astoria oregon

lilia & i just arrived in astoria oregon, you know the cute little town where the goonies & kindergarten cop were filmed. we stayed in oly for a few days, visited with old friends, then biked to portland with tyger, who just got a job there. for folks familiar with the route; does anyone know what's up with the changes to camping spot in vader? it's been turned into a park of sorts. days spent with lilia's bro and his partner. they were excellent hosts. just to prove the crazy magnetic pull of oly we caught the dollar bus back up to oly for one night before coming back down grabbing our bikes and taking off for astoria. we've had a couple of great nights camping, we saw the full moon rise over the columbia and last night we hunkered down for a storm on our buddy weyerhauser's land. any day now kaite will be rejoining us and possibly some others? you know who you are. but for now we're going to explore this cute little coast town, maybe even hang out for a weekend beer festival that starts tonight.

-jon

Nashville and more

And so it is that the Cycle-@-Circus continues!
JC here, Micah and I on the road and going strong! We picked up Rachel, our friendly rat from Chicago, and Jimmy the professional roller-derby referree! But more on this to come...

Its been far too long since I've gotten a post off, so this may be long.
First off, leaving Tyger was far too tough for my taste, and biking solo far too familiar and isolated. As tough as traveling alone can sometimes be, it often has its benefits such as biking as fast as I'd like! Covering around 100 miles a day I soared across Ohio and into Indiana, where I met some friendly locals that (in a wonderful middle-american twang) called their own police rednecks! Got into some minor hills but nothing would stop me from reach Bloomington in a mere four days! Got into town and I could feel the lull after the storm. I was a day late, Jon-Jon and Lilia had just left with many of the other kids for the PreNC, alas Beetown treated me well. I got a place to myself for a couple of days and got to relax and keep training. Juggled at a family reunion and on the college campus; during the latter I had over a thousand people walk by and not a single one stop or say or do anything except walk along with the rest of the herd. It was such an amazing mentality to watch all of these people go by, and not a single one wanted to step out of line (this changed slightly when the crowd died down and it was just INDIVIDUALS). Beetown also had an incredibly explosive ending; if you haven't seen the pictures yet on the photobucket, I highly recommend checking them out. I jumped from an approximately 80 foot tall cliff into an old rock quarry, the same one used while filming the movie "Breaking away." It was an exhilirating, life-changing experience that I will never forget!

On the road again with a 3 pound bag of trail mix and a full stomach I ran into some problems; headwinds of up to 30 mph, steep hills, rain and humidity to the point that I was constantly wet, and the runs. Yuck. It took some willpower and medicine to get me through it, as well as a full roll of toilet paper. It got dark on the third day and I was only 40 miles to Nashville, so I decided to trek it the rest of the way there through the night (which is coming so early now!) to have a nice warm shower and place to rest.

A big shoutout to ALL of the Nashville kids, especially the Rat Patrol, and Nate & Rat, and James Smith. It was such an incredible place, and such an amazing experience; quite possibly my favorite city on the trip so far, I could definitely see myself returning there! I stayed for almost a week, met friends of T-claw's and Gene's got to work with the local Food not Bombs twice, built a bicycle for Rachel to come touring with us, and got to participate in Hank's Happy Hootenanny! There were around 60-90 of us with tall-bikes, choppers, freak-bikes, and all sorts of ordinary ones and we tore through the city! We could take over bars, we consumed a three-lane-wide street, we tore down through the Honky-Tonks with no brakes, no lights, and no helmets, dodging cars and each other with not a single person crashing! Talk about skill! And then came the jousting competition!!! (Check on youtube for videos, I know they exist, my pictures won't be up for a little while) It was such an incredible place with so much going on, so many amazing people and yeah, nothing bad to say about the place except for the amount of closed-minded folk that we challenged straight to their faces!

And now we come to the Natchez-Trace trail, a beautiful, scenic, 440 mile long path that has limited access, nothing commercial, and super bike-friendly. We're getting off in Jackson (about 70 miles away) to cut straight down to New Orleans! Fortunately there haven't been any major tropical depressions, which we've all been quite manic about. Jimmy joined us up until yesterday, we met him in Nashville and he had all his own touring stuff. The kid grew up in Kansas, and spent years in Brooklyn and Portland; but alas, he had to get to Austin for this years roller-derby finals. So its down to three, and we're not quite sure how long Rachel will be with us for, and then it'll be just Micah and I again. This leg of the trip has been pretty awesome this far, last night we stayed in Kosciusko.

I DUMPSTERED A HOTEL ROOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
let me repeat that...
I DUMPSTERED A HOTEL ROOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yeah, while foraging for food in the friendly local Pizza hut, pulling out boxes of pizza and breadsticks a kind, Jesus-loving woman came up to me proclaiming how disgusted she was that we were pulling food and eating it out of the dumpster. Rachel was beside me with her face literally stuffed, while I was able to do the talking, thank her for the money that she wanted to give me, but tell her that it wasn't really necessary, and that I've eaten far worse than day-old pizza. However, she insisted that we come inside and feast ourselves on the all-you-can-eat salad bar (the mere words make me salivate), which we did. And then she demanded that we come back to her place, where warm showed, free food and clothes would be provided in plentiful quantities. But alas, her husband was a police officer and vetoed her kind gesture, instead suggesting that they just get us a hotel room. Pearl is now the heaviest she has ever been after gorging ourselves on food last night and cramming all the rest into my panniers. I've still got 2 full pizza boxes from the dumpster and am looking forward to some slower going with all of my newly acquired weight. But we're well-rested and had an enjoyable night just relaxing, swimming, and doing next to nothing. And then it calls...

