Voyage 15

This is the cottage where Ingrid and I stay. When she saw me for the first time after 2 1/2 months, she didn't recognize me, with my beard, ripped shirt and pants, and feather necklace.

I told her I came down from the mountains.

Voyage 14

I don't know if you can see the small photo on the far left, but this was taken in the Adirondacks, in Old Forge. In the photo there's a deer walking next to a gas station pump. Nobody thought it was strange.

The photo in the middle was taken at a show Ingrid and I went to on Mischief Night at the Stork Club. The music scene out here is very different than it is in the rest of the country. The first band we saw at the Stork Club played music that is kind of like emo music made by people who listened to early emo music in the nineties. The other band played Bay Area punk, which I guess sounds like Green Day or the Offspring. I hate those bands, but this band that played captured me, as they covered CCR's "Bad Moon Rising", the Motown Marevelettes song "Please Mr. Postman", Black Flag's "Nervous Breakdown," and part of "Crazy Train". The band, Vitamin Party, played half of "Crazy Train", then stopped, saying they didn't remember the rest. They also covered a Devo song and Outkast's "Hey Ya!".

After they played these covers, they came back and played their band's material. The audience was older, Gen X'ers, those who spent their 20s in the nineties and they were mostly in costume. Hearing the people who considered themselves punk in the late 80s and 90s made sense to me, but was something I'd rarely experienced. What was great was there was someone dressed up as campy, 60s Batman, who had American Spirits and a lighter in his utility belt, and would get up on stage, rest his elbow on an amp and drink a 24 oz Pabst can with another, while he bopped his head to the music. Then he put a cigarette up his nose and when the music died down said, "What?" At the end of the show he got a hold of one of the guitarist's guitars, wherein the drummer said, "Can someone please take the guitar away from Drunk Batman?"

One thing I've noticed about being out here is that the people are a lot nicer across the board. Whether I'm in the black working-class neighborhood of West Oakland, where Ingrid and I live, or the Mission, the historically hip district, people are more willing to talk to strangers, say hi, and be pleasant.

Sunday, I went to a Surf rock show, which was awesome and could never happen on the East coast. Bands seem to love to dress up in costume in the Bay. And guys dance a lot more than they do in the East. And play air guitar/drums.

The sign that says, "Caspers", on it was taken of a hot dog fast food restaurant in Oakland. Oakland still has a lot of these 50s/60s restaurants and buildings, like burger joints with "Giant 1/4 lb. Burgers". Oakland sort of feels like a West Coast Detroit. There hasn't been a lot of development or redevelopment in the 70s, 80s, or 90s. There's been some condos, but the downtown is mostly abandoned and the city is rundown as a whole.

The other major different thing about California is that not only are the people less angsty and vain than they are on the East Coast, I've smelled weed everyday I've been here. Also, in Mid Market San Francisco, the only people out on the streets at night are crazy people or drug addicts or crazy drug addicts who are all middle aged.

Voyage 13

This bridge is one of the bridges to the Bay, affectionately called the Yay.

After waking up next to Battle Mountain, I drove through Nevada, through Reno. Reno is a horrible city, full of ugly middle aged people desperately trying to gamble into their ugly view of the good life.

I expected to find a cheap buffet at a casino, but everything was too pricey for lunch, so I ate at Mel's Diner and left.

These mountains are the Sierra Nevadas. I felt very happy when I saw the sign that told me I had entered California.

I-80 at this point changed from being very flat and straight to being windy and circuitous as I raced up and down the Sierra Nevadas.

Voyage 12

I pitched my tent in a dusty field near Battle Mountain, Nevada. This mountain is Battle Mountain. This is the first thing I saw when I unzipped my tent at sunrise.

Rouge slept with me in the tent. At first, he slept against my legs. When I woke up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom, I saw Rouge shivering, so I put him in my sleeping bag when I went back to sleep. It was in the high 20s that night.

I slept next to a trailer park.

Before I got to Battle Mountain to crash, I visited Salt Lake around 7 PM.

I've been to Salt Lake when I was around 8 and the city seemed bigger than what I remember. I ate at a Carl's Jr because I'd never been to one before. There were a lot of middle aged homeless people in Salt Lake, as there was in Boulder. One of the homeless in Carl's Jr. looked at me like I was also crazy, with my beard, torn shirt, smell, and feather necklace.

I stopped at Love's across the country to fuel my voyage.

Voyage 11

These are last images of time in WY. I took a nap on the ground next to these rocks on the bottom picture. I used a rock to shield myself from the cold wind.