mason-dixon, more than an imaginary line

Much to cover since I left Jerry's. I followed the elk river for some time and ended up in the small town of clay. I wasn't sure where to head from there so I inquired at the local dollar general how to get to the Monongahela national forest. They pointed me back to a small bridge telling me that crossing it would put me on a road that would go directly to Summersville, one of the larger towns outside the forest. I followed the road for hours finding it was not as simple as they made it out, it was a beautiful route, a winding back country road leading me up and down mountains. There were several intersections with no road signs or indication of direction, I asked some cops in a speedtrap which way to town to discover I had taken every wrong turn and was about 30 miles off course. I rode a little longer before giving up and snoozing alongside the road. Getting up the next morning I ended up just being a few miles short of a little town, I got directions and headed for the forest.

The ride through the national forest was beautiful, I experienced the first real mountains since New Mexico with incredible views over the wilderness, and long windy downhills into quiet towns spotted with horse farms and beautiful old houses.

I decided to stray from the route Jerry had mapped out to make it up to a music festival in Terra Alta (a small town in the very north of wv near the maryland border) that a guy in a coffee shop had told me about earlier in the week and began my way up north. I picked up a great trail in Elkins that was not suited for my bike at all. It was a 35 mile rail trail of gravel going slowly uphill for the entire ride, but it was a beautiful path. It went back through the national forest and had waterfalls every few miles that seemed to get progressively bigger and more beautiful. While riding I looked to my right and saw a few plants that caught my eye. A few days earlier some locals told me about the wonders of ramps, ramps are a small onion like root vegetable that grow wildly this time of year in west viriginia and I had just come accross the motherload. The hillside was covered in their leaves coming from the ground and I took a break to dig out a shopping bag full.

I got off the trail in Thomas, a cute riverside town filled with empty shops with 'for sale' signs in the window, signs of the recession were everywhere in west virginia. From there I headed north, passing by a huge windfarm and down a huge mountain that brought me speeding into the small town of silver lake. I got directions and a cup of cocao at the convenience store and met a guy named Josh who told me that I missed the 'hippie fest' by a week. I insisted that I saw it on the website as that weekend and continued on the country road as night creeped in. It was much further then I expected, the road was long and windy and it was well into the darkness of night by now. I kept pushing on with the thought of a music festival in my mind. Cars zoomed by every once and a while shining their highbeams in my eyes, my front panniers kept falling off and getting stuck in my wheel, I was cursing everything about the night when a jeep pulled over emitting a bunch of slurred unintelligible yelling. I thought I was about to get beat up by some hicks when I saw Josh get out of the jeep, explaining that they had just gone to the festival grounds to find that there really was no festival, but that I should get a ride with them.

I was happy to accept and with the help of my new drunken friends we bungeed the bike to the roof and zoomed back to silver lake while they passed me beers and told me I should stick around for a bit and they would show me a good time. We ended up at Dans house, a retired oil worker/musician, we stayed up late into the night listening to Dan play song after song, he's like a jukebox of classic rock. I ended up spending a few days in silver lake, the community there is very tight and I felt like family with them, the town is basically a small lake with cabins and trailers all around it with people coming in and out of Dan's house all the time. I played music with Dan, and got to know Josh and Dylan 'pickles' and the rest of the group over huge cookouts and beers.

I rode out of Silver Lake a few days later and made my way into Oakland Maryland where I got online to discover I had become a missing person while in Silver Lake. Since I had no reception in town and no computer at Dan's I didn't have a chance to check in with my parents or anyone, which caused much more panic than I could have anticipated. I called my family, Anabel, and Julia to assure them all I was alive and to call off the missing persons report.

I set out the next day going east hoping to make it to Keedysville in a few days and trying to avoid the rain that was coming down all weekend. I found an old 3 story farm house alongside the highway to sleep in one rainy night with a tall brick silo next to it. I decided to have a fire inside the silo and was cooking some rice over it when I saw some metal rungs near the entrance of the silo leading to the top, I couldn't resist the temptation and climbed to the top to take in the view of rolling hills and farmlands.

I made it into Cumberland a few days later and decided to check out the downtown where I came accross some signs for the c&o canal trail. After asking some locals about it I found that it was a bike route going from pittsburg to DC and would get me pretty close to Julia and Corey, I got on and rode along the lovely canal under the still gray sky. After about 20 miles of riding I saw a dog come out accross the trail, he was skinny and whining, I tried to call him over but he seemed very hesitant to let me near him. I threw him an english muffin which he promptly took into the woods and buried next to a tree, after giving him some more bread and my last bit of cheese I gave up on gaining his trust and decided to lay out for the night under a bridge close by.

