Before this trip I sat down and looked at the calendar. I had over two months of biking, and in that time I could go to any part of the continental U.S. (except Alaska). I asked myself where I knew I absolutely had to go, and what rose above all other places and people was Serendipity weekend at Guilford College. That either shows a deep love for the herds of Quakers that run free through the wooded trails of Guilford or a profound under appreciation of the beauties of our country.
I started the weekend by attending the Quaker Leadership Scholarship Program meeting. The meeting was made up largely of old, dear, and admired friends whom I had not seen in months or years. We worshiped under tall, established trees on a warm spring evening, and in a simple Quaker grave yard. The tone for a beautiful weekend was set right there.
The weekend involved lots of laughing with old friends, going crazy at concerts, and running around to all the activities on campus. The weekend was all packed with excitement and craziness as planned until a very informative moment. Saturday night, right as the concert was starting I felt tired. I was tired so I went to bed, and was asleep a little after 11. Two years ago when I visited Serendipity I could never have done that. I would have been too worried about people saying "You went to bed at 11 on Serendipity?", or too fearful of missing out. Now, after spending so much time with myself I knew I wanted to go to sleep, I had already taken a large dose of crazy fun that weekend, so I went to sleep.
Before I left I spent a day working on the Guilford farm. The guy who runs it spent two years interning at a farm, and then convinced Guilford to give him room, board, and a salary to create/run a farm for them. The atmosphere on working with him was so much fun, very chill, and hard working. If you ask me, they have life pretty ideal over there.
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
145
I pulled out of common ground (where I had been visiting Leah Green) before 7 am, and I put the peddle to the air. before noon I had cruised 50 miles to Roanoke. I ate lunch, thinking of how much stronger my legs were than when I started and wondering how everyone in Roanoke doesn't have wagon wheel stuck in their heads all the time. I walked around asking strangers where they were from and where they thought they would be headed just to make a clever facebook status comparing my self to the last verse of the song. I biked over the blue ridge for the second time in my life, and while it kicked my butt on speed I conquered that darned hill in the end. Hours of Appalachian foothills rolled by and I found myself nearing my destination with hours of sun remaining.
The plan had been to bike 90 miles, throw up my tent, and bike the another 55 miles to Guilford College the next day, but I got it in my head that I would bike all the way to Guilford that night!the thought crossed my mind that it was a stupid and dangerous idea. I could hurt my knees pretty badly from this much over exertion, and night biking thirty miles with one hundred and some miles of exhaustion on you was iffy. Then it crossed my mind this was the only time in my life I could do stupid stuff. My body is still young enough to handle a beating, and it's social acceptable for teenage boys to do crazy, testosterone fulled stuff. So I decided to bike all the way to guilford.
I had made up my mind while I was on a down hill, and when the next uphill came I gave up the idea, but reaffirmed it on the next downhill. My resolution bobbed with my elevation for a while until I decided that once I reached Greensboro road (which held the last twenty or so miles of the journey) there would be no more hills. My mantra became "There are no hills in Greensboro. There are no hills in Greensboro. There are no hills in Greensboro." My tired brain became convinced that once I reached the 125 mile mark there would be a gentle down hill all the way to the front door of Guilford College. I continued to sort of believe that even as I biked up the hills on Greensboro road.
The sun went down and I was making good time. my ETA was before 10 pm with only about ten miles to go when my back up light went out. My primary light had lost it's juice, so I had switched to my secondary, and when they ran out of power I had no way to see in front of myself. I had one red flashing light that could have shown the cars behind me where I was, but I had no way to see the road. I had just about resigned myself to walking the final ten miles when a car pulls over next to me. The mans name was Will, and first he offers to put me up for the night if I needed a place. I told him I was staying at Guilford but my lights had gone out, so he offered to ride his car behind me and give me light the rest of the way there! So much to the shagrin of all the cars which now had to pass a ten mile an hour car rather than a ten mile an hour bike, I had a fully lit path all the way to Guilford College. I arrived, clocking in at 145 miles in one day.
