So, it's been about a month and a half now since I rolled into San Francisco. After about two weeks, I had found an apartment and moved in, was potentially coaching the Varsity Girls' Basketball Team at the Urban School of San Francisco, and had started tutoring a girl in pre-calculus. Life has continued down a similar path, but with added attractions.
A couple weeks ago, I met up with Amelia (of B&B fame) for the SF Lovefest. Here's a snippet:
We got to talking about our job situation (or lack thereof) and she tipped me in on a possible job opportunity. Work from home, flexible hours, as much or as little as you wanted. Turns out, her sister works for a start-up company based in Millbrae, CA. The company is called Power Reviews, Inc. They started a couple years ago designing and installing consumer review software on company's websites (like REI.com, for example). Within the last couple of months, they have rolled out their own website, called BUZZillions, which is essentially one central location where all of their clients' reviews can be viewed by consumers. It's similar to Epinions or Bazaarvoice. Anyway, I sent in my resume, applying for this work from home position where I'd be a moderator for reviews coming in to the site. Essentially, a quality control person - is the review relevant? does it contain profanity? Is it substantive? I got a call back and had an interview. They didn't need moderators, but they thought I had some skills that could be useful. So, I took a job in their office (which is a 1/2 hour train ride away, but they're looking to move into the city soon). I started this week and have really liked the company atmosphere. It's almost entirely populated with employees under 35. Being a start-up, they're really eager to hear/share/explain ideas from/with/to everyone. So for now, I'm working on a few different things. It works really well, too, since I can leave in the afternoon and make it back to the city in time to coach. I've since dropped the pre-calc student (rather, she dropped the class and hence, me) so having full weeks but generally free weekends will be nice.
Aside from work, life has been good and fairly busy. I've been going to a yoga/meditation class that I love. I'm in a co-ed basketball league with my friends Laura and Gabe. And today, I attending a Couchsurfing picnic at Crissy Field where I met a bunch of new people (and quite a few with Boston connections/roots, somewhat surprisingly). So, for those of you still reading, life's good here on the west side. Thanks for checking in.
CS picnic:
My room:
The view from the best roof-top room in all of SF:
As a bit of an update: I have now moved into my own apartment here in San Francisco. I am living in the lower haight with 4 other roommates in a 3-floor house (we have the top floor). My room's fairly small, painted a salmony shade of pink, and has a loft bed. I spent a couple days cleaning and re-arranging and now I'm quite happy with it. The roommates are great, and we have an AMAZING roof-top room looking south over Market St., the Mission, the Castro, Twin Peaks, and beyond. I have started a little tutoring gig with a small company called Connexion Tutoring. Last week I biked out to Tiburon (18 miles, one way) to tutor a sophomore girl in precalculus. I'm hoping to get more gigs in the city, but the long bike ride (relatively speaking of course) actually turned out to be quite nice, despite that damn climb out of Sausolito and onto the GG Bridge. In addition, I'm interviewing for an assistant coaching position for the girls varsity at Urban, a local private high school. Little pieces are coming together.
So, tonight I attended the 15th anniversary ride of Critical Mass here in San Francisco. (Also, see this, this, and this.) There were a bunch of people (thousands I would guess) and lots of funky-ness. I'm gonna upload some photos and video, you can provide the narration. Oh - craziness - I ran into Colin who had just crossed the GG Bridge at 5pm! The "photo" I thought I was taking of him actually turned out to be a video. You'll see. Check it out:
To all those who have left comments, posts on my Facebook wall, emails, voicemails, texts, and all forms of telepathic communication: thank you so much for your thoughts and words of luck and love. I have been/continue to be overwhelmed with the generosity of my family, my friends, and of perfect strangers.
For the past week+, I have been staying with my friend Margot in the Lower Haight, where she is house/dogsitting for 2 weeks. She has been so generous in sharing this space and her time with me, as well as her clothes (walking around in SF in Sugoi spandex isn't exactly the style I'm shooting for) and the company of the 2 dogs, Petey and Matilda.
