Stoked on being Stoked!

Well after about 4 months and over 4000 miles later I successfully rode my bicycle across the United States of America.  Stoked is an understatement. 

These two ladies were waiting for me on the beach with a bottle of champagne when I arrived on my final day.

This is what most of the ride looked like after leaving las cruces, new mexico,  Got up to some knarly speeds leaving the mountians. 40 +

Stayed with about 10 warm shower hosts while on this trip and every one was different and great in their own way. Here's a couple I stayed with just outside silver city, NM. they gave me my own Rv to sleep in, baked about 2 dozen chocolate chip cookies for me and fed me homemade pizza and beer till I poped, awesome folks.   For those of you who don't know about the warm showers website, it's just like couch surfing but for bicycle explorers.  Warmshowers.com check it out!

Mountians+white people= mining.

Definetly popped my mountian biking cherry once I got west of texas,.  Stayed with some dudes for about 4 days I met at the bikeshop in silver city, NM.   Didn't expect to find the scene I did in silver city, just a small mtn. town but an awesome bike scene, It was just like being back home with my friends in richmond, va but with less tri colored fixed gears.

One of the dudes has made trails that shoot through old mines hundreds of feet under ground.

They even have a pretty dope skatepark which is never crowded.  One of the dudes at the house I stayed at ( which is known as the bike house) is a teacher and he has started a program where he takes the kids on a 5 mile bike ride once a week to the skatepark, and If they dont have their own bmx bike they can put in work at the local bike shop to earn one. Usually 100 hours.

3rd floor of they bike house, They also do their own parades and make their own puppets to go on their bicycle contraptions.

Lots of scenes like this heading towards Pheonix, AZ.

Most of this trip I was excited to finally get to see saguaro cactus's in person and once I got a couple hundred miles into Arizona they were everywhere.  These things are magnificant, it takes 100 years for them to even start to grom their first arm, and some are upwards of 30 feet tall.  It was awesome to camp with these monsters for a few nights. 

Heading into and out of Pheonix was just like Houston, Texas or any othe giant city.  Miles and miles of cars, glass, pot holes and no shoulders.

Occupy Pheonix.

Met these fellow bicycle explorers once I got into to Pheonix, they were coming from San Deigo and staying with the same person I was that evening.  They were awesome and we all had a great time drinking free beers and shooting the shit all night.

The dude I stayed with in Pheonix bike tours on these things ( penny farthings).   For real, not even joking, he races them too.  Pretty Badass.

I did have a nice break leaving Pheonix for about 30 miles on this bike path which ran along side a canal and was full of cool tunnels like this one.



The Pheonix bike path was also full of shredable obstacles. 



With only about 5 more days till California I cooked the rest of my food and filled this 2 gallon zip lock bag with my slop.  It contents were 2 cans mixed vegetables, 3 lbs rice, 5 lbs canned ham(gross) half of a onion and what ever garlic I had left. tasted pretty good the first night but by day three of nothing but this and with the weather getting warmer It was time to go, I threw it out on day 4.

Was kinda hoping for a better sign.

Guess I rode past the center of the world, which when you think about it doen't make much sense.  Also right after this I was rode through a migrating swarm of 1000's of angry bees, it took me like 15 seconds to get out of at full speed.  15 seconds doesn't sound like much but when your covered in bees it's forever.

They weren't joking.

Ok I get it.

I guess the west coast is used to free loaders, no public rest rooms at all.

They even made it hard for me to charge my phone, this lock was nothing compared to my needle nose pliers though.

Andy lives on a hill in San Diego, I rode up this rode to get to his house. See that mountian in the way way back.  Thats where I took the pictures of the wind signs.

Andy and I got real safe and went mtn. biking.  And let me just say this dude is an absolute Bad Ass! on a mountian bike.

Pretty view while riding with Andy in the mountians.

Doing touristy stuff in San Deigo, free organ concert, pretty epic.

Awesome botanical gardens, also free.

Pretty cool way to make some cash.

So aparrently febuary is big wave time in San Diego, you can't tell from this picture but this wave is probably 8 to 10 feet.  Conditions were 8 to 12 when Andy and I went surfing and HOLY SHIT!! those were the biggest waves I've ever been on in my entire life it was like being atop a 12 foot vert ramp before your dropped in.  Just paddleing out was the hardest thing to do. At one point giant wave crashed on me and sent me through what Andy calls the washing machine, it just tumbles you over and over till you crash into the ocean floor then it sucks you back up and tumbles you some more.  After about 20 seconds which feels like a life time it lets you go where you get to the surface gasping for air and hope that another one isn't right behind it.  Well, there was and after being sent through the wash twice in a row I went in to shore to Dana like a sad puppy with his tail between his legs.  Big waves are awesome but no joke.  Hours later that night I was talking to Andy and leaned over to pick something up and tons of salt water just poured out of my nose, Wild.

This guys awesome.

The Pacific ocean rules.

