Jesus is the reason...

Its Christmas day today. Mom is at work and Nicole is in Indonesia helping get our friend Grace married. I am, of course, very happy that they can all be together, but wish I could be there too for Carmen's classic reading of the Best Christmas Pageant Ever. Not to mention, Grace's wedding.
In order have both Mom and Nicole here, Christmas happened early for our family. What that means now though is that Christmas day is a time to reflect, to read and just hang out.
On our family's Christmas Mom asked us to say what we appreciated about Jesus since this is when we celebrate him and all. Thinking over all the people I've met on this grand adventure I realized that I appreciate having Jesus as a reason.
I think its interesting to look at my ride with Dave in Alabama compared to my ride with Marisa to Arizona. Dave was an enthusiastic evangelical who really got into telling me all about his spiritual journey and how his spirituality and religious beliefs have come to bear on the political and economic realm. While I found his many of his ideas, especially the political ones, to be a bit off-putting (to put it kindly), I could not deny that this man felt secure in his faith, and found great joy and satisfaction in being able to help me along on my travels. Further more, and more importantly, he seemed to find purpose and fulfillment in his daily work. By actively trying to model Christ's example as he saw it Dave seemed able to turn what I saw as a mundane and boring job into something at least a bit more life giving than it otherwise might have been.
In contrast Marisa seemed to have, in my humble opinion, a potentially invigorating job in which she has the opportunity to make a deep and profound impact on many kids. Her role is to co-lead canoe trips for kids with behavioral issues. These kids have grown up in rough inner-city homes. According to Marisa many of them really have trouble getting along with the rest of the group and the leaders. Over the course of these trips, which are often as long as a month, it seems like there would be many great opportunities to help these kids grow personally and socially and in the end leave with new outlooks on life. My impression, however (and I should note that it is just an impression), was that Marisa was not nearly as excited or motivated by her work with kids who needed help, as Dave was by his work with heating and cooling systems.
Through all of that I can't help but wonder why. Marisa, although ethnically Jewish, seemed to be quite removed from any personal religion or faith and the organization she works for was similarly secular. And so as she spoke of her work it was clear that she does see the importance of helping these kids, although I couldn't help but think that maybe if she, like Dave, was living more some higher power she might be a bit more up beat about it.
And so, as I think about why I do what I do, I want to use this season as a reminder that Jesus is the reason for so much more than just this season.


Also it snowed Christmas Eve and made everything look beautiful. so that was nice  :-)

Homeward Bound

What a long strange trip its been. I've been on the road for 43 days, I've covered at least 6,323 miles, stayed in 11 different cities, took at least 19 different rides, met up with a great number of friends and had one hell of a good time.
But now its time for a bit of a change. Right now I'm on a plane headed for home. The Lancaster version. The home where parents and family are. The home that really is.

Of course the past many weeks of staying on people's couches, guest rooms and behind parking lot hedgerows has been great too! In the beginning adventure was top priority. But over time that's changed.
Hitching rides and meeting kind strangers was thrilling, trying at times.
Getting ahold of my own wheels led to a whole new dimension and allowed me to begin meeting kind friends to whom I didn't have to reintroduce myself to every time I met one of them.
Prearranging rides then through craigslist took me to yet another different travel experience. Meeting new people without having to deal with the uncertainty and anxiety of waiting on the side of the road combined with the convenience of knowing that I'll be getting the whole way to my destination made ridesharing a great way to get from place to place.
Aaand.... Now I'm on a plane. Knowing that not very long ago my sister and roommates dropped me off at a truck stop with well wishes and a cardboard sign saying 'South' is quite something. Although I rarely like to philosophize or psychoanalyze changes in one's setting or sleeping places I will say that experiencing a stranger's hospitality, fending for myself and sleeping in a ditch, or making myself at home in a friend's house all feel every different and has certainly gone a long way in broadening my comfort zones in new ways.
And now it's time to do that again. Traveling and transience, despite seeming to bring new experiences daily, also brings with it it's own mindset; sleeping on a couch and having two options of what to wear is a constant reminder that I'm going somewhere new soon and that the people I meet are more often than not simply fleeting encounters.
This past week, however, has been notably different. I am planning on going back to Tucson around the end of January at very least to pick up my belongings that I can't fly with (bike, knife, cooking stove etc) but hopefully I'll be returning for the long haul (in my world that's maybe a year or so). It'll be a new way of looking at the world and those around me; maybe I'll need to start learning who people actually are and not just the 5 hours worth of introduction that I've been so used to lately.
Although I also must add that I'm not there yet. Things still need to work out, and come together. On Wednesday and Thursday I had a great time with CHRPA building a wheel chair ramp and going to their Christmas party. On that front things are worked out. I have meaningful work with good people to keep me occupied. On the housing front things are less certain but possibly more exciting. I still need to figure out, with MVS and those living at the house, how living arrangements may work. Spending the week on the couch at the MVS house might not have made for the best nights sleep but spending a week with Emma, Kat, Carrie, Darlene and Jon was simply a blast. To be fair it might have had something to do with all the marvelous parties, 5k fun runs and the festive holiday spirit but I can't ignore how great it was to get to know all of them and spend the week with them!

