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Captain Bly + Desperado - - - - - X"When You Combine Your Waking Rational Abilities With The Infinite Possibilities Of Your Dreams, You Can Do And Be Anything" ~Wind~ December 20 The Rainforest Blues... It be a while since this blog has beckoned a visit from the likes of this ol pirate. I should do a little recap of what's been flailed since Mexico... Heather and myself returned to the West coast and commenced on missions of healing, for her and increased community involvement for myself. Debt and rent made time very valuable that fall and winter with a continued desire to roam keeping my attention pretty acute. I began working for Reckless Bike Stores in Victoria around Halloween and had alot of fun and headaches. The people were real, genuine and bike savy but being given the same managerial beauracracy that you'd find at a popular fast food restaurant. The game of intentional learning had begun and my bikes and projects started to transform. My artwork as well! 6 months of monkying on bikes for a variety of local and far flung cyclists has taught me a treasury of useful skills to apply. I thank my friend and bike mentor, Russ Parks for the support and bad hippie jokes, yargh! My investment of time and energy to personal fulfillment had led to much tension between Heather and I, and so road dawgs sometimes go stray. While working at two bikeshops,dumpster diving,editing and painting, I somehow managed to volunteer a few hours a week to (in my opinion) an EXTREMELY beneficial and crucial step to human survival for our future generations... Bicycle mechanics in schools! The program is Recyclistas' BIKE LAB SOCIETY of Victoria BC and the school was SJ Willis Secondary school where I helped instruct students in steps to creating, fixing and rocking a new recycled bike built by them at the end! A wonderful experience that I hope to participate in again someday soon www.recyclistas.ca !!! August 08 Round Trip...Hola! It's been a while so here's an update...
I went to the Treesit in Langford and met up with some dedicated and interesting characters who all had much to say about trees, society, hypocritical vegans and roadkill. They cooked me dinner and then we went out and dumpstered some bikes. Since the forest didn't look like it was in any immediate danger of being bulldozed by the publically supressed planned highway crews, I ventured on towards Victoria. In doing so I was reunited with many friends and ended up running into Mr. Doozie and Pennywhistle Pete! They bombarded me with screams and longboards and rip-roarin' confusion! "They sUnk The RoBbiE!!!" What more reason do I need to go on a hell mission to rescue the Robertson II, my old pirate ship! Craftleen was also game for the mission so we biked together up the Lockside Trail (Victoria - Sydney) and cruised into the kayak rental shoppe where Mr. Doozie was waiting. July 4th 9:00pm: Myself, Craftleen, Mr. Doozie and Pete suited up and embarked on my first ever sea kayak trip! Our goal was Saturna Island, nearly 8 nautical miles away... the water was calm and mirror-like, reflecting the tired sun as it fell giving birth to stars, fireworks from Port Townsend, WA and my first ever glimpse of Phosphoresants... they react to tide and movement by creating little sparks of beautiful light as we paddled past small, furry islands and city-like ferryboats. "EPIC." I'm glad I typed that. We docked on the shell riddled beach of Portland Island, a small park island reserve. Tired and hungry, we feasted on packages of MEC campin meals (just add boiling water for omlettes, lasagna or mashed potatoes). The moon created shadows and depth to the once dark landscape and the waves crashed long after the ferries putted by. We woke to the realisation that I needed to meet Heather at the ferry terminal before 3pm, we ran out of water, doozie and Pete was still sleeping in his hammock. Mr. Doozie n Pete left for the Robertson with the last of the beer and me n Crafty took the double kayak back towards Shwartz Bay. Beauty! What fun! We uknowingly docked at the right dock at just the right time to ask the kayak rental girl if she had a phone (she was there to pick US up apparently). Heather was waiting at the entrance at 2:50pm, just in time for the ferrie! Left for Vancouver and ended up waiting a very long time for buses to get Commercial Drive to meet Yossi aka Mr. Fresh. Yossi is a tall skinny enigma who serves up healthy organic food at festivals. His next gig was the outdoor rave, Motion Notion outside of Drayton Valley, Alberta. Perfectly close to family, friends and Edmonton. Haha, ran into Julian. I know I know, an all too common surprise. An epic drive in "Betsy" the next day to Mt. Robson park with three other volunteers for some campin, good food and great music from DJay-Hawk. Next day was Edmonton, with a rushed visit at