June 7, 2004 - Monday

Friends one and all. These tales of adventure and woe, are true every one. Changes have been made that cannot be unmade. I am as committed to this path of travel as I was committed to my life of routine in Salt Lake City. Life was good, friends were plentiful, but the passion, the fire that drives was missing. For nine years I struggled on, had tons of fun, many tears, found and lost love and structured my life as I thought it needed to be structured. I was glad for it all, blessed and thankful.

Somewhere along the way I lost my purpose. I forgot why I was doing all the things I was doing. Somewhere along the way the fire left. I neglected my love of climbing, snowboarding, racing, of living life to its fullest. I was distracted by the Blue Place Café, Cup of Joe coffee, and cable TV. I love my family and was honored to be sharing my path through life with them, but alas, my path lies elsewhere.

Now instead of plowing ahead not knowing exactly why, I’m letting go, letting it all go. I’m opening myself to the path, the plan that God, or fate or whatever you believe in has for me. Fuck struggling upstream, go with the flow. Relax, believe that a higher purpose is at work and follow that still small voice.

It’s amazing. I’ve left my safety net, left my family, my friends, my source of money. I’ve climbed on the back of my motorcycle with not enough money to get me far, not enough rubber on my tire to survive a thousand miles, but I’ve climbed on it with a smile, with a heart full of peace. I can’t remember the last time I slept so well, and woke so happy.

It’s been one week since I made love to Rachael one last time, shared a meal with my closest friends and family, and traded safety for the road ahead of me. It’s been so easy, so effortless to slip into a new life.

My first week has found me with friends in Moab, UT. My friends have long known that I have this free spirit in my blood, but were taking bets on whether I would ever step up, step out. Being greeted into a new town by old friends meant a lot. Receiving the encouragement and affirmation that I was doing the right thing was huge. Thanks Zack, Thanks Sasha, Thanks Joe, Thanks Ellen.

My time in Moab has been spent relaxing, drinking good coffee, making new friends, climbing, exploring Mill Creek, skateboarding, hiding from the debilitating heat, and generally regaining my stoke for life. There is no way to make money here, so I need to travel on. Not quite, yet, but travel on I will.

Thanks for joining me on this journey.


miah

June 14, 2004

Welcome Back! So this leg of my journey finds me in Boulder, CO. Leme tell you, the journey getting here was certainly not without its excitement! But let me back up and fill in the blanks.

Moab kicked ass. It had been a long time since I’ve experienced being a “local”. It didn’t take long for me to slip right into that routine! Riding the bmx bike around town, getting cheap food from the local shops, gaining nick names (2 beers and Asheville) and generally being a bum with all the other local Moab bums. Yep, I think when I stop, I want to stop someplace small.

For the most part I stayed with my friends Zack and Sasha. They were most generous to share their space. I spent a few days with my friend Ellen. I knew Ellen in Asheville before I moved out west and we’ve been friends for a long time. Well her roommate made one huge impact on me. If I were to list all of the traits a perfect girl would possess, she would be the picture next to that list. Julia, I will be seeing you again, you’re wonderful.

At Sashas 21st birthdayparty I made pretty good friends with this girl named Susanna. We had all kinds of fun skating the park at night, and sneaking into the hot tub. Funny how things work out. Susanna lives in Boulder, and was stopping in Aspen on the way home. She invited me to come hang in Aspen on my way to Boulder and I took her up on her offer.

I rolled into Aspen in the dark and in the cold. The fire was burning right downtown next to the popcorn stand. I spend several hours warming up and talking with tons of the cool locals. Susanna showed up and we hit up one of the bars in town. Aspen is a really cool town with an interesting mix of people. If I ever decide to go shopping for a sugar momma, Aspen will be the place.
The next morning the adventure ride began. I loaded up my bike thanked Susanna’s folks (great people) and headed up over the pass. The pass leaving aspen is awesome! Tight turns, beautiful scenery, and an acceptable level of traffic that day. The map had a really cool looking dotted line connecting the roads I wanted to get to. I decided to follow the dotted line.

Talk about ridiculous! I knew it was going to be a dirt road, but I didn’t know I would have to negotiate some really steep, technical, rocky climbs and descents, river crossings, deep sand, rotted log crossings, and flabbergasted jeepers. I’d venture to say I’m the only person in the history of people to ride a fully loaded sportbike over that beautiful pass. I came out the other side exhausted, and delighted.

The next gas stop I realized the damage that had been done. My tires were tired when I left Salt Lake, but the wheel spin from climbing the rocky climbs, and the brake slides from coming down the other side finished my back tire off. I was pretty horrified when I saw a long strip of yellow from my exposed cords, and I still had 90 miles to ride before I landed in Boulder.

