Burgdorf

So i finally finished stacking the massive pile of wood at Burgdorf

I also ended up meeting some really interesting old hippies from Nashville. My first experience was them asking if I was okay with clothing optional. lol I got to talking to them, and I found out they were professors at a small college in Ashville, NC. Later that night, the older guy got out his guitar, and I got my harmonica and flute, and we jammed by the pool. I found out my flute is about in the A minor scale. It was very fun. I got thier contact info, so hopefully I can stay with them when I go to Ashville.

I saw some elk, which was interesting. I also met Rick's wife, Karen. We ate dinner together. They are moving houses, so now I'm staying with them in a little town close to Burgdorf, and helping them move. I plan to be in Portland by Wednesday.

Burgdorf Hot Springs

So after a restless night staying in a rainy park behind some bushes in Lewiston, I found my way to McCall, ID by bus. Upon arrival, I found out no one was available to pick me, so being the diligent hard-working young man I am, I bought a hamburger and sat down. Then I started hiking up to Burgdorf, only 35 scenic miles.... Luckily I was picked up by a guy named Luke, who used to hitch around the country himself.  After driving me up there he even gave me $11 to boot. Pretty nice.

So I got to Burgdorf, and my initial thought was it was incredibly creepy and a good setting for a murder mystery. However, as I settled in, it became exponentially more warn and inviting. There is a large pool that is 106 degrees and two small ones that are 113 degrees. Everything is made in the authentic log cabin style building with Idaho pine. The resort itself was originally a stop in the late 1800's for miners, and has been a dairy farm, a hippie colony, and resort. The pools are surrounded by rustic cabins. The only electricity available is generated through a solor panel by the main office, with limited internet. Hopefully i can keep up with my online math class so I can please the great gods of academia at the University of Lousiville.

Rick is the main caretaker, a retired restaurant owner from Washington. He put me up in a little white cabin about 100 yards from pool, complete with a little stove and a little bed.

The first night, I became acquainted with the wood pile. My task was to stack this massive pile of wood. After stacking for a while, I headed to the cabin to pass out. However, hunger was calling my name, so I brought out the only thing I had...Spam...glorious spam. I tried cooking it over the stove, but as it turns out, Spam is disgusting. I ended up chugging an entire jar of apple sauce instead.

The next day I took a hike to crystal mountain, a huge quartz outcropping at the top of a mountain. The view was incredible. I felt like a nature valley granola bar model.

That night I saw some elk, which was pretty cool. The whole place is very peaceful for the most part, except the stray dune buggy or four wheeler. It reminded me of how John Steinbeck must have felt when he was writing his first novel. He was a maintenance man living in a cabin at resort in Utah.

Overall, fairly peaceful. Unfortunately however, I am living off the equivalent of gas station food, so hopefully that wont make me sick. Good stuff happening in the mountains of Idaho

Rainbow Gathering

Wow, what a trip it has been. We ended up spanging for a while in Idaho Falls, to get a full tank of gas.

After getting through idaho falls, Keith, krishna, and I finally arrived at the rainbow gathering. Rainwolf found a ride with some guys in a van. After the police hassled the heck out of us looking for drugs, we found a place to park. It was dark, and I just passed out on the ground next to the car, but in the morning I got a  stunning surprise

By the end of the week, this gorgeous valley held 10,000 hippies, and lots of organic food and controlled substances. It was nothing short of amazing.

So after I woke up, I hiked down to orient myself. Since it was set up as a commune, there were about 60 different kitchens that served free food (but asked for labor) I found a campsite at the end of a nice quiet meadow. I then met some people cutting wood, and decided to help. When nightfall fell, I found out we were cutting wood for a massive drum circle that contunued all the way to dawn. Of course, I did some hard  core shirtless tribal dancing to the 40 bongos and cowbells people brought. I also found chanting and singing very satisfying.

The next day I did some yoga on the hill side, and learned abouut lots of theories about the flow of energy through the body. It was also nice to be greeted with a "lovin you", which was the unoffical greeting of the gathering. I went to eat at main circle, which is the common dinner almost all the kitchens contribute to. Needless to say, I ate so many beans....so many...  I also got to meet a yoga girl from texas named christine, and some new neighbors on the meadow, Carter and Joelle. I also met a nice couple on the trail, Abbey and Noah.

Later, I went to a kitchen full of old hippies and heard the best reggae music in my life. When I closed my eyes, I fell into the famous euphoria of the jazz musicians, and that was amazing. All the music of the gathering was organic, and all of the musicians were amazing. I also found out what a zuzu is. It is a ganja laced desert, which will indeed make your head spin. Yea... that was a long night.