I woke up to the dog walking by me and whining, I loaded another piece of bread with peanut butter, tossed it to him, and went on my way. A few miles up the trail I came into the paw paw tunnel, this thing must have been a mile long and was pitch black, I slowly made my way through and rode for a few more miles before stopping to catch my breath, turning around and seeing the dog running not far behind me. I thought I had finally made the canine companion for my trip that I've been dreaming of, I thought of different ways he could travel with me while giving him more food and failing to pet him. He followed me for another 15 miles or so keeping a surprising pace but sadly I lost sight of him by the time I made it to Hancock. In Hancock I took cover at the grocery store while rain poured down, I was told it would last all night, luckily I heard of a bike shop in town that offers shelter and a hot shower for 10 dollars so I made my way there.

The set up was really cool, they had a long lean-to style bunk house with wire on the front, some outdoor showers and portopotties, in a nice yard behind the shop. That night while reading on my bunk I saw someone fumbling with the gate lock and came out to help him, he told me he was very drunk and went right to sleep. He woke up a half hour later to use the bathroom and stayed up this time to talk at the little table set up in the bunk house. He was 70 something years old, retired from the state department because 'all the classified stuff wasnt for him' and spent his time travelling by foot. He showed off his walking stick with medals of all the different hikes he had done and rambled on about his time in the military and his current trip on the canal trail. He asked me about my trip at least 4 times, every time I told him about it it seemed like news to him. I don't think he remembered any of our conversation the next morning and I made my way out.

I got off the trail in Williamsport and was happy to be back on the road after 100 miles of rough trail. I was riding on rt 34 questioning whether I was headed the right way when I heard a car pull over behind me and honk. It was Julia and Corey on their way back from Frederick! There was much rejoice and hugging and struggle to get my bike in her 2 door saturn before we headed over to Corey's. There we had some lasagna and I took in Corey's house which was very much as I pictured it, cozy, cluttered and with knick-knacks on every shelf. We walked to a nearby creek after dinner and caught up with our post umass/simons rock lives next to a fire.

I had a wonderful time with them, Julia showed me nearby Shepardstown, a cool little college town with the best coffee shop I've been to in a while. I also got to come to her yoga class (which I really needed) and ceramics where I made a little snail while everyone rushed to work on several pieces at once, I never knew pottery could be so stressful. We spent nights hanging out in Corey's room listening to music eating copious amounts of freeze pops, and making absurd faces We went to Harper's ferry, a historic little town on the Shenandoah and met with her friend Devin then we three went to crystal grottoes to get the cave tour from Corey. Corey gave a great tour, it was obvious he has done it enough to have it memorized well, the cave itself was beautiful. After the tour Devin took us all out to Indian food which was delicious but a quick meal as we had to rush to make it to Julia's sisters play. It was a series of one act plays and made me feel very nostalgic. It brought me back to the Massachusetts drama festival, some of the plays I had actually seen performed in the festival years earlier. Saturday Julia was busy with a paper and I accompanied Corey on a cave clean up with his caving friend Sean and his wife. This cave was incredible, it required some squirming in certain spots to get around and truly difficult climbs in others, for one part we had to anchor a rope and inch our way down a precarious drop. I had no previous notion of what caving was like, Corey really showed me how beautiful and interesting caves can really be. We went to Julia's for dinner where I got to listen to her mom's extremely German accent some more over a wonderful meal, we then headed out for contra dancing. I couldn't think of a better way to spend my last night, we spent hours in the hot muggy room folk dancing and sweating our asses off.

Corey and Julia gave me a ride up to Gettysburg, PA the next day and we said our goodbyes. One of the saddest partings yet of this trip, I feel I really got to know Julia on a deeper level than I did at school and enjoyed her friendship even more, and I rarely got to say more than a few words to Corey last year but really hit it off with him this time around, he's a very funny genuinely good person and wise beyond his years, I shall miss them both (Julia may be moving to Cambridge this summer though so we'll see).

I got held up for a while in Gettysburg at a light waiting for a make a wish truck parade to go through, it seriously took at least 20 minutes for all these trucks to go by, then headed out with home on my mind. Its been a very big change since leaving Maryland, its starting to feel more and more like the northeast I know, the roads are getting busier and I'm starting to see Dunkin Donuts everywhere. The past few days have been nerve-racking, riding on route 1, a highway following 95, has had me riding next to speeding cars through congested areas. I've ridden through Philadelphia Newark, and Jersey City.

I almost ended up in nyc yesterday, I was at the G.W. bridge about to get on the pedestrian path when some cyclists asked me about my trip. They were very kind and started offering different ways to go and handing me energy bars, they weren't sure the best way to go so they called out, in a very new york accent "eyy Mikey, this guys tryin to get to Mass, ey this guy knows the route like the back of his hand, he'll point you in the right direction." then a muscle bound pony-tailed cyclist came over and, also with the thick new york accent, pointed me down the road on a route that would take me all the way to mass without going through the city, I gratefully shook his hand, waved goodbye to them all and set out along the Hudson.

