GOD'S COUNTRY

Well folks, we’ve made it to Texas, and we’re nearly in Austin. Texas is proving to be very Texas-y indeed. “Glad you’ve made it to God’s Country,” were the words of Mr. Vaughn Applewhite who we met outside a gas station during a pee stop. We’ve ridden through the rolling hills past The Shoot N’ Star Ranch, The Lone Star Ranch, The Star + Cross Ranch, the plain old Star Ranch—and just about every variation thereafter. Signs to discourage littering say Don’t Mess With Texas. Huge long-horned steer rest in the grass beneath big shady trees. Lone Texas Stars on everything, flags everywhere. Oil wells and pipelines appear throughout the landscape. And, everyone and their mother seems to drive a massive, brand-new truck. Possibly jacked up, and with a Texas flag on it somewhere. I feel my Yankee-ness very keenly. That all being said, people here have been inquisitive, generous and kind, and no one has been anything but gracious. We saw more guns in Louisiana than we have in Texas so, whatever. My stereotypes are showing, I know...

GOING WHERE THE WIND BLOWS

Headwind Enemy, Tailwind Friend, Sidewind Frienemy. If you’ve got a tailwind you’re golden, its like you’ve got a pair of big old angel wings strapped to your back and you’re soaring. Effortless. 20 maybe 25 miles an hour easy. If you’ve got a headwind on the other hand…it’s as if the hand of God itself has come down and is pushing you backward. 8 miles an hour, slugging along. A headwind can easily chop your MPH in half. And it’s an exhausting fight.  A sidewind can be ok, though its no walk it the park either, unless the road is curvy then you might get some reprieve. Yesterday there was a front coming in and the wind was coming in sideways, hard, blowing in big gusts and I almost got knocked off the road a couple of times. Really gives a new meaning to Going Wherever The Wind Blows, and I find that Bob Seger song “Against the Wind” looping looping looping in my mind on bad-wind-days as we pedal along.

The Very Cool "Wind Map" Click Image for Link to More Info

A TYPICAL BIKE + CAMP DAY

This is the kind of stuff I always want to know--not the exciting stuff, but the little stuff in between....

Wake up: in tent, guest room, motel...
Find water. Brush teeth. Pee. Light campstove.
Boil enough water for coffee + oatmeal. Pour water for coffee, use remaining for oatmeal. 
Roll up sleeping mats. If the tent is up, break it down. 
Eat. Sunscreen. Put on cycling clothes.
Pack, unpack, re-pack paniers: try to evenly distribute weight. Try to keep important things on top, heavy things on bottom. What if it's important, and heavy? Shit outta luck. Bury it. 
The day is all about packing and unpacking and repacking. 
Fill up all water containers. Bike.

Feel wind. Sense freedom.

Stop and have a snack, trail-mix, maybe a couple of pitted dates. Bike some more. 
Stop for a photo of something pretty. Pee behind a bush, keep your eyes open for POISON IVY. 
Bike some more. 
Stop and have an orange. Bike some more.
Stop for lunch, beans/sprouts/hotsauce...sardines? Talk to someone for a bit. 
Bike. Stop at a gas-station to see if they'll let you fill up water-bottles. 
Talk to someone. Explain why in the world you'd want to torture yourself like this. (People do ask all the time...)
Bike some more.  
Someone gives you a cold soda from a cooler in their trunk. 
Bike, stop, search for a place to pee. Always searching for a place to pee. 
Decide you can (or can't) make your intended destination. Figure out where you're going to sleep if you can't make it. 
Setup tent. Unpack your life. Make your bed, blow up mat.
Pull out camp stove, sautee some onions....chop some kale, soak some more beans for tomorrow.
Put on headlamps, clean up. Pack stuff into tent. 
Fall into bed.  Massage sore muscles. Look at maps. Make grocery list. Contact future hosts, call campgrounds, research. Think about calling home, too sleepy. 
Feel satisfied.
Hope a snake doesn't come into the tent. 