I've been spending a lot of time searching Craigslist for my own place to live. There is not a lack of places. However, there is a lack of affordable places in places I want to live and an over-abundance of others who share the same situation. I went to one open house yesterday where the housemates had already met 60 people that day alone. It was that house, too, that I felt the most drawn to. But, beggars can't be choosers, and as I ended the day feeling a bit discouraged, a bit anxious to get my own space and free up that of those who've been generous enough to host me, I got a phone call from a house here in the Lower Haight offering me a room in a 3 month sublet. It was the first place I saw yesterday and it had grown on me over the course of the day. I haven't officially accepted it yet, but plan to on Tuesday when I meet the remainder of the roommates. I'll have a small but furnished room for the months of October, November, and December at which point the sublettor returns to reclaim her space...and I start the search again. But that's ok, gives me time to get a more focused search done for something slightly more permanent at the beginning of the new year. I think it's going to be a fun place -- good sign: bumping into one of the housemates last night at a bar on Haight St. One with a great beer selection.
So, today I'm meeting up with my friend Lucas from BU who's here in the East Bay for grad school. I spent last Wednesday night with Gabe, from Boston, catching up and seeing his new place. He's been generous, too, as I've been using his computer daily to spearhead this apt. search effort. I spent Friday with my friend Laura, also from my BU days, who's in town for grad school now, too. There's a little life starting to take shape now, and with a place to live all but secured, I'm getting excited to delve into the job search. Updates on that later.
THANK YOU ALL AGAIN FOR YOU GENEROSITY AND KINDNESS.
I'm going to start a few days back, when I entered the 30-ish mile stretch of California Route 254 known as the Avenue of the Giants. Rightfully so. This road is entirely engulfed by redwoods. I had driven through this area before, and even then it was stunning. But, on a bike, it lasts a lot longer and you get all the scents and can really appreciate the true ginormity of these beasts. I was lucky enough to spend a night amidst these trees at the Burlington Campground, where I met Theo, travelling north, who advised me to make the arduous 76 mile ride the next day to Westport. The ride was arduous because, not only was it 76 miles, but the first 60 or so were entirely uphill, with a nice 3 mile climb coming right before the last few miles. I went to bed that night psyching myself up for the big ride, and in the morning I biked 10 miles to a nice diner in Miranda, got a beast of an omelette, and started the day off right. The day wasn't easy, but it was enjoyable. Here's a picture of me at the top of that massive climb. With no elevation sign for proof, I took a picture of the topographical map for some hope of belief from y'all. This peak was reached just 5 miles into my ride on California Route 1. All riding previously was on US101 - a nice road until you start to approach the Bay Area where it becomes a freeway. After descending for about 10 miles, one more hill stood in the way of this: Back to the ocean (ahhhh). And here I where I slept that night: This place was great, but it didn't have any showers. So, after that long ride, I really wanted to get clean. What else could I do but plop down in a tide pool and wash? So, that's what I did. The next night I spent at Manchester State Park. It was cool and damp and foggy that day, and all I wanted at the end of that ride was a hot shower. No soup for me. No showers there, either. But, being the day after Labor Day, the place what pretty abandoned. So, I resolved to shower here, underneath a 3 foot tall spigot (yes, I showered in my birthday suit): Things brightened up after the shower, though. I was on a walk down to the beach when an Faith and Roger asked, "Want some hors d'eurvs?" (I know I'm butchering the spelling there). I sat down with them on their picnic table while they fed me really yummy cheese and crackers and two glasses of wine. We chatted about travelling and about their home in Arizona. They welcomed the cool damp weather we were experiencing on the CA coast. After that first brief meeting, I walked down to the beach to witness this: I'm just going to throw this one in there because silly road signs seem to be the norm out here: The next day I started tapering back my miles in order to drag out this dream life as long as possible. Around 2pm, I arrived at my night's destination, a County Park in Sonoma County. They had lots of trails to hike around on, though it took me a good hour or so of wandering around on what I now think was