I was riding for about 10 miles when I saw a "welcom to Piermont' sign. I couldn't believe it, I had ended up in my aunt Adele's town without planning on it at all, I rode down the cliff of a hill that leads to downtown piermont and went to my aunt's without calling her and surprised her at the door. She took me in with welcoming arms, I got a much needed shower and got picked up by my cousin Molly, a month away from me in age, and her boyfriend Kevin, and we went to see the new Freddy movie.

I'm spending another night and heading out tomorrow morning, with about 270 miles to go, my trip is in its last few days, it will have been about 4000 miles when I get to Cape, and the greatest experience of my life. It's been amazing but I can't wait to get home, see you in a a few days Falmouth! I'm going out for a cup of coffee and an incredible view of the Hudson.

Hello Appleachia

Its been a bit so I'm a little hazy on the few days out of my last post. From Russelville I cycled through the day and into the night when I arrived in Glasgow where I caved and took a room at a motel to wash up and get a good nights sleep. I headed out the next day on the rolling hills of Kentucky and took in the beautiful air and green life that covered my surroundings. I found myself at the end of the day in Cambelsville, a nice little college town where I found the first coffee shop open past dark I had seen in a while. I took my time there, relaxing until about closing time and chatted with a guy that worked there who was from Michigan, I didn't catch what brought him down there but he was a very good natured guy and gave me the last of the coffee and some kind of delicious rasberry pastry. I didn't feel like going to much further in the dark so I cycled down back roads in town before coming accross some woods with a single old abandoned house in real bad condition. I opted out of sleeping inside and camped out behind the carport.





I got into Harrodsburg the next day, about halfway between Cambellsville and Lexington, and found another nice little coffee shop to dawdle some time away. I heard it was going to rain that night so I set out in search of a place to squat and wait out the rain. I came accross a huge barn behind the Kroger, it looked like it had been a while since anyone had been in so I unloaded my stuff, climbed around on the support beams then got into my going out clothes and cycled into Harrodsburg sans 60 pounds of gear to take in the night.





I woke up to the rain the next morning and slept in as long as I could. Eventually it eased up and I was preparing to head out when I saw a truck pull up in front of the barn. uh oh. Some guys came in talking to eachother and I let out a nervous "hello?" needless to say they were a little confused about what I was doing there. I explained my situation and that I was just getting ready to leave and they were cool about it. I guess they work for some guy that owns about half of Harrodsburg and just get paid to check on all his property, probably to make sure there aren't people like me sleeping there. By the time I got on the road it was already late afternoon so I decided to take it easy, I made it to a park a little out of town and found some bushes to lay out my sleeping bag.





The next day I headed for Lexington and got into town pretty early,

I hopped online the next day at the local library to send out some messages on warmshowers and couchsurfing trying to predict where I would be in a few days. It had been a few days since I showered but it had been way too long since I had had any substantial human contact and was really craving some conversation, its a fun road, but a lonely one. it was a pretty easy city to navigate, it has this huge traffic circle surrounding the inner city which I followed to where route 60 changed from north to straight east and took it to Winchester, home of the Ale81 bottling company, an eastern Kentucky ginger ale that I came to love. It was late when I got in and they had a theater with movie tickets for 6 bucks so I thought about taking in a movie but they were cash only and I was a buck short so I went to wafflehouse instead for a place to sit for a bit before I found a place to sleep.

I left the next day hoping to make it to Morehead by that evening, I was especially excited about arriving here, my map showed it to be in the northern part of the Daniel Boone national forest and it had been forever since I had been in some real wilderness. I got into Morehead around 730 and saw a marquee advertising a production of 12 angry men being put on in town at 8, my eyes lit up and I rushed to find the theater and a restroom where I could change into some more appropriate clothing. I suppose it was meant to be for me to miss out on the movie experience in Winchester, I had really missed live theater and thouroughly enjoyed the performance.

It got out a little past 10 and I thought I might as well check my messages to see if any of my emails were succesful. I was happy to hear a response on my voicemail from Joshua Roe who I found on warmshowers. I called him back to find that he was at a party at a friends and without a vehicle, I figured I had called too late and missed my chance and was planning to camp out but Josh insisted on coming out to meet me at least. He arrived in a few minutes in his friend's car and said he would love to host me for the night and wouldn't mind leaving the party to do so. We tore apart my bike trying to get it into his friend's sedan, went out to taco bell for a quick bite to eat and to get aqquainted, and stopped at the party to meet his friends and see the other side of Kentucky.

a quick word about Josh, an all around stellar dude, he had a great life philosophy that embraced following your heart over following the standard path and lifestyle thats been embedded in us. He himself had done some cycle tours along with spending a significant amount of time in a few foreign countries and some summer in Alaska which made me want to get up there even more.