Sleep.  

88 MILES, THEN SETUP CAMP IN A THUNDERSTORM.

After a long day covered in a glaze of sticky sunscreen, road-dirt, and sweat, the only thing on my mind is a shower. Not a downpour, Not thunder and lightning, Not gale-force winds, Not setting up a tent, Not digging holes with a knife in in the sand to keep a swimming-pool from forming under your bed....BUT SOMETIMES YOU JUST CANT HAVE YOUR WAY! Can you? I guess that's what an adventure is.  
Just when you think you don't have one ounce of energy left in your body you have to wrangle a tent in 50 mile an hour winds, get every little thing you have with you inside it, climb all over eachother trying to get situated, eat a really gross dinner of things you don't have to cook (don't give a damn either), pass out from exhaustion, and wake up every 13 seconds all night long because the thunder, lightning  and wind is so intense you think you're Done For. 

But then, this is where you are in the morning. And its all good. 

CRAWFISHIN'

Down here in South Louisiana Crawfish are King. Everyone has a favorite way to do a Crawfish boil, and there are slight regional variations on the traditions and techniques. A Crawfish boil is to Louisiana what a Clam Bake is to Massachusetts. Corn, onions, potatoes, sausage, mushrooms and the like go into a  Cajun-y spiced broth that's boiling in a giant (GIANT) pot--then you add a sack of live crawfish, let it go for a couple of minutes  then take it off the heat and let it sit. Or something to that effect, certain veggies go in early, certain later etc, but you get the basic principal. Then you take the crawfish and spice them some more, then you eat them while they're hot. Its not pretty, but it tastes pretty good. (My veganism has been killed by Louisiana, btw.) Wash it down with some cheap beer. 

We met the wonderful Cody Miller at a bar (see the "Our-Fellow-Man" link at the top of the page), and he took us to his crawfish pond to see how the raisin' + catchin' was done. Rice is big down here, and for many rice farmers Crawfish are a bonus crop, raised in the rice field. For Cody, Crawfish is the main affair and he plants the rice solely as food for the Crawfish (which makes them bigger and tastier). There's a special boat that has a big ol' metal wheel at the back that pushes the boat through the muck and shallow water (and it climbs over the levees because it has wheels at the front too....) Wire traps are checked and baited, Crawfish dumped into a tray and put into 40lb purple sacks. Pretty cool if you've never seen it before. A little brutal too. The ponds have about a hundred different kinds of birds, tons of turtles....a whole swampy eco-system. We went on the boat and got to watch Cody do his thing. If you're lucky, I'll get up a video as soon as I have some time to edit a little something! 

PIC O' THE DAY!

Not that we have a 'pic of the day', but if we did, this would be it. Riding down a gravely-ass road.Outside of Mamou, Louisiana.

FRIENDLY PEOPLE

This is just a shout out to Louisiana in general. People here are damn nice. Its almost confusing. We've been fed TONS, bought whiskey, invited over, put-up, given gifts (a Swiss Army knife, energy gels, camping food, Dr. Pepper), taken kayaking.... We've met someone almost every time we sit down. Everyone has somthing good to tell you. Some area history. Some passion they want to share. I don't know if its because we're on the bikes or if its just a southern hospitality thang....It's all been so wonderful and intense and fun, part of the reason we're moving so slowly right now--there's so much to do, and so many people to get to know. Thanks to everyone who is making our time feel so rich and so good.

THE LIVE OAK

The Live Oak tree, so named because it stays green year round, is everywhere in Louisiana. They are beautiful trees, often old and huge and gnarled. Draped with spanish moss, ferns growing on the branches--they are true fairy-tale trees, eco-systems all their own. They don't look anything like northern White or Red Oaks. They have little leaves and they crawl outward, burley. A low center of gravity helps keep them stable in the hurricane winds. People here know a lot about these trees and clearly feel tenderly toward them. They really define a certain Southern Feeling that I keep getting. This particular Live Oak (in the pic above) was in New Iberia, LA. In front of an old plantation house. 

