L.A.

I wanted to put up this photo of L.A. and the smog over the top of it. Its kinda hard to see because the photo is smaller and this site wont let me make it bigger but notice the brown below the blue in the first one.
This is disgusting, this city has so many deep problems, i wouldn't know where to begin.








I'll be home in a few days.

This trip has been really cool, with a lot of unexpected stuff happening. Some good some bad, but experiences are what you make them, and generally i am not one to sit around and not make something happen.

I really think that i learned more and gained more than i expected.
Before i came i was just thinking, I'm just going to California. But there are some crazy things and people here.
way to go whooooo.

see the mpls folk in a few.

peace, love, and bicycles

The guinness mustache is a special one

to live is to be free
we are human beings not human doings
we need to focus on being and not doing
This, of course, is sense sensitive

Rain Rain Rain
Raindrops keep falling on my head

The past few days it has been raining and kinda chilly. It wouldn't bother me but i don't have very many (none) clothes with me to swap out when i get wet. hmmm.
I just got back to Oakland and am leaving to go back to L.A. tomorrow morn.

by the way

When i took the BART to downtown Oakland to pick up my bus to Santa Cruz i checked in and got my tickets and went to find a cup of coffee. That proved much harder than expected. I quickly realized that there was not going to be a nice artsy cafe to sit down and read for the hour that i had to kill. This is Oakland remember. Well i figured i would be able to find something. A cup to go. Well i walked for probably 10 blocks and saw social service agencies, very trashy motels, those empty furniture stores that somehow stay in business that look so bad.

Here is a map of my walk. I had quite a few different turns to avoid riff-raff on the streets but this is an outline.
I just have to say that you should never go to this area. NOT EVEN IN BROAD DAYLIGHT!!! over 50% of the houses were missing multiple window and boarded up. People are yelling and screaming on the streets and there are broken windows and clothes lying every where. No joke! Even if you want a coffee really bad.


View Larger Map

The coffee that i finally found was terrible, the cup a lady gave me was one of those wax covered cups for cold soft drinks, and i didn't realize it and poured coffee in it. Well the hot coffee melted the wax and then went doowwwnn meee Trrroooaaat. This gave me a stomach ache. Anyone else ever pull that one? Do i have wax in my stomach? Do we humans have the enzymes and stomach acid to break apart wax? I expect it to be still in liquid form if it is still in my stomach because of how hot our bodies our. Mines extra hot, by the way (he he). I mean i don't get cold , thats all. So maybe i will pass wax? who knows

enough about that

Santa Cruz was really cool and i wish i could have spent more time there. I made some friends that i will probably see again. Also the potluck went well, the salad i made was tasty and a lot of people really liked it. I met some good people here too.

Umm..
I am going out for a beer with Tim a friend that i originally met in MPLS but has just moved out to San Fran. It is good to see familiar faces sometimes too.
He's a great guy, i think we have a lot in common, at least more than expected.
Off to a Guinness or a Beamish. Or maybe both... he he

Santa Cruz

I'm in Santa Cruz
i think this is going to be the end of the long line of connections that i have made.
From minneapolis to L.A. to San Francisco to Oakland to Santa Cruz leaving some of my stuff in each place. And taking multiple buses, trains, planes in between all of those is exhausting.

I am staying at a co-op/commune house right now with some people that i got in contact with through a person i met back on redondo beach. It's an interesting place with about 12 people living in a 3 bedroom house. I have alot to say about it but no time to write at the moment.

It's a safe place so no need to worry. Tonight they are having a potluck and i plan to make a kale salad with a garlic tahini dressing. Recipe from Claire (thank you very much).

Santa Cruz is really cool. I went to the farmers market yesterday and they have a very strong tight-knit community here. I think it has been one of the better framers markets i have been to. I am actually very impressed with this smaller city of 55,000. They have quite a bit to work with here being in CA the super power of produce. I haven't been taking very many photos, its raining today and actually only like 40 degrees. Not that i can complain.

Also i did go to the SFMOMA a few days ago and saw some very cool stuff. I walked through one of the exhibits twice because i liked it so much. The name of the artist is Olafur Eliasson. He is awsome, i was very very impressed.


I wish i had my bike.

I am writing a ton and enjoying it.

all for now -

Dont worry, i wouldn't do anything i wouldn't normally do

Well, I am here in Oakland, CA staying with Alison’s Parents for a few evenings. They are wonderful and made an amazing dinner. San Francisco so far has been really cool. I visited the museum in Golden Gate Park. I walked a lot today and met a few people. Walked through Haight Ashbury, which was really cool, Some amazing houses and shops in that area. It was a bit chilly in the shade but when walking I was plenty warm. It’s funny to see people around here wearing winter parkas and hats and scarves.

