Dan Livingston

Brandon Wickes

Jorge Mijangos

Bike Bike!! Bike Tour!! 2010

Minneapolis, Mn. to Toronto, On, CA. somewhere around 1,200 miles. 30 days. Long days, short days, hot days, rainy days. Bike touring, what a wonderful way to see the world, the Midwest, or your own city. The reason I love to travel by bike, is because I am with myself. Its a moment for me to focus on my body, physically and emotionally, spiritually, whatever you wanna call it. Riding for 50 to 80, sometimes even 100 miles in a day is how I get back in touch with myself. Its a time to feel my insecurities and work through my internal struggles. waking up at 6:30am, eat breakfast, stretch, and get on the road. Whats new today? It might be a nice lake to take a dip in, it might be an Amish town in the middle of nowhere, it might be Polkafest!! This is my bike trip in a nutshell:

 I wake up, see some people around town on my last hour in Minneapolis. Emily Kastrul, makes me breakfast, and I am off to see the rest for the Midwest, The land of abundance (Corn mostly). I am off, as i get farther and farther away from this now familiar city, I speak to myself, telling myself that I can go back if i don't want to do this. Its not that bad though, sleeping on the side of the road, digging through trashcans for food, stealing to stay healthy. Not bad at all. First day I managed to to get to Ellsworth, Wisconsin. Polka Fest. An RV city of good old patriotic senior citizens. I made it just in time to see the last three songs. Enjoyed chatting with a friendly stranger. If things go this well, I'll have the time of my life!! So for the next couple of days, I'm riding about 50 miles daily, taking my time to occasionally stop, look at some trees, pee in some bushes, fill up water bottles, eat some snacks. Wisconsin is a pretty place, super hot, SO many Mosquitoes!!! I bought a mosquito net in Minneapolis, hoping to be safe. I end one night in Tomah. Its 9 at night, its 90 degrees outside mosquitoes are going fucking insane! it takes me way to long to set up the mosquito net. I get quite a few of those suckers on me. I wake up around 5:30 the next morning because these things are getting into this damn net. I grab all my stuff, and get the fuck out of this campground. I managed to go 30 days without paying for a single place to sleep! pretty rad, this meant trespassing, sleeping behind churches, sneaking out of campsites (and into). This morning I managed to get to a really awesome diner, I think it was called the American Eagle Diner/Cafe/Gas Station. I go in, order some grits and gravy, wash my shorts, and enjoy the conversations of the 20 or so army troops having breakfast. Fox news is on, so I'm watching clips of bullshit, and think about how much these people would hate my guts if I opened my mouth. I get to the dells, Noah's Arc (The biggest waste of water in the world) water park. I didn't go in there, but i managed to find the lake, and took a dip for an hour. I notice that I have a flat as I'm leaving the spot. make the patch, and head out. Headwinds were on the move the whole day, then i must have gotten my second wind. I was making great time, riding probably 15/20 miles per hour. I get about 20 miles out, and i see this shadow come over me, it just got really fresh outside, humidity is GONE!! but I look behind me, Its a black cloud, and i go run under a gazebo for about an hour, it wasn't too bad, I sleep under an overhang in front of a church. I wake up at midnight to a fucking crazy storm, the wind is kicking the water everywhere. i manage to get to sleep. I wake up the next morning, and I think this was one of the nicest rides, visually, I had this trip. I get into Madison, Wisconsin. I meet Tops, and Chancho, who are hosting me for two nights, along with a bike polo team from Lexington, Kentucky. The Lexington 2! I spent a while hanging out with Chancho listening to Best Friends Forever, playing Zombies with the house, and playing music downtown. Madison is a beautiful little city, with cool people, nice cooperative houses, right by the lake! nice campus. As I was leaving town, I stopped by the Willie Street Food Co-op! I was getting some munchies for the road, and I got snagged to go to this Bike Polo tournament. It was a national tournament, so there were about 60 teams I think, or maybe it was 100, but anyways, i hung out for a bit and had a good time, then it was off, make it to Milwaukee by late afternoon. This was the longest day of my trip, i must have ridden at least 90 miles, which would include going to and from the bike polo.

