miles and miles

the truck was heavily weighted towards the rear as we steadily jetted off in to the mountains from denver for crested butte. a rough packing list:

2 laptops
2 cameras

metaphorically speaking, brad would be the ansel adams of the operation and i may fall somewhere in the area of being ansel's distant step-cousin. its not necessarily a bad thing at all really.

the other day we had the honor of taking photos at moab's local pumpkin chuckin' contest. this was clearly something of a moab tradition with all proceeds benefitting the community. see now, i thought of pumpkin chuckin' and i am thinking of moab's finest burly farming men with cutoff t-shirts lining up single file to have a go at launching the pumpkins from their arms.

ohhhhhhhhhhh no.

instead, we entered the festival (being held on the runway of the old moab airport) to an arsenal of automated pumpkin launchers rumoured to shoot the orange spheres up to nearly 1 mile.

well i was awestruck (and slightly hard of hearing) when PUFF the air compressor-induced robotic launcher (it was dressed up and painted to mimic puff the magic dragon) managed to shoot a pumpkin over 3,000 feet packing something in the neighborhood of 150 PSI behind its punch.

i about shit my pants as the thing shot off.

i was standing there, roughly 12 feet from PUFF, proper photographic stance assumed, lens cocked out and BANG!!!!!!!!! the damn cannon shot off and i nearly lost my footing and hearing all at the same time. the people of moab were clearly prepared for such an event. i could now see many were wearing earplugs, most were covering their ears and all were standing at a minimum of 20 feet from our friend PUFF the pumpkin launcher. lord knows what the hell i was doing so close to this concoction.

needless to say, i didnt get much of a photo.

2 ipods

the music selections of the road have wavered between older americana roots music (by this i am referring exclusively to hank williams and roger miller) to a more contemporary mix of tunes (caribou, jose gonzales, magnolia electric co, watson twins, wilco). no strife has been noted as a result of musical tastes (sorry omri).

i was sent an article (thanks omri) on the current state of rock and roll these days-- with particular focus on why indie rock is really throwing the genre for a spin (most likely a downward one). for those overly interested in grizzly bear, wilco, fiery furnaces and other indie brethren, this will prove to be a rather sobering read:

http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/musical/2007/10/22/071022crmu_music_frerejones

i am going to hold-off on going too far in depth with my reaction to the article. overall, i thought the guy made some valid points (indie audiences and shows tend to be mildly uneventful) but i also thought he was blowing a lot of steam out of his ass (failing to draw some parrallels between african-american roots music in the "indie scene" today and using extremely convenient-- and obvious-- points to paint his picture). i walked away from the article more angry than i was pleased (for the love of god, dont pick on jeff tweedy on the whole "quality of lyrics these days" argument) but i think that anything exceptionally good gets a wholehearted reaction.

if you email me your thoughts on this article, i will give you more of a thoughtful response.

2 backpacks

its unfortunate... i still havent picked up on the fact that no matter how much i pack (and i can assure you it isnt that much), i will always wear the same couple of things over and over. i cant say this makes me sad or angry. so far its been the same jeans now for roughly 12 days in a row. i can say (perhaps with a smirk) that i have changed my britches. socks on the other hand, well, i try to keep them in some sort of rotation. these vans slip-ons of mine are going to be radioactive by the end of this sojourn.

2 pillows
an arsenal of food

well, the costco trip is worth elaborating on. the standards were of course pb&j, apples, wheat thins, beef jerky, canned chicken and tuna, green beans... but the highlight was the ramen bomb. this being the 48 pack of ramen (mix between chicken and beef flavored noodles) procured in aisle 8 that has honestly proven to be something of a jewel thus far.

and we aren't talking your polly plain jane ramen noodles--we throw a few green beans in there from time to time, keep things interesting. its as if emeril pops out of the woodwork every night and puts together a masterpiece for us.

it should be noted, however, that in an effort to cook that lovely ramen on the very first night we had our fair share of problems. see, we purchased a crock pot'esque water boiler that we deduced could be plugged in to the DC inverter via the dashboard 12 v auxiliary port. holy shit, we were wrong. the whole car went haywire when we fired that sonofabitch up. as soon as we hit the power button on the water boiler, a fuse was blown within about 3.2 seconds. after some reading-light induced research via the car manual and a look at the circuit board we deduced that the 1000 watt water boiler ripped through the 800 max watt inverter, blew the fuse and sent the car in to a state of electronic oblivion. turns out the lovely folks at ford attach a few replacement fuses to the fuse box and we were able to have the puppy up and running within about 5 or 10 minutes--- sans the much needed ramen that night in the sub zero weather that the great city of gunnison, co was dishing out.