I have seen a lot of bikers. A few people riding some really nice fixies. Most with no brakes, some of the hills here would be just foolish riding suicide. I don’t know how they do it.

But they do…

Most everyone has been really nice

About a week ago I was in a random pub outside of L.A., Manhattan Beach to be exact, and I was talking to a guy at the bar, he had just gotten into town from Chicago. We talked for a bit and went our separate ways.
Last night I was in a Rogue pub, the only one in California, drinking some wonderful Rogue beer and talking to another guy at the pub, from Halifax, Nova Scotia, and I look over and the same guy that I met in L.A. is at the end of the bar.
Crazy coincidence, two big cities.
We chatted some more, he was good stuff, smart kid.

The guy from Halifax ended up picking up my whole tab (food and everything) because he was in San Fran for work and could charge it to the company. He was really cool. Hearing about Halifax makes me want to visit. From what he said Halifax seems like a really nice smaller city with good people, pubs and local music.

After that some drunken Irishman started talking to me, He was very drunk and got 86-ed in no time, but was quite funny. Kept telling me I was bullocks and asking to buy me a drink. He opened his wallet about 8 times, looked for cash and then put it back when he didn’t see any. I told him he could buy me a drink if he told me what city in Ireland he was from but he was too drunk.
He kept yelling to the bartender
“are we fixed, are we fixed,” of course the bartender was like what the hell are you saying.
“are we fixed for a drink”?
he he
then he started pointing at the bar and calling me a hippy.
We all had a good laugh.

The public transit is crazy here. They have city buses, streetcars, cable cars (which are $5 per ticket), BART and Muni. The last two are subway systems. Compared to L.A., which has about 5 train lines for the whole city.
5? Really? That’s shameful for how big and populated that city is. They do have a lot of buses but in my opinion, they’re just not as reliable.

I have come to the conclusion that I do not like L.A. I didn’t think that I would like it before I went but wanted to go in with a positive attitude and give it a chance. Well I gave it that chance. It’s so spread out, a huge suburban sprawl, the people suck and the smog is disgusting. I did feel some effects of the smog and had times that it was harder to breathe. I took some photos when I was at the Getty Museum a few days ago of L.A. and I could clearly see the brown blanket that covered L.A. I haven’t reviewed the photos yet so I don’t know how they turned out and how clearly you will be able to see the smog. It was really surprising to see.

After the Getty, I was riding through Bel Air and West Hollywood, through thick traffic, and a guy opened his door to try to hit me with it. It’s actually illegal to open your doors on the road in CA because motorcycles can legally ride between traffic.
Anyways – I swerved so hard the stem bent to the side. They are in gridlocked traffic. So I stopped turned around and knocked on the S.O.B.s window. He opened it a crack and said quickly “sorry I thought I was going to throw up” and quickly closed his window. But he starred at me after that like he didn’t care that I knew he was lying. It was blatant. If I wasn’t a peaceful man, I would have stood on the hood of that new Volvo (with temporary plates) and jumped up and down.
I’m not that nice. But that day I was, I just rode off.
He purposefully put me in danger and the second he had to answer to someone; he was scared, lying and prideful.
Who breeds these people?
When will natural selection and evolution kill them off?
Hopefully before my lifetime is over.

San Fran.

I just arrived in San Fran and found a hostel for the evening. I bought my ticket at like 2 am and had to be at the airport in like 8 hours, and i still needed to sleep and pack.
Anyways - so far it seems really cool.
beautiful character to the city.
Everything is really easy to find and get around on.
The hostel seems better than most i've stayed in.
I'll post more later.

I've never flown southwest before today...its really wierd. They took one of my bike wrenches which i of course forgot to take out of my bag. Damn, i always forget to take that stuff out.

more photo's

These photo's are from Sequoia National Park.
The tree that i am hugging (you can barely see me) is General Sherman. The only reason i was able to go hug him is there was snow on the ground, otherwise you can't go in there and step on the vegetation. We were at 6,700 feet above sea level. I think that's the highest i have ever been. THere was over 50" of snow up there.






He He He

A few days ago i spent the afternoon and evening riding around about 1/3 of L.A. It is absolutly huge and spread out. The urban sprawl is rediculous. I rode from Redondo Beach where Nick and Claire live to Venice beach and then on past Santa Monica and around Santa Monica for a while, then got lost (i had no map) and found my way home in the dark. I had my compass and the ocean so it wasn't too bad. My first stop was Venice Beach, which is known for its wierd sidewalk shows and shops. I stopped for an Eggplant sandwhich and a few Kona Longboard beers (brewed in HI). I also saw this crazy guy jump in a pile of glass he had collected for a show. He stomped around in it for a little while. I could not stop laughing it was so stupid. From there i rode north to Santa Monica and stoped in a bike shop for a bit. It was a beautiful 78 degree day.