not park land to find the actual trails. Fine by me, because the off-the-beaten-path path took me here: The real trails were pretty cool, too, though. I saw lots of playful free roaming deer, and got inside a big tree. Just outside of Bodega Bay, along with friends Bob and Sherry, I met Ron, a retired pilot walking home to the South Bay from his high school reunion in Portland, OR. He had quite a neat story - motivated to lose lots of weight by the threat of diabetes (and the looming reunion). Indeed he succeeded, and then took somewhere near 80 days to walk the distance back home. Neat guy. So, this brings us to about the last two days of the trip. I had been leap frogging with Bob and Sherry pretty much the entire last week, and they so generously invited me to a few of their group dinners and a great breakfast on my last morning, departing from Samuel Thomas State Park just north of SF. And then...and then...and THEN...after 25 miles and a haircut, THERE I WAS:
I'm spending tonight in Arcata, CA at my brother's old apartment. This past March, I flew out to California on a vacation from work to visit him and other friends here. I've now re-entered familiar territory. I've driven the road from here southward to San Francisco before and I must admit, it's a bit strange to be somewhere I've been before after having been in completely UNfamiliar territory for most of the last 3 months. What's also strange - the sound of the TV in the background, a roof over my head, being INdoors, a computer to use for as long as I want, a couch to sleep on, a REFRIGERATOR!
Let me catch you up a bit on where I've been, who I've met, and what I've been seeing.
Just outside Cannon Beach, OR (I don't know what this is or why it was parked in front of the bike shop):
Going through a tunnel on the OR coast:
Paul and Jimmy, from Ohio, biking Victoria, BC -> Mexico in 3 weeks. Yikes:
View from lunch a few days back:
Sunset at the beach at one of my favorite camping spots:
Colin, from Calgary, going to Mexico with his guitar and totally free spirit. We spent an afternoon together and chilled at the Hauser Bar and Grill (Hauser's population is unknown but word on the street is it's about as many people as were in the bar that day - mmm...'bout 10: A sample population:
Bob and Sherrie, headed to San Diego. It was Sherrie's 46th birthday yesterday and I shared it with these two and her friend Devorah around the campfire with seafood, salad, wine, COLD beer, and chocolate cake. What a treat:
As always, there's lots more but it's past my bedtime now. Hope to catch up with you all soon...looks like I'll be in SF in about a week!
Unfortunately, this library won't let me plug in my camera to their computers, but I just wanted to give a quick update. I'm just a few miles from the CA border now, and I'm about to cross over and head to the RV park where I'm staying for the night. All goes really well, but the pictures will have to speak for themselves because it's all beyond description. I'm totally bummed about this library! Anyway, I guess when that's the biggest grump I have, I don't have it so bad.
Here I am with the spiffed-up Bruiser, ready for takeoff on the morning of August 21 in Seattle, WA. That morning, Bruiser and I cruised over to the ferry terminal at Pier 52 and headed west (further west) to Bremerton, from whence we travelled to the little town of Elma. The trip got off to a great start; at the ferry, I asked a woman taking photographs if she'd take a picture of me and my bike. I got into the story of it all and she was just amazed. We talked for the length of the ferry ride (an hour) while she showed me pictures of her recent trip to Africa and also gave me her phone number and her father's phone number (from Elma) in case "anything should go wrong, God forbid." Susan was a good omen from the start. The next morning was damp, but brightened by my encounter with Becky and Louie Berry, a couple from Portland, OR who have done many tours and gave me tips about campgrounds along the way. On day three, I crossed over into Oregon, via ferry. It was a strange ferry. I brought my bike town onto what I thought was the dock and sat waiting for the "ferry" to return to pick us up. Then, the "dock" just started moving, and off across the Columbia River (we meet again) we went. The Oregon welcome sign on the other side was hardly sufficient, so I had to consider myself welcomed by the MOUNTAIN I immediately proceeded to climb, finally having reached US101. It was a new experience to climb such a hill (I really prefer to call it a mountain) with so much extra weight on the bike, but the scenery is payoff enough out here. I'll give you a sample: It was at this site that I first talked with Jim and Paul, from Ohio. They're trying to make it to Tijuana in 3 weeks. Crazy, if you ask me. But then again, people say the same of me. No shame.
