do you know what time it is
next time around a whole nother set of cryptic cases
nothing legitimate
all asking

essentials kit

big red
hairtie and bobby pins (2)
jumbo sharpie
gun
multivitamins
ginger

slow your roll and switch your role

ahhh

The last 6 months have been mindblowing. I quit my preschool job of two years (heart-wrenching because it meant ending 50 friendships in one day); visited my grandfather for the last time ever, afterwards trying to absorb his wisdom more actively than ever; crossed thousands of miles of the country westward and back, largely alone, only to reach home and almost immediately head north; visited a bear, moose, and coyote filled paradise for five weeks, living on more books and adventures than I could promptly process but on no electricity or running water; and now finally at home again, am caught in the middle of a stressful charade of an election, knocking on strangers' doors for at least 40 hours per week. It strikes me as funny that in the last four weeks I have probably met more people within the vicinity of my own home than I did all summer, across the whole country.
Anyway things in my head have been different lately.

bon voyage encore

I hate putting my bike in storage! Haven't had to since Switzerland and I wasn't really in love with that bike.
Geez I am super behind on posts and yet am about to amass A LOT more material. I'm going to a backcountry Maine apple farm for a month and a half. Not really with the purpose of working but I'm sure I will end up picking an apple or two. Probably not going to see many people for a while. The farm only has two official permanent residents. Eeeeee I might not be able to post the whole time I'm there either.
I'm just hoping I can get clear reception for a top 40 radio station.
XOXO, Gossip Girl

Day 4. Wednesday May 2nd.

Heading to Asheville. On the way out of Boone I got gas at a pump before you pay. The cashier knew everyone and was smacking gum, wearing red lipstick, and flirting it up. Very distracted, very faithful in the trust system of paying. The diner in the gas station was serving more livermush and all flavor chitlins. Then I set in for the drive, heading into the thick woods and mountains of Pisgah National Forest, in which the drive from Boone to Asheville is almostly entirely contained. I was behind trucks and a motorcycle for hours, left to jealously imagine myself with no baggage, no bicycle, and a smaller gas tank. And to be frightened that the trucks would topple off of a cliff. The nerves and envy got to me, so I pulled off at the only stop I'd seen for miles, Linville Caverns. I drank a soda on some rocks, wrote a postcard with a lizard at my feet, contemplated going underground to see stalactites and mites, and talked to a country boy who worked in the gift shop. He filled me in on the political landscape of Marion, NC. A lot of furniture manufacturing plants were closed about eight years ago due to outsourcing, and the area had been through some truly rough times. Many residents had been forced to move away from the land where generations of their family had born and died. But going on welfare is not seen as an option by most in a town with an old time mentality like that of Marion. So eventually with a little innovation, new industry cropped up...literally hehe. He said that tourism farms were now big in the area. They capitalized on peoples' interest in buying and growing locally, bringing folks on tours to see how they do things in the country. Linville Caverns didn't always have such an extensive gift shop. They had expanded it to something of a convenience store and art gallery. And as the one-time Christmas tree capital of the world, Marion had also created an attraction of the remaining giant evergreen forests. They couldn't profit as much as they had in the past, nor produce such volume as to keep their old title, but at Christmastime people like to spend a lot of money doing extravagant shit like driving far distances to see megawatt wonderland forests. So they capitalized on that, too. When I questioned whether anyone had looked to the government for help back in when times had been really rough, he explained the very reason why they were living somewhere so remote with such limited business opportunity: Marion folks just wanted to be left alone. They would as soon ask for help as they would build skyscraper and a white house in downtown Marion. In fact. They need to be left alone! He told me the craziest Marion practice which sort of needs privacy to be able to continue in tradition. ugh sick of typing

Neglected But Not Forgotten! Day 3!

Boone, NC: Well, on the way to Boone I stopped in the craziest town. It was like 30 years ago to me but of course that was just the initial appearance; all country sort of appears outdated to me. My perspective needs adjustment. Anyway the town from my eye was just a highway exit, diner, mobile home sales center, giant rusty red arrow sign pointing nowhere, and further down the dusty road, a flea market. I took so many pictures but none showed how I viewed this place at all so I deleted/hid them all just to have it my way in my mind. It was closed since it was a weekday afternoon but still definitely operating occasionally…there was a gun shop, cowboy boots/music lessons store, convenience store with taco walkup window and handwritten sign (open), a hardware mart, center office, and then finally a motorcycle shop with a parking block in front that just barely read “motorcycles only”. What if bike shops in cities got to reserve part of the street for a bike rack?! So exclusive…. And also there was a deserted gas station roof structure positioned in front of a deserted barn that had the faded words “dealers only” printed on it. There was livermush on the menu of the diner, it was decorated with nascar memorabilia & tractors & ol silly sayin’s and I got a PBJ, tots & coffee for like $3.
Boone! Stay w logan on park street up the hill. Slept SO much. Met The Pond the cat, Chrissy the dog, and chickens!! Went for a bike ride, made pancakes for the roommates Sydney Kathleen and Emily with one of the chickens’ eggs (vegde break :P), drove logan to class, slept, walked up the roped-off driveway next to their house and saw a great camping spot/ deserted house and shed, mountains all around. Why desert? Eight hours after a friend asked if I was in meth country and I said if I am I don’t know it yet, then got the lowdown on meth country, someone who knew someone.
The egg didn’t make that pancake any better and I can’t imagine putting them in any baked or caked good for any reason besides 1) lack of creativity or 2) I can see that they are happy, although probably not ever truly livin it up. Do animals live it up?
May 2nd. Roadside farmers market w sweetest old man. 100s of handwritten jams/jellies/preserve labels lining the empty spaces where there weren’t racing decorations. Phone lines down so no paying with card but he gave me a free apple, washed it for me, let me use the restroom…very sweet impression of the country always.
Next stop: Linville Caverns, Marion, NC!

