catchin up a few days!

HEY EVERYONE I MISS ALL Y"ALL! the song hide and seek by imogen heap is taking over my life rite now i really like it.
i am really gettin' into the swing of this biking thing! we are so lucky to be able to meet so many amazing people, see all the beautiful landscapes, be able to afford enough food to keep us revving, i am so grateful and humbled and contented by everything that has been going on.

here are our past few days!

we left pete's house i believe on june 24th? or thereabouts. leaving rochester was a trafficky endeavour as we said goodbye to Big Bear (pete), Mr. Muehmel, Wrigley, and the unemployed world of the detroit area behind. soon enough, though, we were following a road called pontiac trail which is a direct shot into ann arbor, and we were back out in big open fields where green blue and white are the only colors in sight.
ann arbor is a pretty big town or maybe even a city, but the pontiac trail road was completely rural right into the town limits. when we got into town we stopped and sat down at the first bench we saw to eat some food in a motionless state, one of my favorite things to do both on this trip and during the rest of life. a gay couple walked by and informed us of their approval of us as a cute couple.
as we biked toward elissa's house from warmshowers, we saw a resale store called the treasure chest so phil stopped to talk to them while i went explorin, our usual gig. he talked to a lady named swana for like an hour about her values with regards to how we're leaving our mark on the earth, and i believe phil became teary-eyed for a brief moment in time. meanwhile i was just sippin some ginger beer and finding out that ann arbor is full of friendly ppl and cool places, it's definitely one of the more progressive places i've been.
we got to elissa's house and met her and her dog georgi, a silent lover who loves to lick and never barks. elissa just finished her masters in natural resources and works on a farm.
i biked to the hardware store where a guy helped me find the parts to adjust my bak rack, which had been slowly and steadily collapsing for some time. then i met phil at a park at the university, where there is free music every single nite for THREE WEEKS in the summer! we got to hear a cover of wagon wheel and drink 5 dollar beers, phil's first purchased beer, good times. there were so many people just hangin out, eating drinking dancing and listening to music on a beautiful summer nite. really wut more could u want =0P

Ann Arbor to Kalamazoohoohoo

100 miles today and it didn't feel too bad! flat lands are good lands for sure. we just biked our asses off and got to a fire station right outside kalamazoo around 10:30. they'd never heard of ppl camping at fire stations the way Phil has, but welcomed us anyway, even offering their tv and common area. we did some stargazing on the warm pavement with joni mitchell, neil young, bob dylan, and even great skaught serenading us. we camped under a tree with declicious berries which i helped myself to for breakfast the next morning cuz the firemen sed they never eat them. this is also where we found out that michael jackson has passed on from this world.

Kalamazoo to St. Joseph, MI

so we woke up and started singing the Kalamazoo Blues impromptu-style, you know just for fun, but in the end we did experience some real kalamazoo blues. somehow we spent approximately 4 hours in search of groceries and the start of the KalHaven bike trail, which, obviously, were both exceedingly difficult to find. but the kalhaven bike trail is beautiful- 35 miles out of kalamazoo west to the shore of lake michigan, on a shady and gravelly path.
we came out in south haven and got to spend the rest of the day biking south along the shore. we stopped at the lake for awhile and everything just looked absolutely brilliant! chicago looked a million miles away and knowing it was tomorrow's destination was just a bit mind boggling.
we camped right on the lakeshore in a town called st. joseph, about 15 feet from some railroad tracks that trains enjoy using around 3 and 4 in the morning. we split an entire loaf of garlic bread with way too much country crock at dinner. the sky and the lake were GAHHHHHH that good.

St. Joseph to Chi-town!

muffins and coffee for breakfast awwwww yea! phil got a free mug from the grandma across the street who offered us the coffee.
we made sweet tie all morning and stopped for lunch at the touristy beach town of new buffalo, mi, which is rite on the border of mi and indiana. totally a tri-state day today, michigan indiana and illinois yo. anywho, we crossed into IN and were soon greeted by a massive nuclear power plant with houses and a playground like 100 feet away, super reassuring.
soon after that we came upon mt. baldy, a massive sand dune that is moving toward the highway at a rapid pace; i wish the people there the best of luck with that. we had so much fun running, rolling, and jumping, and front-handspringing down the massive slope of the dune, it was so steep!!! i had to climb up it on all fours. and then there was the lake michigan water... warm and clear and fresh! we even drank it, which a friend later found to be utterly disgusting but oh well. we had a somersaulting conest and i won 8 to 7 even tho i kept my nose plugged with one hand.
our next stop was gary indiana, and yes, there is video footage of us singing the song rite at the welcome sign. we spent an hour trying to find michael jackson's family's house. we never found it, but we did find that gary is a very depressed, eerily empty and abandoned city. i have never really felt the way i did biking thru gary.. it was so desolate and even if you did see ppl walking together, they were seldom talking. heebeejeebees.
gary to chicago was only a couple hours' ride and we ha the time zone change in our favor. reaching chicago's lakefront was super exciting, especially for phil who most likely could not have calmed down if he had to. major beach party in chicago. we followed the lakeshore on a bike route. so many ppl out and about, some gathered around for a sweet drum circle.
around 9 we got to kelly's house, which is one of several co-ops in the area and is amazing! around 14 ppl share food and music and good times in a crazily-configured house that hasn't been remodeled since ike the 1880s. we're staying in kelly's sun porch for a couple of nights. they have a dog named bean too =0)

chicago to... chicago!
today i hopped on bus 6 downtown and met up with neil from the outdoor school!!!! we hung out all afternoon at Taste of Chicago, a huge food-frenzy where restaurants from all over the city are vendors in the same area so that you can sample food from a lot of them all in one place. we had spinach pizza, rainbow icecream, and cheesecake with strawberries... wicked good! phil met up with us in time to see the Wallflowers performing, too. then neil had to leave but phil and i went to an improv act at second city which was pretty funny. the whole area was abuzz with excitement because of the gay pride parade that took place during the day.
phil and i walked about halfway back to the co-op, maybe 4 or 5 miles, along the lakefront, splitting a pint of new york super fudge chunk en route. it was a beautiful nite! tomorrow we're biking 30 miles north to highland park to stay in neil's dad's house, neil's gonna meet up with us again woohoo!!!!