Check out the map. I got lost for a bit in the Marina Del Ray area...but estimate my trip at minimum 50 miles. (1 gear)

View Larger Map


I have finally got some good writing time and reading time in, which was a goal for me for this trip.

I have a pretty good story to tell once i get some more time to write about my first experience in downtown L.A. and the terrible areas of South Central.

Now i am staying with my aunt Kyran and 2 cousins Jeremy and Elliott. It is really nice to spend time with them, i hardly ever get to see them. They have a really nice house in Laguna Nigel south of L.A. a bit. This morning Kyran made us the best breakfast ever. Huevos Rancheros...yumm. I am so lucky to have wonderful family.

After this i PLAN on getting to San Fran and possibly Santa Cruz which i hear is really cool.

Then more camping and surfing.

I'll post more photo's soon

All for now

Some other favorite stuff i forgot about was my hike through the sand dunes in death valley. I have wanted to really know what it is like to hike through a total desert with only sand dunes. We had seen plenty of desert both the Mojave desert and the colorado desert but they all have brush and some smaller trees (joshua trees). So in a few places out here there are spots with primarily sand dunes. We found one and i took about an hour hike to the tallest peak out there. I thought it was really cool. I saw scorpion tracks, desert rat tracks and a lot of very fine sand. You really have to be careful when you get out there, with no land marks and only sand they say to have topo maps. Of course i didn't have those but i did have my compass which was plenty for my quick hike. When i got to the highest peak there were a bunch of kids that brought boogie boards and snow boards out there to take down the steep sand slopes. it was pretty cool watching them. It was really cool to see nothing but sand dunes all around you. I liked that alot.

What was i thinking publishing a post before it actually happened...

Claire and I went onward with the trip that I previously posted. Not exactly in that order but we got it all in there. It was amazing. We saw some really cool stuff.


Some of my favorite stuff included Sequoia National Park, and seeing the giant Sequoia trees. It was like walking through a magical world with trees bigger than you can imagine. Also, we were at 6500 feet above sea level so there was 55" of snow. Sequoia National Park is in the Sierra Nevada and is very beautiful. We saw some mule deer that seemed very tame. At our camp site there were tons of "extreme bear warnings" that i think were total bullshit. The park ranger was telling us at the elevation of our camp site the bear were still active but i am pretty sure they exaggerate for all of the people from L.A. that don't know shit about bears and camping. I told one of the park rangers we were from Alaska so she would stop lecturing us about it.

Death Valley was really cool. That was the one place i didn't do any reading on prior to our visit. We camped at 190 feet below sea level and went down to badwater basin which is the lowest point in the western hemisphere at 282 feet below sea level. The night before we camped in Joshua Tree National Park and we were at 4,000 feet above sea level ( it hit 32 F) and then drove north and camped at 192 feet below and of course it was way warmer, Kind of cool how that works. Wikipedia reports badwater basin as the second lowest point in the world, but there were maps that we saw at badwater basin that showed different statistics. I don't know who to trust. hmm.

We went on quite a few hikes in death valley and one was to a natural rock bridge. This thing was really cool, very high and very big despite how photos look. But what good is a bridge if you cant use it and walk on top of it. So of course i had to climb it. It was a decent little free climb. Claire wouldn't watch me do it because there were some scary parts.
Another hike we went on took us on the west mountains of death valley and to a peak where we could see tons of other rock mountains (thats the best way i can describe them). Some of them look like piles of sand but were as hard as a solid rock and as rough as sand paper. I think at that peak we were at about 4000 feet above sea level and not far away is bad water basin. Thats quite the change in elevation.

After Death Valley we drove to a ghost town called Ballarat. It was pretty cool. We didn't exactly know what to expect, there wasn't a ton there. There is one guy and his dog that lives there full time and kind of keeps the place up. I didn't know this at the time but i guess Charles Manson and his family of followers use to stay there pretty frequently. kinda crazy.

We camped in Joshua Tree National Park at 4000 elevation - got a bit chilly, but i didn't think it was too bad. We saw a bunch of Joshua trees which are on their way to death with in the next couple hundred years. I did a little rock climbing there too and we did a few hikes there as well.

So i haven't had time to explore L.A. at all but will soon.

