, We're about thirty hours in here on
the Calafornia Zephyr and still going strong. We commandeered a train
car and have been flipping the seats for optimal sleeping conditions.
However within ten minutes we had not one, not two, but three Amtrak
officials in our car telling us how irresponsible we are. After Roger
the the ex-patriot sweet talked Morgana, our specific car's stewardess,
she said she'll look the other way when we take hold of a sleeper car
after we leave Salt Lake City, saying goodbye to Issac and his father
Mike. We'll try to peaceful but if neccessary, force will be used!

Before all this I managed to sneak my way into the "authorized personel
section" to get a shower. The water wasn't hot but wasn't cold either.
And I was so dirty it didn't matter much as long as I got clean.

The latest word from the conductor says that we'll be in SLC a few hours
early, giving me a good amount of time to check out the city, say proper
goodbyes, and hopefully get a hot bite to eat.
--Scottie

Tales from the California Zephyr

It's about quarter of eight in the morning in Denver am I'm taking my
time to wash up and relieve myself proper while in the station.

I woke up around six in time to witness my first sunrise in Big Sky
country. Had a nice chat with an acoholic named Alamo all about the
women and the glory known as the Midwest. He's even more creepy than my
now friend, Roger, the ex-patriot. There all good people though. Had my
first glass of OJ in some time as Alamo told me he only needed enough to
make a few screwdrivers. Then the women next to me gave me her bottle
too. She wasn't a lush, just didn't want it. I think people are showing
extra kindess on account of my appearence. I do look rather shabby.

Well it's time to get a real glimpse of these Rocky Mountains!
Live the life you love, love the life you live
--Scott E. Blozie

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

A breif tour of Chicago

During my four hour layover in Chicago I quickly rushed over to the 826
tutoring center/ spy store. The store itself was smaller than I expected
but full of numerous gadgets for all those with surreptitious behavior.
I included a few pictures but they were taken with my camera phone so
please pardon the quality. I didn't get to see the tutoring center
itself but did have a good chat with a nice gentleman named Drew who is
a student at Princeton, working at the 826 for the summer. He even
showed me his favorite invention a USB powered nerf rocket launcher!
Talking to him made my desire to work at the superhero supply store
swell even more.

When I got off the train it was raining fairly strong, and I am wearing
nothing but shorts and a muscle tee until I hit Sacto. CVS wanted eight
dollars for a children's size poncho. Fuck that, I bought a box of
garbage bags and headed out for adventure. Later in the day after I
bought some food for the fifty four hour train ride that lay ahead.
Stupidly though I bought it by the 826, over a mile away from Union
station. By the time I was a few blocks away my bags ripped open.
Luckily I had those garbage bags which made excellent suitcases.

Sam the man Pendergraph sugguested I check out the art museum. Sadly,
the 826 was further out than I expected so I'll have to put it on list
for next time I see the city.

I felt a real affinity with this city, perhaps because I was carrying a
copy of Augie March in my bag and singing Lawrence arms tunes to myself.
I only wish I had more time, but the west won't wait!
--SEB

Monday, July 16, 2007

And no picaresque tale is complete...

Without the protaganist encountering his fair share of unsavory
characters along the way. Mine takes the form of the ex-patriot sitting
next to me who probably suffers from permanent shellshock. From our
(immensely freightening) conversation, looks like he's transfering onto
the California Zephyr too. Looks like I'll have a friend all the way to
Reno!
--Scott E. Blozie


Ok, So, We'll be headed on this grandiose journey that is a bit ambitious at this point, but we're going to try to hit as many of these destinations as possible. The exact roads to be taken are not planned ahead because Scottie and I both like to "wing it". That fact and that we are looking for support along the way in any way, shape or form, whether it's a place to stay or food to eat, a shower, a load of laundry, a job for us to do for a little extra food or food money. Any of these things would be beneficial to Scottie and I on our quest. We promise to be polite when appropriate and always entertaining, so tell mom & dad and grandma & grandpa we're coming too.

So now for the break down of the route destinations in the proposed order, get your maps out and follow along because that picture doesn't do it justice and I don't think you can blow it up.

From McClellan Air Force Base (just North of Sacramento) where I am based out of with Americorps we will be heading SouthWest to Oakland to see the Lawrence Arms play outside the Oakland A's stadium. Then from Oakland the real journey starts.