Milwaukee was an interesting place. The first place I arrived at was a block party, with graffiti, hip hop, and skateboarding. I had a nice time hanging out for a little while, it was a bit strange being in spandex and having a bunch of stuff on my bike. So, I kept riding, I finally made it to Lake Michigan! I'm meeting Emily Kastrul tonight. Actually, right now. I'm biking up toward her grandfathers house. He is such a SWEETHEART! I was really tired, but i still managed to hang out and spend some time talking to Sid. He was such a genuine person. Ate some Chinese food, had some frozen custard. time to go to bed. I wake up, shower, eat some breakfast. Sid hands me a map, "this might come in handy on your trip." Its a map of the world! AMAZING!! I take it, I ask if he has a map like, of Chicago? he hands me the Chicago map. Awesome. I am about ready to make my way out of town. But first, to the Riverwest food co-op! I'm leaving Sid's house and its about 200 degrees out, super humid, perfect day to ride my bike. I get lost on the way to the co-op. I get there buy some food and hang around the co-op of a while. As I'm about to leave, my buddy Alex shows up OUT OF NOWHERE (rides his bike up). I met Alex when he was on a bike tour on the west coast. I had totally forgotten that he moved to Milwaukee! we hang out, for a bit, then go to his house, drop off my stuff. Its so nice to not have to carry my bags all the time. Talk about a lot of stuff, go dumpstering at this vegan pastry shop. A great time! I spent 2 days with this guy, had a great time. Got some good beer at a bar. I mean, it was real beer. On tap, and super dark, happy hour. So great! I made my way through Milwaukee for a few days, Then it was off to Chicago! It took me about 2 days to get there. The first day heading out from Milwaukee, was fairly nice, ran into a man who I rode with along the lake for a few miles, then turned off to listen to a jazz festival. It was a very enjoyable experience, he bought me a few glasses of wine, then made my way back on the road to find a place to camp, for it was getting dark. I ended up in the town of Zion, or so I thought I had stopped for the night. found a place to camp on the Illinois State Beach, but after hours of combating mosquitoes I got up, ditched the spot at 3 in the morning. So... I ended up riding another 10 or 15 miles. slept in a concrete jungle, a courtyard of some sort. WORST FUCKING NIGHT OF THE TRIP!! Then i woke up at 9 with my body burning from the sun, off to Chicago. I was sooo tired. I rode for about 15 miles and I crashed my bike. I got caught up on a guardrail with my pannier bag. I just laid there for about 3 minutes people wanted to help, i was just too tired to get up quickly. ended up getting to Chicago around 5ish, went to the REI, and exchanged the shittiest mosquito net for a nice one person tent. BEST IDEA EVER!
  

  For the most part Chicago was great. Stayed with some nice people. I enjoyed the atmosphere. They happened to be filming for the new Transformers movie while I was busking, so i took advantage and I made a little bit of cash, good way to treat myself to some good beer. Made some friends in the Pilsen area. Enjoyed some Son Jarocho music at a nice little bar/restaurant. Stayed at a punk house with a friend I had met at the Infoshop! It was great! Off to the next place!

I rode for a while, dont really remember, I called my friend Daniel when I was in Milwaukee, he told me he would be in Chicago the day before I got there, then head to Kalamazoo. So I caught up with him in Kalamazoo, at this point I was no longer traveling alone. It was now me, Daniel, Casey, and Courtney! Off to Toronto together for BIKE BIKE 2010! Stayed at Courtney's boys house for a few days. Went around the town, beer, liquor, amazing food from our host! took us a while to get on the road, but the day we left, around 3 o'clock, was really great!