1 video camera
2 road bicycles

lord jesus.

brad tends to be on the more active side of the table. god was handing out energy and gave our dear friend brad a few too many nods.

the kid never stops moving.

never.

ever.

he wakes up nearly every morning and has gone for a run by the time i do so much as work out the kinks from the evening workout (this typically consists of a soccer match).

by early afternoon, after i have gotten out of the cafe to have a cup of coffee and do some reading, brad typically wants to climb a mountain or go for a bike ride.

a bike ride is typically the route i choose to take.

well, that was something of an interesting ride on friday 26 october. when brad talked about going on a little bike ride i didnt realize we were talking 31 miles.

THIRTY ONE MILES.

we are in utah people-- 4,000 some feet up, the air is dry.

i was of course dressed in nothing other than my cutoff jean shorts, t shirt and my vans slip ons for the monster ride. i am ready to go waiting outside while brad is in the bathroom changing.

i about had a stroke when brad walked out. this is no joke now-- he has on his butt-padded uber- tight biking shorts, a clif-bar cycling jersey, leather gloves, cycling shoes and an arsenal of powerbars stuffed in the rear pocket of his italian knit jersey along with some minor tools in case we run in to problems along the way.

"uhh brad? which trail are we going on?"

"the easy one that the bike shop told me about."

"ok.... well thats quite the get up you have on."

we are about halfway through the first climb and my lungs feel as if they may implode and my thighs feel as if a steel vice grip roughly the size of tokyo is squeezing them in to a pancake. i ride a single speed road bike (no gears) so climbing those hills is something of a challenge.

now given all of my incessant complaining and poking at brad the ride turned out to be very enjoyable. and i mean that. i was quite surprised at having made it through this bruiser. i was certainly a bit winded, but once i got acclimated to everything i felt ok (by "acclimated" i mean once i figured out that i could ride roughly 6 inches to a 1 foot behind brad's rear wheel and pedal 30-40% less, i was ok).

1 air pump
brad's lifetime collection of cycling gear
a whole box full of reading material

speaking of, i just cracked a book that should be mentioned. its called "blood and thunder" by hampton sides. i got the book from my parents as a gift last christmas (i know, its taken me a bit to actually get to this one) after hearing a review of it on NPR sometime before last christmas. i have to say, depending on one's penchant for history books, it is extremely well-written and particularly interesting given the fact that a lot of territories discussed are geographies we are traversing.

1 two-man pup tent
1 atlas

this atlas by the way, despite its date of 2003 has proven quite useful.

some interesting stretches of road it has taken us on thus far would include the great kyber pass out of mt crested butte in to a town called delta (en route to grand junction).

i get skirmish when i hear the word "pass" because this typically involves all of the following:

1) steep mountains
2) narrow roads
3) cars on the road that are infinitely more powerful with all wheel drive and diesel powered thunderstroke engines
4) low visibility
5) high altitude

now, the lovely kyber pass had all of the above with something of a twist. the roads were narrow--- and made of dirt.

i am very pleased that the still unnamed 1998 ford ranger that we call our homestead made it through with flying colors.

we were so pleased that we stopped at the local dairy queen for an ice cream.

2 low temperature sleeping bags
3 wool blankets

these little puppies came in real handy on night one of sleeping in the truck. we slept halfway between gunnnison and crested butte amidst the below freezing temperatures. i am very pleased to say we both made it through just fine very comfortably. once you get past the whole sleeping-on-a-carpet-covered-piece-of-plywood-in-the-back-of-a-pickup-truck thing (this process took approximately 10 seconds. i am somewhat amused and slightly perplexed trying to figure out why these things dont bother me), the temperature is nothing to worry about.

montana? wyoming? well, ill keep my fingers crossed.

1 all-purpose emergency car kit
1 travel coffee mug

getting used to enjoying folger's instant coffee crystals in the morning is kind of like trying to get used to having a bumble bee sting you every hour on the hour at time duration intervals that are unknown to you. see, similar to our stinging bumble bee, folgers is something you could potentially get used to if you tried extremely hard, but it is likely that you will never ever ever become accustomed to such madness. nevertheless, carrying a stockpile of coffee equipment isnt the most convenient thing in the world, so i will continue to endure the daily sting of that shit as i try to force it down my throat.

2 LED headband lights
2 lawn chairs

we have become accustomed to-- and found it very convenient-- making our base camp near the community library in the towns we reside. this has benefits threefold: first, typically we are able to steal a wifi signal at all hours of the day from the convenience of our lawn chairs. second, there is typically some sort of park nearby where we can play soccer. three, there is always a clean bathroom inside.

