Monday, October 25, 2010

Laur Remembers 2004

Laur left at 6am and naturally I couldn't sleep. The past two months DID have a lot of the same feelings as the summer of 2004. The fact that we can still identify with those feelings now that we're 23 is wonderful, and I know we will be able to identify with them time and time again, because they are the ones that make us feel really alive.
The three of us really feel like a family. It is so nice and gives me a sense of purpose and grounding in this start to some transitions in my life. It is so nice to be able to spend most of your time with/live with people you love and respect and look up to as much as we do.
Make sure every day feels like one you are fully living. If that means going against the grain, leaving your comfort zone, whatever... it is worth it. It is how you really figure things out =0)

Every day is a god, each day is a god, and holiness holds forth in time.
I worship each god, I praise each day splintered down, and wrapped in time like a husk
A husk of many colors spreading, at dawn fast over the mountains split.
(Annie Dillard)

How strange and wonderful is our home, our earth,
with its swirling vaporous atmosphere,
Its flowing and frozen climbing creatures,
The croaking things with wings that hang on rocks
And soar through fog, the furry grass, the scaly seas...
How utterly rich and wild...
Yet some of us have the nerve, the insolence, the brass, the gall to whine
About the limitations of our earthbound fate
And yearn for some more perfect world beyond the sky
We are none of us good enough
for the world we have
(Ed Abbey)

Sunday, October 3, 2010

Back in Austin we are!

Another journey came to its completion as we rolled into the driveway last night with a new housemate in tow. Laur will be stayin here for a couple of weeks, just hanging out while she attempts to search for jobs in the Boston area hahaha. We are actually hoping to share a room in or around Cambridge/Somerville sometime in the near future! All we need to do is: find jobs, and find a place to live. No big deal.
So after San Francisco we really only had a few days left of biking. We biked down route 1 into Big Sur, which reminds Laur of Hawaii and reminds me of nowhere else I have ever seen. The coastline is just out of this world because of the massive hills that drop off into the ocean, with a little road weaving its way alongside the hills in a series of switchbacks and hills that burn thru car's brakes and biker's legs.
Lauri and Paul stayed in Big Sur for a couple of days while I drove Maya, Sean, and RJ to LA so they could catch a train back to Austin. We stayed with Sean's Uncle Richard, who is a sustainability masta. He has his own greywater system, humanure system, permaculture, natural heating and cooling for his house, all that good stuff. He also has a sailboat that Maya and Sean slept on a bunch on their vacation, and I stayed on once on my way back up to Big Sur from LA. The sailboat is in Morrow Bay, which has a ginormous rock a bit off shore called Morrow Rock that makes you stop and hang out for awhile. It is a really peaceful place, with a lot of pelicans and sea otters to keep you company =0)
From Big Sur we began a weeklong driving journey back toward Austin. One night we camped in Death Valley. There were no other people there except for us pretty much hahaha, but it had less to do with the extreme temperatures, which aren't that extreme in late September, and more to do with its remoteness. When we woke up in the morning we hopped on our bikes while Lauri drove, because there was a 17-mile downhill into to valley that brought us from 5,000 feet to sea level. Way cool man.
Hung out a bunch in the Zion/Grand Canyon area, where amazing hiking abounds. You can see 1.5 billion years of history as you hike down 1 mile in elevation to the bottom of the Grand Canyon, where it is not a blistering wasteland as you might think, but more of a green paradise flourishing around the Colorado River. It is unbelievably beautiful at the bottom of the canyon! We did some slack lining down there too and now Paul is going to set up his slackline in our yard, which he probably should have done a long time ago.
We met some people working for HawkWatch International, counting birds flying near the canyon for 8-10 hours a day! Lauri improved on her already keen bird finding abilities, and we ended up camping at their campspot in Kaibab National Forest, just a bit outside the park. It was really fun and since we hadn't done any warmshowers in awhile it was really great to hang out with people we were just meeting on the trip.
Our final stop before making it home was in Lubbock, TX, where our friend Terrence from the Outdoor School is living now. He was moving into a new apartment that very day, so we christened it with dirt (hadn't showered in a week and a half, just hiked), and ice cream and dr. pepper and pizza.
last night we went through all of our trip pictures and it took at least an hour- paul has over 1,000 and lauri has a few hundred!! so hopefully those will get posted somewhere soon =0)
when will the next bike trip be? only time will tell. you should come...