Now that I’m actually looking at the timing of this thing, particularly with respect to distances between campsites, the Blue Ridge seems like a really bad idea if I want to get to Athens by the solstice. I think I’ll follow the I-81 instead (it looks like there are bike-friendly roads running alongside it all the way along), or something like that. That’ll still give me the benefit of the beautiful scenery without the difficulty of the Blue Ridge’s terrain and (from what I’ve heard) the hazards of biking on the narrow Parkway. Even so I might need to take a bus somewhere along the way.
We Know Time
June 11, 2008 at 2:52 pm (Virginia)
Tags: blue ridge, heat, internet, nutrition
Rural Virginia is a lot like rural New York – lush, hilly and absolutely gorgeous. In the slightly more populated areas, however, things start to get a bit depressing: vast parking lots enclosing monolithic megachain stores, between which highways without sidewalks or shoulders carve the land. The sight of the vast Blue Ridge against the vaster sky has kept my spirits up, though, and now I’m about to get onto the Parkway. To be honest I’m not looking forward to riding the Ridge, but I’ll probably have a great time once I’m up there – and if I don’t, then I’ll just ride down the mountain and continue alongside it.
With the heat and with the exertion of biking 50+ miles a day, nutrition and hydration are becoming a bit of an issue. I’m guzzling milk and juice and Gatorade all day, which keeps me well-lubricated, but also makes me feel bloated and icky and not so inclined to eat. I’ve been able to get enough food into myself that this has not yet become an issue, but I’m just not sure I’m replacing calories as fast as I can burn them. No matter – I’ll be sure to take a nice long recuperative rest once I get to Georgia.
This does mean that I’ll only have internet access once every few days, so if I’m not updating my blog or responding to e-mails, no one need get worried. With any luck I’ll be in Athens, GA no later than the 21st. After that, maybe you could start getting concerned.
PA to DC: Addenda
June 5, 2008 at 12:41 pm (D.C., Maryland)
Tags: mail, photos, poe
First: I’ve been sending out bits and pieces of mail, but I don’t trust the USPS in the slightest. If you receive something from me, please let me know!
Second: Camila has graciously provided me with some of the photos from Baltimore. So here’s a shot of me and Camila at the grave of Edgar Allen Poe (click for full size):
By the time we got to Woodstock we were half a million strong
June 4, 2008 at 3:01 pm (D.C., Delaware, Maryland, pennsylvania)
Tags: anarchists, blue ridge, burning man, camila, concert, hostel, kerouac, omar
After my first night in Philadelphia, I woke up and briefly couldn’t remember who I am. A couple days later, in On the Road, I read that Kerouac had the same experience. I guess that to travel like this is – or can be – an attack on one’s own congealed identity. In Toronto, surrounded by the same people and the same surroundings, day after day, I found myself acting compulsively in the same ways; now that I’m out here, much of that is falling away.
My hosts in Philly treated me wonderfully. Their neighbourhood in west Philadelphia is a hotbed for anarchists, which suited me just fine. Once again I found myself staying longer than expected, attending a concert, partaking of a seven-course Moroccan meal, and drawing a picture to be sent to the White House. And then I found I had moved on again, headed for the U.S. capitol.
Delaware was the first, and probably the last, state I was able to cross in one day, and then I stayed the night in Elkton, MD. The next night, in a Baltimore hostel, I met Omar, an Argentinian-born veteran bike tourist, and his 20 year-old daughter Camila. They’re going roughly the same way I am: down the Blue Ridge to New Orleans, then west from there to California (although I might have convinced them to go to Burning Man instead). So from Baltimore to D.C. I rode with them. Omar is forceful and sometimes demanding, telling almost everyone he meets about his round-the-world project and requesting donations or freebies. Remarkably, it often works: not only did he get cash from some people, he convinced the owner of a pizza place to feed us all for free, and a guy at a roadside deli bought us some Gatorade after the owners kicked him out for soliciting. Camila is a very quiet sort who didn’t had much to do with her father when she was growing up; she went to New York to meet him and then bus with him to Vancouver where he lives, but he sprung the bike trip idea on her, and off they went. At any rate, although I only just met them, I love them both because their madness points the same way as mine.
I’m here in Washington for a few days, and then I’ll be off towards the Smoky Mountains and the Blue Ridge Parkway. The warnings I’ve received of endless steep hills seem less dire now that I’m in better shape: climbing is no longer the heart-pounding ordeal it was when I started the trip. I’d like to ride with Omar and Camila, but I’m much faster than they are, and I’m already behind if I’m to get to Burning Man on time. Still, we may yet meet again.
Always Get Contact Information. Always.
May 27, 2008 at 1:41 am (New York)
Tags: alex grey, blue ridge, cosm, eva, met, moma, play
This is how it like unfolded, O my brothers.
On Friday, having spent a pleasant few days largely taking it easy, I decided to go out and do something more active. This, I decided, meant visiting the Metropolitan Museum and then the Museum of Modern Art. The Met was alright – its Islamic Art exhibit, which I’d been looking forward to especially, was gutted for renovations, sad to say – but it is MoMA which concerns us, because it was at MoMA that I met this lovely girl. We played eye-tag a bit in the line for the coat check, and then she passed by me a bit later heading for the escalator, and since after all I am on an adventure, I decided the thing to do would be to swallow my shyness and approach her.
Well, she was fortunately of a very outgoing sort, and barely had I spoken a word when I found she had launched us into the middle of a conversation about which floors to visit first and why. This was all well and good – she knew which exhibits she liked, having visited several times before, and I was perfectly happy to let her lead the way. Read the rest of this entry »
I’ll explain later
May 25, 2008 at 3:59 am (New Jersey, New York)
If you happen to know anyone in Jersey City (or New Jersey in general), please send them this link to pass along to their own friends, and so on:
http://newyork.craigslist.org/mnh/mis/694155573.html
Thanks!