The next night at the same kitchen, called "lovin ovens" I met a man that made bio-gas, and alternative fuel. Since i'm into that kind of thing, I thought it was awesome to meet a contact. Later I went to this beautiful mountain stream and washed up with some people. It was gorgeous, and nudity was so common that no one cared (except the patrolling park rangers)

The next day i went to the trade circle. No money is allowed, only things to trade. I ended up trading an extra multi tool i acquired on the road for a handmade flute.

On July 4, about 4000 people joined in this massive circle and ohmed for world peace, with the children in the center. After the ohm, there was a wild drum naked drum circle dance, which i absolutely participated in. I also got a sun and seagull painted on my chest, since my Mom used to say my Indian name would've been lost seagull. But maybe the seagull found his home. There was generally tons of love and care. Of course there was the bad apples, but generally everybody genuinely cared and accpeted everyone else. And about a quarter of the people were travelling kids, and this really was their home.

Later I met more meadow neighbors, Andy and Carrie. This was a young couple who had been doing work exchange for an organic vegetable and cannabis farm in Oregon, owned by a college professor. So I ogt thier contact info, and am going to try to contact this guy near portland.

Finally, I found a ride to Idaho while chopping veggies for a kitchen. I ended rolling out with a car full of travelling college kids, most from Olympia. There was ten of us crammed in to this suburban, 5 laying down in the cargo area.

About half way through, we found a beautiful hot spring pool secluded on a forest trail.. It was late, and everybody stripped and jumped in for about two hours, scrubbing away the week of stinking body odor. We also did a massage train in the pool, which was super relaxing after being crammed into the suburban for hours. Eventually I was dropped off in Lewiston, ID where I got a motel room to clean up and get ready for the work exchange in McCall, ID.

On the way to rainbow!!

I So yesterday I got all packed up for a week in the mountains when I got a response from Craigslist for a ride to rainbow. The two people were leaving today, but I accepted and met them at manitou with my pack

So as a maroon beat up Monte Carlo pulled up I met Keith and his wife Krishna rani and their baby. We also picked up a hippy dude named Rewolf and his dog dinkerton. So the first order of business was to figure out how 4 adults, a baby, a dog, and everyone's gear was going to fit into what became a sardine can. We ended up tying a bike rack to the back and putting rewolfs packs, two gas jugs, and a water jug on the back.

Next order of business was to accumulate some cash. While I ran into Walmart to get a gas can, Keith and rewolf held signs in the road median asking for money. Together they accumulated a whopping $2 before the cops ran us off. It was getting dark, so we decided to camp in the national park and try the next day. 

After a drive up a windy gravel road and the bike rack bouncing around on the back of our crammed sedan, we found a campsite with a gorgeous view, and I set up my tent hammock. Though it was a chilly night the view in the morning was totally worth it

So now were heading to Denver and going to try flying signs and gas jugging ( going to gas stations with gas cans and asking people to put some in)

Aunt Sandy and New Plans

The last couple days have been interesting but not particularly eventful, so I'll just go through the highlights:

First of all, happy birthday to my girlfriend Adaline!!

I saw my first skate competition at the local skatepark. It was pretty cool, but it was exactly like Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3 for Sega Dreamcast.

I spent some time with a large group of black people hanging out in the park, which was kind of interesting. A couple of them originally started teasing me about my 4-H goat shirt when one started defending the organization and started talking about how 4-H was where it was at when he was raised on his Granddad's farm in South Carolina. And yet another asked me a lot of questions about it, saying that was where the money was at. He was from Gary, Indiana. What was really fun though was when one guy asked how to spell a slang variation of a word, and they all started arguing about the correct spelling. It was pretty funny.

Later I saw this homeless guy walking down a dirt trail to this run down neighborhood. His name was Mike Murdock. Mike started up to this particularly run-down, kind of trashy house. When he saw me he said I could help him move in. He then proceeded to tell me to take a bike to the youth shelter, which turned out to be chained to a tire. He then started to sift through bags of clothes in the overhang shelter. I asked him if he owned it, and he said he was going to retire in the house since the people who lived there must be dead. I then pointed out the coop of live chickens in the backyard. Without considering that people must feed these birds, he told me to go collect eggs. I asked where he was from and he told me he was originally from Brooklyn, but mostly grew up in Colorado Springs. He played in a band most of his life that did covers of the Doobie Brothers and other similar bands. He told me to have a good life, and I went on my way, while hearing 65 year old Mike mumbling about how his grandfather was going to come visit.

