Many miles passed under my bicycle in my travels -- approximately five hundred -- and marvelous were the things and faces I beheld! I wanted to list just a few:
1. A gravestone that contained the following word in Bold Capitals: FREE
2. Seeing crimson clover dead on the roadside one day and seeing it in full bloom the next. I was getting so much distance I was traversing climate zones!
3. Alpaca ranch in the middle of nowhere (remarkable how few people and houses there were).
4. One of the most desolate (and beautiful) places in South Carolina: Sumter National Forest in Tuckertown, under a big tall bridge. 10 cars passed in 6 hours
5a. Met a man in the parking lot of a miles-large strawberry farm in upstate SC. He was just finishing a bicycle ride with friends. We had met before, and he gave me a back bicycle light (mine wasn't working).
5b. 1 Pint of incredible red strawberries: sweetest I've ever had in my life.
6. Met the Twelve Tribes Community: A religious commune that had me feeling like I was living in the 19th Century! Helped slaughter 30 chickens my first day!
7. Bicycled nintey-five miles of the Blue Ridge Parkway in 3 days.
8. Went to a restaurant, near the end of my trip on the Parkway, and I could sit down for no more than thirty seconds and a big hug was given me of a middle-aged waitress named Connie (Another waiter said she hugged everyone. She was the most wonderful waitress I had ever met!). Money was tight, but I knew everything would be okay, and sure enough, she wouldn't let me pay for my meal!
9. Had a great meditation session led by a gentil man in Cullowhee, NC out of an Episcopal church!
10. Met this man a week later on the Blue Ridge Parkway my last morning. I got to read him my feelings on Richland Balsam (highest point on the Parkway, over 6000 feet!)
11. Getting a legitimate chill in the middle of June (it was cold up there at sunset). First time for everything, I suppose!
12. NC Arboretum. I took notes and pictures and thought on all the plants I saw that I'd love to include in my future permaculture garden, to help heal the Earth!
13. Hanging a hammock in a temperate rainforest for a night's slumber: Once on a mountaintop during a majestic thunderstorm, and for two weeks in Franklin.
14. Seeing a 360-degree panorama: Once from Mt. Albert (above the Coweeta Hydro Lab), and once from Devil's Courthouse (a few miles south of Asheville on the Parkway)
15. Coweeta Hydrologic Lab. So much knowledge and natural history, and they gave so much of it away as a gift.
16. Graveyard Fields: I visited once in 2008, and it was a desolate, soggy land with few denuded trees. Though it held an otherworldly kind of beauty. When I saw it this time, it was blooming full in Pink Azaleas and small trees. I was watching the land heal itself before my very eyes!
17. Cherokee
a. The bluegrass festival was marvellous, and although I think it being held in an RV park was illustrative of a lot of whats wrong with America, everyone was so kind and the manager let me hang my hammock in an open spot
b. The people, both native and "white-man" were VERY good to me. One man put me up in one of his hotels for the night, as well as had me over for family gathering, and watermelon afterwards (!)
c. I realized that the arts and crafts that were sold (also in the Folk Art Center in Asheville) helped the native people stay in the countryside, preserve their culture, and keep them out of the city (thus hindering globalisation). A great deal can be learned from the Cherokee people
18. The Scottish Tartan Museum: Learned about dye-making and the Scottish people -- who, incidentally, got along quite well with the natives initially, and many did not want to remove them to Oklahoma. I identified where John Muir was from on their map of Scotland. Again, a great deal of admiration for their culture, recognizing that its a big part of why I like the hills of Appalachia so.
19. Met a doctor from Nigeria, at the Greyhound in Indianapolis. She really appreciated my anecdote from a Dr. Who movie that illustrated the amazing gift that is given to the physician: to cheat death, to give/extend new life.
20. While in Pink Beds (North of Brevard on the 276), I ended up sharing a hike with a mom with three kids, an ex-army, single mom who had such a great attitude and stoic fortitude. Her kids were so great and smiling, and they loved my company. She was an un-attached servant, willing to drive me back up to the Parkway. I think seeing her kids run around the picnic area with a bunch of other kids after the hike really gladdened my heart in a special way.
21. Ascending a stretch of the Blue Ridge Parkway one last time whilst listening to Come Monday, the evening before getting on the bus. It floated with the same dreaminess that the landscape did, billowing clouds emanating from the freshly-rained-upon hills below. It rained rained partway through the ride, with the sun shining just above the ridge. Glittering rain, hot sweat, cool refreshment and steaming, smelly roads, shining in the sun.