My internet time is running out now, but there is so much more to say. Use your imagination and I'll fill in the gaps later.
Leaving Seattle today, shooting for the 10:15am ferry to Bremerton. Should arrive by 11:15 and then start the 75 mile ride to Elma, where I'll be staying the night at Elma RV park. Tomorrow, shooting for Lewis and Clark State Park.
I'll have my cell phone the entire way. I don't have a mailing address yet, but you can send things to:
General Delivery ATTN: Terra Curtis San Francisco, CA 94142 *Make sure you note on the bottom: Please hold for pickup by Sept. 12, 2007
I'll be able to pick up mail once I reach SF. My email will still be out there, too, I just won't have very frequent access. (terra.curtis@gmail.com)
And now I'm about to leave. I'm here in West Seattle, where I've been staying since our group arrival in Seattle one week ago today. The last mile of the ride in was indescribable; we were all chanting and yelling and flying down a huge windy hill to meet the ocean in Golden Gardens park, flanked by our families and friends yelling and chanting and squirting champagne on us, too. After a couple really successful and productive days building on Vashon Island, most of the group dispersed and made their way elsewhere. I've been lucky enough to be hosted by Erin Kinneen, a P2S04 alum who lives here in W. Seattle now. The generosity I continue to experience in this country has been an eye opener, and one that makes me want to find some permanence again soon so I may, too, offer a roof or a meal to those passing through.
As for me, I'm biking out of here tomorrow, taking a ferry to Bremerton and will head south hopefully as far as Elma tomorrow night, where I plan to stay at an RV park there. I just spoke with Frida from the Elma RV park and she seemed really excited and enthusiastic about bikers and biking, so I hope I am able to make it the 70-75 miles from Bremerton by dusk. The next day I'm looking to get to Lewis and Clark state park, where camping is available on a first-come, first-served basis (I'm thinking free as well). From there I'm not too sure, but according to the forecast and a few locals' thoughts, the sun should be coming back out sometime tomorrow. It's been sort of rainy ever since my fellow B&Bers left. Ironic?
Sorry to not post any photos right now. I'm sitting in a cafe and without my camera. I also haven't taken many photos in the last week. After arriving, I think I preferred to just live in every moment rather than through the perspective of a photographer. As soon as I can, I'll get some photos up. You might check the other blogs for photos, too. I'll steal this video from Sam just to give you something:
Godspeed (not sure why I've heard that a lot lately), -Terra (a.k.a. t.bone)
First of all, let me post this video from our own Gregory Hunter (aka Crocodile Hunter gone cyclist):
So, how can I catch you all up on the goings-on of this crazy group? Last time I blogged, we were in Missoula, Montana. I don't think I mentioned the Big Dipper Ice Cream shop, home of the Supernova (see pictures on Sam's blog). Sam and I polished off 6 scoops of ice cream with 6 toppings AND a brownie on the bottom. It's insane the amount of ice cream that we consume. (Side note: both Nate's and Brianne's parents are in town tonight and what did they BOTH treat us to? Ice cream. So, sitting in the church freezer are TWELVE half gallons of ice cream. 30 people, 12 half gallons. That's almost a quart of ice cream for everyone. Then there's peanut butter and microwavable fudge topping, sprinkles, and choc. chip cookies. Does this sound like an athlete's diet to you?)