I was just waiting for my tire to blow out the rest of the trip. Scared shitless, I managed to arrive safely. I met my friend Steph, parked, unpacked, and my bike is going to sit where it is until I earn enough money to get a new tire. (ACCEPTING DONATIONS!!!!!)

So that brings me to today. I’m staying in the girls dorm of the college andI gotta tell you, the scenery here is pretty nice! TodayImet up with my friend Trisha from Mammoth. Hopefully we'll get to climb in the next few days. I also have the feelers out trying to find work. If any of you know of anything, holler at me!

That’s it for this leg. It sounds boring reading back over this segment, but it has felt anything but boring!Thanks to all of you that have emailed me or signed my guestbook. I really appreciate your support and love hearing your stories. Keep em coming!

That’s it for now, until next time…….

miah

July 7, 2004

Sorry for leaving you guys hanging for so long. I had my head down and forgot that you guys were holding your breath waiting to see what happened next. (right!) I did get quite a few “are you still stranded?” emails from concerned friends and I appreciated every one.

Right now I’m still in Boulder, but I’ve managed to throw a few killer curve balls into the mix, but let me start at the top and bring you up to date.

I met up with this brick shithouse of a guy named Jim’o. He’s an ex-bodybuilder turned rock climber that has a company making hardwood floors and ceilings for the rich Summit County folks. He mainly uses reclaimed wood from old barns for his customers. He’s great about hiring friends, and friends of friends to work for him instead of temp or migrant workers.

The second day I met him, he took me to the bike shop and bought me a new tire for my bike. I worked the tire off at his shop and made a chunk of money helping him build his house. He is one cool dude and I’ve definitely enjoyed working for him. I also spent a day delivering flowers and working at the flower shop with the crazy cool and beautiful girls there. (more on that later)

When I wasn’t working, I was people watching on Pearl Street, drinking coffee at Penny Lane Coffee Shop, skating all over the damn place, hanging with my friends Steph and her crew in the dorm, Susanna who so graciously let me stay at her house, and Kasinda, and David who I met at the coffee shop.

Quick note about these folks. Steph, Thank you soooo much. You’ve been a lifesaver and I completely appreciate you giving me a place to stay and being so wonderful about me invading your space. Susanna, I totally appreciate you sharing your house and I treasure our random talks about life, love, and the joy of a 40.

Ok, now for some spice. My brother called me on a Tuesday to tell me he was signing the papers for his new house right then. The wild hair grew, I packed my bags, got on my bike the next morning, suffered through nine hours of rain and cold across I-80 (at 105 mph blasts followed by naps and coffee) and spent Wednesday evening eating sushi with my little sister in Salt Lake. It was really great seeing the family again, especially since it was a surprise trip.

By the time my brother got off work on Thursday night, we had nearly the entire house moved. That kid works too hard to have to do everything himself. I’m damn proud of that kid.
Salt Lake wasn’t all fun and joy. I saw Rachael (my ex) and had to cry at the choices she is making in life. Another generation of tragic Jerry Springer existence is in the making and there is nothing I can do to help her. We all have to make our own choices. I choose to love her and walk away.

One of the flower shop girls, Amber, early 20s, beautiful, pure, lovely spirit, had a stroke. It caught everybody off guard. I got the call in Salt Lake that she passed away. I could talk about her for a long time even though I only knew her for a few hours, but I loved her for those few hours.

Both of these things took their toll on me, and stole some of my joy, but having family and friends to help me sort it all out was a godsend. Thanks to everyone that was there for me through this.

My exodus from Salt Lake was damn interesting! It highlighted how wonderfully open my choices are. For the last two years I’ve had a crush on the Blue Place Café girl, Megan. Well, we finally got to spend some time together. She gave me tickets to see her band play (she plays the bass and is the lead singer), and we spent several hours together the next day. What an awesome time, what an awesome girl!

So at the end of our little date the topic of her going to L.A. for the week and me possibly coming with her came up. It was a ridiculous idea. I had less than $100 to get me through two weeks and over 1000 miles. I’d really only spent five hours total with this girl, including her serving me my food. I had work and money and most of my stuff still in Boulder, and I could keep going on why this was just a bad idea.

So I decided not to go, even though the bad idea was by far the most appealing. She left without me, I packed up my motorcycle for the trip back to Boulder and didn’t like it one bit! To hell with common sense!

I fucking up and decided to chase this girl I’m totally into to L.A., see some friend along the way, and just see what happens. I figured I had just enough money to get me to L.A. then to Phoenix where I could stay with my friend Gavin and work until I made enough to get me back to Boulder. It was settled and I was STOKED! (funny side note, she’s probably reading this right now like you are, and learning for the first time how close we came.) Come travel the world with meMegan.

