It's Official: We're Hittin' the Road
Seneca and I have a dream. It involves a
VW bus that runs on bio-fuels, a happy pooch, and the two of us. And we're officially making our dream a reality.
We have been trying to decide where to move since we graduated two years ago. We love Moscow, but we've both grown up in Idaho and want to expand our horizons a bit. Speicifcally, we're looking for a small, sustainable co-housing community where we can own our own home while being part of a thriving group of like-minded people. Many of the communities we're looking at feature sustainable buildings, off-grid energy systems, organic gardens and community classes. We have to visit the ones we're considering (many offer workshops so we'll try to go to some) and find a place that feels like home before we can make a decision. We're also interested in visiting cities we'd like to live in like Eugene, Mendocino, Portland, Bend, Arcata, or Willits... there's a lot of possibilities and a lot to see, so we're going to see as much as possible this summer!
The decision has been made and now we're quitting jobs (which was very hard for me, but I hope to go back), getting the bus ready to go, and planning the trip. A new engine is going in the bus this week, it's a Turbo Diesel with low miles that will actually be powerful enough for the bus (no more crawling up hills in second gear going 30!). Seneca and a couple of knowledgeable friends will be installing it, and then we'll finish up the interior - it needs a good cleaning and new upholstery. Sen is working on installing a second battery so we can have back-up power for things like the fan, fridge, and my laptop. I'll be taking a couple freelance projects on the way, and we hope to check in semi-regularly and document our trip on
Our Volksvegan Adventure.
So now comes more crunch time: selling most of what we own and figuring out where to store the rest, packing, planning the trip, finding grease and bio-diesel fill-up spots, figuring out our budget, finding someone to move into our place, etc. etc... One great thing about this trip is that it will truly get me to simplify. I have always been a pack rat and it's time to de-clutter, find out what I truly need to be happy, and live more simply.
Along the journey (which is the most important - especially since we don't know the destination) we will be visiting friends who have moved away, doing some backpacking and hiking, promoting sustainable travel, and maybe even leafleting at KFCs in strange towns... we're leaving a lot of it open-ended. We're planning for a concert or two, my cousin's wedding in Portland, visiting our friends in Glacier National Park and Bozeman Montana, checking out Eugene and the surrounding area, and visiting the Redwoods and communities in Oregon and Northern California. Then, depending on how we like living on the road (and how much money we have), we'd love to go Southwest and visit friends, see the string of beautiful National Parks, and just experience the desert. This will probably have to wait until fall though, something tells me a husky doesn't belong in the Southwest in the summer!
The more I think about it and start planning the trip, the more it feels like the right decision. It's probably the craziest thing I've ever done, but I'm young and I might as well do it now! We are soooo excited and will keep you updated about the trip. We are hoping to be on the road by mid-June, experiencing the ultimate road trip. :)
Labels: change, green living, vacation/trips, volksvegan grease bus
Woah, what happened to February?
February always catches me by surprise because it's a short month. I can't believe it's almost over already! It's been a busy month, and I have a feeling March will be even busier, since I'm trying to finish up a lot of projects before I leave for Spain. So, what did I do this month? Well, since Seneca and I don't normally do much for Valentine's Day (it's an over commercialized holiday and we prefer to celebrate our love all the time instead of one day a year), we decided to show some love for animals by
protesting at KFC. We joined Compassion Speaks in a Valentine's Day themed protest (see picture). Seneca dressed up as a chicken and clucked angrily (which was quite hilarious) as people pulled into the KFC drive-thru, and I wore an evil Colonel Sanders mask and chased him around. Seneca carried a sign that said "KFC Broke My Heart (and My Legs)" and I made one that said "Have a Heart, Boycott KFC." It was lots of fun and we got a variety of different reactions as usual. We also went to the Compassion Speaks Vegan Potluck a couple days before V-day, which is always delicious and fun.