Sacred Mirrors Post Scriptum
May 20, 2008 at 4:42 pm (New York)
Tags: alex grey, cosm
In Ithaca, I promised Delilah that I’d ask Alex Grey whether he’d ever considered painting the subtle energies involved in anal sex. Alex says he’d not thought of it, but who knows what the future holds?
Sacred Mirrors
May 20, 2008 at 11:32 am (New Jersey, New York, Uncategorized)
Tags: catskills, cosm, detours, full moon, health, rain, viriditas
Apparently there has been some concern, but I assure you all I am still alive and in good health. Even my knee pain has all but disappeared, and my riding improved tremendously, since I raised the seat on my bike by about an inch and a half.
Greg and I had a hell of a time getting to the city. We were hit with heavy rain for all of the second day, plus the bike route we were on led us ten miles in the wrong direction before we realized we should turn back. To add insult to injury, I got a flat and had to replace my front tube. The next day was more rain and another huge detour, but this one was at least going in vaguely the right direction, through the beautiful Catskills National Park. We stopped at an organic health food store, incongruously situated in Downsville, just as they were closing, and the proprietress graciously offered us crash space for the night on the back porch.
The next day we made it as far as Monticello, but with all the delays we wouldn’t have made it to the city in time had we not got a ride from Monticello to Suffern, courtesy of a friend of Greg who was also on her way into the city. From there, yesterday, we biked the remaining 75km into the city – across the George Washington Bridge and down the trail on the west side – and I barely made it in time for the full moon gathering at the Chapel of Sacred Mirrors.
Read the rest of this entry »
Ulysses
May 14, 2008 at 10:06 am (New York)
Tags: birthday, cosm, food, greg, ithaca, parties
I’m going to be honest: biking to Ithaca was sometimes awful. In the mornings and evenings especially, I was lonely, intimidated, in pain and generally miserable. I was in kind of a state of dissociation: everything in my head would say “Turn back; go home; give up. It’s not worth it.” Meanwhile my body, very much on its own, would get dressed, eat breakfast, hop on the bike and start pedaling despite knee pain. By the afternoon I’d be feeling pretty good, climbing and descending the beautiful foothills of the Appalachian chain, biking through charming little towns (New York does the whole small town thing much better than Ontario) and enjoying the sun and fresh air. Then I’d arrive at my day’s destination and by the time I went to bed I’d be feeling morose all over again.
Now that I’ve arrived in Ithaca, the whole trip is beginning to shape up much more like I hoped it would. Ithaca is a charming university town, tucked against the southern end of Cayuga lake, full of hippies and anarchists – the vibe is very much like what Peterborough could be if it were less of a shithole. I was fortunate enough to connect with some lovely people who have been hosting me, feeding me, and generally showing me a good time. One of them, it looks like, will in fact be joining me as far as New York City. Everyone I’ve met has been exceedingly nice and generous – this is the first town I’ve come to in which I could genuinely imagine myself living.
Saturday evening, when I arrived, I was invited to a Taurus party outside of town. There was good food and a bonfire, and people gave me advice and supplies for my journey. Since then I’ve wandered through nature trails, attended the local farmers’ market, gone mushroom hunting, helped out at the local bike co-op, cooked some delicious food, and generally kept busy. Last night we celebrated my birthday with vegan cooking, wild morel mushrooms and shots of Chartreuse. I’ve stayed here several days longer than I intended to, since I’ve been so thoroughly enjoying myself; and so Greg and I will be attending not the exhibition opening at MicroCoSM but the full moon ceremony at CoSM a few days later.
Hell on Wheels
May 9, 2008 at 2:10 pm (New York)
Tags: bike shops, bikers, camping, flats, food, hitch-hiking, motels, people, terrain, weight, wind
I had a bitch of a time getting to Warsaw. The terrain, previously quite flat, became disgustingly hilly, and I hadn’t even hit Varysburg when I got my first flat. With the help of a random driver-by, I patched the hole and was in the middle of pumping the tube back up when the valve broke. So, off with the tire again, in with my spare tube – and that one went flat only a few kilometres later. The problem was clearly with the tire, but now I had no more inner tubes (in retrospect I could have changed the tire and then patched the second inner tube, but I wasn’t thinking very rationally at this point). In desperation I walked my bike onward up a steep hill, trying to flag down a ride from motorists, but no one stopped.
Finally, at the top of the hill, I encountered a restaurant called August 25, where I met some fabulously nice people. One guy – I believe his name was Danny – was renovating a campground just down the hill, and offered me one of the cabins for the night. The cabin was filled with assorted junk, including two beds, complete with mattresses; I slept on those in my sleeping bag.
In the morning, a retired microbiologist named Bob drove me to a bike shop in the nearest town where I picked up a new tire and tube, plus two extra tubes just in case. After grabbing a bite to eat, I continued on – and immediately hit a series of grueling hills. The worst by far was the one just past Warsaw that I had to climb to get to the motel. I’m not ashamed to say I walked my bike all the way up. And, at the top, I found I had another flat, this time on the front wheel. This time, at least, I was able to find and remove the tiny stone that had caused the problem, then patch the tube with no problems.
Today, thankfully, things are going better. Despite a strong headwind, the kilometres just flew by all the way to Geneseo, and I hope to reach Geneva or at least Canandaigua before nightfall. I met a fellow bike tourist who warned me the terrain will be pretty hilly as I go south through the Finger Lakes, but I have some dead weight I may be able to jettison (notably the portable stand, which is heavy, requires a socket wrench I don’t have, didn’t come with enough washers, and didn’t even
help much when I used it).
