yep. fer sure. omg surfing was a bonding experience/fun adventure/release of stress
our first day in california was amazing! we surfed with our new friends micah and sarah, ate pizza and stayed in a hotel. getting up on the board was a surreal feeling. i was so happy to be riding the wave that i stood daintily on the board with my feet together–and forgot about micah’s advice to take a defensive stance like a basketball player. needless to say, i didn’t stay up too long–but its something i’d like to do again on this trip!
helllllo foxes and folks and forks, it’s v here. I am writing to you from the niece-of-a-sister-of-a-friend-of-a-friend’s house in eurrrrrrrrrrreka, ca. yes, that is how absurd the generosity has become.
you may or may not know, but I am in an ever-waxing/waning transitional period between “school” and “real life.” I have come to accept that the majority of my life has revolved around books and learning and writing and computers and virtual reality. and I have loved-hated it for a while. there’s such a magnificent safety, security, satisfaction and logic to attending class and writing papers and completing assignments and deriving calculus equations. But then, upon reflection, it seems insanely obtuse that I have spent my entire life “learning.” and now all I want is to do-do-doooo. because everyone poops, right?
point of the story- in an effort to do and see some more shita that I’d love to weave into my future, I have temporarily departed ways with the clan and have been accepted into this wild mania of sarah and micah- a gaggle of laid-back- yet motivated, positive- yet realistish, young- yet wise folk interested in learning how best we can perpetuate our race of humyn beings while maintaining responsibility and still having a titch too much fun. check ’em out- afeatherlife.wordpress.com.
sarah's a knarly knitstress (she's on the phone here, but imagine 2 min later when her hands are consumed with four needles delicately assembling a pair of gloves). she is always finding the things I lose and is an incredibly positive, reflective spirit. whattawomyn!
micah's a surfer, sailor, and soon-to-be fisherman. he has taught me way too much about fixin' my dearly beloved bicyclette and pumps up the tunes on his speakers when my ipod dies! whattaman!
pit stop at washedashore.org, most beautiful trash I've eva seen
the night I met them, I slept on this rocket stove bench that stayed warm all nighttttt. mmmmmm, dreamy.
rrrrrrocket stove bench. plus garlic. equals dreamcometrue
and we fainted paces in a coffee shorp all day,
I asked for seafoam face and boy, I got it!
watched an eery ocean creep over a river a gravel, dazed as the fog rushed over the hill, engaged in 8-hand massages, listened to goats daaading all morning, and waded in the glory of some good ‘ole-fashioned homesteading.
cobb houses are just sand castles for adults
fortunately for me, most of the broads happened to get stuck with some bike troubles in brookings, so we got to raid the bulk section in freddie’s, hoard a lot of florescent bike clothes, cross the cali border, surf in 45-degree-f water, hot tub in luke-warm water, share waffle stacks, ford a river of redwoods, pile up in a cozy living room chock full of enchiladas and mousse-covered pudding pie and the best chai tea you’ve ever had, and enjoy free bagels, lox, and coffee together. I’ll miss those damned broads! massage trains aplenty when we’re reunited and it feels so gooooooood.
my first state-crossing via bicycllllle
Finally, I have become obsessed with sea foam and pelicans. swam with the pelicans in crescent city and glided with the sea foam in lincoln city:
(to drown out the meaningless-and-strange commentary of my vid, try simultaneously playing this wonder that whole-heartedly describes my relationship with the sea foam):
and a view from a view
I’ll miss you broads! classier, richer, and defo broader than a
Liz, baby friz, get cho mac-daddy on, meaning mac-n-cheeze-a-thon Ilana, hates on fauna, but she can’t get enough when I’m getting road kill dust Molly, loves the folly, joke is on the foo who quiets giant p– Orla, givin more love, than a giant pasta monster, hard to beat that for our insanely intense, eccentric hangers (hey, I rhymed with Orla. too delirious to make another- I think I am still high off of that small cup of coffee I had 15 hours ago).
loads of lovvvve, bisous galore, bucinys, smooches, v
we broads have developed a new pattern – riding until the late afternoon and finding an establishment to plunk ourselves down in for hours until the evening creeps up on us and spontaneity overtakes us.
this past sunday we rolled into coos bay and spotted the only open business on the main strip – a bar. after a few beers and too many baskets of over-salted popcorn, we decided to stay in coos bay that night and used a cyborg phone to find a couchsurfing host within minutes.
having the security of a place to stay, the broads let loose and took part in coney station bar’s favourite ritual – sunday night karaoke. highlights included spice girls – wannabe (5 broads = 5 spice girls, obvi), no scrubs – destiny’s child, and the plethora of country songs performed by coos bay locals donna and darryl.
and the other day, lazing at a crab shack in bandon, oregon, we were deliberating on where to camp that night as the sun slinked away from us. on my way to the bathroom outside i ran into two cyclists who had the same handlebars as me. turns out micah and sarah were staying that night with a woman just outside of bandon, and they kindly rode ahead and asked her if we could stay there as well. we arrived at a huge estate full of cob house works-in-progress and rotting r.v.’s., and were greeted warmly by our host tammy, who had laid out a spread of bagels and cream cheese and jams (which ilana, incidentally, had been fantasizing about all day). tammy runs a cob-related non-profit and is affectionately and appropriately called the “cob-web.” the next night we continued on with micah and sarah to the place of another cobber, rick, who let us sleep in the loft of his barn on bails of hay.
