free peaches, yum!

so i'm sitting here in the public library in montesamo, a town of 3,000 located about 30 miles inland from the coast. i just rolled into town for the day and as soon as my 36 more minutes of librarian-allotted internet time are up, i'm heading the 1 mile up the hill to set up camp at lake sylvia state park.

today is day 2 of being on the road and so far, it's pretty f-ing rad. highlights of the past 48 hours include: cruising past the olympic mountains on my way out the hood canal, watching the sun rise this morning a fiery red, and meeting dick and dwayne, who insisted on loading me down with as much fresh produce as they could fit in my already-stuffed-to-the-brim bags. when i pulled up to their road-side produce stand, i assumed they were farmers. this was, until they told me that i should come back tomorrow to look through the assortment of rare coins, fine jewelry and antiques they have available. "so you don't just sell produce?" i inquired, confused. "three days a week we do, we get it from our friends farm in yakima, the other days we sell all sorts of stuff. you name it, we got it." and these unlikely business partners go on to tell me that they spend a whole lot of their time acquiring other people's unpaid storage units (and apparently, this happens ALL the time) and selling off all the junk (or treasure) that they find inside. "we're thinkin about packin everything up in the truck and takin it down to arizona for the winter, settin' up at swap meets 'n such", dwayne tells me.

by they way, dwayne is also a cancer survivor and spends much of his spare time helping his parents run a women's shelter, at which his main job is acting as a sort of escort/body guard when taking the women to their new, undisclosed homes. dick, who has got to be at least 25 years dwayne's senior, tells me about hanging out in haight/ashbury in the 60's, being addicted to heroin for a couple years in the 80's, and how much his wife loves to backpack.



and this is when i realize that this is exactly why i am on this trip. the riding, it's great, but the people. the people are what make traveling around so fucking incredible. i realized that that is what's so remarkable about a bicycle as a mode of travel. If I were to embark on a backpacking, or kayaking trip, i wouldn rarely see or interact with other people except for perhaps on occasion, in the evenings, or in passing. but on a bicycle, you have to use the same routes that people use on their way to work and school and on the way home from the grocery store. and here you are on this adventure, but you get to interact with people who are just trying to lead their lives. and even while under pedal you are interacting with others: chatting with flaggers, returning a wave to a passing motorcyclist, or stopping to buy a peach on the side of the road and ending up hearing the life stories of two men. sometimes i can't believe how much people just want to talk. it's amazing, and being able to have the time to listen is a gift. a gift that i feel pretty f-ing fortunate to have.


anyway, i'm heading to westport tomorrow. it's a short day (who am i kidding, all my days i short)and then down towards bay center, and on to astoria.

catch ya'll on the flipside.