Pedaling for Peace

On April 15, 2012 I started riding my bicycle cross-country from Jacksonville, Florida in voluntary support of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation (NAPF) and the work of author and Peace Leadership Director for the NAPF, Paul K. Chappell. By July 4th, I had covered over 1300 miles to just west of Luling, Texas where a major mechanical failure brought this first stage of my cross-country journey to an end. After storing my bicycle and trailer with my aunt and uncle in Weatherford, Texas, I flew from Dallas to Santa Barbara, California to attend the NAPF First Annual Peace Leadership Summer Workshop. I then lived and worked in Santa Barbara for several more months before I returned to Jacksonville and sold off the rest of my possessions that I could to help fund a continuation of my journey. Starting June 8, 2013 and ending August 9, 2013, I rode from Weatherford, through 400 miles of the central Texas hill country, including Austin, Texas, back to Luling. It was at this point that a friend of mine invited me to work for a brief period in Pennsylvania before flying me back to Santa Barbara where I continued volunteering for the NAPF as well as for the Santa Barbara Bike Coalition. As of August 9th, 2014 I began"Stage III" of my cross-country adventure, this time heading south from Santa Barbara to San Diego and then east to El Paso, TX. It was there that illness, winter weather, and diminishing resources brought that leg of my journey to an end. After staying with another friend in Columbus, GA for several months, I moved "back home" to Kentucky to stay with my dad for a while and build a better "resource base" for future endeavors including review and further tracking and primitive survival skills training at Tom Brown, Jr's Tracker School , and a possible longer tour of the east coast, northern tier, and north west coast back down to Santa Barbara, CA.


Thursday, May 9, 2013

Update from Dallas, TX


I had a wonderful time working an estate sale with these folks this past weekend. From left to right that's me (of course), then Cody, Dorothy, Barbara (the original "Madame Packrat"), Al (Dorothy's husband), and Priscilla, and in front, my friend Sherri who helped network me into this opportunity to work for Barbara in the first place.

A great deal of the set-up and pricing was completed before I arrived, but I was able to check prices on a big stack of vintage Topps 1955 Football cards including a couple of "Jim Thorpe's", and "Bowman" cards from the same era. I thought it might be a good idea to enclose them in individual plastic bags with individual prices based on my research. With multiple buyers over the course of the weekend, the whole lot sold for around $320, where Cody had originally planned to price the stack for ten times less! In effect, I paid for my wages with that little bit of extra effort.

And, I've nearly spent all of those wages as well, so nothing to get too excited about! But, for the most part, it is going for food, and those last items I was having trouble getting my hands on, like the DZ Nuts Bliss and a bulk bag of Dulse. Also, I have an outstanding load of "stuff" that I still need to get my friend Randy to ship me from Louisiana where I left it on the first leg of my journey.

However, the work is not quite over here yet, as I have some painting and organizing left to do to help Chas with his mother-in-law (from his previous marriage) as she will be returning soon from a rather long stay in the hospital battling leukemia.

Consequently, it looks like my departure for Weatherford will not take place until the week of May 20th, meaning I will probably not be on the road until the end of that week. I am comfortable though with being in a position to help my friends who are also helping me, and this is part of what this journey is all about for me as well, being of service to others whenever and wherever I can. And, as I have already understood from my own efforts, lots of people can use help Dealing with Their "Stuff"... and I seem to be getting more and more experience in that area as time goes by!

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