2 notepads
1 leather bound journal

"make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men's blood"

daniel burnham

maximum strength

sunday, october 14 was day one on the road.

it was approximately 3:36 pm EST when i pulled out of sister emily's apartment complex at michigan state. i got slightly choked up for a few reasons:

1) it was nursing an absolute stunner of a headache related to consuming roughly 4,000 fluid ounces of beer the night before.

2) i thought for a few seconds about the laundry list of car repairs that had totalled $1400 just a few days prior.

3) interpol was on the radio (haha ok i made this up. i was listening to the watson twins).

4) i was (and still am) ecstatic about pushing on in a new direction. i had this serious rush of adrenaline that zipped up my spine. i felt proud.

driving the truck, window down, rain pissing from the sky and southern kentucky music creeping through the stereo-- hellish rebel yells are certainly in order. when i went to unleash the thing i realized my vocal chords were still soaked in booze and not capable of creating such a sound.

later on as i whiz-banged along I-94-- roughly 15 miles from the lights of the windy city-- i was damn close to heading right back to the corner of clark and diversey where i had spent the last month+ sleeping on the couch of 3 more-than-gracious friends. i knew that if i stopped i wouldnt be leaving anytime soon though.

it was hard enough leaving chicago the first time.

i felt like i departed at the height of my existence in that city. i was just settling in. i was just getting used to dance parties from 3-7am. i was just getting weaved in to some new social circles. i had just gotten a new bike. i knew the place with arguably the best scones in america. and then it was time to leave.

but time to leave for what?

refreshment. discovery. change.

and where?

weelllllllllllll. working on that.

in its simplest terms, i am leaving because there comes a time in all of our lives where we have a situation before us that that is not performing to a certain level of expectation. at that moment of realization we make a conscious decision. this decision becomes a choice between two things: adjust to the current ill-fitting situation or make a change that will attempt to correct the fault.

i am going for the latter.

now shit, there's plenty of other good things to talk about aside from me ranting about decisions in life or the lack thereof.

i decided somewhere in iowa along the desolate and rainy I-80 interstate that it was time for some food.

finding mcdonald's was the first priority as i am the proud owner of an arch card-- this being a refillable mcdonald's charge card. yep. i can thank mr jeffery brown for such a gracious gift to send me on the road.

i nestled in to a window seat with one order of chicken selects, a medium fry and the biggest motherfucking pop container mcdonald's would give me. i think it amounted to about 1/2 gallong. apparently these items get remarkably bigger in states like iowa.

mcdonald's has opted to start the monopoly game once again and just like every other time this happens, i become extremely voracious about collecting the pieces. stupid. i ripped off the game piece that was attached to my gigantic pop container-- this yielded me 10% off at foot locker. see, this made me angry because i have no use for polyurethane basketball sneakers at this point in my life. i still tucked it in my backpack that was sitting in the chair next to me. next was my french fry container. these game pieces provided to be rather difficult to remove and my bear claws managed to rip the box in half. awesome. this violence paid off as i accrued connecticut and illinois avenue.

this competitive behavior will eventually lead to me winning a car at McD.com.

or something like that.

the guy seated roughly 11 feet from me in the closest booth nearest the television set made me consider cutting my mullet off. two damn good reasons:

1) he obviously has one and the rear portion (this would be the longer hair in the back) looks as though it has been soaking in the McNugget deep fryer for the last 14 hours or so. i wanted to vomet. seriously.

2) this mullet-man consumed for himself a horse's share of mcdonald's fast food. his dinner consisted of one double quarter pounder cheeseburger (i had to look borderline suspicious as i stared trying to figure out of it was a hamburger or a cheeseburger), one super sized order of french fries, one big mac and approximately one liter of ketchup to be coated liberally on all of the items ordered and the perimeter of his lips. remarkably, this man opted out of purchasing a soft drink.

disgusting.

that night i slept at a rest area off of I-80 just east of omaha.

this of course put new meaning to the bob seger tune citing his existence "on a long and lonesome highway, east of omaha." come on, you remember the song.

...you bet your ass i put "turn the page" on the stereo before calling it a night. i slept upright in the drivers seat because i had too much shit crammed in the rear cab to comfortably stretch out. i woke up the next morning with something of a pain in my back. turns out i had slept on my flashlight all night.

awesome.

the next day as i rumbled along I-80 i thought the entire state of nebraska was in a state of alert with the amount of news conferences that were cutting off the standard NPR broadcast schedule. as i continued to listen to the radio i was thinking there was a tornado spotted, perhaps a serial killer was on the loose.

nope.

the university of nebraska had fired their athletic director steve pederson.

absurd.

i quickly came to the conclusion that there probably wasnt a whole lot to talk about in this state other than potentially wheat and corn prices.