The plan had been to bike 90 miles, throw up my tent, and bike the another 55 miles to Guilford College the next day, but I got it in my head that I would bike all the way to Guilford that night!the thought crossed my mind that it was a stupid and dangerous idea. I could hurt my knees pretty badly from this much over exertion, and night biking thirty miles with one hundred and some miles of exhaustion on you was iffy. Then it crossed my mind this was the only time in my life I could do stupid stuff. My body is still young enough to handle a beating, and it's social acceptable for teenage boys to do crazy, testosterone fulled stuff. So I decided to bike all the way to guilford.
I had made up my mind while I was on a down hill, and when the next uphill came I gave up the idea, but reaffirmed it on the next downhill. My resolution bobbed with my elevation for a while until I decided that once I reached Greensboro road (which held the last twenty or so miles of the journey) there would be no more hills. My mantra became "There are no hills in Greensboro. There are no hills in Greensboro. There are no hills in Greensboro." My tired brain became convinced that once I reached the 125 mile mark there would be a gentle down hill all the way to the front door of Guilford College. I continued to sort of believe that even as I biked up the hills on Greensboro road.
The sun went down and I was making good time. my ETA was before 10 pm with only about ten miles to go when my back up light went out. My primary light had lost it's juice, so I had switched to my secondary, and when they ran out of power I had no way to see in front of myself. I had one red flashing light that could have shown the cars behind me where I was, but I had no way to see the road. I had just about resigned myself to walking the final ten miles when a car pulls over next to me. The mans name was Will, and first he offers to put me up for the night if I needed a place. I told him I was staying at Guilford but my lights had gone out, so he offered to ride his car behind me and give me light the rest of the way there! So much to the shagrin of all the cars which now had to pass a ten mile an hour car rather than a ten mile an hour bike, I had a fully lit path all the way to Guilford College. I arrived, clocking in at 145 miles in one day.
Lexington
"I'm going to Lexington!" was my battle cry and inspiration as I biked over my first mountains. Whenever I had biked up a hill around my neighborhood I used to think "oohf this is hard, how could I ever bike up a mountain?" and now the blue ridge mountains were rising up from under my tires. The hill rose on and on, 50 pounds of gear pulled me down, and I pedaled. I was in lowest gear, and my speed dropped to about six miles an hour. I wasn't so much even pedaling, but continually stomping down on the peddles. Eventually I made it up to the blue ridge parkway, though of course the hills didn't stop there. I fought many a climb, but the blue ridge was so beautiful I nearly forget about my struggling legs. The leafs had not yet bloomed and I had a constant view of rolling mountains covered in spring colors. I rode down off the blue ridge and into Lexington. When I crested that last hill and saw the Walsh house waiting for me on the far side of the pastures, framed by mountains I felt an ocean of relief and accomplishment wash through me. I had worked so hard to get there, and now I had arrived at the home of the best folks and comfiest couches.
according to the latest census data Rockbridge county and Lexington have the highest concentration of incredible people of anywhere in the country. I chilled hard with my man Bryan walsh and my Ecuador bud Leo. I had my first of many amazing dinners at the Harbor house. I visited and met many other special folks.
I spent a whole afternoon with my inspiration and grown up, female personality twin Leah Green. We thought up an lesson for the extracurricular middle school nature writing class Leah teaches at Boxer Wood, and then lead it together! AH! so much fun!
over the past two years I have taken huge strides in becoming a better listener, being more observant of others, being mindful and intentional in what I say, and developing more of a calm centeredness. Talking with Leah I realized I had lost some of the freely expressive, energetic, and silly self, but I felt it creeping back in our conversations. Mindfulness and goofiness aren't opposite ends of a spectrum, but coexist beautifully and reinforce each other.
according to the latest census data Rockbridge county and Lexington have the highest concentration of incredible people of anywhere in the country. I chilled hard with my man Bryan walsh and my Ecuador bud Leo. I had my first of many amazing dinners at the Harbor house. I visited and met many other special folks.