Mission Accomplished!

Well, I've made it! I'm finally in Tucson AZ, its been a long strange trip, much longer albeit a bit less strange than I was expecting. From San Francisco I again took a Craigslist rideshare ride. Her name was Marisa and was great. For the first six hours though we had the pleasure of also riding with one John Somebody. We never got his last name but he's a spiritual man who talked a lot about the collective consciousness and how its impacting the course of humanity. 

For now though I'm just going to share some pictures:

I miss my tall bike. I hope Jason Spicher and the Cycling club lackeys at EMU have made my  tall pile of bolts better by now!

Hannah and her biking friend (and just normal friend) Sarah.

Sunday afternoon we biked across the bridge and up into the Marin Highlands.

It was a super clear day. The boats in the background and Alcatraz is the focus of this shot. Not the pickup.

What an awesome color!

Hey look, you can see the city! 

Emma Fenton-Miller and Sarah.

It was a great ride up the hill. Long but not too steep.

We are just such great buddies!

But mostly I like apples.

Rocktown Bikes by the Pacific ocean!

And then I came to Tucson!

Emma is seen here working on the turtle cistern. Its a pretty cool looking project.

And this is the view from the front of the MVS house. Its a stinking cool house. 

Happenings, both present and future!

I should start off by clarifying. Despite everything I may have told you and any implications I may have made as to my whereabouts, I am in fact not staying in San Francisco but rather am actually in Oakland. One of many other cities in the bay area. I have been staying here thanks to the wonderful hospitality of my dear friend Hannah Kraybil and her housemates Rosanna and Emma. I first got to know Hannah at the OE but also at EMU.
Things here have been great. Although I didn't get around to seeing all the sites and places that I thought I might, I did get to do some of the classic things that one must do. Some of said things are documented photographically. Have a look see:

The Capitol building. Very pretty. 

UN park. Pretty fountains.

Coit Tower. The Tower.

Coit Tower. The View from it.

San Fran Chinatown. It was great to be tall again! Also, there was lots of cheap plastic goods. Just like the Russian Market. And, as you can see there were even great signs! 

Then on Tuesday I spent some time getting Hannah's bike road ready and took it out for a spin. What a great ride! Riding up into Joaquin Miller park took me up into the fog so I missed out on the grand views but instead got to ride around with my head in the clouds.

Also, Hannah has a great bike.

Grand old trees ominously peeking through.

Before getting to the edge of the forest I almost thought there was a forest fire.

View of DeYoung Museum

View from DeYoung Museum

View from DeYoung Museum again.

A pretty picture.

I miss my tall bike!

Also, we just went on an awesome group ride today, over the Golden Gate Bridge. But you will have to look forward to pictures of it on the next post. Right now I need to get this edition to the presses and pack up! and then we might be getting some ice cream in a bit here. 

But, the important thing I want to share with you all, my dear friends, is my holiday plans. 

In short, I'm going back East for Christmas!!! yaaay! Here's the run down:

I'm going to Tucson tomorrow, I'll hang out there for a week, update my blog and visit CHRPA. 

Then its to Lancaster on the 17th, hanging out, doing Christmas, cousin Steph's wedding!, then maybe biking to H'burg with Austin Show. in time for some rockin New Years celebrations, and general good times until mid to late January when I'll fly back to Phoenix with my 'rents, travel around then for a bit and then go back to Tucson and maybe be there for a while (couple of months at least?)

pweeph! I'm outa breath. But there it is! Look for a better post soon.

The OE to SF and everything in between

The rest of my week there with the 2012 Oregon Extension group was great fun. The guys (all four of them, out of a total of 17 students) were wonderful hosts. They really welcomed me with open arms, sharing all with me and really making me feel at home. Thanks so much to Brandon, Karl, Mark and Ben. Sadly I didn't remember to take a picture with them but here are some of them:

Ben working on our giant pot of Chili. Making chili on a heating stove in an oversized pot was way fun.

Karl loves his camera

Sadly, Mark is a bit blurry. But its ok because he features in a video in just a bit.  

