St. Marys/Living with the dead

I rode from Fall Creek to Niellsville. The ride was pretty smooth other than the abundance of logging trucks and semis blowing by every three minites. By the time I got to Niellsville I was dead tired, and unfotunetly that city is built on a hill. I rode around for a while untill I found a Church with a huge yard and a cemetary in back. I figured it would be no big deal to pitch a tent so I went in and asked them and they were nice enough to let me. I set up on the fringe of the graveyard, dumped my gear and set out to find some food/company. The town was pretty dead, but I managed to score a free meal at a place downtown, and eventually ran into some skateboarder kids who I talked to for a while. It's really wierd being out this time of year, because you forget that some kids are still in school. I guess you forget what it was like to be that age at all. It was only 5 years ago, but alot changes in that much time. It was a cold night, and I didnt sleep the best which I attribute to ghosts, but I got up at around 7 and picked up camp. I rode to a near by park, filled up my water bottles and hit the road. Looking at my atlas the night before I realized how unrealistic I had been, and that there was no way I was going to cover as much ground as I said I would as quickly as originally desired. That said I re-routed my trip into Marshfield for day2. The ride on H was pretty intense. I'm realizing what touring is all about, HILLS. You go up then down then up then down then up then up then up then up then down. About 10 miles outside or marshfield I saw a yard with hundreds of bikes in it and pulle dover to check it out. Apparently this guy has over 2500 bikes, nad sells them off to people. My writing doesn't do it justice, so I took bunches of pictures. But suffice it to say there were about 20 of any bike you have ever heard of or could want. Some were so badly rusted that the sprocket was paper thin and broke when I flicked it. H to marshfield was also lined with roadkill every 1/4 mile. Have you every seen the remains of a cow that was hit by a truck? I have, and it's not pretty. I made it to Marshfield pretty quick and started looking aroudn for food. I stopped in at a small restraunt and got hooked up with some pancakes and sausage. This is the first time I've eaten meat in over 4 years, it's sad because I really dont like it that much, but In know it is important to eat properly while touring so I went ahead and ate it anyway. I've decided that I won't buy meat while out, but if it is given to me I will eat it. I rode around for a while and dropped of my gear at Craigs place. Got back on my bike and rode for a little while longer found a library and here I am. I'm pretty tired, but I'm having fun, and learning alot. Some people are totally floored by my bike others could care less. It's kind of wierd. Anyway, thats all for now. Tomorrow Stevens Point, after that Im not sure. Wish me luck.

Anticlimactic goodbyes

I'm in a mad scramble to get the first 10 days of my trip organized. I figure after that amount of time I should know what works and what doesn't, but figuring them out is difficult enough. I also found out the ferry to MI is like $60 so it looks like I'm not going to be taking that to MI, plans change and Canada looks more and more like a viable destination. Last night I saw an absolutly incredible show. Kepi from the groovie ghoulies, who I have loved since I was like 15, and finally got the chance to talk to him. It's awesome to meet someone who you really look up to and find out that they are just as cool and down to earth as you had hoped, and has been to Eau Claire and talks about the Norske Nook during their set. Andrew Jackson Jihad was there and blew me away, listen to them here and here, its really good folk punk type stuff. Lemuria who I am constantly singing praise of was there and once again were incredible. The queers were old and awesome, and the other band there kind of sucked, but that didnt matter much in the grand scheme of things. Afterwards we went to a really lame "party" where everyone seemed really standoff-ish and we took off back to WI. Now its time for me to get the rest of my shit together and say some goodbyes, and eat spaghetti! Wish me luck, and I will see you all when I get back, and hopefully post some when I'm on the road. Goodbye everyone and take care of yourselves.

Thank you

Thank you Dan Green for helping me get my bike together in time to leave on Wednesday. I'm going to the cities tonight to see some of my favorite bands in the world so I'm super excited. Two days untill departure and Im equally excited and freaked out. Especially looking at the 7 day forcast and seeing thunder storms forcasted 3 of the next 7 days. Last night was a scary reminder of how bad its going to suck dealing with rain and storms on the road. Thank god wal-mart is open 24/7 and offers shelter and a fully stocked fridge for grazing. Intrigue, excitment, wonder, all that and more.