22. The rust belt: Chicago, Gary, and its environs (or lack thereof). It stood in stark contrast to the hills from whence I came. I am truly blessed to have come from the Carolinas. "A long time ago, I left my home, for a job in the fruit-trees. I missed those hills with the windy pine. Their song seemed to suit me" - Gillian Welch
1. A gravestone that contained the following word in Bold Capitals: FREE
2. Seeing crimson clover dead on the roadside one day and seeing it in full bloom the next. I was getting so much distance I was traversing climate zones!
3. Alpaca ranch in the middle of nowhere (remarkable how few people and houses there were).
4. One of the most desolate (and beautiful) places in South Carolina: Sumter National Forest in Tuckertown, under a big tall bridge. 10 cars passed in 6 hours
5a. Met a man in the parking lot of a miles-large strawberry farm in upstate SC. He was just finishing a bicycle ride with friends. We had met before, and he gave me a back bicycle light (mine wasn't working).
5b. 1 Pint of incredible red strawberries: sweetest I've ever had in my life.
6. Met the Twelve Tribes Community: A religious commune that had me feeling like I was living in the 19th Century! Helped slaughter 30 chickens my first day!
7. Bicycled nintey-five miles of the Blue Ridge Parkway in 3 days.
8. Went to a restaurant, near the end of my trip on the Parkway, and I could sit down for no more than thirty seconds and a big hug was given me of a middle-aged waitress named Connie (Another waiter said she hugged everyone. She was the most wonderful waitress I had ever met!). Money was tight, but I knew everything would be okay, and sure enough, she wouldn't let me pay for my meal!
9. Had a great meditation session led by a gentil man in Cullowhee, NC out of an Episcopal church!
10. Met this man a week later on the Blue Ridge Parkway my last morning. I got to read him my feelings on Richland Balsam (highest point on the Parkway, over 6000 feet!)
11. Getting a legitimate chill in the middle of June (it was cold up there at sunset). First time for everything, I suppose!
12. NC Arboretum. I took notes and pictures and thought on all the plants I saw that I'd love to include in my future permaculture garden, to help heal the Earth!
13. Hanging a hammock in a temperate rainforest for a night's slumber: Once on a mountaintop during a majestic thunderstorm, and for two weeks in Franklin.
14. Seeing a 360-degree panorama: Once from Mt. Albert (above the Coweeta Hydro Lab), and once from Devil's Courthouse (a few miles south of Asheville on the Parkway)
15. Coweeta Hydrologic Lab. So much knowledge and natural history, and they gave so much of it away as a gift.
16. Graveyard Fields: I visited once in 2008, and it was a desolate, soggy land with few denuded trees. Though it held an otherworldly kind of beauty. When I saw it this time, it was blooming full in Pink Azaleas and small trees. I was watching the land heal itself before my very eyes!
17. Cherokee
a. The bluegrass festival was marvellous, and although I think it being held in an RV park was illustrative of a lot of whats wrong with America, everyone was so kind and the manager let me hang my hammock in an open spot
b. The people, both native and "white-man" were VERY good to me. One man put me up in one of his hotels for the night, as well as had me over for family gathering, and watermelon afterwards (!)
c. I realized that the arts and crafts that were sold (also in the Folk Art Center in Asheville) helped the native people stay in the countryside, preserve their culture, and keep them out of the city (thus hindering globalisation). A great deal can be learned from the Cherokee people
18. The Scottish Tartan Museum: Learned about dye-making and the Scottish people -- who, incidentally, got along quite well with the natives initially, and many did not want to remove them to Oklahoma. I identified where John Muir was from on their map of Scotland. Again, a great deal of admiration for their culture, recognizing that its a big part of why I like the hills of Appalachia so.
19. Met a doctor from Nigeria, at the Greyhound in Indianapolis. She really appreciated my anecdote from a Dr. Who movie that illustrated the amazing gift that is given to the physician: to cheat death, to give/extend new life.
20. While in Pink Beds (North of Brevard on the 276), I ended up sharing a hike with a mom with three kids, an ex-army, single mom who had such a great attitude and stoic fortitude. Her kids were so great and smiling, and they loved my company. She was an un-attached servant, willing to drive me back up to the Parkway. I think seeing her kids run around the picnic area with a bunch of other kids after the hike really gladdened my heart in a special way.
21. Ascending a stretch of the Blue Ridge Parkway one last time whilst listening to Come Monday, the evening before getting on the bus. It floated with the same dreaminess that the landscape did, billowing clouds emanating from the freshly-rained-upon hills below. It rained rained partway through the ride, with the sun shining just above the ridge. Glittering rain, hot sweat, cool refreshment and steaming, smelly roads, shining in the sun.
22. The rust belt: Chicago, Gary, and its environs (or lack thereof). It stood in stark contrast to the hills from whence I came. I am truly blessed to have come from the Carolinas. "A long time ago, I left my home, for a job in the fruit-trees. I missed those hills with the windy pine. Their song seemed to suit me" - Gillian Welch
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