So we finally left the Land of Port after acquiring our fifth element, Ilana Jean Feingold! Hi Ilana!
Portland was so fun and so luxurious! We got to stay in a super comfy house/palace in downtown Portland as well as we stayed with our new friend Laura who just finished biking across the god forsaken COUNTRY via Atlantic Coast to Pacific–> Virginia to Oregon! OH WOW! We saw the Dum Dum Girls and then ate Kentucky Fried Chicken flavoured pizza afterwards! We biked all over the place, ate a lot of food and hung out with some visitors from Vancouver–> YASMIN AND CEDRIC TAZER SANDWICHES! We thrift-hoarded, OCCUPIED portland, recovered from explosive illness and had CANADIAN Thanksgiving dinner ALL in Portland. We stayed there for a week and I think we all loved it soooo much. I was begining to establish myself–> I had thoughts of printing out some resumes and wandering around town in my best bike attire to do some job hunting. It was TIME TO LEAVE! GOODBYE PORTLAND! Here’s our route to our current destination, Lincoln City, Oregon:
Portland to Lincoln City VIA Monster Mountain
We had a late start leaving Portland due to the Marathon, Occupy Portland and bicycle tire issues. We ended up camping on the Lawn of Linda in Forest Grove. Thanks Linda! NEXT we biked through the mountains on a beautiful forested road, free of all vehicles. The only downside to this route was MONSTER MOUNTAIN! A never ending mountain at the very end of our day… In order to keep my mind off of my failing thunder thighs throughout the steep incline of Mt. Monster, I thought about this:
and then at the very end this:
After the peak of the mountain we found a campsite and established ourselves under a deserted picnic shelter next to the river. In the morning we began our journey towards Lincoln City! A destination with a friend’s cottage awaiting our arrival. It was pouring rain all day but at moments there were bursts of sunlight and 12 rainbows would appear one after the other! We were starving and thirsty so we stopped at the first establishment we saw: Fox Grocery and Firearms.
Fox Grocery and Firearms had everything we needed: coffee, water, bean burritos, pastries, chicken nuggets, nutty bars, pink rifles, camouflage everything and SAFETY VESTS galore!
I bought a safety vest meant for hunting but for bicycle use! I did some alterations with reflective piping here they are:
Speak the Language
Hunting Calls
Sunbleached Vest on Vest
A few hours after Fox Grocery and Firearms in Beaver, Oregon we finally made it to Lincoln City! Our cottage near the ocean has views like this:
Cottage View
and this:
Since we’ve been here we’ve watched Mrs. Doubtfire and Harold and Maude, hung out on the beach, ate a bunch of curry popcorn and thrift-hoarded for hours at the local Goodwill.
WELL we’re finally leaving Lincoln City tomorrow! Next destination? Who knows! We’re planning on hanging out in Newport, Oregon for a few hours so that Victoria can check out NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration)–> home of the Marine Opterations Center! Wowowow I’m excited.
It will probably be raining tomorrow. Oh well. I’ll just listen to this:
So liz jackson used to be a she-cat. In the vancouv, she avoided multiple accidents based on the ability to side-jump off her bicycle, legs swinging with shadow-like delayed imagery sweeping in a gust of pressure gradient force dragged by friction and the coriolis effect to one side and sticking her landing like Kerri strug. But alas, she has made the big decision to get straps on her pedals. No longer will she exude the swift, mysterious expressions of the she-cat, but now the caged giant will express her furious emotions in bikedancemoves, so order amongst the clan is restored.
In other news, portland has been strange- so much generosity and good looks, and helpful information, and new friends freshly moved in, and new friends well-established and old friends facing wild health battles, and thrift and pizza and fancy donut stores and food carts galore!
Welp, the dum-dum girls are calling our names. Must migrate from our corner. Will post pics soon. Sorry we are obsessed with liz jackson? Her name is the best.
I haven’t yet decided which game we’re playing here. It’s a cross between one of those really pixelated laterally-sliced mountain biker hopping games, mario kart, frogger, double-oh-7, the game of life, trouble, operation, and hungry hungry hippo.
hangry hippos
Along the road, we’ve dodged between at least 3 dead frogs, 7 or 8 dead snakes, a couple of bloated dead cats and a bloated dead deer, 15 fuzzy wuzzy caterpillars, tires, rope, bungees, a pair of adidas sandals, a few fallen trees, a hammer, and millions of rumble strips, pine cones, rocks, and shards of metal and glass. The mirror glass only inflicts upon your health meter about 20%, and window glass a titch more, but broken bottles are must-avoids, or you WILL slash a tire and game over for an hour or two.