On our way out of Missoula, we all had our pictures taken at the Adventure Cycling HQ. From there, we rode on to Superior, MT, after a morning stop at Liquid Planet for some of the rider's caffeine fix. This days ride was especially beautiful as we were able to avoid I-90 most of the way on frontage roads. Unfortunately, Courtney's tire was going flat about once every mile, so the last 10 miles into lunch were quite slow. Lunch was well worth the wait that day, though. This is where we ate (and swam and hung out for no less than 2 and a half hours): Directly after lunch, there were about 10 of us riding down a back road directly adjacent to a railroad track. I can't give you the details here, but I will say that we had a very memorable mile down this road - I think it was also quite memorable for the girl that drove by and the conductor who, yes, STOPPED his train to watch us pass AND gave us a "toot toot!" and a smile. Ask me about it later.
In Superior, we stayed at the local elementary school directly next to the fairgrounds where, lucky for us, the rodeo was taking place that evening. Most of us bought our $9 tickets, found a seat, and prepared for what turned out to be one of the most "enlightening cultural experiences" (in Derrick's words) of this trip. The men's events were all violent; the women's were not. Win found a guy wearing a t-shirt that read "Liberalism is a mental disorder." At one point, parents threw all their children 8 and younger into the rodeo pit (for lack of a better term) to chase a calf with a ribbon on its tail. The parent of the child who successfully removed the ribbon from the calf's tail got a handle of whiskey; the child received nothing. Sexual and political jokes were being cracked left and right. It was a trip.
The next day we crossed into Idaho (again) and into the Pacific Time Zone. Our route took us mostly over I-90 the whole way, including multiple sections of road work. Sadly, as I was trying to take a picture of Bronwyn and Marie crossing the "road closed" section of the road, I dropped my camera. This being the second blow in one week to the poor device, I pretty much pronounced it dead then and there. Broke down and got a new one - credit cards can be (temporary) saviors.
From Wallace we rode a beautiful bike path part of the way into Coeur d'Alene. There was also a section on I-90 taking us over 4th of July pass, approximately 1,000 feet of climbing in about 2 or 3 miles. Not too bad. The end of the ride took us up the cliffsides above Coeur d'Alene lake, conjuring up images of the Pacific Coast Highway. Once we were back down at lake-level, Sam, Evan, Eric and I jumped off the bikes and right in. It was perfectly refreshing. Wish I had pictures, but at this point I was still sans-camera. Maybe Sam will post some from there.
Out of Coeur d'Alene, we were blessed with a 42 mile ride entirely via the Centennial Bike Path into Spokane (WASHINGTON!). In order to get pictures at the state sign, we all left the bike path on foot, walked across a grassy separation and climbed up underneath the I-90 overpass. It was worth it, as Washington is our last state line sign together.
So, here we are in Spokane on our second night. We had a build day today at a big site. Habitat seems to have built an entire block. It was neat to work with two other large groups, mostly younger than us. Local media was there throughout the day, so if you feel like googling local Spokane TV channels, you might find some footage.
Tomorrow we're off to Wilbur. It's hard to believe we get to Seattle on Monday. Everyone's got it a bit in sight at this point, and you can tell it's on everyone's mind. No one really knows what to expect.
Here I am in Missoula, Montana. It must have been a week and a half or two weeks ago that I last wrote. Luckily, there is a very nice public library here in town with enough computers for us and the citizens.
Since I last wrote, we have accomplished some pretty amazing things, if I do say so myself. I can't even remember it all, but in about 5 days we climbed Togwotee Pass (and the continental divide), Teton Pass, the continental divide again (back east) into Montana, and Flesher Pass, crossing back to the west side of the divide. Here we are in Missoula at an elevation of about 3200 ft. I think, in a tea-sup shaped valley unfortunately filled with smoke from the wildfires burning just 50 miles away. According to the locals, this never used to be, but is becoming, a common summertime occurrence.
I've just taken a brief look at all the photos I've taken since I last posted, and I have no idea how to sum it all up nor the time to explain it all in detail. I visited the headquarters of Adventure Cycling here in Missoula and saw a topographical map of the U.S. on the wall. I am amazed at what we've biked through already, and fortunately feel ready for what still lies ahead.
