Well for some reason all of the stuff for usa got deleted, so we will just start again.  I've been in olympia with my uncle for a week now.  I will leave tomorrow to head to portland.  Nico and I should meet up again on the 7th and take off for the south on the 15th.  Fish will meet up with us shortly after.  Somewhere in the start of november.  I've been enjoying the sun shine and warm weather.  I'm glad to be back withf riends and family.  the long road south through canada was full of rain and and trying days.  I took a short break in Bellingham.  Thanks to Kyle, Martha, and Dominic for hosting me.  You really made up for so many shitty days and gave me what I needed to keep going a few more miles. 

Well I'll keep on going if you guys keep going too.

Jason

 

october 3

Nicco fell in love I understand.  So he decied to go to Cali for a week or so.  I made it into portland yesterday and am staying with my good friends.  Pill, Mark, and I had some good talks and did some much needed searching, and catching up.  In the prosses an odd couple in a suv dropped two peices of fried chicken out of their window at the stop sign out front of phils place.  I picked it up and ate it.  It was a sign that 40's needed to be bought and tha tMark needed some more fried chicken that didn't rain from the sky.   and souls needed to opean.  And so thats what happened.  Seeing my old friends reminded me that the world is so full of love and beauty.  Sometimes you just have to search for it, look for it, try to get it.   Phill and I remembered our friend Trey and it was nice to be able to talk to someone about the last few months and drain that it had on me.  Trey was such an amazing person and we are both so glad to have gotten close to him.  Day in and out I remeber him and what he taught me and how totally thrilled he was to be alive.  Every day.

A very difficult section of this trip has ended now.  I'm with friends and loved ones.  And more friends are coming.  I am supper stoked about haning in portland with my buddies.  I am excited to meet up with nicco again.  And i'm so happy  getting to travel with fish, Juan, and Pete in the coming months.  I'm 8 months in to this trip now and I finally feel that I have direction, a cause, a reason, and community to share it with.  The next 8 months are certain to have their hard times too, but I know i can handle them now. 

This is my life, and I'm finally excited about living it.  The love is there and i'm ready to share in it.

Jason
 

October 9th

Well I picked Nico up at the train station a few days ago.  Hauled him back across town on my rack.  Fun times.  We are working on putting an application together for a documentary and just doing some last minute "training" before taking off.  The ever changing plan is this coming monday.  There is a handmade bike show near by on friday and I am so very excited about going to it and feeling all the polished lugs and tig welds and not feeling so much like a leering creep out because all the other bike dorks will be doing the same thing.  Fish will meet up with us in california.  It's getting cold here and the rain is comeing down, so it's time to head south.  I'm looking forward to wearing shorts and eating lots of cheeeeese.

Jason

October 18  Newport, Oregon

       Well, we are on the road again and it has been nothing short of amazing.  We left Portland about 4 days ago and have been riding very short distances (about 20 miles) a day as we hang out on beaches and enjoy the beautiful weather.  In Portland we met a very nice girl named Lily from Maine who has now joined us.  She says her destination is Big Sur but every day may just bring her closer to Mexico!  haha.  It's always great to get some female energy in on the camel hippo tour.  Our next multi day stop is San Franciso.  A girl that I recently met on the train from Denver to Sacremento is joining us there for an undetermined distance.  Her name is Riana and she is from New York and beautiful like the sunshine.  Other friends will also be joining us throughout California.  Pretty soon we are going to be a grand ole possy heading south.  We have been sleeping on beautiful beaches every night below star lit skies and amongst the sound of a crashing surf.  The Oregon coast is beautiful and full of life.  The people we meet are such as well and the food is not too shabby.  much love to everyone

Nico

October 23  Gold Beach, Oregon

     We are nearing the California border.  It is about 50 miles away.  The weather has been absolutely beautiful!  Not a cloud in the sky for the last four days and in the 70s.  The Oregon coast is stunning.  Around every turn are beatiful trees, huge rocks protruding from the ocean, all sort of large and small marine life.  Unspeakable beauty.  Last night we had a huge bonfire on the beach in Port Orford and slept deliciously under the bright stars.  ONWARD!