I spent a whole afternoon with my inspiration and grown up, female personality twin Leah Green. We thought up an lesson for the extracurricular middle school nature writing class Leah teaches at Boxer Wood, and then lead it together! AH! so much fun!
over the past two years I have taken huge strides in becoming a better listener, being more observant of others, being mindful and intentional in what I say, and developing more of a calm centeredness. Talking with Leah I realized I had lost some of the freely expressive, energetic, and silly self, but I felt it creeping back in our conversations. Mindfulness and goofiness aren't opposite ends of a spectrum, but coexist beautifully and reinforce each other.
Monday, May 14, 2012
Woodfolk House
Woodfolk House is an urban intentional community. It's waist full and less fun to have only a few people living in a big house, so a bunch of people all live in it together. They all have separate jobs and incomes, but share meals and house hold chores. Their small yard is packed with as many gardens and fruit trees as they could fit.
I stayed at that full house for one evening as I traveled west to Lexington.
Living in community is not just for hippies in the woods, but really easily applicable to every day living. Before large personal homes could be built so cheaply and before you could get everything you need at the super market, most of the world lived in a form of a community for the vast majority of history. Living independently and alone in your house is a recent construct.
I stayed at that full house for one evening as I traveled west to Lexington.
Living in community is not just for hippies in the woods, but really easily applicable to every day living. Before large personal homes could be built so cheaply and before you could get everything you need at the super market, most of the world lived in a form of a community for the vast majority of history. Living independently and alone in your house is a recent construct.
Acorn
I only visited Acorn for one evening, but it made a lasting impression on me.
Acorn has the kick to it which I found lacking in Twin Oaks. This smaller community was seeded from Twin Oaks (get it? Oaks, Acorn). It has less that thirty members and a much younger demographic. This group of friends was essentially having an eternal, unsupervised sleep over, kinda like every child's dream. They support themselves by growing plants and selling the seeds. Twin Oaks has an elaborate work hour system where you submit your request for work hours and are assigned shifts in different parts of the community to fill your 42 hours of work a week. The members of Acorn just work for 42 hours a week on the honor system, and what needs to get done gets done. At Twin Oaks the feeling in the air was more like the atmosphere at a work place, where Acorn was rocking the friends hanging out vibe.
While I was there I had an informative conversation with a girl named Dusty. She and a friend want to start a community is south west VA. This community would be a support place for radical queers, and a sort of hub of empowerment and support. I have also dreamed of creating a community some day. The community I envision would be a center for advocacy and a tool for enacting social and political change, particularly with regards to the environment. That would be main goal of my community, though it would also be a supportive place for queers. Dusty's community would be mainly for Queers, but she says she also would be interested in social advocacy on the side.
Before this trip I had envisioned an ultimate community that would be for everyone and anyone, but now it's obvious that there is no one size fits all. Every one has different priorities and ways of living. I don't think I could ever live with the formal feel that Twin Oaks has, and there are lots of people who would be driven crazy by the lack of structure at Acorn. That was an important revelation for me
Acorn has the kick to it which I found lacking in Twin Oaks. This smaller community was seeded from Twin Oaks (get it? Oaks, Acorn). It has less that thirty members and a much younger demographic. This group of friends was essentially having an eternal, unsupervised sleep over, kinda like every child's dream. They support themselves by growing plants and selling the seeds. Twin Oaks has an elaborate work hour system where you submit your request for work hours and are assigned shifts in different parts of the community to fill your 42 hours of work a week. The members of Acorn just work for 42 hours a week on the honor system, and what needs to get done gets done. At Twin Oaks the feeling in the air was more like the atmosphere at a work place, where Acorn was rocking the friends hanging out vibe.
While I was there I had an informative conversation with a girl named Dusty. She and a friend want to start a community is south west VA. This community would be a support place for radical queers, and a sort of hub of empowerment and support. I have also dreamed of creating a community some day. The community I envision would be a center for advocacy and a tool for enacting social and political change, particularly with regards to the environment. That would be main goal of my community, though it would also be a supportive place for queers. Dusty's community would be mainly for Queers, but she says she also would be interested in social advocacy on the side.