It is awfully easy to be hard-boiled about everything in the daytime, but at night it is another thing.

playlist for the crossing

The Beach Boys- Feel Flows
Anya Marina - Whatever You Like
The Ramones- Outsider
No Doubt- Let's Get Back
Yes- I've Seen All Good People
Cam'ron - Oh Boy ft. Juelz Santana

Day 2 (April 31st)

So I had this idea that I would take pictures of each "Welcome to _______" sign, for every state. I would put them together at the end. This idea turned out to suck.
I'm used to driving to Nags Head/ Kitty Hawk/ Outer Banks via some lil highway, and you enter NC on a 45 mph stretch right near the south of the border gas station. There is a stop light in front of the station I believe. I took little roads like that for some of my trip, but almost every time I was entering a state, I found myself on a major interstate going like 85 miles per hour.
As I entered NC, it was like 2 o clock in the morning and I saw the sign! I was stoked. Leaving Virginia seemed like a major milestone in my trip. I wasn't going to let the conditions of my sighting ruin my picture plans. I braked heavily, pulling to the side with blinkers, although there was literally no one in sight on the road. When everyone is going at least 70 deserted at the moment means very little. I put on hazards, got out, locked the car, and watched trucks round the corner and whiz by. How would I not end that sentence with a preposition.
At this point, as I'm walking back towards the sign, I mentally acknowledge that I am doing something very dangerous, potentially illegal? probably, and most of all just dumb. Just not worth the picture. But the walk feels good, the night is crisp, the moon is bright, so I ignore all of that. A fourth of a mile later I got what I want and back on the road.
Later on the phone my best friend asks if I've done anything crazy yet and I don't tell her this, simply because it's not actually thaaat risky and also because it's not a great story, because I don't get hit or kidnapped, or even run out of film or lock the keys in the car. I just take the damn picture. And it came out shitty once I had it developed anyway.
About this I wrote in my rose spiral: "Photo of entering NC sign! the sheer size of trucks, the moon, the speed of machines passing me alarming. free"
haha. awww I romanticize
I realized that I included some NC in Day 1, but that's really a midnight/ 1am distinction. So after that Henderson, NC wafflehouse I mentioned, I continued on with the target of Chapel Hill. I was getting a little mentally tired, but physically knew I could make it. Stopped at a hotel so close to my target just to have somewhere nice to rest. Told the clerk I was waiting for my mom, and that she was late. He was like my age and super nice. Definitely believed me %100 but also definitely wouldn't have cared if it had occurred to him that I was lying. I couldn't get into the pool, which was my only regret. From the lobby I wrote: "made it to Durham thanks to the Promise Ring. In a Hampton lobby. lies. nap was approved yet I'm not...will though. and also got a movie plan"
(my idea that instead of paying for hotels I would see movies and moviehop late in the day, paying $8 or whatever and then taking like 3 consecutive 2 hour naps in different movies, then continuing to drive around 1am. I never did this but it was a great plan. Can't really take an in the dark nap in the car during early evening hours)
Anyway I stayed there forever reading and chilling and then finally continued on to Chapel Hill. I stalled enough between the two that the sun was coming up when I arrived, so I napped in a parking lot from like 6-8 and then walked around. I met someone from Chester. Always a pleasure.
"Chapel Hill is like a clean smart Richmond with a better college, no downtown, and fancy giant sorority and fraternity rows instead of Monument Ave. mansions. I want to live in one. I got into a planetarium to see Wildest Weather in the Solar System- methane cycle rather than water cycle on Titan! Methane storms!"
For Day 2 my target was Boone, where my friend Logan lives. I made it there but slept sooo much as soon as I arrived, so I'll include that in day 3, since I did very little on that first day.