nico

 

November 05 08 San Fran

Yesterday we trucked 83ish miles into San Fran from Jenner.  The weather broke and it was sunny and beautifull and a major trail wind. We got in around 6ish and went to a sushi resteraunt.  We ate and Drank and watched CNN's report on the election.  Around 8:00 the polls closed on the west coast and Obama won with a landslide.  In the asain resteraunt harly anyone noticed or cared except Lilly, Nico, and I.  But as minutes passed the excitment outside grew and before long fireworks were blowing, cars were honking and people here chearing.  We rode another few blocks to the Zeitgeist bar.  Everyone was elated and drunk.  People chanted and sang and cheered.  Soon Obama gave his speach and such a good speach it was.  Not a tangy country speach full of gad jaoke and grammer but a speach about country.  A speach about how if we wanted, how great we could be.  That if we united again, if we tried we could be the world leaders that we want, not the terroists that we are now. 

"Yes we can," he said time and again.

Yes we can and so the croud cheared and eventually as young people do we took to the streets, our streets.  A few blocks away we found ourselves in a mob. A screamming, chearing mob.  But for the first time in my young life I was part of a street mobl, closing down a city block, but not beacause of a grievence, but beacuse of celibration.  The elements were similiar of course.  There were a1000 kids, 100s of bikes.  There were cars blocked, buses blocked and police.  But the police were not agressive.  They too were smiling and directing traffic away from us.  They kept the citty running hile we cellibsaated while we danced, hile e cheared and while we, as a people, realized an era was over. 

There will be change ith this new president.  There will be changhe to our policys.  There will be change to our lives.  But ew have to remeber it is not only up to one man.  Obama can lead us, he can help point us in a new direction, but the change comes from us.  His slogan is yes we can.  WE can.  we can chooose to ride our bikes.  We can choose to eat less.  We can choose to save water, gas, electyricity.  We can choose to buy local, shop local, eat local, support local.  We can choose to be good neihbers, brothers, fathers, freinds.  We can choose to change.  To become better, to help each other.  We can choose this change.  What we need is change.  

The change comes from us.

 

Jason

10/18/08

Of lately we have been cruising in a group of seven.  Going around 30 miles a day.  We picked Fish, our good buddy up in San Francisco.  Nico’s friend Reianna also joined up.  Leaving the town two, day-riders joined.  The next few days we enjoyed the warm weather along the beach.  Stopping often to take a swim.  Along the way we ran into another two Ladies on a trip of their own.  Cat, and Jessie have been sharing their space with the group the last few days.  They are heading down to Tucson, AZ to do an internship on a fermentation farm.  The whole lot of us rolled into Santa Cruz, only to repeditly get harassed from the cops for one reason or another.  Riding together through stops signs, walking our bikes on the boardwalk, or sitting on the sidewalk.  But harassment aside we kept a positive attitude and thanked the cops for doing their job and informing us of the laws in the city.  They let us go and we focused on finding a place to stay.  A friend we met in Berkley gave us a contact.  A group of kids living on a hill in Santa Cruz.  We found them, they smiled when we told them our story, and then the seven of us took over their back yard for the weekend.  A couple pancake parties, two-dollar bottles of wine, Smokey fires, trampoline jumping, and hours of mandolin music and signing later we were ready to hit the rode.  Before we left we took the opportunity to get rid of some winter clothes.  It has been in the 80’s, something I haven’t felt in about a year.  I left Florida in February and have been chasing winter since.  It is nice to run from it instead.  Hold onto the heat, head toward the dessert. 
    Massing through the city on the way out the seven of us stirred up much attention.  Cars cheering, people taking pictures, other commuters joining in for a section.  Again we all try to do our own small weapon of kindness, a smile, a wave or peace sign.  A few miles out we ran into a guy just starting on his evening ride.  Miguel decided hanging with us would be more fun than his workout and showed us the best way into Aptos, where Lily had a family friend who we were staying with.  Along the way he took us back to his house where he gave us, twenty pounds of bananas, trail mix, 10 pounds of cheese, and cookies, which he just happened to have.  He rode with us to Aptos, and then shared in our dinner party.  Pasta, cheesy bread, quinoa, and lots of beer.  He helped us pick out a rough for the next day and shared life stories and adventures. 
    Finally after sharing a wonderful evening of food and stories the group deceived it was time for showers and sleep.  Anne and Doris were gracious enough to let seven smelly, and dirty bike kids crash in their extra space.
    Today Jessie, and Cat will part ways with us.  They have their own life to lead and are expected to be on their farm on Thursday.  The last few days have been amazing.  Their energy has defiantly brought things to the group.
    The last week has just been a reminder of the wonder of our world.  Near constant attacks of kindness.  From the kids in Santa Cruz, to Miguel, to Ann and Doris, we always have family.  We always have love.  We always have a place to sleep, a meal to eat, a new person to share with.  It is so apparent to me now in my life that this world is made up of energy.  It is just a matter of how to flow in that energy.  Do you surround yourself in positive light, or in something else?  As for me, I’ve said it before, and I’ll continue saying it; Weapons of mass kindness, of small kindness, of kindness in general will change the world.  Project onto others what you wanted project on you.  Wake up with the sun, and smile knowing, the day will be only as exciting and wonderful as you want it to be.