Too Much Stuff

We’re in Louisiana Bayou Country—a boiled crawfish sign around every bend, Spanish Moss draped from massive Live Oak trees, and the nicest people I’ve ever met in this country. Where we are reminds me of Forrest Gump.

We rode for two days—57 miles the first day, 37 the second day—then we took a day to LOSE SOME WEIGHT and reorganize! We were going way too slow. Yep. We ditched about 50lbs of stuff, including Zach’s trailer. Thank goodness. Had to make some hard choices, but hauling stuff around really puts it all in perspective. I sent my DSLR camera home, after those two days I picked it up and all I could think about was how heavy it was—so until I deem it worthy to pick up a good little digital camera I will be snapping pics with my iPhone 5. Whittling our setup down to the real essentials. 

That second night we setup tent in the pouring rain, but somehow managed to keep everything DRY thanks to Zach’s OCD planning. We were exhausted and happy at the end of the day as we ate a weird Curried Bean + Sprout Salad (with too much onion) that I made inside the tent, in the dark, by the light of my dying headlamp.
 TOO MUCH STUFF, ALL SPREAD OUT AT CHLOE'S AND DANNY'S, PACKING UP IN NEW ORLEANS BEFORE LEAVING.

AND WE'RE GONE!

PACKED UP, STOPPED FOR COFFEE BEFORE BEGINNING THE ADVENTURES!

Its Saturday, March 30. If all goes according to plan we will begin our pedaling this morning! I couldn't sleep very well and I've got butterflies in my stomach, woke up well before my alarm. We will head through the city, take a ferry across the Mississippi and, after riding along the river for a while, we will head south-west into the Louisianna SWAMP. We're looking to go about 60 miles today, which is doable because its so flat. 

Here's where the rubber meets the road folks. The bags are packed, Zach has tweaked the bikes to perfection, I've got some food--we're as ready as we'll ever be.

The duo that is Chloe Lee (childhood friend) and Danny Lang (her man), have made our time in New Orleans so wonderful. Thank you guys! We've been fed, given a very cozy bed, shown around the city, helped with errands, and all sorts of good stuff. If they made it any better we wouldn't leave. Definitely off to a good start.
Happy Easter. 

Potholes + Paradise.

 Feels like a different country. If you haven't been to New Orleans yet, go.
SIMPLE. as. THAT.

THE BIG APPLE TO THE BIG EASY via TRAIN

And, we’re off! Currently on the train, headed to New Orleans to begin our pedaling. The Amtrak Crescent 19, runs from NYC to New Orleans in one straight 30-hour shot, passing through Philly and DC in the north and Atlanta and Birmingham in the south on its way to the Big Easy. We’re in hour 22, just past Birmingham.

As I write this we are crossing over a river stitched with bridges, green brown water, bushes blushing with small new leaves. There are a bunch of men trying to pull a half-sunken white pick-up out of a mucky embankment—red tractor pulling with chains, looks hopeless. Zach is sleeping in his seat. I am siting in a dining car amidst people playing cards, blaring tinny-tunes out of their smartphones, snacking on dining car fare—donuts, bad coffee, capri-suns, Milano cookies, microwave hot dogs in cellophane. The train is pretty cool.

It’s SPRING. And we’ve finally gotten ourselves on the road. And it feels good. Its been a hectic, sleepless, stressed-out week, and we still have some important things to take care of, but we’ve made the first step out the door. Thanks for sticking with us over the past months as our plans have morphed! It’s all for the best, I wasn’t looking forward to starting in the winter even though I would have! No snow, just bayous and mosquitos. Just flat warm Louisiana. I’m very much looking forward to spending a couple of days in New Orleans before we get moving. The architecture really excites me, I love second floor balconies and louvered shutters…. We’re going to get Zach a haircut and a shave, see some music, figure out how best to pack our paniers, stock up on a few necessities that got lost in The Leaving-Tornado, and then we will start cycling mid week. Head west toward Austin, route TBD.