No one gets out alive

I dont know what I would have done if he died. I can't help but wonder if kharma exists why do bad things happen to good people. It's a long fucked up story, and makes me wonder how close it is possible to come to a total wreck and still walk away. The abridged vesrion is this. I couldnt handle alot of the drama going on around me in eacu Claire so I visited my dad for a few days in Cadott. The first night I met up with some old friends from high school and realized how little we had in common. I can't help but wonder what they think of me. Now they still live in Cornell and one is married the other still goes to high school parties, and thinks burnouts are THE COOLEST. I guess its wierd that if we met today we would probobly never be friends, but growing up together built a certain repotoire with eachother that carried through our differences. Levaing Cornell of all palces I saw the bike pictured above. Shock! Upon investigation I was let down however because I noticed that the forks are just filled with body putty and not actually welded, resulting in a pretty flimsy assembly that wouldnt actually work. The next day my dad took off for a motorcycle ride to Eau Claire. About 10 minuites later I got a phone call from him saying he was just in an accident and needed me to pick him up. In a fucked up frenzy I got in the car and gunned it down to where he crashed and picked him up. Fortunetly there was no severed limbs or bones sticking out, but seeing him crounched wincing in pain made me realize somethign was wrong. I got him home and calledthe hospital in Chippewa and we headed out. While they were looking at him I went outside to make a phone call to tell my sister what had happened. In the middle of the call a nurse came out and told me that he had just fainted and needed to be rushed to the ER. Shit shit shit shit, what am I suppose to think or say or do about that? Shit. By the time we got to his room he was ok. it turns out that my familey is just really wimpy, and he passed out from pain. It's awesome when doctors don't tell you whats going on so you freak yourself out and think that your dad just died. The doctors finally told us that he had just broken his arm and cracked a few ribs. I drove hime to the pharmacy and we got his meds and went home. The big shock was going home and looking at the deep scratches and cracks in his helmet, realizing that if he hadn't had it on he might have been dead. Even helping him in and out of the car was a really fucked up reminder of how fast things you take fro granted can be taken away from you. I guess that's enough whiny stuff for now. Theother day I got back to EC and decided that I was to leave early for my trip and hopefully make it to Canada by early July. All of my gear is ready and so am I, the only problem is my bike is not. The derailers, and brake are being a pain in the ass, and to flipped crank setup is leading to a headache just trying to get pedals to stay where they are suppose to. On the way to use a computer the pedal fell out and crank stripped out, I just need to get this shit together so I can hit the road soon. I just checked my bank account and I'm realizing how sxcrewed Im going to be once I get back and dont have a job and am baisically unable to pay rent. Whatever, I guess right now all I can concern myself with really is getting out there and hopefully haviong a good trip, and not turning back. Not a whole lot else going on other than that. In other bike news some duded from EC are biking out to Seattle in a couple days http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/directory/?o=3Tzut&user=SweatinforSolar&v=0, acctually I just noticed they are heading out the day before me. I guess its that time of year. I'll p[ost at least one more time before leaving and try to keep shit updated while away. But right now I've got a tall bike to walk home and cranks to pull.

Junk Male

It's been a very long wierd week. I dont remember alot of what has gone on except alot of bad times with a few decent little one disperesed among them. I had my last night at work last night and it was a pretty liberating feeling. Clocking out and handing in my badge felt just about as good as I thought it would. The anticipation of leaving is creeping up on me and as I spend more time in Eau Claire I feel like I need to get out more. My love life has gone straight to hell, I have no job, no school, my bikes almost ready, I just want to hit the road. I've got a bunch of pictures of stuff from the last week, that should help me remember what has happened, but suffice it to say I just want to get the hell out of here for a while. Today I spent about $150 on gear, the cheapest stuff I could find. This tour isn't going to be cushy by any means, and I have no intentions of making it that way. I will post a bunch more tomorrow, I promise. But right now I've got a million things in my brain that make this impossible to do.