Char n Eric's place. Good people! Back to Motion Notion with my chopperbike, "the Slug" and mini-bike, "Purple Haze". This was my second time to Motion Notion and it was a thousand times better than the first time I went... mostly to do with the sweet volunteer position, first dibs on campin spots and an extra 2 days on site chillin with the artists, DJs and countless event organisers puttin it together. They had ZOMBIES this year as well as a new site, over 1000 acres devoted to the event, parking, swimming in the awesome Pembina River and camping. My buddy Fuji travelled in style via giant bus with sweet art covering it along with a banner that read "BONG HITS 4 JESUS"... yeah, Alberta! Fuji fit right in. My favorite act was Edmonton-based Shout It Out Out Out Out! Damn! They even signed my chopperbike! (I wouldn't serve em smoothies til they did!). We all left very exhausted from all the crazy weather, music and veggie burritos. The slug reminded me how easy it is to get an infected scrape on the shin. After returning to Charlotte's place I spent the night puking feverishly and almost calling an ambulance. My leg swelled up and I couldn't walk. Heather nursed me back to health for over 15 days straight while the antibiotics prescribed made me drowsy and ill-feeling. Even elevating my leg was more work and pain than I bargained for. Seems this was too much for my family to bare so they rented me a u-haul to pack my stuff and head back to the island. Before going I managed to meet up with a number of old friends (and new) thanks to Captain Hindle. Stopped into the Edmonton Bicycle Commuters (the only bike co-op in Edmontjunk) where I was amazed at how revamped and well-organised it is now! Open 7 days a week and more spacious/tidy than ever! While there, we stayed up late and created a new TallBike together! Two identical frames cept the one on top is a girl's frame... so Heather coined it "Girls-On-Top"! Hahaha yeah! The beast was made rideable in a matter of hours and taken out for one of Edmonton's (first to my knowledge) Tallbikes, a proud occasion that I will never forget! http://www.edmontonbikes.ca/ Alex helped us with taking $135 worth of cans back and loading 15 bikes into our 10ft u-haul truck. Thanks, buddy. They will be used this winter for bike mayhem and experimenting. The drive out West was pretty chill, even with my minimal driving experience (managed to lock the keys in only a few hours after picking it up, good grief). Heather drove most of the way on a broken tailbone se we made quite the broke/broken duo. With breaks in Nojack, Jasper, Mt. Robson, Clearwater, Hope and soakin up the good weather and raw Western Canadian scenery the whole way, uh! Bikes n bins n slugs safely delivered with a little time to recover and possibly hit the road again to find some refreshing outdoor work... guess they're always replanting some sad patch of clearcutted land in BC, time to make a nest-egg... and eat it too. Captain Pegleg July 03 The State of Baja, MexicoThis is some observations I made while I was in Mexico for like a week. It should in no way reflect what Mexico is like as a whole but just one small experience on two wheels. The Border crossing was easy. At this point I knew no real Spanish other than what Heather has drilled into my head and how to order dos cervesa (two beer) which was also Heather's doing. My first time travelling into a foreign country that's not mostly English speaking. They looked at my cracked out passport photo and told me to get a visitor card. I could'nt take out any money so I converted the $50 American I had in my pockets for about 500 pesos. 10/1... shweet! I'm rich! But after a 90 day visitor pass (which shouldn't cost money in advance at a Mexican Consulate), I had only 220 pesos left. "Meh", I can still buy burritos. MEXICO DOESN"T MAKE BURRITOS, it's Californian. I know, even I was puzzled at the lack of burritos... I soon realised that the border town of Tecate (home of Tecate Beer)had local beer, local prostitutes, pharmacias, no building codes, no garbage cleanup, no recycling, no free water, no social services... no government anything really except for campaign posters with old "white looking" Mexican males with fake grins and blue collard workshirts. I couldn't relax and have a beer, I needed to see the ocean again... travelling alone like this was rough but I felt better about it once I left the city, surrounded by noisy cars, trucks and border policia. The US spends huge amounts of money and manpower patroling the borders, and the Mexican Border patrol was usually for gas and not looking at bikes (only poor people ride bikes i guess). The countryside opened up and there was red rock and cliffs and beautiful gardens and farms, while being contrasted by the endless amounts of garbage stuck to everything, smoke from big ol diesel trucks hauling the wierdest shit around, and