After the Party we went back to the cycle shop he worked at where I showered and watched some of the 2009 tour de france while we chatted about this and that and he tuned up my bike. We spent the night sleeping on the shop floor which still beats camping. I woke up surrounded by bicycles and took a look at my freshly tuned bike with new handlebar tape, brakes and a nice tight new chain.

We drove into town to get some breakfast and the car back to Josh's friend. After searching through town to find something that was open on a sunday we were faced with the reality of bible belt culture and had to settle on sonic. I was originally planning to head out that day, but Josh offered me to spend another day to take in town, I thought it would be a shame to be in and out of this beautiful forest town in a day and was really enjoying his company so I took him up on it and I'm really happy I did.

We met up with his friend Melissa who came out to see him before he leaves once again for Alaska in a week. She was a very good spirited bubbly girl, we drove out to one of the bigger hills and did some hiking to get to a rocky overlook and the most breathtaking view I've seen for a while. From our view point we could see miles of huge rolling hills covered in different shades of green in every direction all the way to the horizon and the distant lake. I'm kicking myself for not taking my camera. We spent a few hours just taking in the view, soaking in the sun and talking about everything. We dropped Melissa at a hair appointment in town and went to get a closer look at the lakes and parks in town. We went down to one of the lakes and spent some time just skipping stones and shooting the breeze before heading back to Josh's house in the hills.

Josh lives in a little place in a thickly wooded hill. The house feels like someone is in the process of moving in or out. The furniture was limited to a few scattered chairs, one little table, and a mattress in his roomates room. Josh's room consisted of clothes scattered on the floor with no bed. We left there soon to pick up Melissa with her new red hair and drove back to his place. There we had a fire in his pit and sat around talking and just enjoying the beauty of everything around us, Melissa had to leave as it got later, we said our goodbyes and spent some more time sitting around before laying out and sleeping under the stars.

He took me to the local coffee spot the next morning and I eased into the morning over a cup of coffee and a slow game of chess. The time rolled around for me to head out so we got someone to take a picture and left for west virginia.

Josh knew someone in Huntington, a town right over the border of west virginia so he called him and arranged for me to meet up with him when I got into town. I got in past dark and roamed the streets following the directions that Matt gave me. I almost missed his street when I heard someone yell out and saw Matt and his roommate Alan out in the street coming over to me. They welcomed me warmly and brought me over to Matt's beautiful house.

Matt and Alan were extremely easy going and funny and I felt at home right away. They have an adorable dog who took a bit to warm up to me but was very sweet after that. We had some dinner and hung out on the porch chatting over beers until Alan had to leave to go to his girlfriend's and me and Matt retired to sleep. I had a nice breakfast with Matt the next day and decided to take some time riding around town before heading out. I rode with Matt to pick up some groceries then rode into the local park and along the river for a bit. Unfortunately Alan wouldnt be back until 1 and I went on my way before getting to say goodbye, I packed up my stuff, let Matt try riding my bike around fully loaded, and made my way to Charleston.

The hills here are getting bigger and bigger, where as Kentucky was constant up and down little hills where you could go on momentum a lot, here are the long slow giant climbs followed by wonderful coasting before another huge hill. I waved to a cyclist on the other side of the road getting closer to Charleston and saw him in my mirror again 10 minutes later. He rode behind me before a bit and I tried pulling to the side to let him pass and he went by and took a side road and cycled out of sight for a bit. about another 10 minutes later I hear from behind me, "what you got in the case Tim?" the mystery cyclist was my warmshowers host for the night Jerry who had rode out to make sure I found his place alright.

To put it bluntly, getting to his house was hell, Jerry and his wife live on a beautiful hill right outside of town and to get there we went up the steepest grade I've been on since big bear probably. There were several places I felt like I was gonna fall over backwards. We finally made it to his place and I was drenched in sweat, I rinsed off quickly before sitting down to dinner with Jerry and Jan. They were wonderful hosts, the dinner Jan prepared was the best I've had in a while. I learned about the travelling and touring they had done, they have done a lot of tandem touring and actually had a bike friday (a company that specializes in foldup or easy to take apart and store) tandem. After dinner and some delicious coffee cake baked by Jan, Jerry took me to his office and we looked over some possible routes to my next destination, Keedysville Maryland to visit one of the few good friends I made at Umass, Julia. We found a great route that would take me through a state forest for some ways and into the mountains.

This morning we had a delicious hardy breakfast before saying goodbye to Jan. I rode down the hill and into town with Jerry where he bought me a cookie and a full loaf of sourdough at a little local bakery. He rode with me a while longer to get past the city before we got some pictures and he turned around and said goodbye.