In a world of ghosts

Last night was the last Thursday night ride of this semester. That means no more college kids for a few months, CUTTERS GO! We decided to go for a ride out to big falls because Andy has never been. As usual on a sunny day we just stood around lazy for a while before taking off. Rode up to Gordys for some beverages, and saw this awesome razor locked up. Rode for an eternity on the trails and backroads out to Big falls. I couldnt help but think about the fact that in 2 weeks I will be doing that all day every day for a month. I'm excited buit intimidated knowing the amount of shit I'm going to go through. Once again more stres on me about getting my bike done in 2 weeks. But I digress.

We got to Big falls and walked around on the rocks before setting up and sitting down. We all sat around drinking and having a good time, preparing for someone to fall into the river in an epic "after school special" manner. I wandered around for a while. We all headed back out and told ghost stories while we walked back to the road. Chris and I invented bikes that you can just put into your pocket.

Rode back went to burrachoes and split a burrito with Cayla. Went to the joynt, it was kind of lame so we took off and went our different ways. I rode aroudn with Scott for a while and he crashed his bike into a curb. Rode for a little longer and headed home to go to bed earlier than I have in over a week. Sleep felt good. I work today but only have 4 days left untill I am jobless, schoolless, and get to ride my bike all day in preperation for my trip. Excitement. It's sad that I am almost going to miss my job. As mindless as it was it payed good. Enough of that though, this is no time to regret leaving work to ride my bike around WI for a summer.

I almost forgot to mention that the other day I got a bike jacked. It was a black Schwinn Racer left on campus. It has the original schwinn seat, and a junky mirror on the handlebars. 3 speed hub with a trigger shift on the bars, and a rear fender. If you see it around kill the person riding it and return it to it's proper owner, me. Other news, Volume one put up their video of the alleycat. Its alto longer than I thought it would be and is pretty good, it can be seen here. I am working on putting a calendar up on this page, I just need to tweak it a little, but that's proving to be more difficult than I thought. I really dont have much to say, and I need to gert to the city library so thats a wrap.

Obligations

Sometimes it feels like things are just been one big clusterfuck after another. After trying to figure out how to pay my rent by myself for a long time I decided to have Thomas and Hannah move in for a while to help out, and watch my house while I'm gone. I'ts funny how many people I've talked to in the past week or so who have told me as overwhelming as things may seem right now, the best possible thing I could do is go on this trip. That makes me even more excited, but also more anxious. Not only am I freaking out about making the trip ain one piece, but now I'm also anticipating some sort of incredible existential experience while in the process. For anyone unaware of what I'm talking about. I quit my job, and come June 1 I am leavig on a tall bike trip around WI, MI, and hopefully ending in Minneapolis on the 30th. Why a tall bike? Because they are fun, and no one to my knowledge has done it before. That plot thickens further though when I stop and realize that I dont even have the bike in 100% working order, let alone have all my gear together. I only have 4 days of work left then I finally get to leave that horrid place for the last time. It's kind of sad but I think a part of me will almost miss it. As much as I hate it, that job has been a part of my life for over a year, and it seems like quiting is just another thing that is disappearing. I guess it's that whole "time to turn the page" thing in my life, and see what happens next. Which is a lot less romantic and alot more intimidating than they make it look on TV. I'm just hoping the next few months of life will go as smoothly as possible, and give me an opportunity to figure out alot of stuff that I've been ignoring for a long time. Who knows, maybe I'll even get my zine rolling again and finally have an issue out by fall. Talk about misplaced priorities. I quit my job to go ride a bike around and scribble in a notebook. Putting things into that perspective helps me understand why when I told a friend my plans the only answer I got was, "well thats stupid, how will you pay your bills?" The answer, I don't know.