SPARK: THE REVOLUTIONARY NEW SCIENCE OF EXERCISE AND THE BRAIN

SPARK is a fantastic book that addresses how physical movement impacts our mental health and our brain biology. I read it in 2008, and it transformed the way I think about 'exercise'. Movement and physical exertion isn't fringe to our well-being, its at the absolute CORE. In my humble opinion, SPARK is a must read for anyone with a body, or for anyone who knows someone who suffers from clinical depression or hyperactivity disorders. The studies are really fascinating, and the book as a whole presents an incredibly compelling data set. It's not over simplified, yet not overly technical either. I geek out on brain-chemicals, so I love this kind of thing and I think you will too. Also, I've fallen off the wagon a little bit and need inspiration to get myself moving again!

BOOK DESCRIPTION

"In SPARK, John J. Ratey, M.D., embarks upon a fascinating and entertaining journey through the mind-body connection, presenting startling research to prove that exercise is truly our best defense against everything from depression to ADD to addiction to aggression to menopause to Alzheimer's. Filled with amazing case studies (such as the revolutionary fitness program in Naperville, Illinois, which has put this school district of 19,000 kids first in the world of science test scores), SPARK is the first book to explore comprehensively the connection between exercise and the brain. It will change forever the way you think about your morning run---or, for that matter, simply the way you think."

Link to AMAZON

EVOLVING PLANS

As some of you already know, we haven’t departed yet....but we will! The new plan is to either hop on a train, or rent a car and get ourselves South—to warmer climes—sometime after the new year. Maybe Savannah GA? Life happens, what can I say? But we are indeed still going, winter be damned. I think we’d like to get started riding our bikes in the relatively warm, relatively flat Florida panhandle. Seems like a good place to start. The flatter and warmer the better as I get my ass into shape. 

TABLE ON TEN, REDUX. SHOP: SAT 11/24

 WE'RE BACK! Come see us on Saturday November 24th at Table on Ten

CUSTOM STAMPED JEWELRY AND KEYCHAINS MADE WHILE YOU WAIT! SIP A COFFEE AND HANG OUT WITH JESSAMEE!
NECKLACES $55, KEYCHAINS/DOGTAGS $18 

BY REQUEST: BEAN SPROUTS 101, SIMPLIFIED

Here's how to grow bean sprouts. This is the simplified version. Don't over-complicate. Don't drown the sprouts. You can do it. Start with mung beans and lentils, they are super easy. 
 



Enjoy anytime after 1 day. Best at 2-3 days. Can keep in the fridge for up to 2 weeks.
*Cooked, roasted or split seeds, peas and beans WILL NOT GROW*  

How do you eat Bean Sprouts?

Alone: In a bowl with a little soy sauce (or Braggs) and toasted hot sesame oil. Yum.
Alone: Just with your fingers, eat them out of a bag at your desk...Or on your bike.
In or on a salad: Or AS the salad. Add chopped cucumber, tomato, onions, avocado, nuts....cilantro. Its all good. Do this about 50 dift ways. Dress how you like.
Cooked: This kills them, but tastes great. Sprouting makes all beans/legumes easier to digest. Read: no gas. Or less at least. Try cooking sprouted lentils (takes about 3 min) then add cilantro, onion, curry, salt and coconut oil--its fucking awesome.

SLOW AND STEADY WINS THE RACE

No need to fret, but as of October we're still tying up loose ends here in Upstate NY. It's a beautiful time of year so we're dragging our feet a little to get every last drop out of the summer! We'll be off soon, but really--there's no rush and we want to get off to a good start. Its possible we will hitch a ride south a couple of hundred miles to make sure we stay ahead of the weather, but otherwise it doesn't affect our plans too much.
Slow and Steady Wins the Race, right? 

Illustration by Michael Halbert

SUCCESS!