I hope to make it to the state forest by tonight, I look forward to the mountains.

gettin lucky in Kentucky

I am currently in Russelville Kentucky, a picturesque American town with southern style country houses and blossoming trees.

I left mountain home and stumbled upon what was once a family amusement park by Norfolk Lake. I explored all the old buildings and attractions (including a skeeball room, a go cart track and what was left of the petting zoo) and fell asleep on the mini golf course. The next few days in Arkansas were gorgeous, lots of mileage through the heavily wooded ozark foothills.

It eventually flattened out into swamplands as I got closer to Missouri with long narrow streams running along each side of the road and miles of farmland and forest. I stopped at a diner in mcdougal for some coffee and a bite to eat as the sun was going down. There I talked with some locals about my trip and listened to a middle aged guy who had 6 kids from various mothers try to tell a 23 year old who had 4 kids in between his time at jail to "quit while he was ahead''. I bid them farewell and headed to Piggott in the dark.

I made it into Missouri the next day, got a 25 cent cup of coffee at a Cambell gas station and made my way to the Sikeston. I thought I would make it to the Mississippi not too long after leaveing Sikeston and find a dry place to sleep ( it was supposed to rain that night) but ended up having to set up camp next to the highway. i tried setting up a waterproof tent by draping my tarp over a string between trees but the wind kept blowing it around and I ended up having to fall asleep uneasily with the tarp wrapped around me and the rain pouring over it all night. The river was gigantic and where I was crossing I had to cross the Ohio too which was equally as huge, I crossed on these narrow 2 lane bridges with no shoulder which was terrifying, I didn't get too many oppurtunities to take in the view while I was crossing. I cautiously made my way into Kentucky.

I'm officially east of the Mississippi! Its this that has made me realize just how far away from the southwest I am. The deserts and dryness that defined the first part of my trip have been replaced by green grass, creeks and lakes and flowers in bloom.

I passed through the land between lakes yesterday, an undeveloped peninsula surrounded by Kentucky Lake. I spent the night next to a beautiful clear creek.

I'm just about out of time on the library computer, happy belated easter

Southern hospitality

I ended up finding a host for the stormy weekend on warmshowers.org. The host was in Stillwater Oklahoma and I figured I had plenty of time before the storm started, Friday was beautiful and sunny. I stopped in a little town called Guthrie filled with old fashioned brick buildings and stopped at a cool little cycle shop that looked like it had been there for a while. There I finally found some front racks for panniers so I could take some of the weight off the back of my bike and make a little room. It took a good 2 hours to get these things fitted on. The owner, a real nice older guy named Kent offered his help in between customers as we tried a million different things to get the racks on around the quick release for the front wheel. We finally got it on allright and I shook hands with Kent and went on my way. He gave me a new route to get to Stillwater that took me by some beautiful cliffs and a huge river.

I got into Stillwater Oklahoma as it was starting to rain and cycled with accumulating frustration trying to find my host's house. I eventually got to it(on the very edge of town) and met Susan Walker and her husband Jeff. I changed into dry clothes and sat down to a delicious lentil dinner prepared by Jeff. I learned all about Susan's many cycling tours and chatted with her and jeff before showering and falling asleep. I awoke to see the woods that the house overlooks covered in snow, with snow still coming down. Susan offered for me to stay they entire weekend and wait out the weather, sounded like a good idea. So I hung around, slept a lot, and talked with Jeff about the possible benefits and follies of taking time off of school. Susan toured me around town when the roads got better, showing me the college and buying me a sweet eskimo Joe's shirt, like the black dog eskimo joe's is a restaurant thats more famous for its clothes than its food, but it has a much more creative logo than the black dog (a black dog).

I left monday with most of the snow melted and headed to Tulsa to stay with someone that Susan knew from a past cycle tour. The route took me through some nice woods and I caught the bike trail when I got into Tulsa. The bike trail is the best I've ever been on, it runs along the arkansas river, goes for like 50 miles, and has separate walking and cycling lanes in parts of it. I met up with Sylvia and Tom at their beautiful old house in one of the historic districts. I showered up and ate dinner outside with Sylvia and her adorable dogs (both found by them as strays), had some beers, and talked all about cycle touring before walking down to her husbands bicycle shop to catch some music. Every monday night Tom and some friends get together in the shop and jam together, it was a real treat, it was a circle of about 7 guys playing guitars and an elderly lady playing a mean tenor banjo. I feebly attempted to play along but needless to say these guys were a little ahead of me skillwise so I found myself shyly picking at my banjo and taking in their music. I walked back with Tom and heard about his trip from Tulsa up to Washington then down to venice beach L.A. when he was 18. I lounged in their hot tub for a bit before laying down and enjoying my 4th night in a row sleeping on a bed.

