Delayed Stay: Pacific Northwest PART 1
Delayed Stay: Pacific Northwest
April 23rd: leaving Santa Barbara
May 5th: Leaving San Francisco
Portland, hipster mecca, for a while was a place that I didn't necessarily find super appealing. I visited last year for about 2 days, hung out with the infamous Pizza Guy (long story), Rudolf Jung. This year, I decided, hey I should hang out in portland for maybe a week. Do you like waffles, well, rudi definitely does, but anyways the Waffle Window was my first experience of portland food. NO TAX! that was pretty awesome. the streets of portland are pretty easy to navigate, it is a great biking city, as were many cities that I encountered (which was a surprise). I was really stoked on the bike path along the river, along with all the bridges across the river. So, the the first actual experience of me being in portland was meeting up with my friend Taylor Lancaster and seeing a band by the name of Dovekins!! I managed to see Dovekins play 6 times while i was in portland, my stay ended up being more like two weeks, rather than one. Hanging out was one of the cool things to do in this city, one hang out spot for me was the Peoples food co-op! Hung out with some cool peeps, including Katelyn Hale (Ooohh, bicycle Girl!). Cool bike rides, farmers market visits, Hot lips pizza scores (Cold pizza rules), and square dancing is what we did, how cool right? We also saw an awesome band by the name of The dapper Cadavers, with this really cool song about the bay. I see the bay/ships ashore/set sail you say/more more more more more! Cool accordion player by the name of emily Kastrel? Lots of stuff happened here, I also recorded an album with a friendly guy named Jim, he was great, and was really kind for taking the time for that. Jam sessions, busking with the Kastral? and having tea with Tyger, a friend who juggles machetes, is something to add to the list. I decided to stay in portland for an extra week, mostly because I was having so much fun, I ended up playing a show at the Brooklyn House, with Dovekins! it was pretty awesome. it was nice to have everyone sing along to "I want it that way" by you know who. My departure plan was set: I wanted to bike up toward seattle, then bike all the way across the COUNTRY!!!(didn't work out, explanation ahead)
So I started making my way north, getting lost occasionally and making a few phone calls. My ankle starts feeling uncomfortable, don't really mind it, Make it to the town of Vader, Wa, where I find myself arriving earlier than I had expected. I hang out till its getting to be the sneak around time. then i find myself this guy, super sketchy dood (didn't notice at the time), offered me a place to stay, I buy him a beer, and we sit and talk about california. it gets darker, and darker then finally we go to his house (his dads house). he tells me to stay out of sight of his father (sketchy?). anyways I set up my tent, and get to bed, I wake up in the middle of the night and my tent is leaking, its raining, and my feet are wet in my sleeping bag. Fuck. Whatever. I sleep. I wake up and make some oatmeal and make my way up to Olympia. By this point my knee is aching from yesterdays ride. not too bad. I make it about 30 miles before the pain is affecting my ride, 20 miles to go. I push through it and my knee is really hurting once im getting up the hill on forth ave's west side. Ice!!
I couldn't ride my bike for a month, definitely the delay of my trip! But, other than not being able to ride a bike, Olympia was great. It was really nice to see familiar faces, stayed at grandmas house, sipping on some great kombucha, great breakfast, tons of nutritional yeast, and music!! The Margy Peppers were super hospitable! Hanging out with my buddy Jon was nice, saw him on his bike tour down to Santa Barbara. It was nice to spend time with him. I met some new people who made my heart freak out, like Jackson, an amazing dude! (ask him to hug you for me). Olympia was very focused on my knee and not letting myself injury get worse. Hanging out with KC was AWESOME!!! KC was living at a house that I had visited before, which was funny. It was nice to see these cats. I did a lot of resting up at this house, lots of contrast temperature stuff on the knee. So I went to a little Folk life pre-party in Olympia by the name of Strike West. It was nice to see friends from Santa Cruz and listen to some nice acoustic folks. Matador, Blackbird Raum, Slow Teeth, along with other bands I cant recall at the moment, were playing some tunes.....
To Be Continued....
To Be Continued....