Oakland - NorthEast - South Lake Tahoe - NorthWest - Lassen Volcanic National Park - NorthWest - Redwood National Park - NorthEast into Oregon - Crater Lake National Park - North - Portland - North into Washington - Olympic National Park - East - Seattle - South - Mount Rainier National Park - NorthEast - North Cascades National Park - East into Idaho and then Montana - Glacier National Park - SouthEast into Wyoming - Yellowstone National Park - South - Grand Teton NP - SouthEast into Colorado - Rocky Mountain NP - SouthEast - Denver - SouthWest into Utah - Green River - SouthEast - Arches NP - SouthWest - Canyonlands NP - West - Capital Reef NP - SouthWest - Bryce Canyon NP - SouthWest - Zion NP - South into Arizona - Grand Canyon NP - West into Nevada - Las Vegas - West into California - Death Valley NP - West - Sequoia NP - North - King's Canyon NP - NorthWest - Yosemite NP - South - Channel Islands NP (ferry from Ventura, CA)


That's the loop, now to head home:)


- SouthEast - Joshua Tree NP - SouthEast into Arizona - Sagauro NP - East into New Mexico - Carlsbad Caverns NP - South into Texas - Guadalupe Mountains NP - SouthEast - Big Bend NP - East - Austin - East into Louisiana - New Orleans - East into Mississippi - Biloxi - East into Alabama and then Florida - Daytona Beach - South - Everglades NP - SouthWest - Dry Tortugas NP - NorthEast - Biscayne NP - North into Georgia - Atlanta - NorthEast into South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, DC, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut


So if you live anywhere in Any of the following states
California
Oregon
Washington
Idaho
Montana
Wyoming
Colorado
Utah
Arizona
New Mexico
Texas
Louisiana
Mississippi
Alabama
Florida
Georgia
South Carolina
North Carolina
Virginia
Maryland
DC
Pennsylvania
Delaware
New Jersey
New York
Connecticut
and would possibly enjoy a visit from Scottie and Marc on BICYCLES please reply with contact info like email, phone number, myspace, facebook, and most importantly your address.

Thank you for your interest
Marc
Some boys were just meant for big adventures.

Saturday, July 14, 2007

It's one of those feelings you get...

You know the ones—when you spent months, years, perhaps even you're whole life dreaming about something and then the time comes when you're on the cusp of that dream becoming reality and it's difficult, almost impossible to genuinely explain your emotional state. That's where I'm at right now.

For the longest time this trip has seemed distant;just an idea in the form of planning on scrap pieces of paper and day dreams rattling around in already too chaotic brain, restless chatter between friends trying to break up the doldrums we've gotten ourselves into. It was something to fall asleep to,a fairy tale not unlike the ones told by bedside mothers and fathers, something that brought on peaceful slumber. But it also prohibited rest; evoking a giddiness not seen since middle school romances, keeping me awake until two, sometimes three in the morning, fully knowing a ten hour work day was upon me. It was a notion that kept us going these last few months.

Now that I'm less than thirty-six hours away from beginning what will probably be the biggest trip of my life up to this point I sense I'm at a stalemate. My daily movements are mesh of surreality and commonplace action. I find myself experiencing activities like forwarding mail and mopping the bathroom floor with a acute sense of hyper-awareness similar to the sensation felt seconds before automobile accidents. And the other loose ends, the supposed "tough" things—saying goodbye to family and friends, explaining that although I cannot elaborate, it's best I don't speak to them over the next four months unless the circumstance dire—those things come like involuntary bodily movements, blinking and breathing. Perhaps because the words have been rehearsed so many times, perhaps because this "just seems natural". It's an odd state to be in, but probably a fitting introduction to what will be felt over the duration of this trip.

Scottie

Monday, July 9, 2007

One Week from Departure

In one week I'll be sitting on train en route to Chicago. It will be my first time going that far east. I'm looking forward to hours of looking at the window watching country sides and has been towns fly by.

In other news Marc has obtained a bike so we are pretty much good to go; I am having problems with my panniers getting caught and my spokes but my father is conjuring up a plan to fix that problem. There should be a picture of a rough route up sometime soon. If you are anywhere near the route and can offer food/showers/places to stay please contact us. We'll be extremely thankful and will make it worth your while by entertaining you with a preview of the variety show we're working on in case we need to become street performers in order to get food.

