Life on a Bike...
How does that sound? Well its pretty damn fun. I've recently moved out of my mothers house, downsized to fit everything i'd like to keep on my bike, and I'm done. Where to? Wherever the wind takes me. these last two months or so, I've been doing a bit of documenting what Ive been up to. These images include some of the following, and then some extra stuff I thought I'd toss in:Bike to Los Angeles
Sleep Punks
Bike up north
Santa Cruzing
And so, we will start off from the beginning....
Los Angeles Bike Ride
S0 my brother was graduating from UCLA, and I decided I would visit him, a couple of days before that so we could spend some time together. Me not having a car, or a ride to get down, I decided why not just bike there. So I did, enjoyed the scenic 1 route, took only the bare elements which keep me satisfied, which was food, a sleeping bag, some clothes, camera gear, and of course my ukulele.
The whole point of this first trip was to see my brother graduate, which i did, and I am really proud and happy to see that he beat the odds and has become an outstanding scholar. Truly, Frank Rodriguez, you are an inspiration to all latinos and minorities fighting for what is true equality.
Bike Moves/Bici Centro/Wheelhouse
Bike Moves/Bici Centro/Wheelhouse
throughout the last couple of months I have been stimulated my many of the bike activities throught the community of Santa Barbara, though it is rather limited. I have been investing a lot of my energy toward helping out at the local community bike shop Bici Centro, where I have gotten to know great people with similar visions as myself. Through Bici, I have found out about this bike ride with a group by the name of Bike Moves. These guys meet every 1st thursday at 730pm outside of Wheelhouse Bikes, Cota and Anacapa Street, and ride bikes to the pier up State and back. Great atmosphere, if you like to dress up, get as creative as you want. thanks to all of you guys for making shit happen here in town, we really need more people like Bike Moves to make bikes more present in our community.
Abacate (Abba-Kah-Chee)
It's the name of my bicycle,
Portuguese for avocado....
Você tem uma bicicleta fresca, tão legal.
Sleeping (Drunk) Punks
I happened to run into an old friend from boarding school, who I haven't seen since February 2006. I didn't know what to expect from him, or his friends, what were they like? I discover that they are train hopping punks and I end up spending a week on and off with these guys. Trashcan, Shoeshine, Ian, and Bryan were their names, spending their days on state street "spang-ing" or asking for money. we had our nights of liquor intake, use of illegal substances, and setting up camp anywhere we felt like, the beach, by the traintracks, on a cliff. I saw things in a different light spending time with these 4. Lots of fun, but lots of drugs, lots of police surveilance.
This trip was my first actual bike trip where I was away from familiar terrain for longer than 2 days. I spent 5 long days on the road, along the coastal route 1 enjoying the fresh air, beautiful scenery, and most importantly, the genuine clarity of spending days alone on my bicycle. It was an amazing experience, one that cannot be put into words to describe how I felt when I ran into familiar faces, strangers who knew me, connected with people I would have never expected to speak to. Being so far from home, yet I felt as if I belonged where I was in that moment in time.
Big Sur
I started just a mile after Ragged Point on my bike that morning, misty dew soaked the outside of my sleeping bag. I slept on what looked like an abandoned driveway overflowing with vegitation. This ride started off really cold, downhill then caught segments of the sun. The beach was an incredible picturesque object in front of me...
I stopped many many times, to eat, to enjoy the view, play my ukulele, and just sit and stare out to ponder, life and all I had, what I wanted, what I couldn't have, and what I was looking for. Theres a lot to think about when you bike 6 hours a day, alone, for 5 days.
As I took a stop at a vista point, I saw a pretty cool van with some younger folk, who I assumed was some kind of band on tour. I let them be, as i took off once again, a few miles later, i noticed them once again at the Julia Pfeiffer Burns state park. I stopped this time to compliment them on their van. They had stopped again because it kept breaking down, I spent a minute talking to Josh, the drummer, who used to be a member of Port O'brien. I had seen them play last summer, which seemed like some crazy coincidence, as I meet the drummer with his new band "Sparrows Gate". I met the band, they let me know of a show they were playing at the Fernwood, which was only a mile from the other Pfeiffer camp site was, so I told them I would show up, and I did...