Tuesday morning I had Tom take a look at my bike because the back wheel was loose, right away he noticed several things wrong with the bike and sent me down to his shop. There I met Mark who tuned up my bike and gave me a new back tire. I forgot how smooth that bike can ride, I got back on the bike trail and took it all the way to the next town. Sylvia had printed out some directions with the new bicycle feature on google maps to get to her friend Joel's in Muscogee. Google should keep its ass out of cycling directions, it had me turning every mile and going on some winding route so I eventually ditched them and asked at a liquor store how to get there on secondary highways.

I made it into Muscogee and called Joel, he picked me up at a gas station and brought me to his place. I showered up and we went out to a nice buffet where we stuffed our faces til past closing time and talked about all sorts of stuff. Joel turned out to be a really cool guy, he worked for city organizing big events (concerts, bike rides etc.) and had a passion for writing. We went back to his house and watched the end of this middle eastern movie about this woman getting wrongfully stoned to death, I only saw about 20 minutes of it but it was a well made 20 minutes.

I left for Fayetteville the next day, Joel left me with a copy of On the Road by Jack Kerouac and some advice to avoid making a life out of something you don't enjoy. I got on 62 which would take me right to Fayetteville. I stopped at a gas station a little ways down the road for a cup of coffee and hung around long enough to get myself disoriented. I left going the wrong way (back to Muscogee) and didnt realize it until 10 miles later when I saw the same general store accross from the same antique store I noticed leaving town. After much cursing I turned around and headed back towards Arkansas. The scenery became more and more rural as I approached Ozark country. I knew it was supposed to rain that night and found a great abandoned mobile home to stay the night.

I ended up hanging out til the afternoon the next day as the rain lasted longer than I expected, I killed time reading my new book (I dig), as well as a local newspaper from 1999. Just as I was finishing a 10 year old Dear Annie letter about a deadbeat dad who divorced his wife and started a new family, refusing to pay child support and not telling his new family about his daughter, the rain began to let up. I quickly got my stuff together and left, hoping Quagmire in Colorado found justice. The ride into Arkansas was beautiful, 62 turned into a windy mountainous road taking me through woods, over clear creeks, and down valleys with hillbilly shacks scattered around. I made it into Fayetteville as it was getting dark and got picked up by my uncle Tim and cousin Hunter.

I had a great weekend with them and my aunt Rebecca, I rarely get to see them and really enjoy them all. It turned out to be spring break for the high school and college so both Tim and Hunter were off. Friday Hunter and I went cycling on the bike trail in town, he showed me a few cool little shops in town including a record/head shop that used to be some kind of theater or something, I picked up a Stephen Malkmus cd and headed back on the trail. We eventually got to the mountain biking portion which severly kicked my ass. I tried to keep up with Hunter and fell off my bike like 5 times, it was a strange transition going from avoiding every little bump on my bike to tearing down hills over giant roonts and jutting rocks on a mountain bike. Saturday Hunter and I went to a baseball game with his uncle, I've never been a big baseball fan but ended up really enjoying the game, we had great seats and witnessed numerous injuries including an elderly fan getting nailed by a foul ball. We went to a Joe Bonamassa concert in town which was good, full of bluesy songs, sometimes overly long solos, and a different guitar for every song. I lounged around sunday, made a batch of french bread and played around with Tim's super nice banjo.

I got up early the monday to say goodbye to Hunter and Tim and get my stuff ready and my route figured out. I said my goodbyes to Rebecca and headed out a few hours later. The weather got beautiful and even hot as the day went on as I took in more of the beautiful scenery. I made it into Harrison and stopped at an old mill turned Bakery/Cafe to relax after a long day, I stayed til it got dark and headed out under a giant orange full moon. The beautiful night welcomed me back to camping with open arms and I found a nice creek to sleep next to under the bright glow of the moon.

Today was mostly uneventful, I stopped at a buffet for lunch and they gave it to me for free after hearing about my trip, which topped the free restaurant meals I've gotten so far.

I write this from beautiful mountain home Arkansas, I'm off to find a cup of coffee and a place to sleep.

Oklahoma,OK!

Its been a little while, its amazing how many library computers have blogspot blocked.

Lets see, after my last post I biked on through the mountains into the Hondo valley where I biked some time into the night looking for a place to sleep until a cars headlights lit up a small dillapidated house on the opposite side of the road. It was a pretty beat up little place but it was windy as hell out so it beat camping, I dragged my bike in and laid out my sleeping bag on an old spring mattress and dozed off. I woke up in the middle of the night to a squeaking and the sound of something moving around in the basement. I shined my light down to see a skunk looking up at me, I through my tarp over the hole to the basement and laid uneasily awake for a while before I could get back to sleep. I've thought several nights about how I would fight off a bobcat or a coyote if one approached me in my sleep, but I was terrified of this little thing.