This is us on our first day heading out as a group. It was an interesting change in pace, I was very quick to get on the road and go for a long while. We started off slow, waking up late, but, eating lots of food. These friends brought soo much food. It felt really great to be getting the nutrients I needed. Especially RAISINS!! I must say it was hard getting used to the pace, it made me a bit antsy. But other than that These guys were great. Its a bit hard to write about all that happened with them because everything has become a big fun blur. I do remember seeing this frog when we were camping one night!

Biking made me really hungry, same with Daniel, he likes Ice cream!

we managed to keep away from any sleeping fees which is great. Churches, community gardens. When we got to Toledo we made it to the food co-op got some help finding a place to stay, got to one of the community gardens, hung out with an older man who cut peoples grass. Experiences like that makes me want to stay on the road, keep traveling and see where I end up a week from today.

Michigan to New york was an interesting stretch. We ran into this sign. we ran into a lot of cool stuff too though. When we were in Cleveland we stayed 3 houses down from the house in "A Christmas Story"! It was a tourist attraction. I left a geocache there! its like a little treasure hunt thing. 

Dumpster diving was a little difficult to do in some places, also

On the Road, again (Minnesota) part 3

I got a craigslist rideshare all the way to Minnesota from Seattle. Pretty awesome. I rode with a lady named Jane. Really nice lady, listened to some good music, mostly hip hop. it was a 2 and a half day ride about. We did the touristy mount Rushmore, Deadwood, Waldrug, Corn Palace adventure. then it was all on my bicycle from there on out. Got dropped off somewhere around Albert Lea, Minnesota along the 90. The weather was around 95 degrees, with about 120% humidity. Today was gunna be a great day. The ride goes pretty well, other than getting a beer can thrown at me. I'm looking for a place to camp, its getting dark, I am exhausted. I rode about 45 miles today, my knee could handle it, which is a good thing, it still hurts though. bummer. I find a hidden area behind a huge mound of dirt. I begin to set up my sleeping gear. mosquitoes,MOSQUITOES! FUCK YOU! I am attacked by a murder of mosquitoes and i cant get away from them, I have no tent, only a bivy sack. I go to a church, thinking that the mosquitos are less congregated. Nope. I'm not sleeping tonight. Fuck this SHIT! I go to a nearby gas station and buy myself a pizza, and just ponder about how I'll stay awake. The lady at the register asks "where are you coming from/where are you going to?". I say something like "I'm coming from Albert, mosquitoes suck, i cant sleep, help me, save me". I just so happens, shes getting of her shift, going home to her pet raccoon, donkey, horses, dogs and empty house. She says that i can stay with her. LIFE SAVER! So i have a place to stay.
 I wake up in the morning meet these beautiful creatures, check out this lady's basement, which has a dance room, 2 bars, pool tables and foozballs. nice house. I say farewell and head off up to Minneapolis. this day was great, knee feeling better, making good time. I'll be there in no time. I make a wrong turn, now what do i do. I went 15 miles out of my way. I stop at a gas station, by the same name as the last. Kwik Trip. I ask for directions. I had ridden about 40 miles so far, and it would be another 25, fuck no. this lady is really nice as well. She gives me a ride all the way to downtown Minneapolis! what a flat place to live in. I get my crap out of her car, and I make my way over to the Hard Times, with a little help on directions from a few people. Finally here!! I hang out, looks like its gunna rain. My friend Amelia shows up and we make our way to her house. We talk about Tornadoes and dead things as the rain comes down harder and harder. We get to a big cross street, and the