Emo wuss

4 years, 1 month, and 18 days ago I went on my first date with a girl that I was obsessed wih. I had seen her around town and school for months and thought she looked like the most incredible person in the world. I'm a horrificly shy person alot of the time so it took me almost 3 months just to talk to her and get her name. One day I finally asked her on a date. The rest is history. We went through more together than I've gone through with anyone in my life. We both grew so much and loved eachother so much that we talked about getting married and having kids. We loved each other. Last week I got a phone call at 10am from her. She said that she didn't want to be in a relationship and hung up. I couldnt get ahold of her untill a day afterwards. You can probobly imagine how crushed I was/am. We had just signed a lease together and made plans to go to two concerts. Then out of left field this happens. Fuck. That is the reason I havn't been around much recently. Relationships are really fucked up things. No matter how badly you want someone to love you and be with you you can't make them. And I realize that even me writing this may drive a wedge between us deeper, but it's this desperate need for someone to talk to and to relate to that puts us in the relationships we are in anyway. I've always been a sucker, and I've never known what to do around girls besides shower them with the praise that they deserve. So the ultimate rejection that comes when I tell somone that they are beautiful and I love them, and always will, is something that is really hard for me to comprehend. And that sucks, but it's something I'm learning really quick. Now all that is left is the hope that hearts can change and someday we will be back together, but it's hard to know that even uttering that possibility lessens the chances of it happening. I guess thats a risk I have to take. If your reading this Anna, You are beautiful, I love you and I miss you. I always will.

On a much brighter note I've also come to this ephiany that I am a kind of lucky guy. Yesterday was the Valleycat. I got to hang out with a bunch of really cool people all day, meet and talk to a bunch of people Ive never met before. Ride my bike with friends, eat free food, drink free beer, give someone the shirt off my back and get another one in return, and sit in a ditch trying to fix two flats. While the last part wasn't the funnest the rest was a really good time. A brief synopsis goes something like this. Went for a ride around town in the morning, and stopped in at the farmers market for a while. Hung out there, and Davin and another guy and myself went to the library to look for some city maps. Ended up getting them, which proved pointless as a map was on the manifest. Anyway I headed down to Racys early and everyone started showing up. Everyone started showing up and registering, we rode down to the footbridge by clairmont for the start. It was intense. Hit up the first checkpoint on campus and Kristoff and I decided to ride together. Tore down Clairemont in the construction lane which was really fun. hit up the next checkpoint in the mall, and headed out for Pizza Del Re. Just after leaving I was booking it and rode on some gravel for about 5 feet. PFFFFFFFFFF both of my tires blew out. Walked somewhere safe and got a ride back to racys.

I got some new tires and tubes and people started showing up. Ryan took first, I don't remember how many other people placed. Stuck around there for a while rode a bunch of bikes, and headed to the joynt. Stuck around there and then headed up to hilltop. Free beer everywhere. Lots of prizes. Skid through my tire, which was much harder than I had anticipated it being. Drank a bunch went for a long walk in the rain. Got back to hioll top, drank a bunch more. Beer ran out and we headed to Scooters. Scooters was dead so a bunch of people went to My Place. I thought it was lame so I headed to the Joynt with Derrik. We chilled there for a while then I went to the brat ( I know) and sat around for a little while listening to Tribe called quest. Went back to the joynt talked to a bunch of poelpe and had a reazlly good time. Went to an after bar for like 1/3 hour but wasn't feeling it so Thomas and I took a long walk back to my house because my tire went flat for the 4th time in one day.

Now I'm opertating of 4 hours sleep, and Im still a little drunk. But I think I will be ok. Which is something I don't feel like I've been able to say in a while, so its a strange thought. I've just finally come to the conclusion that in life you can only have what you have, so its a matter of taking the cards you dealt. Sometimes they suck, and you get papercuts from them, and you hate what they are doing, but you have to take them anyway. Anyway heres a bunch more pictures from the alleycat. Im going to call in sick to work and go to sleep instead of studying for finals.

pain

I've had alot of crap going on recently and havn't had much time or motivation to write. Heres some pictures from the last few days.

Im busy as fuck, leave me alone.