Where we are now.  With .57 cents in my bank account and gas prices the way they are Dana and I decided to get jobs before we head back to good ol VA.  We have ended up here at desert whale Jojoba.  Which grows Jojoba trees for Jojoba oil the same kind of oil you get from killing sperm whales, so I guess you can say we are saving the whales even in the desert. And when I say desert I mean desert its a couple hours to the closest town and the only people who work here are the 12 to 15 mexicans who live in the labor camp on premises and they don't understand why the hell two gringos would want to work all the way out here. But 2 weeks in and things are going well we even get invited to come hangout with them at there place on Sundays (Our only day off) 

The Jojoba processing plant.

Baby Jojoba cuttings, They take a while to re root, notice these were from last July.

Its pretty old fashioned around here the women work in the green house and in the fields and the men drive the tractors and fix stuff.  Dana transplanted all of these plants.

Dana working in the green house.

A Jojoba row,  Probably about 5,000 acres of these things here.

My tractor for 10 hours a day, 60 hours a week, for the next 6 weeks.  Pizza party on me when I get back.



The Jojoba seed.



Our 20 year old trailer that we get to live in for free with water and electric, also our boss bought us a brand new fridge and micorwave for it,  he also cooks for us a couple times a week, I think he's trying to get us to stay for the whole season just beacuse no one wants to live out here and they are under staffed for labor.  So any of my friends looking for a change you can come out here and live for free and bank money, it just sucks cause theres nothing around. Also the coyotes are serious and the tanrantullas the size of your hand will jump on your face and bite you, and don't forget about the tons of rattle snakes and scorpions, oh and it gets up to 120 degrees in the summer. Other than that its the life.

Whats your favorite movie in the Sonoran desert.............Water World



Well thats it for now, more to come soon, untill then peace and watch out for the scorpions.



Wild Wild West

So much shit has happened since I've left Austin, Tx. but I'm going to go ahead and jump to one story which is by far the most serious and exciting.  It all starts one day when I was riding west on highway 90 leaving Alpine,Tx, it was a really windy day and I was struggling to hold 6 mph.  With the wind increasing and gusting up to 70 mph I couldn't even pedal downhill, literally soo I decided to hitchhike.  After about 30 min of trying a truck pulls over and says their heading to El Paso about 100 miles up the road and I'm like hell yea! I load my bike in the back with their two dogs and then jump in the cab to find two more pups in the back.  These were two nice people a guy and a girl heading home to their ranch just south of El Paso.  We chit chat and make small talk over the next 100 miles till we get to the town of Faben, Tx which is about 1 mile from the border of Mexico. This is where they make their turn for their pecan ranch, they let me out at the shady gas station and head home.  Now I'm in the small town of Faben and I automatically feel the sketchiness from being 1 mile away from the city of Juarez,MX which had over 3500 murders just last year and is deemed the most dangerous city in the world.  I mean fuck just days before they beheaded over 45 police officers and placed the heads around town to warn the locals not not not to mess with the cartel.  So I ride around this shady town in search of a place to guerrilla camp and can't find anywhere that I feel safe and with only about 45 min left of daylight I know I need to figure out something.  I head back to the gas station at the edge of town, the only place that feels remotely safe. After about 20 min of being at the gas station a middle aged mexican man who looks like a rancher of some sort comes up to me and tries to give me a few bucks, I'm like no thanks I just need a safe place to sleep tonight.  (Names have been changed).  Jorge(the mexican man)  says his brother lives right in town and I can sleep there.  Knowing where I'm at I am a bit hesitant but its my only option so I load my bike into the back of his pick up and get in the truck.  He tries calling his brother but no one is answering so Jorge says I can sleep at his house which is 5 miles back east in the town of Tornillo, Tx even closer to the border and even more dangerous.  With no other options and Jorge already heading down a back road towards his house I am just hoping for the best.  We get close town which isn't really a town just shanty house's and and occasional market here and there.  On the way to Jorge's house we make a few stops at other house's where transactions are being made while I sit in the truck in the pitch black with the lights off and with Jorge's wad of money you can guess what was going on.   So after a few more stops Jorge says it would be better if I stayed at his friends house at the edge of town.  And by edge of town were talking about 200 yards from the border. By now I'm like fuck I have got to get out of this but already being driven down multiple dirt roads in the pitch dark and being about 10 miles from anywhere safe it was going to be hard.  We finally pull up to this shady ass trailer in the middle of nowhere where we go inside.  The trailer has no water and no electricity and is in really poor shape.  I automatically notice the huge shrine of half lady Guadalupe and half grim reapers and skulls.  Then out walks this mexican witch doctor and him and Jorge start speaking spanish to each other making me pretty nervous seein how I don't speak spanish. The witch doctor pulls out a handful of weed and puts it ona piece of newspaper with some rolling papers and tells me to roll it up to prove that I'm not a cop.  Now at this point I know if I roll a bad joint it could mean my life, you better believe I rolled the best fucking joints I've ever rolled in my entire life. After their approval Jorge opens a cooler which is full of Busch beer 40s and hands me one and tells me to drink.  We then start on the joints talk about paranoia when you actually have something to be paranoid about. Also while all this is going on Jorge has just been doing line after line of coke. About an hour goes by and another dude comes in and all three of them are just speaking nothing but spanish and multiple phone calls are being made a I can tell plans are being made. I try to go outside and call Dana but I am followed and when I call her I can't speak of the situation I'm in because I'm being listened to.  They keep feeding me busch 40s and joints but for every 40 I drink I probably drink a whole nalgenes worth of water as to not get too drunk. With my machete out of reach and all three of these dudes packing heat I am heavily out armed and seriously freaking the fuck out.  At one point I tell Jorge( who is the only one who speaks english)  that I would rather stay at his house and he says " this is where you stay, you work for me now".  After that was said I knew I was in deep shit and needed to escape. I don't speak much spanish but I understood enough throughout the night that they were going to take me into mexico tomorrow and force me to ride back  through the border with a bunch of drugs....fuuuuck. The three guys and I continue drinking and smoking till about 3 am, I continued to partake just as to not raise supiscion. When finally one dude leaves for the night, then Jorge gets a phone call and says he has to head out and he'll be back in the morning. Once their gone the witch doctor does some chants and rubs some bones together over the couch I am supposed to stay on.  He then lies down and passes out.  Now I know I need to get the hell out of dodge but carrying my 150 pound bike out of the trailer will be way too loud.  Then around 5 am inspiration struck!, a train comes flying down the railroad tracks right next to the trailer actually shaking the trailer, so under the cover of a roaring train and still under the cover of night I grab my bike and get out of the trailer without being heard, fuck yes! Now I still had to figure out how to get back to I-10,  I head to the main road and turn left  know that if I'm heading away from the border I'm heading towards Interstate 10.  I swear I've never riddin so fast in my life. With the sun peaking up through the mountains I finally make it to I-10 where I continued to ride down the interstate 40 miles to El Paso just to be safe. There's alot more to this story but thats the jist of it. Now without further a do, a regular blog update.