Jason 

 

12/1/04

Ha, spelling and grammer in a 40 minute library session.  You get the point.

And so the voice that was originally not mine said, "It's as easy as you want it to be."

                Last week I decided to chase some energy.  Kat and Jessi had left the group but not before Kat and I started the first steps of a tight bond.  For two days I woke up before the sun rose and felt so much energy, so much love and life.  But also an emptiness where there had once been a person.

                So only one thing to do.  So many lines, so many paths, so many options.  I decided in Washington that South America was my dominant line, but fuck, Tucson was on the way.  A quick 900 mile sprint there.  A few days hanging out with awesome people and a nice 600 mile trip back to the coast.  Back to my crew.  My friends.  Back to my family.  And so last Sunday I woke up before the sun and watched clouds of fog make there way a-shore.  This was my final sign.  A gentle push.  Go inland, go fast, follow that energy, beat the rain.  And so I did.  The only real option.  I jumped lines.  I jumped to one that led the same direction, but a new one still the same.  So I had a few miles of coastal hills, then a few miles of hills to get inland.  I thought I was making pretty good time, but the fog followed and the first night it consumed me.  That night in my hammock on a slight hill, listening to the road traffic, I breathed in the moist air.  The next morning it was still there but I kept climbing.  And 60 or 70 miles later I was in high desert and the fog had cleared.  That night I hung my hammock from two fences and watched the stars move.  Around midnight I woke up from strange dreams.  People in them who aren't in my life anymore, who don't belong in my life anymore.  I spent some time thinking about these people until from under my rain fly I heard the stomp of hooves, the thumping of running bodies, and the snorts of fast, hot air moving from nostrils.  It came closer fast and then just as fast turned away.  By the time I folded the fly aside I could barely see two or three bodies moving fast away in the dim light of the starts.  But oh the stars! I could see the stars!  All of them moving, swaying.  So many things shooting across the sky and I began to feel them bend.  Not that I controlled them, but that for the first time ever, maybe I understood them, that I was connected to what they were connected to.  Like seeing your family nose, or jaw in a distant relative.  I felt connected to the universe and for an hour we spoke the same language.  Me rocking in my hammock, the universe swaying around me. 

                In the morning a seven mile climb out of my high desert valley and a nice 50 mile descent brought me to the edge of Bakersfield, and back into the fog.  Faster than I would have imagined highway 58 turned from breath-takingly beautiful to flat with no shoulder.  I started to feel that I didn't belong on the road.  Semi traffic in both directions, no median, loose gravel crawling onto the white line.  And then my feelings manifested as a large trucked pushed me off the road.