the amplifyed message of Mexican condo ads inviting me to buy cheap property and tacos via loud speakers from atop of cars or trucks. I've seen more mariachi bands in Canada. The 100 km ride brought me to the brink of insanity and collision paranoia. Roads there were beat up, heavily used by speeding transport trucks that ran through all hours of the night. For such a ride with no shoulders on the road, I sported a kick-down Chivas Mexican Soccer Jersey from Guadalahara, MX. The truckers and motorists would give me sometimes a whole carlane to ride while honking or knodding kindly... they have alot of soccer pride in Mexico. I've also had some high fives and roadside conversations which often got me lost. Pirate Camping was challenging, yar. Most of Northern Baja Peninsula is for sale or owned and fenced. With so many abandoned properties and shacks around it was like a squatter's paradise. That's if they all didn't have more garbage than a meth den at the dump. I missed the parks and nature preserves, and community land and WarmShowers. I was back in Sanoran Desert so everything was greasy and sandy, ocean cold. The next day brought me to Ensenada, and the Pacific Ocean which I hadn't felt in over 6 months. Through hills, carved mountain passes with insane fun downhill for km and km and dirt bikers blasting past me and wiping out. People drove like they got the insurance from heaven. I soaked up the gravel and side roads for a while until I could see the ocean but no touchy. Fences with empty lots and random vehicles littered about with some pretty spirited graffiti sprayed about. Re/Max properties being built everywhere with huge billboards offering them up faster than they can construct them. The ocean was a mess of brown, black bubbles and garbage with distant gren blue. I embraced it as my own and chilled. The city of Ensenada was fun and I avoided the tourist section completely even when told to by random folk. The ghettos got me lost with random stray dogs and gardens and shacks made with the most inventive scraps. I remained friendly and practiced spanish with curious looking people. I bought 2 bunches of bananas, flat of strawberries, mexican fudge, 1 jar of puuure honey (he through in a mango) for 75 pesos... $7.50 with a 20 cent quasadilla and rice next door. Not bad, but where do I get an exchange? I also rolled a doozie with a random Mexican traveller who no habla englace so we chilled and communicated in other ways. The city is full of busy people driving fast to work and back, stopping at the various US influences like Wal-Mart, Office Depot, MacDonald's and Scotia Bank. It was clear that NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) wasn't great at preserving a Mexican culture. So I looked for a ride to get Heather there from San Diego and looked for a fellow I met on www.warmshowers.org who lets cyclists stay at his place. Neither managed to happen and I soon felt the urge to head North. I made it that far on a bicycle and the rest of Baja from there on gets better and more beautiful... but I now have a full tale to tell and a road-dawg to rescue. It was another 130km or something to get to tijiuna so I booked it, all in one day I made just about 90miles, all the way north of San Diego to Ocean Beach, California (not including the taxi with my bike from Rosarito to th TJ) border. Epic! I saw many miniature bicycles standing in the ditch above tombstones, a reminder that many cyclists have died doing the same route every year... represent. It was late and the OB Hostel had everyone drunk including Heather who was on a trip of her own while I was cycling. We hugged and hostel people sorta figured out who I was by my bike. "He biked here from Ensenada, Mexico to see me!" "ohh, ahh". I drew a picture instead of taking alot of photos for a change. I love the Mexican people, bright and lively. Thier eyes speak much of their history and words see little of tomorrow. Thanks for reading and I hope it doesn't discourage you from biking Baja because its a blast! My buddy Ryan has a great Baja cycling review/journal that goes from Canada with his girlfriend to the tip of Baja, La Paz. www.yeske.ca This week has been crazy with lots of meeting people, homecooked meals and mountain biking with Rod, Heather's dad. Heather introduced me to Dagger Deep and the Black Swamp, a mideivil village on the Cowichan Bay. Reserve land with few building codes and a small army of zombies and magicians and warriors who battle constantly. The name of the pub is the "Ye Old Cock and Ass" (picture of Donkey with Rooster on top). They have a keep, and Inn and battle arena it's its it's soo beautiful ou there. Oh, and they have a working economy backed up by real gold, with new crops being grown to be off the grid entirely! Tallbike Jousting anyone? Spent Kanata Day at Sungoma Hippie Artist Commune getting moved by music and