For President's Day weekend we went to McCall to visit my parents and go snowboarding. We have only gone snowboarding twice this entire season now, because of less-than-ideal snow conditions and lack of money, but thankfully my parents were kind enough to take us to Brundage in McCall (thanks Mom & Dad!). I can actually keep up with Seneca pretty well, although he likes to dart through the trees and I suck at that part. Juneau got to play in the snow, which he absolutely loved, since Moscow's snow has all melted. We went out to dinner and went on several walks to the frozen lake with the dogs. It was a nice little vacation and as always it was good to see my family.
I have been busy working on a site redesign at work, which is going smoothly now that the layout has been pretty well hammered out. As for freelance projects, I am finishing up the
T & D Landscaping site, and have been keeping busy designing flyers and other promotional items for the Moscow CommUNITY Walk, a new event with the theme "Walking on Common Ground" that will be taking place in Moscow on April 28. I am also planning to design the graphics for the posters and t-shirts for Moscow's Hempfest again this year, so I recently began the brainstorming process for that. And of course, I still design the Moscow Food Co-op's monthly newsletter.
I have made quite a few posts about green art and design on
Green Options (the link takes you directly to a list of my blog entries) and I am enjoying the opportunity to research and write about sustainable design. The site has really taken off and more content is added every day, it is a great resource for all things green. Now, if only we could get more people to start living more sustainably, maybe we'd stand a chance at combatting global warming...
This week is Jazz Fest in Moscow, and Seneca's dad, John, is visiting from Pennsylvania to check out all the great music. We'll probably be going to several jazz shows this week. John is a lot like Seneca: very progressive, vegetarian, and passionate about alternative energy and living sustainably. We certainly enjoy his visits, and are very glad to see that he is recovering from the colon cancer he had last year (he sends a warning to everyone: a lifetime of eating meat can lead to colon cancer!). Last time he was here we took him to a KFC protest and Seneca put him to work fixing the bus. This time around, they're playing lots of poker together and enjoying the jazz music (although I probably can't promise that Sen won't want some help with the bus this week).
And, some good news about the bus: SHE RUNS! Seneca fixed the starter switch and got the electrical problems all figured out, and just got it back from the shop, where they re-timed it and did some other minor repairs. We recently ordered some new upholstery for the interior walls and cabinets, so that's our next project. We haven't been collecting grease much this winter since she hasn't been running, so now we hope to get back to a regular grease-collecting schedule as well. Hopefully many trips await us in the grease bus!
And now, back to being busy busy busy and hopefully getting some work done. :)
Labels: family, vacation/trips, volksvegan grease bus
We be greasin'!
We finally have a greasecar! After a lot of work (mostly on Seneca's part), we got our greasecar.com kit installed so the bus can run on Waste Vegetable Oil. We took her for the first veggie-fueled run on Friday. We had to be sure to smell the exhaust, which didn't smell like much of anything since we were running on virgin oil for the first trip, not used oil. We're very excited to have a more sustainable & less polluting form of transportation, and of course, now we're planning some trips in the bus! We've done a lot of upgrades on the bus since we got back from vacation: new headlights that are MUCH brighter and safer, a hemp/organic cotton pop-top canvas with 3 windows, fixed the sink with a hand-powered water pump so now all the camping equipment works, and we just got our new tires in today. So all that's left is to put the new tires & wheels on (we have an appointment scheduled tomorrow) and possibly get the engine checked out by a mechanic and the timing belt replaced. Then it's ready for road-tripping!
Seneca has been very dedicated to this project, making it his full-time job for the summer. His brother, Andy, also has a greasecar, an old Mercedes Benz. So now the "Bio-Brothers" are hoping to start up a business converting people's cars to run on veggie oil and installing conversion kits, using their own cars as models and as advertising. We have been trying to find sources of used fryer oil from various restaurants. We have one regular source, The Breakfast Club, who graciously provides us with about 5 gallons every week, which we then process (put baking soda in it so the animal fats & hydrogenation settles out), filter, and put in the veggie oil tank. We're on the lookout for more sources, and have a couple in the works (it sure helps knowing lots of people in this town, especially those that work at restaurants we want to get grease from). We just got a big storage barrel for the filtered grease, which we heat up a bit before putting into the tank. We're hoping once we move to Eugene (sometime later this fall) that we can get grease from the many vegetarian restaurants in town, to avoid having to separate the animal fats from the usable oil.