(writers note: i have never, ever, ever, never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever been this bored whilst driving. the rows and rows of corn and wheat fields paralyzed my skull for 10 straight hours.)

i quickly realized there wasnt a whole lot of other things to talk about in nebraska. so it made sense. the good folks of this state needed something to talk about though and getting that message to the people was more important than apparently everything that could conceivably be heard over the airwaves.

i opted for the ipod for the rest of the evening.

there were two highlights of day two on the road (lists are of paramount importance on this post apparently):

1) i saw a truck driver escape from what was a SERIOUS blast. the entire front cab of an 18-wheeler blew to smithereens right in front of me on the other side of the interstate (he was travelling eastbound). there was roughly 10 miles of traffic backed up and probably 3/4 of nebraska's police force on the scene.

here is a photo: http://www.ketv.com/news/14350130/detail.html#

2) omaha was a nice town indeed. i happened upon a quaint little coffee shop called 13th street coffee company that served a tasty cup of joe. i parked it at a table near the window where i was able to leaf through their weekly arts magazine aptly titled "city weekly." no real good shows were around, but i flipped across a page that had a photo of a guy riding a bike. this reminded me that i had my own bike in the back of my truck. this eventually led to me taking a sweet little joyride through the city. judging by the gasps of air that i was trying to reel in to my lungs after the ride, something tells me i am going to need to focus on getting a little more exercise these next couple months.

after a day overflowing with hands placed on the steering wheel, i pulled in to denver-town at 8:33 pm MDT.

within an hour so i was enjoying a he-man sized hamburger with my good friend matt. we picked up right where we had left off and began reminiscing about the good 'ol days living in sydney.

DENVER.

a fine city.

atitude, good people, perpetually blue sky and modern city collide to create a pleasing little locale.

based on the learnings of my good 'ol pappy, i used the "good morning" test to get a feel for the people on day 2 in the city. this test consists of saying good morning to 5 complete strangers that are not expecting you to say a word to them. therefore, this would exclude saying goodmorning to the attendant at the coffee shop as she could very well be expecting you to say something to her.

let me tell you people, i went 5 for 5 in the great city of denver. this includes words exchanged with a man most closely resembling a sleeping bum on the corner of 6th avenue and corona-- arguably not the easiest of tasks. he was number 5 though and i wanted to really give this city a serious look.

the people remain the most impressive feature of this city. genuine describes them best.

on day 3 in the city it was clear i had one goal for the day: find a an industrial strength, costco sized barrel of odor-eaters foot powder. yeah, now think to yourself how the bona-fide people of denver meandered their way in to this story-- cause that's where i am going with this.

mission accomplished at 12:33 pm.

i threw down my pile of goods at the checkout counter of rite-aid. an older, rather eccentric looking woman with a nametag that read "Ducee" would be taking care of this transaction today. she started scanning my items.

"how do you pronounce your name?" i inquired.

"do say," she quickly responded. i got the feeling this was a fairly common question given the speed and efficiency of her reply.

she paused.

"does this odor-eaters stuff really work?"

i had to have been blushing at this point. this trip to rite-aid was single-handedly responsible for exposing two mildly embarrassing problems. the first of which being my smelly feet, evidenced by the barrel of odor-eaters i hoisted on to the counter. and this was not the normal tub that you typically pick up at the store. in big, bright hot yellow letters across the top of the container it read "MAXIMUM STRENGTH." and then just below that it read "33% more BONUS PACK!" so not only did i need the superpower of foot powder, i needed a whole hell of a lot of it to keep me from going sour between my toes.

well, it didnt stop there.

the second of the embarrassing moments came with the exposure of my newly aquired, horrendously disgusting dandruff problem. i was purchasing dandruff shampoo. no big deal, right? well once again-- its not like i was just buying a bottle of head and shoulders or selsun blue. nope. i have to buy the t-gel (this is the stuff that goes on with roughly the thickness of straight 40 weight motor oil and leaves you feeling like you just endured chemical burns throughout your scalp). and once again, it has this particular type of dandruff shampoo clearly reads across the label that it is 65% stronger than head and shoulders.

i was feeling awkward at this point as ducee read the label.

ohhhhhhh god. please woman, just let me leave at this point. i quickly chucked a pack of gum on the counter to defer her attention.

i weaseled out a reply to ducee's question that had parted her lips 10 seconds earlier.