With my compass pointing west, I left Bens house and navigated to the freeway. At the on-ramp something just felt a little off. At the very last instant I got on the interstate going east instead of west.Even though Megan and adventures in California sounded delightful, east felt peaceful, it was the right choice.

Ok, time for bike talk! Days like this make the suffering of traveling on a sportbike worth it! For the first time on this journey, I chose the twistiest rout I could find. 40 brought me Dinosaur where I followed a dirt trail through the woods, and slept next to a decomposed deer carcass, with bats keeping the bugs off me, and broken trees that looked just like dragons and cobras ready to strike.

Coffee in Steamboat and a fast blast up rabbit ears pass brought me to hwy 14 which winds its way north of Rocky Mountain National Park. About 15 miles before the riding got good, the motorcycle gods smiled at me. There was construction, the kind where a train of cars waits its turn to navigate the one lane road. Passing the few cars ahead of me let to unbelievable turns not muddied with traffic. I got off the seat, let me knee skim the ground and giggled my way through 40 miles of traffic free turns. It was the motorcycle equivalent of an untracked powder day in the mountains. UNBELEIVABLE!

I rolled into Boulder last night exhausted, and dirty, and today is my first day of rest then back to work to support the next leg of the trip. No idea what that is, but I’m taking suggestions!

Thanks again to everybody for taking an interest and keeping up with me. Friends like you on the road make this journey possible. Thank you all!

miah
(Below - My friend Zack climbing in Dark Canyon, UT)
July 26, 2004

Itchy Feet

Man oh Man, were my feet ever itching. See I’ve been in boulder for a good spell now. It’s been great, and I’ve met wonderful folks, and one girl in particular named Molly that was wonderfully cute and all kinds of fun, but that’s another story. I was making money, but I think the all parking tickets that I got might have matched all the money I made. I got to climb a little, skated all over the damn place, recognized folks everywhere I went, got to be an expert at climbing the walls of the dorm, so I could get in the second story window of Stephs room where I was staying, but my feet were itching, and it was time to go.

Where was a bit of a question mark. My friend Aaron had work for me in Bishop California, which is just over the hill from Yosemite, and I had a few other good friends in the area, but I always seem to go west and my heart was drawing me east, to where I wasn’t sure. Ride East or Ride West? Seemed I had those two options.

Over breakfast on July 24th I hit upon a completely silly and utterly goofy plan that has a good chance of working out (that remains to be seen). So here’s how it goes:
1. Park my bike someplace in Boulder.
2. Ride with my good friend Zack Smith to see some friends and climb in Moab on the way to California
3. Ride with Zack to Bishop to work for a week (Please have work!)
4. Ride with Zack to Ashland (SW corner), OR around the first of August.
5. Zack jets to Australia for five months (have a crazy fun time dude!)
6. Hitchhike up to Bend (central), OR to meet up with my friend Andy that may or may not be in the woods doing an Outward Bound Course.
7. Fix his motorcycle and ride it up to Seattle, WA
8. Work on a house on an Island near Seattle (this possibility didn’t present itself I was committed to this path of travel and wondering what I was going to do for three weeks by myself In OR with zero money and somebody else’s motorcycle. Isn’t it amazing how the perfect opportunities present themselves at the perfect times when you commit to a plan or a path?!?!)
9. Ride over to Leavenworth (central), WA late August to meet up with Andy and do some paragliding and climbing for a bit.
10. Ride down to Yosemite with Andy to climb for a while.
11. Chase chicks around Yosemite with Andy, Paul, and Aaron.
12. Make sure one of those chicks is going to Boulder sometime in September.
13. Get a ride with her so I can get reacquainted with my motorcycle, make a few dollars, and figure out what sounds fun next.
Fool Proof!!!

So as it stands now, I’m in Bishop California, drinking coffee, and looking at pictures I took of bouldering in Moab Utah, yesterday. Aaron is letting me and Zack stay with him and acting as our employment director. We’ll be here for a week or so before heading up to Oregon. Any tips on what to see, who to visit, or how to find work in OR and WA are greatly appreciated!

Hopefully I’ll see some of you on the way!!!

miah
August 10, 2004

Thumbs to Oregon

First off, big thank you to Zack’s folks, Garry and Francee. These guys let me eat all their food, watch their TV, sit in their hot tub, and drink their beer and wine for a solid weak. After a diet of bagels and tuna, three or four good meals a day was pure luxury. Thank you sooo much. Your hospitality is much much appreciated.

