I Know What I Did This Summer (dial-up warning)

[mark414]

finally! back in Wisconsin as of a handful of days ago, after the nine days of madness that was my trip back home from Denver.

it was the final leg of an epic summer that spanned an entire continent...13,000 miles, 3 countries, 25 states and 2 oceans - Portland, Maine to Portland, Oregon; Montreal to Mexicali and everything in between. in 3 easy and convenient installments!

- (solo) - New England and eastern Canada before getting shipped to Detroit and finding my way back to Milwaukee...a plane to Boston, a couple of trains, but mostly my thumb (early june - mid july)

- (me +2) - almost everywhere else, to Denver and up to Seattle before following the coast to Mexico and then jumping back up to Colorado...a 1970 Volkswagen Bus, everywhere (late july - late august)

- (solo) - finally the "i'm just trying to get home" leg, 9 days and 1400 miles from Denver to Milwaukee, with detours in Kansas City and Des Moines...entirely on trains (9 days in early september)

but i made it home safe and in one piece (with my head being the one possible exception) to rest up and save up for my winter in hawaii...working on sub-tropical farms and riding a bicycle around the islands sounds like a much better way to spend my time than shoveling snow and waiting for the bus when it's 5 outside.

if i were to sit down and write everything that happened this summer, it would be hundreds of pages...i'm working on making that a reality.

i have 300 or so photos needed to be uploaded or developed, which should be this week...so in the meantime, here's some pictures:


Eugene, Oregon


a caveman riding a dinosaur at the Shoshone Ice Caves in Idaho


also somewhere in Idaho


our trusty steed,


and the too familiar view from the inside;


but it's not as big as it looks


and another from the Avenue of the Giants


it's called the Avenue of the Giants for a reason


the first sighting (finally!) of the ocean, somewhere in Oregon


Multnomah Falls just outside of Portland, Oregon


and a Eugene sunset, the view courtesy of Skinner's Butte


another sunset, this one on the Puget Sound


we did this for 3 days...in Long Beach


North Beach


the view from our porch in Mexico

and the bus burned to a crisp as well, about 2 weeks ago (after I'd left Denver). driving down from the mountains the engine was making some noise, and after pulling over to inspect it my friends discovered that it was on fire. a big fire. the windshield melted (along with a mountain bike inside), the pop-top completely burned away, and within 15 minutes it looked like this:












it's better to burn out, than to fade away...

[XemaSab]

1. Burning Van.

Burning Man is for assholes. :P

[Omphaloskepsis]

2. If I had known you were stopping in Eugene..

I would have offered a few couches, BLT's, and beer. I thought you were going to Europe.

[mark414]

4. shame shame

i was going to, but some last minute expenses (thankfully before i bought plane tickets or anything) drained my savings thus relegating me to stay on this side of the ocean...an amazing time nonetheless

we were in Eugene for only about 36 hours but i love the hell out of that place (it's good to me every time i'm there), so i'll be back, and soon.

[opiate69]

10. Likewise, Olympia..

If you find yourself heading this way again, let us know..

[mark414]

15. good to know

we didn't make a stop in olympia at all...just passed through

we were going to spend some more time in the area but we got denied from canada at the crossing on the I-5...one of my friends had a misdemeanor paraphernalia ticket from a year ago and so they wouldn't let us in! so frustrated, we decided to haul ass down to portland where we had a friend waiting for us with the first roof over our heads for a week...

i want to spend more time in WA though...and i'll most likely be out west next spring/summer.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

3. My dear mark414!

That's quite an odyssey!

Love the pics!

Keep 'em coming!

Too bad about the bus, though...

That had to be exciting, and a little scary...

Welcome back!

:hi:

[mark414]

5. thanks peggy!

it's good to have those creature comforts of home again, like...a bed, and a roof, those sorts of things (though it's well worth it to do without for awhile). i'm home for a couple months so i'll be around and i'll be sure to throw some more photos up once i get them

good to be back and good to see yer still around

[catmandu57]

6. I was just thinking about you yesterday

Wondering how you'de made out this summer, it looks like you had a pretty good summer. If i'd known you were going through KC I could have offered a crashpad and good meal. Anyway, it's good to hear from you, hitchers are kind of hard to find these days.

[mark414]

9. hitchers ARE hard to find

my only experiences traveling out west have been either by thumb or by rail, and driving the coast in the middle of the summer i expected to see a lot more. but we only saw 3 (though were only able to give rides to 2, the other guy was heading a different way), which makes me sad. and makes me realize that if no one else does, i'm going to have to keep my thumb in the air year after year in order to give hitchhiking in America the CPR that it so desperately needs...

and KC was a pseudo-accidental stop...i was in a train yard in Lincoln, Nebraska and the only things that were going even close to my direction were KC-bound coal trains. i was there about a day and a half (and had to walk about 5 hours from northern North KC, south across the river into downtown and then west to the Union Pacific yard at 7th and Kansas) before I caught something to Chicago.

good trip though. great trip. it's nice to be home and rest for a couple months though...so i'll be around

[fizzgig]

7. what an awesome trip

looks like you had a blast. i'm sorry but i can't help but laugh a bit about the van, i know how rough those mountain passes can be on those old busses. what did you get to see in colorado other than denver (i'm about an hour north of there). did you hike multnomah falls? it's one of my favorite hikes, even if it does kick my ass

thanks for sharing the pics.

[mark414]

8. hiked to the top of multnomah indeed

i even hopped over the fence of the little viewing area and laid down to stick my arm over the top of the falls and down for a picture (a friend was holding my leg...just in case) - well worth the trip to the top

and CO was more of a base camp than anything...both of my friends live there, so it was only a half day stop on our way west. when we came back from mexico we came up the 25, through trinidad and CO springs but it was at night...

the brother of one of my friends has a small cabin up in one of the canyons in north boulder so we spent a lot of time up there too (he's about 1000 feet higher than the city itself, with an amazing view from the front porch)

and while it's horribly sad about the bus, part of me is almost glad. it took us on that massive trip, lived a good long life of 37 years, and instead of rusting away in some salvage yard it went out in a blaze of glory.

[fizzgig]

14. boulder is a beautiful area

i don't get down there nearly as often as i should

[ghostsofgiants]

11. Damn, looks like you had a pretty rad summer.

[mark414]

12. it was...though i got kicked out of your country

i was riding a freight train outta toronto; someone spotted me (i'm not sure how?), called the cops, and they stopped the train twice to look for me...the second time they searched every car.

i got lucky though. they pulled me off and cuffed me, went through my pack and my pockets and handed me a trespassing ticket. then it was into the back of the car and to a bus station, where they pointed out a bus to detroit, gave me 4 dollars for it, and then told me not to come back to canada.

so it could've been worse...but if that wouldn't have happened i never would've been back in milwaukee, never would've found my friends, and so never would've rolled around in the VW. it all worked out.

glad to see yer still around here.

[ghostsofgiants]

13. Haha, sounds epic.

Yeah, I've got nothing better to do with my time, so I stick around, ahha.

[enigmatic]

16. epic

Since my travelin' days are (mostly) over, I'm living vicariously through you, man!

:toast:

[mark414]

17. one of these days...one of these days i'll make it to you

on my shortlist for next summer plans alaska is included, trying to find ANY way to go but flying. which might put me in your general area.

one of these days man...one of these days

and if you want to drop the vicariously part anytime, just let me know, it's always nice to have an extra road dog on hand and in person.