"well to be honest with you ducee, i have never actually tried the odor-eaters before."

"well, let me know how it goes for you. maybe stop back in or something."

"uhhhhh, sure. yeah. bye ducee."

this is what i am talking about.

in chicago ducee wouldn't do so much as look up from her stoop at the checkout counter. in new york, i would expect something similr. in los angeles, she probably wouldnt even speak english. but i felt some sort of warmth with ducee as she instructed me to return to rite-aid and give her a rundown of how the foot powder was tending to my odor problem.

this is the sort of genuineness that i am talking about. the good people of denver have a certain charm about them. this came as something of a surprise given the typical "big city" mentality.

i haven't held back much on the city wandering throughout the last week and this got me in to some cool places.

the denver art museum has an incredibly awesome looking external structure. it was reminiscient of federation square in melbourne. inside there is a cool collection of african art that was impressive. their modern art stuff was perplexing. my favorite was this man ray guy that does lenseless photography. you get these odd looking images where an object is placed directly on unexposed photographic paper to create a photographic image when exposed to light. kind of weird and hard to explain.

tonight i am headed to see caribou at a place called the larimer lounge-- pretty excited for this i have never seen the guy live. his new album 'andorra' is pretty shweet so i am expecting good things.

i was fortunate enough to happen upon floyd's barber shop where i was able to get a tune up on the old mullet. unfortunately the gal chopped a little more than i had bargained for in the back so i will have to give it some time before i get in to acceptable mullet territory.

i spent some time up in the mountains near a place called silverthorne-- for those that ski/snowboard it is near copper mountain, keystone and breckenridge. we holed up at about 11,000 ft and i experienced the whole booger problem to an extreme. during the course of the evening it snowed about 6 inches which of course caused me to curse and get unneccessarily frustrated. i will be interested to see what wyoming and montana do for me.

pressing onward!

the routing at this point is something like (in this order... for now):

colorado: crested butte, grand junction, fruita
utah: moab, canyonlands national park, salt lake city
wyoming: jackson hole, teton, yellowstone
montana: jackson hole, bozeman
idaho: ketchum, boise
washington: spokane, seattle
oregon: portland, hood river, bend, coos bay
california: all of the pacific coast, yosemite
arizona: flagstaff, grand canyon
new mexico: albequerque, santa fe

then it gets unclear at that point.

i met up with brad my traveling partner extraoirdinaire the other day and we have been constructing the sleeping platform in the back of the truck. this thing is absolutely stunning if i do say so myself-- complete with a padded sleeping area and shag carpet. yep. the "bed" consists of a platform over the wheel wells. its nice though because there is good storage area underneath. the bikes will either sit on top of the platform or harnessed to the carrier mounted to the rear bumper.

excitement.

wednesday morning = blast-off.

guaranteed

well, here i sit denver-side.

it's way too early in the morning to be honest-- or at least it was when i woke up.

i can feel the evidence of higher altitude every morning when i roll out of bed. i wake up feeling like my mouth has cotton balls in it and my nose is barely breathable because of the golf ball sized boogers that dwell in my nostrils.

awesome.

i haven't "set off" as of yet-- but that's coming soon.

i have been sitting this morning listening to the soundtrack for the film "into the wild"---

(i can't urge each and every one of you enough to go see this movie. its a beautiful depiction of why the open road can be so rewarding. please see it, i am practically begging.)

so there's a song that eddie vedder wrote for the film titled "guaranteed" that is really something special: it's open road, it's freedom, its so many things that i believe in wrapped in to one song. at this point, i don't think there is a better way to start any sort of travel blog than with the lyrics from the tune:

"On bended knee is no way to be free
Lifting up an empty cup, I ask silently
All my destinations will accept the one that's me
So I can breathe...

Circles they grow and they swallow people whole
Half their lives they say goodnight to wives they'll never know
A mind full of questions, and a teacher in my soul
And so it goes...

Don't come closer or I'll have to go
Holding me like gravity are places that pull
If ever there was someone to keep me at home
It would be you...

Everyone I come across, in cages they bought
They think of me and my wandering, but I'm never what they thought
I've got my indignation, but I'm pure in all my thoughts
I'm alive...

Wind in my hair, I feel part of everywhere
Underneath my being is a road that disappeared
Late at night I hear the trees, they're singing with the dead
Overhead...

Leave it to me as I find a way to be
Consider me a satellite, forever orbiting
I knew all the rules, but the rules did not know me
Guaranteed"