Sleepy drunken ~thoughts~

I used to want to own land more than anything, for 3 or 4 dogs to enjoy, but now I'd much rather buy an RV. I still want dogs def but I bet they would love camping. Recreational Vehicle is code for fun on the go obviously

8 hours to go

From Day 1 to day like 25 or something. Oooops. I'm at the Grand Canyon, staying practically in the park with some tour guides. New plan for updates is to eventually just type up everything I've written in notebooks and post with pictures, once I've developed them. I never want to be on a computer when I'm surrounded by nature or fun and have had a full day. But here is a quick peek at the itinerary I've followed:
Richmond
Chapel Hill
Boone
Asheville
Chattanooga
-night in Talladega, Alabama bahahaha
Birmingham
New Orleans
Houston, sort of
Austin
-night in a ghost town. Muleshoe, TX/ Texico, New Mexico/ Clovis?
Santa Fe and Albuquerque
Gallup, New Mexico
Flagstaff and the Grand Canyon

Next San Diego for a week or so and then San Francisco!
After this trip I feel like why did I ever want to go to Europe or even Asia?!? I'm staying here forever!!! There's so much more to see.

Day 1 (April 30th)

I didn't leave til about 6pm Monday. Tying up loose ends and generally freaking out. But once I finally got on the road and starting listening to the Beastie Boys I got pretty relaxed and stoked.
Going south towards 85, I had to down 95 first for about 35 minutes. This means I passed Chester, home from ages eight to eighteen, and next I passed through Colonial Heights, home from ages 2 and a half to eight, and then through Petersburg to 85. It's sappy but I felt like I was traveling backwards through my past into the future.

Anyway, then I stopped at the Pamplin Park exit, fueled up, got a Dr. Pepper and a Blowpop, accidentally left with the bathroom door locked from the inside, and chatted on the phone with a friend who will be in Las Vegas as I'm passing through.
45 minutes down. 48-ish hours to go.
In Rawlings, VA there was nothing but a huge gas station with a smoking lounge. I met a mute and blind guy who was dressed like a classy baller, red bandana and suit coat and sweet kicks, etc etc, and kept playing Michael Jackson tunes on the jukebox. Clearly he staked out the lounge daily because everybody who passed through chatted him up in a sort of routine manner. He bought me a pizza and then I had to tell him I was vegan. Pizza rejection is always tough because I do love fun a lot, but this time was THE HARDEST. We could have had a cute date right there in the smoking lounge in the gas station in Rawlings. Dammit.
I entered NC, stopped at a wafflehouse in Henderson, played some country classic jukebox jams, rode my bike into the town and explored, and snapped some pictures. I could see that the town was really suffering, with most buildings shut down and all the stores advertising big blowout sales despite being mostly empty of merchandise inside. I sat down at a picnic table on the main road and watched zero cars pass for an hour. I thought Richmond was small but 4 days into my trip, I have discovered that I am wrong. In Henderson I had just begun accommodating the perspective of not crowded. I have been absorbed in Richmond for too long. American country has a lot more to offer than I gave it credit for.
So I looked up a statistic. As of 2000, 166,215,889 citizens live in 153 American urbanized areas that have populations over 200,000. That's 58.274 percent of people living in cities like Richmond, within the city limits.
Wikipedia says that as of 2008, 82% of people live in cities and suburbs, making the US highly urbanized. But I don't think the suburbs count really, and that is including cities with populations as low as 2,500 people, calling them "urban clusters". So to me anyway, that is a misleading statistic. My high school had 2,000 people in it. That is not a city. I'm sure the requirements are complicated or globally standardized or whatever but bottom line is almost half, or roughly 40 percent of Americans, live in cities smaller than Richmond. I'm trying to meet them!! Anyway the country is cool. This is getting boring. Peace yall

The End is the Beginning is the End

Hey. So I'm driving across country. It is a stupid long way. Today while I was driving it finally hit me that I have graduated college. It only took a year for that to dawn on me..... It was a pretty triumphant feeling. Not because I have a degree but because I'm free. So I started shouting and grinning like a fool and relished the thought that the daily trifles of my recent past are ultimately so inconsequential, because they are so situational. Today I decompressed the weight that's been building over my head since Switzerland. August 2009 was the last time I felt this way, insignificant and yet independent and in power. I really need this. My mind is getting set right. I was nervous to leave Richmond, in a more scared and anxious way than I had expected to be, but now that I'm 300 miles away, those feelings are all evaporating. My grandpa told me to only look through my windshield and not out my rear views. It's advice I'm following. But only metaphorically, duh!!!! Pictures etc soon. Next stops: Asheville, Atlanta, Houston, and plenty in between.

I am thankful for having an electric blanket, oatmeal cookies, and a job, apartment, and roommates that I love. I seriously think that if I had a backyard and a dog, I would have my ideal life.

I'm a gamer first and a blogger second y'all.

"I feel that there is an angel inside me whom I am constantly shocking."

Rocktober

Cause that's how the world goes/ The born ones suffer/ The dead ones rot

I just bought chitty chitty bang bang on VHS and a sampley whiskey thimble bottle and now I'm going to church. And found my Halloween socks and rode a train. Aha!

I'm gonna leave my phone at home!!