Liz rides down the 101 at about 60% on the health meter and 30% on the exhaustion meter. A truck passes a little too close. Ok, she thinks. I can relax a little, that was a close one! But little does she know, there’s a boat behind that truck! s.b.d. good thing she’s keepin a steady haul. Here comes another truck. This one wants to shove her into the ditch! But, wait, there’s more! A giant Monster energy drink can comes flying in her path. Shift+A 3x! Dodge it gurl! disaster averted!
fuelin up!
Back before my music meter dropped through the floor due to a full 65-mile day of non-stop rain b/c I failed to throw it in a plastic bag of sorts, the hood internet yells, double points! double double points. I made a lot of points back then.
brrrroads on bikes. check out those shadows! what broads!
best ice cream scoopa in all the land! she's biking with us in spiritttt
getting instructions on how to bike across siberia
spying on mr. burns
lots of bike parts missing their bikes
she's coming with us!
looking down on the grocery from mt. olympus
beautiful view from giles' in astoria!
crossed paths with these biker babes doin the perpendicular x-country. yummmm blube & banana pancakes!
On the few days that we haven’t been coddled inside sweet, warm, homes (plus one for us! we have great friends! thanks allie & steve, anna & damon, eva & sarah, christine & jacob, lin & peter, joe & james, giles, shayna & mom, alan, and many ppl & places, fam & friends to come!), molly and I have been sleeping in my little bro’s tent (thanks alex!): it is a little two-person that narrows at the feet and looks like a dragon’s snout (molly thinks it’s a panda). WE ARE EATEN BY DRAGONS!
But don’t worry too much, it regurgitates us in the morning as it melts in the rain or it withers away from the sweet siren songs of la bouche.
On a little-less virtual note, life is not all fun and games, folks. We all worked ourselves to the bone this summer to save up, many of us will be living with moms to recoup afterwards, we all have to compromise a lot and be really flexible in order to perpetuate positive group dynamics, and we have a sickness circulating through us like little boys in 1st grade. Being safe as and trying to take good care of ourselves, but can’t win em all. I’m pretending this sneeze-fever is just a little koopa troopa spell that will be vanquished with plenty of water, emergen-C, ricola, teas, and a good ‘ole tail WHip.
waiting for broads at a coffee shop to run their errands, eating a peanut butter bar that tastes like sugar. Molly and me got flat tires yesterday, we pulled over and changed them, but we were hungry and snacky, so it took us a really long time and so our day was short. Please don’t rain today! I’m getting a bit antsy to leave the northwest. Olympia was fun though- A Yoga instructor, Doug, made my and Orla’s days on wednesday, “Dumpster Values” turned us all into thrift queens again, even though we have no more packing room. The woman who worked there seemed displeased by our “all over the place shopping style”. She didn’t like that we were making a mess. At least she was honest. I would describe the people I met in Olympia as honest abrasive and friendly, which actually suits me well. ah! girls are all back! and we’re off! -liz
we awoke this morning to the soothing yet ominous sound of raindrops, heavy and numerous, on the roofs of our tent-homes.
“maybe we can sleep until the rain passes – what does it look like outside?” i mumbled sleepily and naively to liz. the sky responded with an all-pervasive whiteness that signaled the longevity of this rain-fit. after a 8-day-long lucky streak of near-perfect weather, we finally got hit by the we(s)t coast’s finest of day-long downpours.
accepting the inevitable, we broke into our emergency supply of chocolate-covered espresso beans and got to work packing up our things from the dry haven of our tents.
within an hour we had dashed out of the campgroud we were staying at on the olympic peninsula and hopped onto our bikes. our first stop was a lonesome gas station / corner store, the first sign of “food” we’d seen in two hours, where we scarfed down a breakfast of champions – fun-sized cereal, over-peppered-mr. noodles, machine-mochas and all.
breakfast part deux was at a road-side diner another two hours’ ride from the gas-station. we sludged in like snails, leaving a wet trail behind us, to the amusement of the server and fellow diners.
at the diner, molly spills ice-cold water after a failed hand gesture attempt. laughter ensues.
after friendly chats with warm peeps we headed off again into the deluge, riding hard and fast all the way to olympia. today we covered over 100 km – our biggest and wettest and bestest day yet!
new friends we met at the diner, pictured with victoria the volkswagen
we are fortunate enough to be staying at the house of my dear friend mara’s parents – a place i have visited twice and that feels like my home away from home.
exploding hearts!
o
p.s. – accompanying me on my bike on this soggy day were the sounds of amon tobin:
The Clan of Spokey Doke Broadship 