The next morning I came to a hill that the locals had been warning me about and slowly made my way up, after less than a mile of biking up hill it flattened out, thinking it was only temporary I kept going expecting a sudden incline. Luckily it remained flat for sometime until it brought me to a 30 mile downhill that shot me right into Roswell, giving me the most distance I've made by 9:30 am yet. I spent some time in Roswell and checked out the Alien museum and research center which was pretty impressive. My conclusion on the Roswell incident? total government cover up, no question.

The next day I awoke to cloudy skies and high winds, i packed my stuff up right away in an attempt to beat the weather, I biked into the wind for about 10 miles until I got to the Kenna general store/post office/only thing in Kenna besides ranches. It started snowing hard soon after. I waited out the storm drinking coffee and chatting with Bob, the retired refinery worker and Vietnam veteran who ran the store. We talked about politics, and the differences between country and city folk, while ignoring the health codes and smoking cigarettes next to the wood stove. I hung out there for about 2 hours when the snow stopped and biked back into the wind.

From there I headed up to Clovis, a city bordering Texas and spent the night at a campground outside the city, I left the next day for Texas.

Texas was flat and smelly, I was only in it for a few days passing through the north part. After Biking all day one day I ended up in Amarillo Texas, and after biking for hours through the city well into the night, it became unclear whether I would make it through any time soon, so I caved and splurged on a 26 dollar motel room with no windows at the Cowboy Motel.

The next day I ended up in Groom Texas which hosted a plethora of abandoned houses, which was perfect because I heard that there might be rain that night. I picked one and settled in, it was a pretty good sized house and randomly had a box of old clothes, I couldn't help but rummage. I found a nice warm flannel shirt and a windbreaker made by Marlboro (yes that Marlboro), set up my sleeping bag and went to sleep.

I woke up to pouring rain the next morning and biked into it for about 10 miles before stopping at a rest stop and learning the rain was supposed to continue all day. I was completely soaked, I had stupidly thrown out my poncho thinking my new jacket was rain proof (it wasn't) and opted to wait out the weather at the rest stop. I spent my day watching the same route 66 video over and over, chatting with truckers, and reading the better part of a sherlock holmes book I found in the house the night before. I met a 13 year old son of a cattle transporter who was hanging out while his dad was sleeping in the truck. He gave me a brownie and a soda and brought me some stuff from the vending machine and told me that he had been to all the states except for new york city and hawaii. When I told him I was from Massachusetts he asked me what state that was in. He also informed me that i could get a footlong sandwich at subway for 5 dollars and a 6 inch for 1 dollar. must be a new deal. he soon said his goodbyes and left me with some spare change as I set up my blanket in the tornado shelter and fell asleep.

I got up early the next day and headed for Oklahoma on a frontage road that ran along the 40.
I made it into Oklahoma 2 days ago, and so far it has been covered in rolling hills and scenic farmland. I found a pair of fuzzy dice on the side of the road and attached them to my bike, then, about 10 feet ahead BAM 10 dollar bill. lucky dice!

Walking into a little diner in Clinton the place fell silent upon my entrance and I could feel everyone staring at me. The wait for my food was a bit uncomtorable until a guy at the table broke the silence and asked me about my trip, soon the whole restaurant was asking me questions and giving me adive on which way to go. I left as the sun was about to go down and headed up the 183, stopping at a gas station in the next town to fill my water bottles and have a cup of coffee. The guy working there was around my age and lacked the southern accent, he seemed very impressed by the trip and we talked for a while. He grew up in Toronto but moved down here 9 years ago when his father bought the store and he made it very clear that he hated the place and couldn't wait to get the hell out. He lived in Clinton and was studying to go to med school at a local college. He gave me a bunch of free coffee because they were closing up but I couldn't spend too long there so I filled up a water bottle with coffee and headed out a few more miles before finding a nice bridge to sleep under.

The weather has been beautiful the past few days, but this weekend is supposed to be stormy and snowy, I sent out a few messages on couchsurfing and warmshowers.org to hopefully find a place to wait out the storm, biking through the rain blows.

oh yeah, and I passed through a town called shamrock the day before saint patricks day and found an unopened keystone light, so I didnt miss out on the holiday completely.

land of enchantment

New Mexico, and I'm back in the mountains.

I had a great week staying with uncle Mike, Prescott is a really cool little college town. We went to some Indian ruins which were pretty impressive. I learned so much about my father's side of the family which was great beacause thats always been such a mysterious part of my heritage, and it was wonderful getting to know my uncle. I left tuesday with my camera (mailed over by my parents) and a ton of new music from my uncles extensive collection on my ipod.