So the process works a bit like this: the car has 2 tanks now, one for diesel (or bio-diesel when we can get it) for starting the car & warming up the lines. The second tank is the veggie oil tank, which is heated up so it flows well. After the car is warmed up & running, we flip a switch on the dash and it begins running off of the veggie oil tank. Seneca says the engine sounds quieter on veggie oil, since it's a natural engine lubricant. Once it's running on veggie oil, the exhaust smells like french fries (a big improvement over diesel exhaust), and we cruise at about the same miles per gallon as we get with diesel (for our car it's about 30MPG, not bad for such a heavy bus). About a minute before we stop, we have to purge the veggie oil from all the fuel lines since it can solidify when cool, and switch back to diesel. If we forget to purge it, we have a buzzer that alerts us when we turn off the car in veggie-oil mode, so then we can turn it back on & purge it. Pretty simple, and according to Seneca (well, he's an engineer, this stuff is way over my head), it was easy to install. The only problem we ran into was that our wire for the switch & gages wasn't long enough, so Seneca had to improvise and we'll re-wire it when we get the correct wire from greasecar.com. After that's done the wiring will be hidden and it won't look ghetto-rigged. :)
We're planning on going to several
barter fairs this fall in the bus, and spreading the good word about a more sustainable method of travel. And of course now that we get free fuel (assuming we get some good sources soon), we'll be much more likely to take a lot of weekend road trips & camping trips!
I have been writing about our conversion process and bio-fuels in general on my new blog,
Our Volksvegan Adventure. We'll also post pictures and stories of our hopefully many future veggie-fueled travels, information on collecting and filtering grease, and anything interesting about sustainable vehicle developments. Please check out the new blog and say hi to our new greasecar!
Labels: activism, green living, volksvegan grease bus
Ahhhhh.... vacation!
I got back on Tuesday from a long-awaited (and much deserved) vacation. We took our bus on her maiden voyage and she ran wonderfully the entire time. We were heading to the Rainbow Family Gathering near Steamboat Springs, Colorado, but we made sure to stop at lots of fun places along the way...
Juneau, Seneca, the bus, and I embarked on our journey and first went to Jerry Johnson hot springs (in Idaho on the way to Montana). There we saw a mama & baby moose across the river, and several fellow Moscowvites in the hot springs. We hung out for a bit and then camped just after Lolo Pass in Montana. It's so nice that we can pull over and camp anywhere in the bus, all we do is pop the top, put our stuff on the top bunk, and sleep on the bottom (or the top). The fridge and stove work but we couldn't get the sink to work and probably need a new water pump.
We continued through Montana and into Yellowstone National Park's West entrance on day 2. Neither of us had been to Yellowstone since we were kids, so it was a great experience! We saw all sorts of geysers, elk, bison, hot springs, and of course the beautiful landscapes of Yellowstone, dotted with way too many tourists (remind me to steer clear of Yellowstone in early July next time!). Yellowstone is still recovering from a forest fire (I think it was in '88) so there are parts of the park full of skeletal trees and little baby trees below them. We saw Old Faithful erupt at sunset, what perfect timing! We walked around Geyser hill and camped in the park that night. We got up the next morning and headed to Grand Teton National Park, just below Yellowstone. I am in love with the Tetons, those mountains are beautiful! They rise out of nowhere and tower over everything around. After the tetons (and getting our National Parks pass so we could return), we drove through Wyoming and into Colorado. We got into the Gathering (with no cop intervention, despite lots of rumors about roadblocks and tickets) late at night.