Thanks to all the great people who made our appearance at Table on Ten a great success! I had a lot of fun, met many great people, and had some deep moments over the course of a busy Saturday afternoon. Hope everyone had as much fun as I did, and THANKS A BUNCH for all the support. Thanks again Inez for hosting and promoting!

john atwood consults with jessamee about his necklace 

THE PEDDLERS AT TABLE ON TEN!

On Saturday Aug 25th from 11am-2pm come to Table on Ten in Bloomville, NY to get your very own custom hammered Peddlers necklace, bracelet or keychain! Inez and Justus have opened a splendid little cafe in the middle of nowhere, very nearby to where we are in the upper Catskills of NY. Come by for an espresso and fritata, or iced tea and egg-in-a-nest and sit with me while I bang away!

Necklace $55, Bracelet (not pictured) $25, Keychain/Dogtag $18

Read about Table on Ten in the New York Times Blog here. And more below from their website:

Table on Ten is a gathering place in the town of Bloomville, NY, in the Western Catskills.

From a newly renovated and converted historic three-story house, we offer fine coffee, tea, and light breakfast and lunch in our café; specialty goods in our microshop; workshops; and guest-hosted pop-up dinners.

Our café features locally roasted coffee from Irving Farm and teas from Premium Steap, and offers a small menu inspired by what’s seasonally available in our area.

Our farmstand, open every Saturday from 9-3, features produce and goods sourced from within a 10-mile radius.

THE LIBERATION OF LIMITATION

I'm finally feeling a little exhuberant, relieved even, to be moved out of our wonderful, beautiful, big ol' farmhouse. I won't deny that I've been crying a lot over the past couple of days--saying goodbye to the kitties, our awesomely rennovated bathroom, and the luxury of washing machines, fans and electricity....BUT today I woke up in our little transitional abode, (an off-the-grid cabin on my mom's land where we'll be for a few weeks before heading out) and I experienced a sublime Anxiety-Free Morning. Rare, as I'm sure you all can appreciate. The deep and urgent feeling of forward propulsion that keeps us (me?) alive was shockingly absent; the feeling that keeps us kicking-ass day in and day out, that keeps us moving and making and doing and checking our watches to make sure we're on top of our shit was startlingly, happily, chilling out somewhere else today. My house is moved out of, my job is quit, my business is officially on hold. I have only a small amount of stuff, no internet, and nothing completely urgent to do until we get on our bikes and ride away. Incredible, incredibly strange, but good no less.  

Background: Part of the reason I chose to study design was because I like parameters. Though an artist through and through, I am scared shitless of a blank page, a blank canvas, a cube of stone. Blankness means you need to decide--to make a choice about what to do, and I for one am utterly crippled by that. I need someone to tell me: here--you need to make a shirt, it better be good, and it needs to go on a person--go! Then I become creative like crazy. LIKE CRAZY! And I am so invigorated, and powerful and I will work incredibly hard. But without parameters or direction I become an indecisicive, fearful, nervous-nelly and I will never touch that canvas.  What I'm getting at, (now that I've shared this oh-so-deep insight) is this: having very little stuff feels a lot like parameters--it feels like LIBERATION from worry. Its as if the less choices one has (in what to wear, what to eat, what to do) the more free one is to just enjoy whatever it is that was chosen (to wear/eat/do).

This is not surprising of course, the overabundance of choice is part of the modern dilemma that makes us all crazy... But--for a lifelong lover, collector, and overall adorer of stuff its a newly intriguing feeling. Until now I've never ONCE been one of those people who says "I just got rid of so much stuff and I feel so good"--NEVER! But there you go--now I'm going to say it officially: I just got rid of a bunch of stuff, and I feel so good. Minimalism...how exotic. I think I like it. Even if I don't tomorrow, I think its going to be good for me.

For more deep thinking on choice: LISTEN TO THIS RADIOLAB
For more discussion about owning stuff: GO TO THIS WEBSITE