This is badwater basin, lowest point in the U.S. - it looks like frost on the ground but its actually salt - its a salt flat


This was on a hike in death valley - its strait out of the indiana jones movies




This is a joshua tree

Now i have time to write

Umm.. well our plans are really getting tossed around out here. Originally we were going to pick up and go right when i got our here. Then Nick, being the successful photographer that he is, got a bunch of jobs and we are going to have to postpone it to the last week of Jan. But one of his jobs canceled for wed and the minute we heard that we started packing and an hour later we were out the door with camping gear, tons of food and everything else we would need. We went and picked up a rental car and were off to Sequoia National Park to see the biggest tree in the world - General Sherman. He is not the tallest but the biggest by volume.

General Sherman is over 2,200 years old and is as big as 10 blue whales. I want to give him a hug. This tree is taller than the statue of liberty.

The plan was to camp there for a night and then go on to Death Valley and then on to Joshua Tree national park and camp for another 2 or 3 days.

The bad news is that Nick's grandmother passed away. We got the call a few hours out of L.A. I feel so terrible for him. He seems to be doing okay but is really removed with his whole family being so far away.

We turned around and headed home.

Nick and Claire are headed to the east coast tomorrow to be with Nicks family for a few days and then will be back by the end of the weekend. Its really very unfortunate for everyone.

In the mean time i get to explore L.A. and all it has to offer. From what i've seen it will no doubt be interesting, but i am really wondering if i will be able to find a young down to earth community to chill in for a while. I have my doubts with all of the fashion bull shit/ hollywood stuff here. But L.A. is huge so i think i will find plenty.
I just have to make sure i down ride through Compton on accident.

I think i am going to go downtown and tear it apart on my bicycle for an afternoon. Show them how MPLS does it!!
By the way the Peugeot that i use to own, that i sold in alaska, i sold to Nick and it is here in L.A. so i am free to ride it. If you don't remember scroll down and there are photo's of it on this blog when i was in Seattle and Juneau.
I also want to visit the hollywood area and track down paris hilton, scare the shit out of her and her kind.

I am looking forward to a few days alone that i can relax, explore, read and write. We have been on the run since i got here.

When they get back Claire and I are probably going to do the same trip so i will be able to see all that good stuff. It just sucks because Nick wont be there with us.

I'm a bit bummed, its just very unfortunate.

we will make the best of life here and it will work out. It always does. - no matter what - it always works out - never forget that

Well i'm here in Redondo Beach California.

It's about 60 degrees here

i dont have much time to write at this point but will soon

I have been meaning to post Nick's photo website so here it is

we just hung a bunch of his photo's today

His website isn't updated but still worth checking out

Reinhardtphoto

tomorrow we will hula hoop. and not eat anything but juice.

well I'm here with a Beamish Irish stout

It's really funny because when i leave MPLS it seems no one ever seems to think about what's going on in my head
no one even attempts to think about what i am thinking about
this sounds so selfish but i really think i am constantly thinking about what other people are experiencing and thinking about.
I think about that stuff to help me understand other people and their ways of life.
I cant really conceptualize being in California in tomorrow but i know its going to happen
interesting...

1st

i found my phone

i was quick to blame the cars

i tried on a pair of pants that i got for christmas and must have slipped my phone in my pocket.
of course i didn't really remember trying a pair of pants on.
so a few days later i put the pair on to wear them and i'm like, what the hell is in my pocket
and out it comes.

I'm listening to the new blonde redhead album and eating this MN wild rice cake and both are very good. check it out.

I am leaving in a few days.
I always get like this when i am close to leaving
I cant focus on reading,
my head is just flying around having its way with whatever it wants.
no control
I'm too excited.

Oh today's the first of 2008!!

time flies by so fast,
it really makes me realize that you have to be choosey with your life. Mine has already started to fly by too fast
i have so many things that i need to get done.


Last night i worked and it was a very good night. I think the best night i have ever had at the LPB. I was determined to sell a bottle of Dom Perignon. Well that didn't happen, but i did sell a bottle of Veu Telegraff that we sell for $75. And it wasn't even that he just ordered it; I SOLD HIM.

It really is a very nice bottle especially for the price, usually it goes for over $100.

umm...what else
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A SEPARATE ENTITY:

my head is loving this
it thrives on the fact that it doesn't know what to expect
there could be so much and will be so much that happens that is so unexpected
i cannot hold back the smiles or the tears in this state
its explosive
its preparing itself for the element of surprise that it has planned.
good job head
way to think it out
is that some sort of game
if it is i don't care because it's great
i don't know where that comes from but its done
i want more though
I'll plan more
I'll go more
I'll be more

keep going head
never quit

tell me where you've seen my life

clashing lies and clashing thighs

one of those must be adjusted
i'll give you a hint
not the clashing thighs

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Do people totally never get what i write about?
i can't tell