                For me, the moments after a crash are a blur of labored breathing and moving things small distances.  Then the dust settles and I can think clearly.  I looked at my tracks in the loose rocks.  I was able to keep upright four feet before my front wheel turned and I went down.  I did not roll.  I did not skid.  I landed 17 to 0 on my left shoulder.  Three years ago I broke my right shoulder with a slower fall and a roll.  This time I was lucky.  My arm was bleeding pretty badly but I didn't want to deal with it so I put on my jacket and trusted the dust to clot the cut.

                So I stood with my thumb out.  Thinking, "you dumb fuck, you knew you shouldn't have been on this road.  Stomp your ego and get a ride."  But as usually my luck with hitching was bad.  After 30 minutes of fat men and old women pretending to not see me I realized I was in farm land and I could just ride on the dirt tracker roads.  And for 20 minutes I enjoyed the Brussels sprouts and the wall nut trees.   A nice slow down, a chance to check my motives.  Then a spongy feeling.  No air in my front tire.  I had rolled though a patch of goat heads.  I pulled 17 thorns out of my tire and set to work trying to cut my four patches into enough pieces.  But after an hour I ran out of patches before holes.  And for the second time I tried to hitch.  This time it was a slower road.  So when a car came I stood in the middle of the road.  I though "you are not going to ignore me this time.  If you don't want to help me that is fine but you still have to talk to me."  Four cars and four excuses later a nice older women and her daughter offered to take me into town to a bike shop.  On the ten miles in I told them where I had been, that I was on my way to Tucson to see a girl.  They asked questions about the trip and kept insisting that I get on a bus. 

                Moments later I was at the shop with a $100 bill that they had refused my refusal of.  I feel strange taking money from people, but a monitory attack of kindness is still an act of kindness.  I bought a new tire that is harder and better for the desert.  Continentals are always hard to put on the first time, very tight.  I hadn't eaten since the morning and I was getting cranky.  "Why can't anything be easy," I kept saying and then throwing the tire to the ground and breathing.  Finally some deep breaths and extreme wrist strength outsmarted the tire and I was rolling again.  But I was completely bonked, the sun was setting and the pea-soup fog was becoming rain.  "Why can't anything be easy?"

                Eventually I found my way behind the auditorium of the music building of the college in Bakersfield.  Dirty, dusty, a lot of cat poop but insolated behind an ivy wall and covered by a two foot overhang.  My home for the night.  And let the skies open.  For ten hours it poured.

                At 1 a.m I woke up and wrote in my journal.

                "This feels like the Alaska Ferry again.  Constant rain shitty road, but this time I'm really excited about the ride.  The signs are pretty clear though…

                Jason, you should not ride here.  Jason you really should not ride here.  Okay you dumb fuck, you can't ride here.  Get in a god-damn car.  Fuck it then I'm getting on a fucking bus.  You Fuck."

                Then I found sleep.  By 9 the rain had stopped and I thought… "Man today is a good day to ride."  I knew that I had a 4000 foot climb.  Maybe 60 miles.  If I got over the pass the rain should stop and I'll be, for sure, no doubt, no joke, in the desert.  So I started spinning.  My shoulder hurt and my arm was oozing, but my legs felt like new.  10 miles out of the city.  5 miles at 1%, then 15 miles at 4% and then I was at the last ridge.  The fog was beginning to clear and I thought, that was an easy climb.  That I would gladly climb anther few miles to make sure the fog stays behind, but then a sudden downhill and I quickly realized I had just cleared the foot hills and my day of climbing had just begun.  These were the real mountains.  Not hills, but mountains.  Better yet I had climbed out of the fog, only to realize the rain was much high and in speratic whips that would soak me for just long enough to put on rain gear before moving to the next spot.  But I still felt good.  My neck and shoulder were stiff, but my legs were gold.

                Another 20 miles brought me to the town of Tehachapi where I could see the pass and my final climb.  I could also see big wet rain clouds blowing in over the 5000 foot ridge.  Blowing in from the desert.  Rain clouds blowing in from god knows where, in order to shit on me, on the green coastal side. 