Before this trip I had envisioned an ultimate community that would be for everyone and anyone, but now it's obvious that there is no one size fits all. Every one has different priorities and ways of living. I don't think I could ever live with the formal feel that Twin Oaks has, and there are lots of people who would be driven crazy by the lack of structure at Acorn. That was an important revelation for me
Twin Oaks
100 people live at Twin Oaks. They live in community, sharing everything from their incomes to their meals. Walking through their wooded trails you will find the old and the young, the hippie and the practical, the quiet and the loud, and a lot in between. The community funds itself by selling tofu, hammocks, seeds, and other projects.
I had the pleasure of staying at Twin Oaks for about five days. While there I cut potatoes, weeded, spread ocra (tofu waiste product), and even mucked out trenches for tofu water run off. Twin Oaks is a happening place, everyone else was much busier than I was. There are work hours to fill and some party or get together is always going on, or accommodations for a visitor (like me) have to be worked out. Twin Oaks is far from a dull place.
I was lucky enough to participate in the pagan celebration of the spring equinox:
The group of us all held hands and began casting the circle. We thought of the expanse of earth beneath our feet and the endless air above our heads. We eat from the earth and breath from the sky; we are part of it all. In silence we walked through the woods and reached an open grassy hill. I stepped on the green grass. Passing through the line of trees I could see the deep blue sky and felt the warmth of the sun. As I walked up that hill I was filled with a thrill of life. I felt as if I were flying on a roller coaster, as every sense reeled with excitement. I was merely walking on grass, but in that moment I knew what I lived for. Life without interaction with the earth seems pointless, made up, and arbitrary. Experiencing the real world is a feeling unique in it's wholeness.
I had the pleasure of staying at Twin Oaks for about five days. While there I cut potatoes, weeded, spread ocra (tofu waiste product), and even mucked out trenches for tofu water run off. Twin Oaks is a happening place, everyone else was much busier than I was. There are work hours to fill and some party or get together is always going on, or accommodations for a visitor (like me) have to be worked out. Twin Oaks is far from a dull place.
I was lucky enough to participate in the pagan celebration of the spring equinox:
The group of us all held hands and began casting the circle. We thought of the expanse of earth beneath our feet and the endless air above our heads. We eat from the earth and breath from the sky; we are part of it all. In silence we walked through the woods and reached an open grassy hill. I stepped on the green grass. Passing through the line of trees I could see the deep blue sky and felt the warmth of the sun. As I walked up that hill I was filled with a thrill of life. I felt as if I were flying on a roller coaster, as every sense reeled with excitement. I was merely walking on grass, but in that moment I knew what I lived for. Life without interaction with the earth seems pointless, made up, and arbitrary. Experiencing the real world is a feeling unique in it's wholeness.
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Living Energy Farm
Living Energy Farm was the biggest expanse of death I had ever seen. It took me a long time to believe that the bumpy dirt road through piles of sun baked clear cut was the farm I had been so looking forward to visiting. Despite my initial wave of dismayed shock, Living Energy Farm(LEF) was without a doubt one of the most informative and enjoyable stops on my trip.
Every tree on the property was recently cut to the stump by the previous owner. When funding fell through for whatever the man was clearing the land for (most likely suburban sprawl) he sold the land to the one and only Alexis. Alexis's goal for the land is to turn it into a zero fossil fuel farm. He has given himself three years to use fossil fuels to get the thing started, and then is going into all natural mode! What a cool guy!
My visit coincided with a group of very cool Virginia students, and Alexis put us to work right off. We planted a whole grove of pecan trees, which was a wonderful feeling. If I die tomorrow I may not leave behind much, but at least 50 years from now the trees I planted will still be here and feeding the good folks at LEF. Over the few days I spent there we also worked in the garden, cleared brush, built a pergola (a sort of trellis), built a close line, and attended a workshop on eco building (to build a house you just make thick walls out of whatever you like (hay, leaves, ect...) through a layer of concrete on either side, top it off with a tin roof, and tah-dah! you have made a super insulated house for next to nothing!).