While in the park listeinging to a Jazz concert, I met a man sporting a 70's blue pinstriped blazer and funny hat named Ray. Ray told me how he met his father for the first time after 65 years, which was interesting. I told him about what I was doing, and before I left he gave me 10 bucks.

I also finally met up with my Great Aunt Sandy who lives in town. She drew this picture of Jesus, which is actually made of the words of the Book of John:

She then told me how she had laid this print on the bed of three different critical care victims and said a quick prayer, and they all miraculously got better. We then got dinner at Waffle House, classic.

Lastly, I met a 20 year old named Luke while in Manitou. Luke told me how he has been travelling around the country since his second semester of college. When I told him I was trying to get to the Rainbow Gathering, he said he had been to several and he was the go-to guy for everything I needed to know. He then told me how hes been camping in the mountains for over a year, and we hiked up to his camp. It was gorgeous view, with nobody else around. I asked him if I could camp with  for awhile, and he said he likes company. So on Monday, I am going to live on the mountain with Luke for about a week. I may also be able to ride up to the gathering in the same car as him.

Meeting more people

So yesterday was a nice relaxing day. While i am still trying to figure out my ride up north, I've just been hanging out and meeting a lot of people.

One person that I met was a youth pastor, originally from Arkansas, named Micheal. The way I met him was  kind of interesting. I went to get coffee with Marisa, and while we were there chatting, a dog walks by. So we brought him over and gave the owner a call. Then we went back to conversing. Meanwhile, Micheal comes out to greet the dog, and talks about how he used to work for a dog kennel. So we get to talking, and we discuss our experiences with religion in the bible belt. We talked for a while, and he was pretty cool guy.

After that I went down to a park to hear a jazz concert in the ampitheater. While there I met a man, also named Micheal. This guy was a homeless, disabled man. After joking with him some, He told me how he had a motorcycle accident, and suffered traumatic brain injury.When he asked me to help bend his wheelchair back into shape, I told him he might be able to get one from the salvation army. He then told me how the salvation army kicked him out on the street because he failed his drug test, which is weird to me, since the people on the drugs are probably the ones who need the most help... so much for the zero-tolerance policy. Anyway I chatted with him for little bit longer, then headed out.

Next I met a girl named Molly, who went to school in Boulder. Though I didn't talk with her long, she pretty much reaffirmed what I had been told about Boulder, It's a city of preppy, rich kids.

After that I met a man named Ray. Ray was from Colorado Springs, and had lived there for about 65 years. He told me how he met his father for the first time only two years ago.I told him about some of my experiences, and as I was about to go, he handed me a ten dollar bill, which was cool.

I then went back to Kim's. However this morning I woke up to a very depressing email. I missed a free ride to Montana, that went through at 3:30 A.M. Oh well, I know it will all work out!

Learning Tai Chi and Law

Today I once again had a rough start to the morning. I set out to meet up with a German girl also backpacking around the West, but after a series of missed busses, I had to give up. So I again decided to try to find that public art project. Well, i didnt find the art project (again...) but I did find an awesome guy with an incredible story.

As I was meandering around the park looking for this mysterious project, I saw a man doing what looked like weird yoga. I approached him, and he asked if I was interested. As I nodded he immediately explained he was practicing tai chi, and gave me a brief history, foregoing all introduction. Eventually I went through the forms with him.

What was more interesting is his life story he volunteered. After being an accountant, he went back to law school, and became a lawyer. However, when he opened his firm, he soon learned how corrupt the court is. Several lawyers he was working with asked him to join them and help with bribes. He refused, and earned the contempt of these corrupt lawyers. One in particular was a high profile lawyer he ended up against. After winning without a doubt due to a major blunder the lawyer made, he found out the lawyer later bribed the clerk to change the records. This allowed the lawyer to use a loophole in the court and get out of the whole case. However, when the Tai-Chi guy , Eric Siegfried, wrote the California Barr Association, nobody wanted to mess with the high profile lawyer. Sick of the corruption, Eric tried to find a jonb writing contracts. But the corrupt lawyers sabotaged his repuatation and references, because he tried to expose them in different papers. Without references or job, he now lives on the road. He says hes biding time until the lawyers become vulnerable enough that he can present a case against them without serious corruption ruining his chances of a fair trial. He says he has several suits against the state of California that would make him millions when the time is right. Awesome guy!

 

 

I'm still trying to arrange a way up to Montana. I'm supposed to meet someone tomorrow that might be my travel buddy up to the Rainbow Festival. We were supposed to meet tonight, but he went to the wrong Starbucks, so we'll see what happens. Peace