And I must apologize to Brandon for not getting any good photos of him either. I guess he wasn't being as rambunctious as others were.



The last couple of days of my stay it rained quite a bit.
Which led to:

I grew some extra freckles.

Karl did too I just didn't take a very good picture.

And:

Phil sliding down the mountain with a truck full of wood. 

Friday chores were extra fun when Phil, Mark, Ben, Karl and I were on wood collecting duty. After filling up the truck Phil went down the direct and muddy way. He probably had even more fun driving than we did running along side!

And sliding on picnic tables! (Featuring Mark)

Canoeing was also wonderful. It was so beautiful to be able to just sit and silently drift over the water; especially on the nights when the moon was out and bright enough to read by!

Sunsets were also nice.

Then finally after goofing off, climbing things like bark burners and roofs, and generally just having a good time, it was time for the town trip. Due to the weather I decided to not risk biking down the mountain and just got a ride with the people in the vans. Having previously ran into Heather and her daughter Simone at Shop N' Kart I had arranged to spend the night at my old professor and neighbor's house that Saturday night. I had lined up a ride to go to San Fran Sunday afternoon.

And so now we are nearly caught up! I made it to Hannah's house (actually in Oakland, in case anyone is reading this) Sunday night after a long ride with a driver who was pretty cool, quiet and would've been great, and two other riders. A drunk young woman who wouldn't shut up and kept drinking, and another dude who  would just goofily nod along and laugh stupidly with the other one. I forgot their names pretty quickly and didn't bother asking to be reminded. Sorry I didn't get a picture with them.

Anyway, Its getting late and I need to go to bed. I'm hoping tomorrow is going to be the biking day... but its raining pretty hard now so that might not go over so well. I think I'll catch you up, dear reader, on my life in the Bay Area in the next post!

See you then.

The OE edition

It started Saturday afternoon. Ever since then it would not have been hard to catch me with a goofy grin on my face. Tilly the Talkative had just dropped me off in Ashland OR (In fact, it was the exact same gas station that I had been dropped off two years ago with Taylor on my original adventure to this wonderful place.) and I was already quite excited. Biking directly on over to ShopN’Kart I quickly began to realize how many wonderful memories I had in this area. From there I continued on to downtown and just putzed around a bit. I was waiting to meet up with one Doug Frank for lunch. He found me soon enough siting in the main square looking quite at home in this town of vagabonds with my pack and bike right by me. Although it was clear he misses teaching up here on the mountain, he does seem to be doing alright; keeping busy by exploring the town and hiking in the surrounding mountains and trails.

I had been hoping to make it up the mountain that afternoon. However, I ended up having to spend much of the afternoon hours adjusting and tightening my rear hub. It turns out I really should have bought myself some cone wrenches before leaving. Luckily a local bikeshop was willing to lend me some tools.

Unable to catch any rides up the mountain that evening, and not wanting to ride the 20some miles non-stop steepness I chose to camp in a farmers feild. This was the first night that I fully realized how valuable my tarp really was. Luckily there was no heavy rain. My cover stayed up and kept me dry. The only trouble was in trying to sleep on an incline. Not a good idea, especailly when trying to stay within a tight dry perimeter.

Finally making it to my destination Sunday morning I had a grand old time wandering around the grounds, foundly remembering various building, the ever looming bark burner, and the entire tranquility of it all. (apologies for the lack of photos, maybe I can get some for the next round.)

Vespers that evening topped it all.

Go now in peace, Go now in peace

May the love of God surround you

Everywhere, everywhere, you may go.

Made me realize that I’d rather not go. At least not right away. That evening, as I quickly got to know Brandon Waggy’s housemates and this year’s 17 OEers I realized that this is pretty great group. In return for letting me stay here the head honchos have asked that I do about 4 hours of work a day. So far its been cleaning gutters.

Luckily I have also had the priviledge of joining in on the lectures. Thanks to the OE profs, I think this has been the closest I have come to being able to say that I actually miss school. That said, I've also realized how relatively poorly read I am. I really need to get crackin on that immense stack of literary classics and philosophical giants! But until I do I think I'll be content to simply clean these gutters and keep on moving!

And now I want to take the opportunity to say a few words in general about my travels. Things have changed quite substantially since that first day of woeful waiting on the on-ramp to I-81. Since then I have been picked up on side of the road, from gas stations, driven myself many hundreds of miles, been picked up by friends and lined up rides on craigslist. These changes have been quite interesting on many levels. Of course driving a car for someone else wins out on almost every criteria so we'll leave that out for now.