When we awoke we were in Rainbow land (ok, well, the parking lot of it anyway), the area was absolutely beautiful! We hiked into the Gathering (a couple of miles from parking) and were greeted with calls of "Welcome Home!" and lots of good vibes and hug by the Rainbow Family. It did feel like home, a place where an alternative to society (and to capitalism) thrives and people genuinely care about one another. Seneca volunteered for a kitchen (grating ginger) and I walked around with Juneau. We ended up camping near Yoga Camp the first night.
The 4th of July is a big event at the Gathering. Everyone is silent in the morning, and gradually more and more people come to the main meadow and wait for noon. Around noon we all formed a giant circle around the meadow, joined hands, and prayed/wished/manifested world peace. Low, booming chants of "ooooooooohhhhhhhhmmmmmmm" were all we could hear. Then the children came in from Kiddie Village and paraded into the center of the circle. Once they reached the middle everyone went crazy, cheering and celebrating. A drum circle began in the center of the meadow and musicians and dancers filled the valley. It felt much more patriotic to gather with my brothers and sisters and focus on peace, celebrate our freedom and our rights to gather, and make music than lighting fireworks and wearing red, white, and blue ever did. :) We also met up with our friend Jake at the main circle, and hung out with him for the rest of the Gathering.
The Gathering is a very unique place. There is no money involved (except donated "green energy" to help pay for food, supplies, and probably a few Rainbows' citation fees) and everything is done on a volunteer, donation, and bartering basis. The trade circle was awesome, I brought my homemade soaps, oils, and jewelry and traded for all kinds of awesome stuff, including some sweet patchwork pants, a shirt, and some beads. There are numerous kitchens serving mostly vegetarian & vegan food, and boy is it delicious! Every evening people gather in the main meadow and kitchens serve huge meals out of coolers on carts, 5 gallon buckets, and huge pots. There are lots of things to do as well, yoga classes, volunteering at kitchens, hiking, trading, and at night there are community fires with drum circles and fire dancers, and there's one camp that built a pirate ship stage for talent & variety shows. Nearby our camp was "Popcorner," a kitchen that served popcorn and tea all night. They got really creative with their popcorn, too, and the chai there was delicious.
Unfortunately there is always drama at the Gathering, since it draws in a very diverse crowd and the Forest Service & cops don't seem to like hippies. This year the Forest Service (we decided to call them the Fascist Service since the Bush Administration sent them to try to stop the Gathering, wasting millions of dollars on spying on, arresting, and harassing the Rainbows) actually set up road blocks and ticketed many of the early arrivals. They then forced them to appear in a nearby town for a private group hearing (is this starting to sound fascist yet?) where no one was allowed access to a lawyer. The Rainbows have tried applying for permits the last few Gatherings, even though we shouldn't have to since we always gather on public land that our tax dollars pay for... but the FS always denies the permit applications so they can cite people, and cite people they did. We were lucky not to even get pulled over, probably because we travelled in & out with the bulk of the people. But they could not stop the Rainbow Gathering from happening, nor will they ever be able to, although they certainly like eroding our constitutional rights such as the right to freely assemble.
Anyway, after many days of delicious vegan food, volunteering, trading, and enjoying the beautiful forests and people, we headed out to Denver with Jake and a new friend we'd met. Jake's parents live in Denver (they were so nice to let us stay with them) and we got to shower at last! ;) We went to Boulder the next day, and hung out at the Co-op (they have a really nice little vegetarian Co-op there) and a beautiful teahouse. We filled up on a bio-diesel blend & headed to Rocky Mountain National Park. We dropped off Jake with his family since they were vacationing there, and took the bus up the highest paved highway in the country, through the Rocky Mountains. It had been raining the last couple days and was still wet and very foggy the whole way through the park. So we didn't see too much of the mountains. The park is so high that the top of the road is above the treeline, in tundra. We drove back to Steamboat Springs and then back up North.