Thanks to these guys at Austin Bikes for hooking me up with some new rear cogs and free patch kits the day before I left Austin. And for introducing me to Shiner Bock beer. Thanks dudes!

I've seen more donkies the past couple weeks than ever in my

Leaving Austin and heading straight into the hill country.

This stretch is what took out my back wheel, too much climbing.

Stay safe.

The spring that makes the teeth inside my cassette pop up and catch broke, so once I diagnosed the problem I fashioned a new spring from the coils you find on your skewers.. felt like macgyver after this.

The finished product, springs nice and poppy.

Stayed at this place, catering only to two wheels only since 2005.

Outside the D Rose Inn.

Needed some jams while I fixed my hub so I rigged this Boom box out of a texas busch can, couldn't turn the treble down though.  

Check out my new bike lock, a little heavy but works really well.

Met up with this lady on the way to La Loma Del Chivo

Dana sneaking into the mexican border.

La Loma Del Chivo an awesome place that lets touring cyclist stay for free.  It's full of awesome structures made out of papercrete. 

Dana and I had this place to ourselves for three days!

View from atop the hostel, doesn't look like much but keep in mind we are in the middle of the desert.

The Bee Hive, once I left Dana stayed in this thing for a couple more days.

Soon to be chicken coop made from papercrete and cans.

Mike a full time resident of La Loma.  He is in the midst of building his awesome rock house by hand with local rocks from around the area.

One of my favorite structures at La Loma.

These train kids came and stayed here for a while and wanted to live in a train car... so they built their own.

The root cellar, just as deep as it is tall.

Inside the root cellar, keeps the veggies cool and crisp.

Dana and I cleaned out and decorated this one in exchange for our few days stay.

You know those hippies and their sweat lodges.

Built by the guy who started this place this was one of the more impressive structures on site.  

Inside the owners house, Dialed!

Even plants grow in the desert.

Yep this thing runs.

Papercrete just like concrete but less con and more recycled paper, heres one structure at a bed and breakfast in marathon texas in the works.

Desert green house.

Bed and breakfast in the works.

Can't wait to get home and build awesome shit out of this material.

They even had a lap pool inside the B&B.

cool place.

Gardens everywhere!

Got bored and hungry at La Loma and made desert pizza from scratch on the grill. 

Reaping the rewards.

After getting off of the dreaded 90 west highway and into new mexico I rode through a lot of pecan tree farms, this stretch lasted for miles, so awesome.

Behold the great Rio Grande, absolutely bone dry.  You know somethings wrong when the Rio grande has no water in it. 

Stayed with some awesome people in Las Cruces, NM. This is their view.

So after weeks of messing with my rear cassette for weeks it finally shit the bed while heading to Caballo Lake state park,  met this guy at the camp who offered to take me 60 miles back to get a wheel and then bring me back to the state park.  After my previous experience I was a little weary but 120 miles later Brian had bought me a new back wheel and mexican. A complete stranger just being nice trying to get me back on the road.  Thanks dude! 

Sick camp spot, check out that shiny new wheel.

Don't mess with the shrubs out here.

My next few days look like this, see that mountain I have to go over it.  See you in Phoenix!