I got to the Fernwood promptly at around 10 o'clock, after a few beers with some bikers I had met at the hike and bike camp site, and ran into people from The Quiet Life, who is a band that I had happend to play with a few months ago, which only meant that I found their followers who remembered me from that show. So surprisingly enough, I knew people in Big Sur. So I spent a few hours at this lodge listening to music, doing a bit of dancing and having a good time. A good night in Big Sur...
Santa Cruz
Big Sur to Santa Cruz, 80 miles give or take a few miles. I woke up early, took my time to prepare for the longest ride of the 5 day trip. Day 5, outside the fernwood minimart, saying goodbye to some band members and some fellow people I met, and I was on my way. Not too many stops from here to there, Monterey Bay was the stop for some music playing where I made about 4 dollars. then 40 miles later I arived in Santa Cruz, looking for a place to stay, uncertainty. I made a phone call, and was directed to the Chavez co-op where I was greeted with open arms by all, and even had some people who knew of me through the ukulele, which is always amusing to me, because I'm sure I don't appear to have any type of serious character to these people. and that night I slept well. The next morning I decided to go visit Tyler, from the band "James Rabbit". I arrived at the Crystal Palace and Tyler, as I have heard from many people, was offering everything he owned to me, which i took some ginger tea and some emergency. Then we went on a bike ride and talked about Santa Cruz and other things...
Ukulele Club Of Santa Cruz
I was playing music on the street one day, with my newly aquired friend, Lauren, and just jamming away with ukulele tunes, when a man stops me mid song and asks, "hey, are you going to the ukulele club tonight?" and I said something like, "WHAT? Yes, where, when?" and so I and Lauren, who had just bought a uke the day before, were off to Bocci's Cellar where The Ukulele Club of Santa Cruz meets once a month.
As we arrived, a good half hour later than we were recommended to show up, we walk into a crowd of I'm guessing 200 people, sitting eating dinner, everyone with a ukulele right next to their dinner plate and I thought to myself, I am in ukulele heaven! This place was so crowded that I and Lauren had to stand in the back corner.
We played tunes such as Nashville Cats, Gallaxy song, You Can Drive My Car. I was truly surprised by the speed of Laurens' understanding of chords and strumming and I was just super excited to see the determination of a new musician. I was surrounded by hundreds of older people, i don't think that anyone was under the age of 30 in that room other than us.
At the end of all of the songs we played along to, there was a special treat for that month there in Santa Cruz. Bob Brozman, an exeptional ukulele player along with other instruments, performed many styles of music from all over the world, with many ukulele inspired instruments. That night was amazing, and all these things that came together made me feel suspended in the air, like i was constantly on a down hill on my bike and pedaling was nothing but the rotation of my legs.
Samba Rock/Portuguese
I've been learning portuguese over the last couple of months, and Lauren let me know the she worked at this Acai/coffee/smoothie place with a brazilian people, so I decided I should probably go and put my skills to the test. "Eu gostaria uma jucu de laranga." all i ordered was an orange juice. "Onde fica e bañero?" Where is the bathroom. It was really fun just talking to this man from Sao Paulo, asking how do i say I'm thirsty? "Eu esto con muito seige." Samba Rock, its on water street in Santa Cruz, go get some coffee, tea, smoothies, Acai, looks pretty darn great.
UCSC Pick Up Game of Soccer
I rode my bike up the hill to UCSC. Kind of intimidating hill, but once i got up there, I just marvelled at the redwood campus, amazing view of the monterey bay, some deer, and I was most excited about the pick up game of soccer i got to play with the locals. its been a few months since i got the chance to play like this and I was really thankful to be able to kick a ball around and joke around with some spanish speaking compadres...
Departing Day
So I arived on a sunday, and this day was once again sunday. It was my departing day. I had soooo much fun this week in santa cruz, met so many cool people and experienced so much i wouldn't have if i hadn't made the effort to ride 280 miles to this town. that day, i wrote a few letters made a few stops around town including once again the Crystal Palace. I stopped by just in time to see them as they were recording a new song. I sat around and listened to Max sing and yell.