On the way back we went a different way and came up to Grand Teton National Park through the East entrance. We also took a different route through Yellowstone so we could see Lower Falls, the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone, and Mammoth Hot Springs. There were so many bison everywhere, and lots of elk by the road as well. You can tell they've gotten used to the tourists. The funniest bison we saw was crossing the river, so we pulled over to watch him. Once across the river he walked up to a Geyser. He immediately realized it was really hot and bolted it in the opposite direction. It was pretty funny to watch him learn a lesson. We hiked down to the bottom of the beautiful Lower Falls, took way too many pictures, and left the park through the North entrance after seeing Mammoth Hot Springs. Yellowstone is truly a magical place, I'm so glad we got to see it twice! :)
On the way home we stopped in Bozeman, Montana to see our friend Joe who is living there this summer. It was another beautiful mountain resort town, surrounded by mountains. The bus held up well the entire way back, but now she's a bit dirty and in need of another oil change & new tires. Seneca's brother ordered our
greasecar kit so we'll be starting the grease conversion soon, but we're hoping to put in a higher powered engine first, too. Hopefully we'll be running on waste vegetable oil soon!
See
Flickr photo page for all my vacation photos... I took about 900 shots on the trip, it was hard to narrow them down! ;) And now, it's back to the daily grind...
Labels: vacation/trips, volksvegan grease bus
One step closer to sustainable transportation!
Wow, it's been a while since I've posted. Let me bring y'all up to speed... First of all, and most exciting, WE FOUND A DIESEL VW BUS! As much as I hate E-bay, it seems that it was the only place we were finding diesel westfalias with low mileage. So we found on e-bay and actually won the bid last night! It's in Atlanta, which is much farther than we were hoping for, but luckily my lovely aunt Susan was able to go check out the bus since she lives in the area. It's beautiful, has low miles, and it's a diesel with an absolutely immaculate interior and a pretty close to perfect body.
So, Seneca is flying down to Atlanta today so he can drive it back up here before we leave for vacation next week, and hopefully all goes well and we can drive it on our road trip. I'm SO EXCITED that we finally found a bus. After months of looking and disappointment, our greasecar dream is materializing! The diesels are rare and kinda spendy, but it's much easier to start with a diesel (and cheaper, we found out) than to get a gas one, convert it to diesel, then convert it to grease. So we're halfway there. Diesels can run on a bio-diesel/diesel mix without any modification, so Sen found several gas stations along the trip that sell 20% bio-diesel fuel, and this is probably what we'll do until we have the money for the grease kit. Sen and his brother (who is a mechanic) are going to do the grease conversion and then we can use waste vegetable oil (filtered first) and bio-diesel to run it! Woohoo! No more oil!
So other than searching and finding our bus, we've been keeping busy and enjoying the summer. We went to a barter fair/gathering near Trout Lake, WA last weekend. It was called the Llama Reunion (a group of friends called the Llama tribe hosted it) and it was fantabulous! There's lots of
pictures on my flickr page of the trip. It was quite the drive, but well worth it. The location was beautiful, we camped in a field of daisies with Mt. Adams hovering above us. It was a small barter fair, but the crowd was great and we met some cool people. I also sold lots of soap and duct tape wallets, which is always nice!
We're planning our summer trek and I'm getting very excited, especially now that we have a camper bus to take the trip in! We are leaving next Wednesday (hopefully!) and heading to Steamboat Springs, Colorado for the Rainbow Family Gathering. This is a magical annual event, a gathering of all kinds of "rainbows" from all over the country. We've only been to one before, two years ago, and it changed my life. It's a mix of all things counter-culture, and it operates a bit like a commune. Everyone helps out (volunteering at kitchens, cleaning up the camps, digging pit toilets, etc.) and no money is exchanged at all. The food is all vegetarian (mostly vegan actually) and freely distributed to everyone. We all eat together in a big meadow, there are lots of opportunities for hiking, there are themed camps (I want to stay in Yoga camp this year!) and each one has a kitchen. There are workshops and classes on anything from herbalism to yoga, meditation to alternative medicine... it should be awesome! My first Gathering is what convinced me that I could go vegetarian, and I haven't eaten meat since. It's an empowering experience and a look at a completely alternative way of life.