Ok, Bishop, CA treated me well for a week or so. I worked enough to fund my jaunt up north, got to ride my friend Aarons motorcycles, ate at lots of BBQ’s, skated the park, snuck into a motocross, researched riding to South America and basically had a great time.

The next week found me being a complete and worthless bum in Ashland Oregon with Zack and his folks. About the time my welcome was being worn out, Zack left for Australia and I stuck my thumb out for Bend. Now this is where the adventure begins again!

I’ve never hitched before. Sissy Hankshaw I aint (reference to a Tom Robbins book that you really should read). Hitchhiking takes a lot of patience and a lot of sunscreen. I finally pulled out my Yoyo, and did flamboyant tricks that ended with my thumb out at just the right moment. I got many chuckles and nods, and eventually I got a ride………

“Your safe aint ya, cuz If you aint we can take care of ourselves.” That’s funny I was thinking the same thing as I walked up to the car. The driver and her passenger were two ex Harley babes, 50 and 48. They commenced to complain about their tragic hangovers, and the driver cured hers with weed while the passenger cured hers with tequila. At least the driver was only smoking dope! They were really a couple of funny ladies going to the Fair and I had a great time riding with them.

I got dumped off in Klamath Falls, OR and walked for a couple of miles up the freeway before pulling out my Yoyo and flagging down another ride. This couple treated me to LOUD country music, chain smoking and a beer stop for the driver. I decided to play it safe and just go to sleep.

About dusk they wished me luck and left me to eat a sub at a Chevron. It was too late to hitch up to the Outward Bound Base Camp where my friends motorcycle was waiting for me, so I snuck back to the woods to find a place to sleep.

Train tracks to my west, freeway to my east, a trailer park to my south and chevron to the north. A big dirt pile and a small swath of forest shadows was my home for the night. It must have been a good spot, since there was already a homeless lady living back there. Needless to say I didn’t take my shoes off, and I didn’t sleep well at all.
Fortune was on my side the next morning. One of the girls that worked at the Chevron was bitching about her job and saying she wanted to go to the lake with her family, so I told her to quit and I’d go to the lake with her. Well, she walked in, dropped off her smock, picked up here keys and away we went. She was trying to cure the bad karma from quitting by taking me to my motorcycle and I wasn’t complaining!

You know, I was actually a bit nervous as to how I was going to get to this bike. Making it there and hearing it start was a huge relief. So much of my energy was focused on getting to Bend that I hadn’t really pondered much beyond that. So there I was, two weeks to kill, a motorcycle, a place to sleep for one night and not a clue what to do next. Crap!

Bend is really nice. I decided to spend the day looking at the ducks in the pond downtown, finding nice people (thanks to you Bend folks that made my stay so enjoyable), and thinking about what to do next. I think I could live in Bend, just not yet.

I counted my money, (all $140 of it, yikes!), made some phone calls, looked at the map, and decided to drive west. It was dark, and the forest road I was following looked gloomy as I chased my headlight through the darkness. After a couple of scary near deer experiences I decided it was time for sleep. One of the cool things about Oregon is that you can just drive off into the woods most any old place and bivvy out.

The next morning, wow, this morning actually, was motorcycle nirvana. Hwy 242 west of the town of Sisters. Ok please forgive my long description here. It was simply one of the most beautiful rides I’ve ever been on. If only I was a Poet……..

The forest was something out of Lord of the Rings; populated by huge pine trees sharing their space with standing skeletons of their brothren. As the road tightened up, narrowed, and banked left, a vista to my right opened to the ancient remains of a lava flow that seemed to swallow the entire state.

Green forest to my left, black lava flows to my right and my motorcycle arching on the ribbon of twisting, perfect blacktop between. My mind struggled to find reconciliation between this stark contrast. Eventually the lava swallowed the road as well is a series of 15 mph hairpins.

The black castle. Imaging an observatory, make it out of jagged black rocks, add in medieval portholes, and place it on the top of the mountain of doom and you can almost imagine the sight waiting for me at the top of the switchback assent. Utterly unreal.

The road disappeared back in the forest just as abruptly as the lava had swallowed it. But it was not the same forest I had left. It was something closer the land or Narnia. Long needle pines were waging a loosing war against the moss and ferns that carpeted everything. The road tightened up and challenged me through countless harsh downhill turns to the valley below.

I’ve gone months without seeing so much diversity and such fun roads as what I experienced on this sixty mile stretch of road. Yes, I love Oregon

Right now I’m in Eugene, OR, and I have no idea what I’m going to do when I close my laptop.

I can’t wait to hear from all of you! Much love and thanks for following along.: )

miah