Two interesting tidbits: in Bozeman, I was able to locate and visit the house where my grandparents used to live with my Dad's older siblings. It was literally 5 or 6 blocks from the student center where we stayed. My dad had called my grandmother previously to let her know I was out looking for her old house and, as if it were scripted, my phone rang just as I pulled up out in front. It was my grandmother and she was happy to tears with my being there. I sat in front for a long while trying to imagine life there 60 years ago when they inhabited it. Tried to imagine my uncle Carl riding his tricycle down the street, my grandfather leaving for work in the morning. It was a really neat experience. Sadly, my internet session is about to expire in 5 minutes, so I'm going to try to put up some photos and trust I'll fill in the gaps of these stories later.
So far, approximately 100% of our riders want to move here. Specifically to Lander. It is the international headquarters of NOLS and most people here seem to embody that type of spirit. Most of us atae lunch at the Gannett Grill which is a popular local microbrewery. I had the salad I've been craving basically since Providence (Greek salad with chicken and...this is the important part...AVOCADO. Mmm.)
We've been through a lot of diversity here in Wyoming. First we came into Lusk where I talked to a man in the drugstore about the coal mining industry and the railroad that ran right through town. He said about 30 fully-loaded trains run through there everyday. That has been happening for many many years...imagine how much coal is shipped and has been shipped.
We went from Lusk into Douglas where we were able to explore a (free) Pioneer Museum. It had everything from weapons to covered wagons to furniture from the early 1900's. Also in Douglas, we were served a big dinner at the ranch owned by the Pastor from the Baptist church in Lusk. When we first got there, we got the full tour of the barns and the grounds, and some of us even rode horses around the land.
The ride from Douglas to Casper was one of my favorites thus far. About 10 of us decided to take and alternate route to avoid Highway 25. We climbed an additional 1,000 feet but the little traffic, antelope sightings, and amazing views made it all worth it. We also discovered Wyoming is a major Uranium testing center.
I can't forget about the build site we worked on in Casper. Dean and Bill were good guys to work for. A few of us worked on the same room all day - insulating and putting drywall on the ceiling and walls. It was difficult work - strenuous on the neck and arms and a few annoying angles to cut, but it was rewarding. At the end of the day, our room looked like a real room and we imagined a child laying on his bed staring up at the ceiling, our ceiling. The house next door was the mirror image of ours, so we were able to go over there and see what the finished product would eventually look like. The most rewarding part of the day came at the end (possibly the epitome of what this trip has been about for me), when Bill, a comical and facetious guy said to Jackie and I, "Boy, I will never, ever bad mouth anyone from your generation again. I don't care what they say. You guys have restored my faith in humanity."
From Casper, we rode into Shoshoni. I was up and ready to leave at 6:45am when I realized that it was my day to sweep with Bridget, something I had been looking forward to, but it was difficult to get into the sweeping frame of mind being ready to go so early. After about an hour of letting everyone get ahead, we biked out of town and met up with the coffee drinkers about 5 miles down the road. Since we had about 100 miles to bike that day, we had scheduled 2 lunches. The first was at Hell's Half Acre - a section of the desert overlooking a strange 320 crater. It was a hot and slightly hilly ride into that point, but we left there with about 1/2 the trip under our belt. Half way to the second lunch, the headwinds picked up and we were treated to a 20 minute thunderstorm with just enough rain to cool us off and just enough thunder to make it thrilling (a thunderstorm in the desert!). My sweeping duty paid off at this point though, because after the storm the winds shifted and provided us with a very strong tailwind. We rode the last 40 miles between 22 and 30 mph with little to no effort. That was something else. The rest of the group unfortunately came in too early and were bucking the storm winds the whole way. It all turned out ok once we were in town though, and everyone treated themselves to a malt or milkshake at the locally famous Yellowstone Drug.
So, after a 50 mile ride today, we're finally here in Lander at the base of the Rockies. For the next few days we're going to be going up and up and up. I'm off to go relax in preparation.