On the road again,
Just can't wait to get,
On the road again,
Where fun and laughter never ends,
I'll always be with my friends,
On the road again.

back in cascadia

where to begin...chronologially i suppose...crammed into a van wasn't so bad with such good people...we met even more great folks along the way...layfatte indiana had a pretty good turnout for our little teach-in and were especially sweet in kicking down some bucks...the next morning we descended on an office of one of tose evil profiteering corporations pushing the i-69 highway project and we successfully delayed the one guy in the office from working for about 5 minutes before we hit the road for chicago...chicago was a smaller turnout but we did get to stay with some awesome folks 'the lowercase collective' props to them...then on to minneapolis where we participated in the pReNC weekend...lots of anarchists were present strategizing for the 2008 republican nat'l convention in st. paul...props again to our awesome hosts Julia also the Guns & Vegans house...we got to participate in fnb and a shut down of a meeting of the board of regents of the U of M...many of the workers at the U are on strike...getting back to the NW was an adventure too...we waited in a wooded area for nearly 24 hours before the right train stopped for us...then 3 days in the well of a freight train car...the first night waas the worst wind and rain with not cover excempt the tarp we struggled to keep from blowing away...there were lots of times i fought the urge to jump off the train especially in glacier national park or to visit the kids in spokane...leaving spokane we headd sw and i was convinced we were headed to portland...we slept through the mountain passes so it wasn't until i saw the sign that said everett that i knew we were headed to seattle...lilia took a little bit of a fall as the train was still moving when we got off in sodo seattle...buses then puyallup, where i write this from...lilia rode ahead and is in oly while i stay behind and help my parents out with some renovations at their house...that's the update


-jon

on the road again

well, almost...bags packed...bikes shipped....7 of us are about to pile into a van and head out north to do a little bit of a road show...while there certainly will be some performance the road show is more about doing outreach and education about i-69 and the resistance to it...the tour ends in minneapolis where we'll be attending atleast some of the pReNC convergence...folks getting ready for the republican national convention that will be held in the twin cities next year...nornc.org...check out the welcoming committee's video they seem to really have their shit together...at a recent press conference the welcoming committtee's spokesperson refused to take questions from reporters since no-one emailed their questions in advance as requested, as you must do to ask a question of most politicians/corporate industry reps...w00t for not pandering to a media that actively supresses radical voices...that's a far cry from the press conference we put on about the forest defense actions which was put on for the benefit of only one reporter...hoping we'd get good press...sad to be leaving bloomington it would have been real easy just to stay here, get a job and commit to this campaign, but that's the samething that's kept me in oly for the last 4 years and i still want to indulge my wanderlust...it's hot here and we're sweating profusely as i type this...it'll be good to get back to cooler weather where grey skies means temps in the 60's or below not 90 and crazy humidity...we'll keep ya'll posted as our journey changes course back to the coast, cooler weather, and continued adventure...

-jon

if you plan to be a vagabond

if you plan to be a vagabond the first thing you must do is throw planning out the window. sad happenings; ghost, tyger's beloved bike, was stolen and he has traveled back to the NW. lilia has, herself, become homesick and has determined to head back west also. none of this was in the plan, but how do you plan being absolutely free? i stand at a crossroads..which path do i walk? the one less traveled by? hardly, another poet speaks more to my soul on the matter:

Oh what do you do, poor Angus,
when hunger makes you cry?
"I fix myself an omelet, sir,
of fluffy clouds and sky."

Oh what do you wear, poor Angus,
when winds blow down the hills?
"I sew myself a warm cloak, sir,
of hope and daffodils."

Oh who do you love, poor Angus,
when Catherine's left the moor?
"Ah, then, sir, then's the only time
I feel I'm really poor"

-Shel Silverstein

As it is the decisions been made for me, I will begin heading west in a few days with lilia, first by car as a part of an informational tour about interstate 69 then hopping freight trains the rest of the way to the coast. though don't be fooled, it is not our intention o get bogged down, but to keep on riding possibly south along the coast, any takers?

-jon

action packed bloomington

lilia and i are staying with friends in bloomington, at first we didn't know anyone only that we were to stay with the housemates of our friend lucy who at the time was still out and about travelling...we've quickly develpoed fast friendship as you do when working for altruistic goals with people. aside from having fun sneaking into swimming pools, spinning fire, and eating good food we've been working the EarthFirst! front. lilia and i both got our names in the newspaper for doing ground support at a treesit in the state forest and we had a surprisingly easy victory the other day in shutting down a meeting of state/local government and business interests divying up "grant"(bribe) money to local politicos. since are plan has been to stay in bloomington for 3 weeks(in total) i almost got a job at a local bike shop, but wound up blowiong it off due to conflicts with the forest defense campaign. i don;t regret my decision, jobs suck, and i made almost 90 bucks in three hours at the farmers market. bloomington is full of great folks and if you don't know what you're doing nex t spring/summer consider coming to indiana to help stop the e victions of families, destruction of forests, farms and communities, and the NAFTA superhighway i-69. this road will never be built!

-jon

read the infoshop article

missive from new england

So far having a blast. Looking at grad schools and planning routes and biking on the bike trails and through the massholes in traffic. I'll leave mass probably around friday and it'll take me about a week to get to maine give or take a day or two. from there I'll head down the bike trail and meet up again with people in indiana. might be later than planned but maybe not, no stops from maine to there so we'll see.
got to go. sorry my first post is so small. but really you're lucky I wrote anything.
peace

Micah