After the Gathering we are heading to Eugene, Oregon for the Oregon Country Fair. It's a bit like a giant barter fair, with all kinds of activities, vendors, and camping nearby. We've never been but it looks like fun. After that we hope to check out Eugene for a bit, maybe go to the beach, and then come home. We're considering moving to Eugene so if there's time we might look for places to live and check out some of the non-profits & environmental organizations that Seneca is interested in working for. Then it's back up to Idaho and back to the daily grind.... a two-week vacation (I'm not bringing my computer, kinda scary, huh!) is MUCH needed right about now. I've been working more than full-time with my job and freelance projects combined, so a break is just what I need to refresh and relax.
So needless to say I will be out of commission for two weeks (June 28-July 11), so please hold off on the e-mails & such until I get home. I will definitely post pictures and stories of our journey when I get back. Now, back to work... :)
Labels: activism, green living, volksvegan grease bus
Greed is bad
...So apparently I spoke too soon about that bus. We went back to talk to the guy with cash in hand, and he said that after talking with his wife he needs to get more for it (what it was "worth" according to e-bay, not how much he'd put into it, which was the price he gave us previously). He more than doubled his price! Almost tripled it! For a van that is a total project and hasn't even run since he got it. He said he'd put the engine in and get it running, but it's still not worth that much. What a greedy poo-head! So we're back to square one, and probably going to find a gas bus and convert it, since the diesels (like this one was) are rare and greedy people charge way too much for them. I am just steamed that we could've had a bus, a LOCAL one at that, and then greed has to get the better of people. The guy was pretty cool too, it's a shame.
Arrhghghghhhhghg this is becoming frustrating. We wanted to be running on grease by July for the Rainbow Gathering. Now it's almost June and still no bus. :(
Just needed to vent. Hopefully I'll have good news soon.
Labels: volksvegan grease bus
Not enough time in a day!
Wow, it's been a busy week so far, and it's only Tuesday! :( Work has been keeping me really busy. We have to make site-wide changes to all of our web sites (and there are a TON), all because Microsoft decided to be lame and change the way the new release of Explorer handles embedded flash files. So I get the wonderful task of using a new process for using flash elements on pages for the entire peta2 site, which has flash elements on every page and is probably the largest PETA site. Can we say tedious? Argh! Not sure if that paragraph made any sense, but it feels good to vent... I guess I am learning something from the process...
Freelance work is blowing up like crazy. I took over the design of the Co-op newsletter and have designed 2 issues so far. Everyone loves it, all is well, but we are changing presses and now I have to design a new template. Not a big deal, and I'll have a chance to redesign things a bit, but it means more time spent working after regular work hours. I am working on a proposal for a landscaping company's website, and will be meeting with a client about a book project on Friday. That probably won't start for a while, since the book is just in the planning stages... and then out of the blue I get an e-mail from another possible client! She loved my work and my design approach, which is totally awesome, and is interested in having me do a logo and identity system. I'm excited about that since it will give me some variety and I haven't done a logo in a little while. Not too sure about the details yet, but it sounds like that project won't start until June. Why is it that when I'm swamped with work, more comes my way? I rarely turn it down, because I love design and doing freelance work gives me more creative freedom and variety than the day job, but juggling everything has been hard and I'm really really glad I work 4 10's so I can have a 3-day weekend. I usually only work on freelance stuff one day of the weekend, and occasionally in the evenings, but I might be dedicating more time to it soon by the looks of it. I'm just hoping things calm down this summer so I can take a much needed break! :)