fantastic art and living spaces. I have the opportunity in the winter to create a bikeshop near Duncan, Vancouver Island out of a spaceship. No joke. But this will all be after we go to visit my Grandma, go to Motion Notion, and visit my hometown of Edmonton. Yarr. I'm off to a quick treesit in protest of a new highway they want to build to expand residences along the beautiful Goldstream Park. My first time but I feel that locking myself high to a tree is a responsibility and a privlage until my rights are taken away for it. It's a real crime to cut down oldgrowth. In other newz: The Robertson II, my old pirate ship I used to live on, has sunk of of Saturna Island yesterday... on the way to a lamb dinner. I wonder if Roy had anything to do with it crashing into a reef at high tide... what a historic treasure and pirate pad. May the 13 ghosts settle in peace n barnicles. Captain Bly June 23 Land Hooome!!! (Victoria, BC, CANADA)Rode my geared up mountain bike (Ironhorse "Desperado") from Canada to Mexico in 9 months. Accompanioned with Captain Fancypants (Heather Turnquist) for most of the journey through coastal rainforests, sand dunes, train tracks, caves, high deserts, low deserts, brilliant and lively cities, quaint towns with strange locals, beer, pizza, a great number of off the wall music festivals, organic orchards, customs officials, countless bridges, ditches, busy highways and empty sandy roads surrounded by the sound of our own two legs, heart, spirit and dreams of the next big downhill to a library with free internet and maybe a pizza dumpster at the bottom... the amount of miles and time we put into it no longer equates to pride or compatition, it's the change I want to see in this world, the change that occurs when we are apart of this life/earth cycle in which we utilise our one chance to venture, the freedom to find your own pace... how ever sluggish it may be... and maybe even learn what we are all about........  And the ride from San Diego was... almost perfect. On www.Craigslist.org we were able to hook up a ride to Seattle, Washington... and we even found a car rack to hold our bikes to make it easy hitch-biking... but Nicole's car died, engine parts falling all over the road and so we were picked up by highway patrol and dropped off in a small town (Gorman, central valley California) at 3am where the Sheriff's office was for sale. The next mornin' we hitched a ride to a truckstop and then Fresno by a trucker who invited us to crash at his place for a few hours, then treated us to pizza and his family's company. He even put out a radiocall to the other truckers to take us North. The next day we paid an ex-convict to take us to Modesto on 10$ of gas (I try never to pay for gas unless it helps multiple people out) and Modesto is apparently California's Meth capital... so we got a motel for a few nights and finally found someone reliable on Craigslist to get us from the Bay Area (San Rafael) to Seattle for a meditation convention. We passed up a very secret offer... he is house-sitting for the remaining members of the Greatful Dead... haha, if we did that we may never come home so we helped with more gas, bleh! and got my broke-ass and Heather's broken-ass up to Mount Shasta for a beautiful alpine sleep. The next day was drive drive drive up the Interstate 5 North to Seattle, even with his car overheating all the time. The engine was fine as soon as he reluctantly gave up his Mount Shasta natural spring water to fill his radiator. The crouded van didn't give us shit after that! Captain Bly June 16 4000 miles later...So I finally biked down into Baja, Mexico for a week and made it as far as Ensenada before realising that I have no road-dawg, understanding of Spanish or any pesos left, so had a big biking day of 90 miles NORTH to San Diego to pick up Heather Fancypants at the Ocean Beach Hostel. We are now HITCH-BIKING North through Modesto, California (central) and are coming back to Canada (sluggily). We almost made a ride to Seattle but Nicole's engine fell apart on the freeway going very fast and damn, I hate cars. Sketchy! I'll fill in the huge gaps and crazy times I had in Mexico later and as for now it's fuggin doozie time! Slug it up, y'all! Thanks for believing in the power of people and their dreams, I only know that this cycletouring biz gets better and better (hard to believe but it does)! 10 months and so much to show! In other newz: The RIDE AFRICA tour set for September with 2 Wheels 1 World has been put off until further notice. The goals and ambitions of the team have been far too overwhelming for such a young overseas project. All the funds from fundraising and sponsors have been handed over to the Steven Lewis Foundation to support their involvement for the AIDS pandemic in Africa. Ain't that nice? Captain Bly More pics on the way... |
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