rain gets super intense. I cannot see more that 15 feet in front of me, pure white, like snow. A huge gust of wind hits us as we are trying to cross the street. we make it to the other side, an extreme gust of wind almost knocks me off my bike, and i have to get off. Amelia yells something at me, and by this point is running through some bush carrying her bike. I think to my self, "I'm gunna die!" tornado is about to strike. fuck. we run to another street get back on our bikes, some streets are flooded, storm drains spitting water 3 feet in the air. We get to the Pony Palace. I am completely drenched head to toe, rain jacket was worthless. Welcome to Minneapolis!
That night was pretty much completely different than anything that really happened in this city. I spent most afternoons playing soccer in some park on Franklin and Chicago. I rode my bike around the city, so flat, happy to be able to ride with my knee being healed again. Food was a great thing in this city. Seward Cafe was a great breakfast place, lunch place, and just a hang out place. I went there almost every day. They gave out the leftovers after every day. Hash-browns, gravy, biscuits, beans, rice, fruit, tea, coffee! What a score. the punk kids who hung around the seward were pretty rad peeps. played music with some, camped out with others, got hella lifted with a lot of them. So this Emily Kastral? lady I've mentioned before. I hung out with this lady in Portland and in Minneapolis, and soon to be in Milwaukee. I'll get to that later. But anyways, she a fun friend for adventures, picking berries from the bike path, playing each other tunes, seeing her play shows at the Seward and at a house called, No Pines. Punk Time is what she calls being about 2 hours late. pretty funny. Hanging out was great, with everyone. Hannah Frasier! she is so fucking cool. She works at a bakery, and a huge music venue place. When shes not working shes going to the "beach"(lake), being hella silly, taking pictures, and writing music with Amelia. We went to this really awesome restaurant in this Somali food square. We went along with her brother, Ian? definitely a respectable military man. We ordered received a banana with our meal, and got some neon drinks. I really enjoy Hannah's company! Ian is a man with a lot to say. He doesn't say it unless its necessary. I don't agree with a lot of what he says, but we had a good understanding of what we were both taking about. Conservative, but open minded, sounds like a paradox but its possible with this guy. Rita! hung out with Rita a bit in Santa Barbara while she visited a dear friend mellen. Rita and I went on a  swimming, pie eating, bike riding adventure, and she gifted me this spork that i still have on my keychain right now. YAY!
 Among hanging out with a bunch of cool people, I happened to be in town for the 4th of July. It was pretty loud crazy, I got drunk, and it was a good time. The evening started with the usual soccer game, super fun as always, except you would hear fireworks off in the distance. Then I met up with Amelia, chatted, and went on our way to this Powder horn? park. Arrived to the amazingness of pies! Made by Emily Kastruel? Emily and Laeni! it was great to see all these Portland folk. along with that, Dovekins had just made it into town! what a party. watched some fireworks and then we were all off to the the underpants party for LUCY's birthday.!!! thats where a majority of the drinking happened. wow, what a great time. Karaoke, dancing, pool swim, passing out, hangover. Boo. There was a show a some point of my stay. It was Dovekins, Raccoon Raccoon, Dapper Cadavers and some other band. great night, great music. I also saw Paleo play for the 3rd time on this trip. anyways. that was most of my adventure, other than one last thing. Karaoke in spanish! super fun, super out of key, not so embarrassing. I should have convince Amelia to sing, but shes a wimp. My last night im Minneapolis. Nice, wish i could have stayed longer! Next day was the big day!