As far as pace is concerned, lining up rides on craigslist has gotten me pretty far pretty fast. Its seems that craigslist rideshare ads go up fairly last minute, but I've found that, atleast here along I-5, ad for rides between from where you are to where you want to go seem to go up nearly every other day. 

In terms of personal mental health, prearranged rideshares also seem to take the gold. Standing on the side of the road for even half an hour can be off-putting, but as the fraction of an hour turns into many it can become overwhelming and even cause one to curse the empty car who zoomed right on by!

In terms of cost, however, hitchhiking finally seems to gain an upperhand. When being picked up on the side of the road one is generally not expected to help pay for gas. With rideshares, however, its generally split 50/50.

And finally, hitch hiking also has the added bonus of helping one experience life in a dramatically different and trying way. Although it may seem rather humorous when Calvin's dad says it, it can also be true. 

In all though, at this point in my travels I've realized that spending time with people I know and love, and getting to them in a timely fashion, and being able to spend a bit more time with them as opposed to on the side of an on-ramp is worth the bit of extra expense. And frankly I think I've paid my character building dues. 

Thanksgiving in Canada

Celebrating Thanksgiving with Benjamin and Morgan Tipton was the next best thing to being at home. During the meal we participated in a Tipton family tradition involving beans and expressions of gratefulness. For the record, my three beans represented: 1) My Past. How it has shaped me, and the good reminders I've had of it recently. 2) My Family. For giving me the travel bug and for supporting me in this crazy adventure. And 3) My sister. For being in touch and being a great sibling!
After being on the road for a day under three weeks and having traveled through 16 of the United States and one of the Canadian Provinces it was an incredible relief to just hang out and be in one place for several days. The Menno Simons Center is a really cool community of students and for anyone going to school here in Vancouver, I strongly recommend living here.
Biking all around the city meeting up with Stephanie Suderman and Shalom Wiebe has great. There's really nothing like catching up with old friends from past walks of life and taking the time to remember their impact on your life and the goings on that were going on. And then there's the other people to remember. Looking back on MCC retreats and remembering all the characters and seeing how we all have grown has been inspirational and interesting to say the least. The interest all of us seem to have in going overseas again or entering some kind of service work someday seems to say something about the good role modeling our parents must have done.

Speaking of parenting...

Finn

Although this picture of the little one is quite pleasant and happy, much of the time it did not seem like her natural state of being. Loud cries indicating a need to feed or a dirty diaper erupted often and although it made baby-having seem much less appealing, the wonderful way Ben and Morgan handled it, with patience and love, was something that will stay with me for quite some time.

And now its time for some good old pictures of the city!

The mountain were beautiful! Although this wasn't one of them, there were times when  the sky cleared up and there was an incredible view!

Apologies to the mountains in the background. 

A beach! The bay was beautiful and I had a great bike ride around the Sea Wall.

Bridges are cool.

The history of this city was remarkable. Although I could've spent  much more time leaning good things. I instead just biked a lot. Apologies to history.

 That said, I guess I can still highlight some of the more memorable points. Originally (late 1800's) the city was called Gastown. More recently (mid/late 1900's) there has been a huge increase in immigration. Much of that coinciding with the return of Hong Kong to China. According to Ben, around half of Vancouver's population is of Asian decent. A fact that helped lessen my surprise at seeing so many elderly Asian people at the pool when I went swimming.

Note the floating Cheveron station. There were lots of boats and even boat planes cruising around the bay. Lots of fun to watch.

The Canadian respect and the way they have dealt with Native Peoples, although being far from optimal, seemed to be leagues beyond where the US is at. Apologies to the totems for their blurry representation. 

A cool city and mountain shot.

And last but not least. My favorite photo yet. I hope the largeness works out ok.

Rain Rain Rain. and more rain

It rains a lot here in the North West. Wandering around Evergreen State College and surrounding rain forest hunting for mushrooms was quite the treat. I had a hard time finding any thing noteworthy on the ground because I spent a lot of my time admiring the moss covered branches and the huge old pines and vast undergrowth of ferns that made for an incredible rain forest!

Big Ol' Tree. Very cool.

 

Bike Trails in the Rain Forest!

Tree house in the Rain Forest!

Beautiful view of the Bay

 And then it was time to move on and head further North. After meeting up with Ben and Morgan and finally getting to meet the new one, Finn, we headed off.

A brief smile in the midst of the crying.

Seattle

Although it let up for a moment or two, the overwhelming majority of the day was spent either under the umbrella, inside, or getting wet. Taking the bus to explore downtown Olympia was fun interesting and although I am determined to get in some good biking here in Vancouver, I will probably be forced to do a lot of transit travel here as well.

The Canadian Boarder.