Still no VW bus :( but we've found lots of possibilities. The diesels are getting snatched up super-quick. One guy had 48 people in line to look at his '82 diesel Westfalia! We're broadening the search and are considering getting a gas one that's in need of a new engine anyway and putting in a bigger turbo diesel engine so we can tackle the mountains without being too sluggish... I have a feeling this process may take longer than we'd hoped. It's already May and it's going to take a while to do the conversion to grease (and from gas to diesel, then to grease if necessary) and pimp out the little home on wheels before we do a lot of traveling in it. But I'm hopeful, and looking forward to finding our perfect bus. My parents had VW buses from before they were married until just a few years ago when they sold out and got a Honda mini-van. So it runs in the blood, and it's been a while since I had a VW in my life... I still miss the Corrado I had (even though it was a pain in the ass and wouldn't start...). I never thought I'd be so interested in cars! But a grease-powered car is yet another way to reduce my footprint on the earth and save money at the same time. :)
Speaking of reducing my footprint, Seneca got a bike trailer from a friend who's moving, and we've been doing errands in that lately. It's been so nice out, it's hard not to ride bikes everywhere. The bike trailer fits a whole load of groceries (we just tested it out with a big grocery trip last night)! Juneau even helps pull it, Seneca clips Juneau's leash to his belt and he pulls Seneca and the cart along. I have yet to try the pooch-powered bike with the cart, but boy can that dog pull. He just loves to run, he's a husky all right!
Well, this is definitely a long enough post. I guess I just had a lot to vent about. :) Life just keeps on chuggin' along, although I've noticed it goes faster the older I get...
Labels: volksvegan grease bus, work
Hectic Happy Holidays
Whew, the holiday rush is over and I'm just settling down. What a crazy couple of weeks! I spent Christmas in Boise (stopped in McCall for snowboarding on the way down) and brought Juneau and Maya there to see their "grandparents." I spent a week at my parents' house (brought my work with me) and got to hang out with family and friends. We went on a Christmas light tour with my cousins and aunt and uncle, did a White Elephant gag gift exchange on Christmas Eve, and had a wonderful Christmas morning in which everyone got spoiled rotten as usual! I'm excited that I got a new office chair and other office supplies so I can be more comfy in my little home office. Thanks Mom & Dad! I also got an ice cream maker, magic bullet kitchen gadget, and a new mess kit for backpacking, among other things. On Christmas day we went up to McCall after spending some time with Seneca's family, and then came home the day after.
After one day home, it was on the road again. We headed to San Francisco with our friends Hallie and Joel for "Sea of Dreams," a New Year's String Cheese Incident show. I had never seen Cheese live before and San Fran is just plain awesome, so I was excited about the road trip. We stopped in Ashland, Oregon, the first night and as we headed South it got more and more rainy. We tried going down 101, but that turned out to be a bad idea. Mudslides had closed the highway, so after staying a night in the very wet Redwoods, we turned around and tried another way. A few hours and 2 failed detours later, we were finally on our way to the show. It was raining so hard it felt like we were in a Monsoon, and it took us forever to finally get across that bridge and park the car. We arrived at the first night of the concert around midnight, but luckily we only missed one set.
The venue for Sea of Dreams (Concourse Exhibition Center) was filled with "cheeseheads" all dressed up in crazy costumes. There was psychadelic art on display and a room with nothing but blacklight sensitive obstacles. There were 3 stages and several booths full of interesting wares. It was pretty crowded but I got a great view of String Cheese and danced and walked around the venue until about 3am. We headed to our hotel room, which ended up being quite a fiasco after having our rervation "lost" then found and being double-booked in a room with another crew of "cheeseheads." Eventually we got our room and got a few hours of sleep. The next day was actually sunny! We explored San Francisco, hung out near Haight Ashbury and Golden Gate Park, and tried tasty brews at the Magnolia Brewery on Haight St.