So after that, I made my way back to the Chavez Co-op, I don't know what would have happend if I wasn't staying at that house, and all I can say Is that I'm glad I did. Said my good byes, tossed my bike onto a VW Bus, and I was off back to the normal living state that I once before was. One amazing trip, one great experience, I'll be back soon. I can tell you that....
Big Sur to Santa Cruz, 80 miles give or take a few miles. I woke up early, took my time to prepare for the longest ride of the 5 day trip. Day 5, outside the fernwood minimart, saying goodbye to some band members and some fellow people I met, and I was on my way. Not too many stops from here to there, Monterey Bay was the stop for some music playing where I made about 4 dollars. then 40 miles later I arived in Santa Cruz, looking for a place to stay, uncertainty. I made a phone call, and was directed to the Chavez co-op where I was greeted with open arms by all, and even had some people who knew of me through the ukulele, which is always amusing to me, because I'm sure I don't appear to have any type of serious character to these people. and that night I slept well. The next morning I decided to go visit Tyler, from the band "James Rabbit". I arrived at the Crystal Palace and Tyler, as I have heard from many people, was offering everything he owned to me, which i took some ginger tea and some emergency. Then we went on a bike ride and talked about Santa Cruz and other things...
Ukulele Club Of Santa Cruz
I was playing music on the street one day, with my newly aquired friend, Lauren, and just jamming away with ukulele tunes, when a man stops me mid song and asks, "hey, are you going to the ukulele club tonight?" and I said something like, "WHAT? Yes, where, when?" and so I and Lauren, who had just bought a uke the day before, were off to Bocci's Cellar where The Ukulele Club of Santa Cruz meets once a month.
As we arrived, a good half hour later than we were recommended to show up, we walk into a crowd of I'm guessing 200 people, sitting eating dinner, everyone with a ukulele right next to their dinner plate and I thought to myself, I am in ukulele heaven! This place was so crowded that I and Lauren had to stand in the back corner.
We played tunes such as Nashville Cats, Gallaxy song, You Can Drive My Car. I was truly surprised by the speed of Laurens' understanding of chords and strumming and I was just super excited to see the determination of a new musician. I was surrounded by hundreds of older people, i don't think that anyone was under the age of 30 in that room other than us.
At the end of all of the songs we played along to, there was a special treat for that month there in Santa Cruz. Bob Brozman, an exeptional ukulele player along with other instruments, performed many styles of music from all over the world, with many ukulele inspired instruments. That night was amazing, and all these things that came together made me feel suspended in the air, like i was constantly on a down hill on my bike and pedaling was nothing but the rotation of my legs.
Samba Rock/Portuguese
I've been learning portuguese over the last couple of months, and Lauren let me know the she worked at this Acai/coffee/smoothie place with a brazilian people, so I decided I should probably go and put my skills to the test. "Eu gostaria uma jucu de laranga." all i ordered was an orange juice. "Onde fica e bañero?" Where is the bathroom. It was really fun just talking to this man from Sao Paulo, asking how do i say I'm thirsty? "Eu esto con muito seige." Samba Rock, its on water street in Santa Cruz, go get some coffee, tea, smoothies, Acai, looks pretty darn great.
UCSC Pick Up Game of Soccer
I rode my bike up the hill to UCSC. Kind of intimidating hill, but once i got up there, I just marvelled at the redwood campus, amazing view of the monterey bay, some deer, and I was most excited about the pick up game of soccer i got to play with the locals. its been a few months since i got the chance to play like this and I was really thankful to be able to kick a ball around and joke around with some spanish speaking compadres...
Departing Day
So I arived on a sunday, and this day was once again sunday. It was my departing day. I had soooo much fun this week in santa cruz, met so many cool people and experienced so much i wouldn't have if i hadn't made the effort to ride 280 miles to this town. that day, i wrote a few letters made a few stops around town including once again the Crystal Palace. I stopped by just in time to see them as they were recording a new song. I sat around and listened to Max sing and yell.
So after that, I made my way back to the Chavez Co-op, I don't know what would have happend if I wasn't staying at that house, and all I can say Is that I'm glad I did. Said my good byes, tossed my bike onto a VW Bus, and I was off back to the normal living state that I once before was. One amazing trip, one great experience, I'll be back soon. I can tell you that....