Working at LEF was a window into what it means to make something purely from manual labor. To build a trellis from scratch first you must search through the log covered landscape for a log that was the size you want and the kind of wood you want (and we were lucky enough to be spared the step of cutting it down), then unbury it from whatever pile it was in, cut off all the limbs, cut the log into the lengths you want, you need to notch the logs you are using for poles, you need to dig the holes to put the poles in, put the poles in the holes, and then lay the long thin logs across the notches in the top of the poles. Not one of those steps was quick and easy. I am a firm believer in making with human power rather than any fossil fuels, and LEF introduced me to what that really means.
I truly loved it there. In the evenings we would sit around a fire and all laugh together. The place had wonderful visitors who would sit with us and play guitar under the stars. I fell into a mode of bliss, one of those times when your are so pleased with everything that's happening around you, you have not a care in the world, and you are surrounded by beauty.
When I first gave up riding in planes and cars I was nervous that I would be missing out on seeing the world. This bike ride has been teaching me that there is endless amounts of world to see right here where I live. There are many and aspects to the experience of being in another country that can not be duplicated, but LEF sure felt like another country. We had next to no electricity, we had to fetch water, the beans and rice we ate were cooked over a wood stove, and the landscape looking nothing like beautiful, green Virginia. My visit to LEF is easily on par with almost all of the places I stayed in Ecuador. Life and the world around us are just so chalk full of wonders and beauties to experience. If you sally forth and search for what you desire, I guarantee you will find it. There is simply too much out there for it not to exist somewhere nearby, waiting for you.
Every tree on the property was recently cut to the stump by the previous owner. When funding fell through for whatever the man was clearing the land for (most likely suburban sprawl) he sold the land to the one and only Alexis. Alexis's goal for the land is to turn it into a zero fossil fuel farm. He has given himself three years to use fossil fuels to get the thing started, and then is going into all natural mode! What a cool guy!
My visit coincided with a group of very cool Virginia students, and Alexis put us to work right off. We planted a whole grove of pecan trees, which was a wonderful feeling. If I die tomorrow I may not leave behind much, but at least 50 years from now the trees I planted will still be here and feeding the good folks at LEF. Over the few days I spent there we also worked in the garden, cleared brush, built a pergola (a sort of trellis), built a close line, and attended a workshop on eco building (to build a house you just make thick walls out of whatever you like (hay, leaves, ect...) through a layer of concrete on either side, top it off with a tin roof, and tah-dah! you have made a super insulated house for next to nothing!).
Working at LEF was a window into what it means to make something purely from manual labor. To build a trellis from scratch first you must search through the log covered landscape for a log that was the size you want and the kind of wood you want (and we were lucky enough to be spared the step of cutting it down), then unbury it from whatever pile it was in, cut off all the limbs, cut the log into the lengths you want, you need to notch the logs you are using for poles, you need to dig the holes to put the poles in, put the poles in the holes, and then lay the long thin logs across the notches in the top of the poles. Not one of those steps was quick and easy. I am a firm believer in making with human power rather than any fossil fuels, and LEF introduced me to what that really means.
I truly loved it there. In the evenings we would sit around a fire and all laugh together. The place had wonderful visitors who would sit with us and play guitar under the stars. I fell into a mode of bliss, one of those times when your are so pleased with everything that's happening around you, you have not a care in the world, and you are surrounded by beauty.
When I first gave up riding in planes and cars I was nervous that I would be missing out on seeing the world. This bike ride has been teaching me that there is endless amounts of world to see right here where I live. There are many and aspects to the experience of being in another country that can not be duplicated, but LEF sure felt like another country. We had next to no electricity, we had to fetch water, the beans and rice we ate were cooked over a wood stove, and the landscape looking nothing like beautiful, green Virginia. My visit to LEF is easily on par with almost all of the places I stayed in Ecuador. Life and the world around us are just so chalk full of wonders and beauties to experience. If you sally forth and search for what you desire, I guarantee you will find it. There is simply too much out there for it not to exist somewhere nearby, waiting for you.
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