                I stopped.  I stopped to laugh.  The only real thing to do.  The clouds rolled, the rain drizzled, and I munched on carrots and watched.  "Why can't anything be easy?"  I kept thinking.  Munch, roll, drizzle, munch, roll, drizzle.  Laugh.  I laughed at how absurd the situation was, at how perfect it was.  All this time I was running from the rain, but in reality I was just trucking right into it.  "Desert rain, why can't anything be easy?"

                I ran out of Carrots and got back on my bike.  Only one line.  Only one path.  Only one direction.  I steamed out the last few miles and then downhill.  Fast speeds, bumpy road, intense desert rain.  "Why do I have a hammock in the desert rain?  Why can't anything be easy?"

                Five miles later I crossed a bridge over a dry wash.  A place where flash floods happen.  Flash floods happen after rain.  It was still raining.  "Fuck it, it's dry now," I thought.  And so I contemplated how to get down the cement rock fortified 45 degree angle bank.  I looked at my heavy, loaded bike and looked at the boulders, loose sand, and 15 feet drop.  "Why can't anything be easy?" Then, "Fuck it."  On my bike now.  A gentle push and some big jumps.  I was down the bank and letting the bike fall into the sand.  I leveled off a spot to lie.

                As I was unpacking my sleeping bag a voice that originally was not mine own said to me, "it can be as easy as you want it to be.  You can get on a bus whenever you want.  You can buy a tent whenever you want.  You can stop whenever you want."  Then the voice became my own.  "This is as easy as I want."  And so I fell asleep.  And it was easy. 

                In the morning the rain continued.  But I woke up smiling.  My life, my voice, my body, my line, was as easy I was wanted.  And I wanted that voice, Trey's voice, to be my voice.  And so the voice that was originally not my own is now my voice.  And not only can my life be what I want; my life is what I want.  For that I am happy.

 

 

Hello hello hello!  Nico, Fish and Riana are chillin hardcore in santa barbara, CA at Mark's place.  Mark is now going to join us cycling for a while.  We have been here since saturday and are leaving today, Friday.  the biking through and since Big sur has been mellllooowww..  it was so beautiful, we couldnt justify going fast.  It was more about experiencing the surroundings than biking.  We hit a storm in San Luis Obispo, stayed there two nights with newfound friends, and then proceeded to santa barbara.  we should be in LA on sudnay, meet up with Jason and Jessie and then continue on down to MEXICO!   woohhoO!O!!  

nico

 

12/6/08

I met Jessi in Indio, Ca.  We got into L.A yesterday and have been taking it really easy at my friend Zach's place.  I'm excited to see my friends again when they get in and Mexico is a-calling.  OBAMA!!!!

Jason

 12/14/08

In Long Beach the Camel faction and the hippo faction reunited.  Later in the night Luie, a friend of Rei's joined as well.  Now seven strong, the group is slowly heading south.  A few days in Leucadia and a week in San Diego is expected.  Supplies need to be aquired and scraped together.  Nico's birth day is the 15th and Jessi's follows closly behind on the 20th.  The crew is hoping to spend cristmas in Mexico.  Shortly we will be huging fish goodbye.  He is spending the new year in Chicago with his lady Emily, but we expect him back in a few weeks.

    The last week has been a rush of energy and many moving bodies.  Updates may become more scarce as internet opportunities may be limited in Mexico.  Happy holidays to all our friends and family, especially all the ones who we've met along the way.  Remeber it's not about the shopping.  It's about being close to those you love.

    As for me I wan't be with my biological family, but I will be with my travling family and thats such a gift in it's self.  One that I am very greatfull for.

Jason

 

December 25, 2008

Eyes crust open, lumpy couch, hard floor, cold tile.
Why have I urbanized?Soft grass, loose soil, damp dirt.
Pull from the roots. Pull from from the earth.Once we were strong and on a path, but like all
Things change, move. Energies diverege.Like two trees growing into each others our leaves drop.
The colors blend, become one, then blow away.
We remeber the color, we remeber the energy.
The loveWe continue to grow, but in a new direction.My bike is locked to a rail 3000 miles away
I need a break
I need a hat, not a helmet.It's morning time ned
It's a new morning Ned.I will see you again.

Jason