Northwest part 2

So, After Olympia, I took a bus up to Seattle to spend some time up in Dancylvania with Eli and some of the Iji folks. Glucosamine!! Vegan rueben!! A lot of vegan stuff actually. One of the main reasons I went up to the northwest was to go to folk life, experience the crust punk dream, see friends from around the way, and play some tunes myself. I got to hang with Amelia and Hannah!! Raccoon Raccoon!! west coast punks and people I did not expect to see. Saw my friend Greg from San Diego, I met him there at least, and he was looking great, had some life in him. at one point of the 3 day event, I was MC at one of the stages, which was pretty fun. Slow Teeth, Matador, Pale Robin, and Raccoon Raccoon. Everyone sounded great! after those few days my knee was still bumming me out. I decided to go up to Canada for a couple of weeks! I got a craigslist ride across the border, which was pretty nice. That night I was meeting up with my friends in a band. Slam Dunk! and so I made my way to downtown Vancouver on the sky train thing. I couldn't remember what bar they were at, Main and Hastings, all I saw was a place called Richards? Anyways I go up to the door, before I even ask any questions I see a flyer on the wall, Touche Amore. My friend is in that band too! So I say "oh funny, Touche Amore is playing here" not knowing that it was that night. A few minutes later out comes out my good friend "Perry Monjinboo and the great escape of tragic fate" or Elliot! short shorts wearing man like myself. I love this guy, we hug, hang for a bit, but then head our separate ways. I find the bar where Slam Dunk is playing and join them for the fun!! great night last till sunrise. uhh. Next morning we take the ferry onto Vancouver Island! On the way to Victoria I figure out that there's a rock lottery going on. What is this? it's a band composed of 5 strangers, and you come up with a 30 minute set in about 5 hours, go to a bar and play. So I'm in, i've got my ukulele and someone let me borrow a trumpet. out of 4 bands, my band headlines and performs an amazing set, it was beautiful, I kinda lost my voice on the last song from singing to horrendously! A satisfying night. Victoria was a great place, Canadians living and drinking really expensive alcohol. the city had a lot going on. It was nice spending time with Jordan, Luke, Caitlin, Duncan and JOE. What the fuck! Joe is such a funny guy. I Stayed at a house called the banana stand. It had chickens in the back, a loft, and Joe. joe would drink his strongbow Cider while he would make the smartest jokes I've ever heard from an alcoholic. haha. Anyways, towards the end of my stay in this city, I got a chance to play trumpet once again in Slam Dunk. super fun night! Crowd surfed like forever!! Pushing inside the mosh pit, soo cool. A long night, followed by another long day, with a halfpipe music show. Gobble Gobble played and tore shit up, made some people really uncomfortable, but still, everyone had a good time. And it was my time to leave, I made my way over on the ferry with olivia, a Victorian local, and met up with Slam Dunk once again on the ferry, for the 3rd show I would see of theirs. Another great show, followed by some great days of  hanging out in Vancouver. Olivia was a great hostess, and showed me around some of the dark spots of Vancouver. We played some tunes and there's actually a picture of her playing below! from there it was time to get back to Seattle, and with my knee not being too good, I decided not to bring my bike up to Canada, So I hitch hiked back south. It was a bit hard to get a ride up in Canada. i managed to get a ride a few miles from the border, so i just walked. Kinda sucked do to the knee thing, but I made it, went through customs, had a good convo with the guy who searched my bags and on I go, I get out and walk a hundred yards or so, and get the first ride out of Blaine, Washington. Canada was done. Getting back to Seattle was a breeze. and took me no longer than a few hours to get a ride east toward Minneapolis! So. I packed and was soon to be on my way. It was a bummer that i could not enjoy the whole ride from Seattle to Toronto on my bicycle. I got yet another Craigslist Rideshare and I was on my way east....

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....

Pets and RoadKill

 

On this trip, Ive taken a few pictures of some cute pets, and roadkill, and its interesting how they were ordered on my camera upon review

 

I'm sorry, if forgot your name kitty. This is the kitty from Dancylvania in Seattle, followed by...

 

Roadkill kitty in Minnessota

Raccoon Raccoon :(

 

Southern Minnesota skull

Viva Slam Dunkus!!!

Slam Dunk silk screened shirts!!!! Hanging out with these ballers in Victoria was cool, here are there shirts drying off all over the banana stand...

Travels of the west coast...

April 23rd started my trip up the coast and toward Toronto. these are a few pictures of the beginning of my summer.

Paleo in the hills of Berkeley

 

Stealth of Dovekins in portland

  

My bike at the border of Oregon/Washington

 

Mike Harpring, of Good Luck, and Hannah Frasier's foot, of Raccoon Raccoon, looking good.

 

Zach Burba, of IJI, At the Hoot House

 

Jordan and Duncan, Of Slam Dunk, doing the Slam Dunk in Vancouver.

 

Exploring the alleyways of Vancouver/ playing some tunes with Olivia