New Year's Eve was one I won't soon forget! We wore psychadelic costumes and got to the venue early. String Cheese played on and on (from about 9 pm to 2:20 am with one set break!) and there were tons of people dressed up in crazy costumes complete with flashing lights and more. We headed to the floor to ring in the New Year while Cheese jammed out. At midnight, there was a countdown and thousands of balloons were released from nets on the ceiling. Glow sticks and balloons were bouncing around in the crowd, and everyone tried to keep the balloons up in the air. The energy at the show was amazing, and kept us going until around 4 am when we started our walk to the hotel.
We stopped by the ocean on the way out of town the next day and headed to Portland. We finally got some sleep staying with my cousins in Portland and headed to Moscow the day after. We stopped for a hike at Multnomah Falls and hiked to the top to soak in the view. I've seen those falls so many times, but never from right above the edge of the cliff! It was a quick and uneventful ride back to Moscow...
I'm starting a 40 hour/week schedule today. I'm working 10 hour days, 4 days a week. It will be hard to get used to and take up most of my days, but my 3-day weekends are precious and I can use the money! At least I have a more ergonomic chair to sit in now... Time to start another busy year. Happy 2006!
Labels: family, holidays, volksvegan grease bus
Tuscany, Pisa, and Venice, oh my!
We have been all over Italy in the last few days, from South to North and now East to West. Today we arrived in Montecatini in the Tuscany region, after visiting Pisa earlier today. I made sure to get pictures of the leaning tower, but we didn't have too much time there.
Yesterday we spent the day in Venice, which was a very unique place with canals instead of streets and boats instead of cars. The canals are pretty dirty, and the streets are very narrow and easy to get lost in. The night before we went on a boat ride to the island of Burano in the Venice lagoon. All the houses were different bright colors, and we had an excellent dinner. Many of the large buildings and towers in Venice are leaning or uneven, because it was built on logs on a sandy bottom. It's like no other place on earth, though. We didn't get to do a Gondola ride, because they're very expensive, so I guess I'll have an excuse to come back someday!
Italy is bellissimo! We have been covering a lot of countryside along the way, and getting to a new city almost every other day. The next stop is Sienna on the way to Rome, where we will finish up our trip. Tomorrow we get to go to Florence where I will be going to the Ufizzi gallery, the most famous collection of Italian Renaissance art. We went to the Peggy Guggenheim collection in Venice yesterday, which was awesome and had modern artists like Dali, Picasso, and Pollock. So I'm feeling very cultured! I'm also becoming quite addicted to gelato, it is way better than ice cream, I sure will miss it!
Ciao!
Labels: family, vacation/trips, volksvegan grease bus
Italia!
What an adventure Italy has been, and it has only been 2 days (plus a very long day spent on planes). We landed in Rome yesterday, only to find out that my luggage had been lost by the airline. So I had to wear Rachel's clothes for a day, and even went out and bought some new clothes and underwear. Of course, after I bought new clothes and went to the hotel, I found out that my suitcase had arrived (yay!). Roma is bellisimo! We spent an afternoon/evening in Rome, and were very tired after being up for 30 hours. Today we left Rome for Pompeii and saw the ancient city that was covered by volcanic ash in 79 AD. I didn't get to see as much of it as I would have liked, since the city is huge, but the ruins were amazing.
After Pompeii we stopped in the coastal city of Sorrento, which is up on rocky cliffs above the Mediterranean. We did some shopping and then headed to the island of Capri, where we came to our beautiful hotel and I finally found some wireless internet. The island is rocky and our hotel is at the very top of steep cliffs. The Mediterranean is a deep blue and the area is lush with life, especially lemon and olive trees, flowers, and vineyards. Tomorrow we will be going to the Blue Grotto here at Capri, and the day after that we will head to Naples, then up to Tuscany. I can't believe how much I've seen in such a short time, it is amazing!
I will post more later, my internet is on a time limit and my photoblog is not behaving very well today... :)
Labels: family, vacation/trips, volksvegan grease bus
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