Monday, July 2, 2007

Two weeks from departure, still collecting supplies and fine tuning my
bike set up. There are no bike racks on my trains so I'll have to break
the whole thing down. I wonder how many challenges we'll face before we
even start riding.

-S

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

I guess half of California is on fire and Texas is flooding. Looks like
we'll be riding through the rapture. Good thing I decided to bring the
camoflauged copy of the New Testament that Marc gave me. Godspeed!

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

ETD: Three weeks and counting

My departure date is July 15th, a little under three weeks. I've been riding roughly fifty miles a day only partially packed. The weather in Connecticut is supposed to be roughly nintey degrees for the next few days. I can only imagine what it will be like in California when we set off. I can safely say that I have never been so excited and terrified in my life.

THIS IS GOING TO BE BIG!

-Scottie

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

A Mission Statement and Explanation of Things to Come

Welcome readers and to begin: Thank you. I cannot express the graditude that I feel when thinking that some of you are taking time from your extremely busy lives to check out what a couple of pieces of shit are doing with their lives. Let me start by answering a few questions.

I thought that you had a very strong distate for blogs?

Tis very true my friend, but after long talks with several of my peers it's come to my understanding that many of you have shown general interest in hearing about the progression of our trip. This blog will be a means for us (Marc and Scottie) to share our experiences without having to try and play telephone tag with all of you. We're actually trying to use our phones as little as possible. So before calling, Please read the blog. We're as safe as we need to be. If we get into trouble, we'll let someone know. Feel free to leave any messages of support, discouragement or anything else you want us to know. We'll be thinking about you while we ride.

So what is this blog all about anyway?

In May of 2007 I (Scottie) graduated from college and noticed how eager my peers had become at the prospect of entering the "real world". Some chose to seek out careers, while others began pursuing further formal education. None of these things sat well with me. Having spent the last eighteen years in various forms of schooling I decided I was ready for a break and while stability, comfort, and bi-weekly pay checks are very enticing, they simply are not for me.

Sometime earlier in the spring Marc had talked about his desire of getting a motorcyle and riding home to Connecticut after his time working with Americorp had ended. To hiss Dismay he was unable to get motorcycle endorsement, however that didn't stop him from dreaming up something equally as wild. Rather than using engine power, he decided the trip would be more adventerous if he went via bicycle. After some serious deliberation and long talks, we decided the trip would be more rewarding than anything else I could with my summer and it probably be in my best interest to join. And so it was written.

This Blog will document our travels as we spend roughly three and half months traveling across America by bicycle carrying everything we feel we need to survive on those bikes.

If you're Traveling by bike, how will you update this?

As many of you know, I own a sidekick which has internet access. Much of the updates will written using that device. Should we have the opportunity to use more powerful technology we will try to include other medias such as pictures and video.

Why are there so many grammatical errors on the page?

If you have ever tried to use the keyboard on a sidekick or similar device you'll know the buttons are very small. Also since the focus of the trip will be on the ride and experiences themselves, less attention will be paid to the actual writing of the blog. It's not that we're idiots, we just see the whole thing as very informal.

So what's your cause? What are you trying to raise awareness of by doing this?

Nothing! Well, that's a little much. FUN! While it's true that gas prices are radically out of control and we depleting resources far too quickly, that's not the reason for our ride. We like to have fun and thought this would be fun. No political agenda, no religious message, just two dudes trying to see what this world is made of.

Speaking for myself, I am a (wannabe) writer. The idea of the American Novel is something I give much thought to. I've read Kerouac,Thompson,Twain and Lee. I've even read the more modern Dellilo. Accurate indeed, still somehow all of these portraits never seem to gel with my image of America. This trip is a way to not only expand my own idea of what America means, but to see how the current climate compares to the portraits painted by each of these greats.

Also, what else am I going to do until LOST comes back on the air?

How often will you post?
When ever we feel the time is right to let you all know of our travels. In the future, none of the posts will be anywhere near this long. (I hope)


Thanks for checking us out and we hope to hear from all you while we're on the road!

-Scottie