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Squaw Valley USA!
Mary and I biked from Tahoe City to Squaw Valley in the rain and cold.. and rewarded ourselves with beer! yes. Two months on the road! Whooee! I have traveled from northern Florida to Vancouver, Canada and have landed in Oregon for the summer. First and foremost, let me thank everyone who has helped me along the way - from providing me with a couch/futon/bed/floor to sleep on, treating me to dinner, offering information about cities and hiking spots along the way, or talking to me while driving 8 hours at a time to help me stay awake (Pete in particular!) - You are the best! And thank you to all the others who have made my trip so much fun thus far - strangers, friends of friends and farmers!
Thank you: Joe in Pensacola, Peter in New Orleans, Ryan in New Orleans, Aunt Titi & Uncle Bob in Houston, Mike in Houston, Kelly in Waco, Mike in Austin, Cassie in Tempe, Rachel, Zac & Marly in Sedona, Tim in Vegas & the Grand Canyon, Pete & Julie in San Diego, Mary in Santa Cruz, Jon L in Tahoe, Mark & Mark in San Francisco, Zac in Portland and Casey & Erica in Seattle.
Additionally, I’d like to make a point to say that it has been an absolute pleasure
to travel through the United States thus far. I had no idea how beautiful this country is, especially in the spring, it seems. Everywhere I have traveled, from lush tropical lands to dry deserts, the landscapes have taken my breath away, plant and animal life is always changing and amazing me, and the people I have encountered have been equally as incredible.
I left Serenity Acres April 7th and headed to Pensacola, FL where I camped for a night after hanging out on the beach and getting ridiculously sunburned. Next stop was New Orleans for the French Quarter Music Festival - a free street music festival spread out all over the French Quarter with some my favorite bands playing (Soul Rebels, for example!) I ate several delicious po-boys, drank some deceiving cocktails, listened & danced to live music, hung out with my couch-surfing host Ryan, wandered with Pete & Peter.. overall, a great weekend of music, friends and food in the city.
Next stop: TEXAS! Ahh! I was not looking forward to the long journey through Texas but was absolutely pleasantly surprised. I must have hit it at the perfect time of year. Everything was green, the weather
was perfect (70s and sun) and flowers were blooming along the highways. While “Everything-in-Texas-is-Big-Houston” itself did not impress me, a long-awaited reunion with several old friends and my aunt and uncle made it a very worth-while addition to the trip west. Cute cowboys in Austin didn’t hurt.
Highlights of the drive west include 1) billboards reading: “God, guns & guts. America”, 2) being the ONLY car with a license plate from the eastern side of the US. The closest plate to RI that I remember seeing was Florida. 3) Not only are there Dairy Queens every 10 miles off the highway, but whenever I drove by one the parking lot was full of pick up trucks and cowboys!
After making it through state border patrol alive and unscathed between Texas/New Mexico/Arizona, I spent two weeks dividing time between friends in Tempe, AZ and Sedona, AZ. Well, Arizona is beautiful! The red rocks of Sedona shocked me every time I looked at them, which was several times a day since I stayed there for over a week, haha, and I loved it every time. My dear friend Rachel, her husband Zac and baby Marly were excellent hosts. We went
hiking to desolate creeks, camping along canyon edges in Fossil Creek and eating at authentic Mexican restaurants. The two weeks in AZ was split with time in Tempe, visiting my Wwoof buddy, Cassie, listening to her and her roommates play music and make smoothies, yum!
From there, I met my friend Tim in the Grand Canyon for a few days of camping and hiking and a couple of days of debauchery in Las Vegas. This was my second visit to the Grand Canyon but the first time I was able to hike into the canyon. I hiked Dripping Springs trail with Tim, then Bright Angel trail on my own the next day. What an awesome view you get when you descend into the canyon. Looking up from the canyon floor really blows your mind - and the hike back up to the rim totally kicked my butt but was worth every ache and pain.
The second half of May was spent traveling north through California via San Diego, Santa Cruz, San Francisco and Crescent City. San Diego was a welcome destination as it was my first taste of the ocean in 4 months. Growing up on an island
really spoiled me in regards to the ocean and when I go for a long time without it I start feeling like I’m missing a part of me. Luckily, my cousin and host in San Diego, Pete, lives 5 minutes from the Pacific Ocean so I was able to spend most of my time on the beach. A week in Santa Cruz with my lovely Mary was superb. While we didn’t go surfing, despite being in the US-birth place of surfing, we watched a lot of surfing and hung out around the beaches for hours, thankfully! I was able to spend some time with Mary at the farmers markets where she sells bread and got a great taste of the organic-community on the west coast. It was incredible to me that a majority of the vendors at the market sell organic goods, whereas just finding organic goods on the east coast is often a challenge. Go California! Mary and I spent a week living it up in Tahoe City, CA with my family friend Jon L, biking in the rain, sitting in a hot tub and drinking beer in Squaw Valley. Good stuff.
From Santa Cruz, I spent a
week in San Francisco, driving around US Highway 1 into Marin County and gawking at how beautiful the cliffs/beaches/valleys were, and walking around the city checking out great architecture and funky houses. My two hosts, friend Mark and my uncle Mark were excellent guides to the city, which was a welcome second-visit from my the last time there five years ago with Emily and Aleah on my first cross-country trip.
The drive from San Fran to Crescent City, CA took me up Highway 101, through Redwood National Forest - those trees are no joke! I intend to go back there this summer or fall to do some serious camping/hiking in the Redwoods because one day was not nearly enough time to experience it.
Finally, I arrived in Portland, OR and met my buddy Rose for a week of traveling together. Our first night in Portland we ended up at “Last Thursdays” a festival on Alberta Street of fire-throwers, live bands, open galleries, food carts and overall hippy-happenings. What a great way to be welcomed to Portland! Weird and rainy Seattle was next where Rose and I met up with my long-lost friend Casey and his girlfriend Erica for
This should be on the cover of "Camping" magazine, right?
Tim and I in the Grand Canyon cooking breakfast like real survivors...... a beer and some pool. Next was even weirder Vancouver, Canada where we were interrogated at the border and my car searched before we allowed to cross! Vancouver was pretty in a naturey-industrial way, if that is possible. It is this huge, sprawling city set on the water with incredible parks dispersed throughout the city, while the horizon displays tankers, cranes and all sorts of water-based construction. The historical part, Gas Town, had a lot of the same charm as Boston’s Beacon Hill, but the people and the vibe of the city left me with an “off” feeling. Oh well!
Since then Rose has returned to Boston and I have arrived at a goat farm for one week in Tiller, OR. It is a real pleasure being on a farm again with a consistent place to sleep, organic food, and somewhat of a routine to follow after the hectic 2 months on the road. This farm, PermaOrganic, is extremely remote without any cell service and the nearest town about 25 miles away! I’m here with one other wwoofer, Dan, and he and I are milking 7 goats a day, making cream cheese, reading and wandering the woods to pass
Bright Angel Trail, Grand Canyon
Looking up from the bottom on the canyon all the way to the rim, woohoo! the time. Today, I am heading to Ashland, OR to a veggie-goat-chicken-bee farm for the rest of the month of June. I look forward to being in Ashland, as I’ve heard it has an excellent organic farming community, theatre and music scene. Woohoo! I’m planning a visit home to RI for week this summer, and then back to OR for some more farming. Beyond that, I have no plan, and I like it that way. xoxo
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Margaret
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hello!
Great pictures!! You should check out the Sequoia National Forest sometime if you can too, it's absolutely amazing. You have seen so much on your travel to Oregon, Im envious!