My last days in Arizona were quiet but beautiful, I spent the first night out next to the Roosevelt lake. I met some drunk Indians, "T-Juan" and Jackson "Jackson 5" at a rest area in Safford and received an Apache blessing for my trip which was surprisingly moving despite "T-Juan's" intoxication, I returned the favor with an out of tune banjo song. T-Juan scribbled his address and phone number on my map before saying goodbye and hitching their way back to Bilas. Coming out of a dollar store in Duncan I met an ex heroin addict/travelling magician who offered me a place to stay for the night, I turned him down because I was trying to do another 20 miles that day, but I'm consistently amazed with how friendly strangers have been towards a smelly young man on a bicycle. On the way out of town I found a sweet handmade biking cap on the side of the road, one of those tight ones with the tiny rim, jackpot!

I got a flat tire coming into New Mexico, and after trying to patch it over and over and realizing that my "universal" replacement tube was about a foot long around, a guy in a pickup pulled over and offered me a ride into town. His name was Fred and he was a local railroad worker, he was full of stories and laughs. Along the way I learned that he had been once been posessed by a demonic girlfriend for for several years until his faith healing uncle cured him, he told the story much more interestingly, but I thought it was worth retelling.

I passed by the white sands national park yesterday, miles of huge fine white sand dunes in the middle of the desert, it reminded me of cape cod.

Coming into Alamogordo the mountains looked a bit daunting so I opted for the long route to go around them and get some distance north. Because of the extra distance I decided to do some night biking for the first time. Highway 54 was a quiet highway and it was a very peaceful ride. Riding under the stars was beautiful.

I stopped at a friendly little coffee shop in Carrizozo that had free refills. Chatting with the employees they told me about an israeli girl who had biked through town that was going from nova scotia to guatemala and back, that just blew my mind. A woman was kind enough to pay for my coffee and burrito, I gave my thanks, said my goodbyes and headed east on the 380.

The 380 has been a beautiful mountainous scenic route, it was a steady uphill for about 15 miles, when I spotted the descent I got super excited and threw on my scarf and sunglasses, just to turn around and see I had a flat tire. My 6x thickness thorn resitant tire went flat not from a puncture, but from the valve coming off of the tube. Luckily I had stopped at the Walmart in alamogordo and loaded my pockets with tubes.

I stopped in another coffee shop in the lovely mountain town of Capitan, and they gave me a free slice of pie, I'm going to miss the friendliness of the southwest.

Well I'm off to Roswell

"If you don't like the weather in Arizona, go 2 hours in any direction"

I finally made it to Prescott, and its snowing like crazy out.

A retired couple, Carol and Johnny, put me up in their rv for 2 nights in Salome over the weekend while I waited out the rain, I got to attend the Mcullen Valley chili cookoff, featuring a recreation of the shootout between Billy the Kid and Joe Grant, and more chili than anyone should ever eat. I don't think there is anyone under the age of 50 in Salome but everyone is very friendly. Carol and Johnny sent me off yesterday with some bottled water, informing me that they say its no good to refill water bottles, and the book of Mormon with their phone number written on the inside cover.

From Salome I biked through the desert for a bit until I hit a mountain, after much internal debate and whining of whether to camp out for the night at the base or just try and make it up, I finally worked myself up to just go for it, the flatness of the desert has spoiled me. The climb up was long but gradual and a beautiful ride. It brought me up into the mountain towns of Yarnell and Peeples valley.

The scenery was beautiful and seemed almost surreal, I was surrounded by fields and mountainous terrain covered in leafless gnarled trees that looked like they belonged in a horror movie. All of this was set against a grey overcast sky, it was breathtaking. I stopped at a pizza place for a cup of coffee and directions. The employees seemed more than eager to tell me all the possible camping sites ahead. We finally settled on a bridge about 5 miles ahead, I finished my coffee said my goodbyes and headed to the spot. It ended up being a nice soft sandy spot under the road, there was some barbed wire fencing blocking it off from the road but luckily I had just discovered the wire cutters on my pliers. I set up camp and built a nice campfire, then went to bed uneasily listening to some howling coyotes.

Then today came the snow, it started off lightly raining, then turned to painful sleet and fast winds, I did about 17 miles before stopping at a general store in skull valley for a burrito and 3 cups of of hot cocao. I hung out there for a bit to warm up and try to wait out the storm. A woman came in from Prescott and said it was snowing harder up there and offered me a ride, normally I'd decline, but biking in the snow sucks real bad. So I took her up on the offer, threw my bike in her pickup, enjoyed the snowy mountain scenery, and chatted with her 4 year old daughter.

Its kind of nice to see snow, its really coming down outside. My uncle should be getting off work just about now, so I'm off to a hot shower and dry clothing.