"I've Got the Sun in the Morning and the Moon at Night" - Part III

Remembering July 27 - August 1, 2013

From the home of Daniel and Anne I traveled North again...I had made a commitment some days earlier to help my host Kesten move to a new apartment and I timed my visit just for that purpose. As it turned out I ended up helping him AND his housemate at the time, Vanessa.

It took me a while to fully understand where to meet Kesten, as he was back and forth between apartments on the day of my arrival, but eventually, I found him at the old apartment and helped load the last of his things.

The building he was living in was mainly for students of the local university and it happened to be the end-of-the-year moving weekend for All of Them. It was pretty crazy, especially since the elevators ran so s-l-o-w-l-y! Given the heavy traffic up and down, they actually had attendants, whom I did not envy for having to spend their day stuck in an antiquated elevator, frequently squeezed in tight with lots of "stuff" and hot, sweaty students moving all of that stuff!



So, it was a great test of patience for everyone. But we persevered and got Kesten relocated to his new place. While there, I took on another "special project" sewing the seam of his couch arm back together.




Of course there can be no "before" shot without the "after"...

Seems I'm developing something of a portfolio for this kind of work - including a leather couch at my friend Brenda's house in St. Augustine, FL, and then there was another host Donna's couch in Apalachicola, FL, and now this for Kesten in Austin, TX!

Photo Copyright 2014 Sophie Wu Photography

One of the benefits of spending a day and an evening at Kesten's new place was having a Buddhist temple within walking distance. We went to visit Xiang Yun Temple on Sunday afternoon and found people there to welcome us, although we had missed the larger service for the day.

We were shown downstairs as part of our tour and, as it turned out, this facility provided free Chinese health care from various practitioners in the community. Both Kesten and I received massages, the first I'd had for both "Stage I" and "Stage II". I felt especially lucky to have the senior practitioner, Kevin Lou himself give me my massage as there were also several younger people there who, I had to assume, were interns that were getting opportunities to practice under his guidance. (Photo from the "FGS Xiang Yun Temple" Facebook page.)

The next day I returned to the old apartment with plans to help Vanessa with the rest of her things. During the day, though, I had a chance to go to lunch with another Warm Showers host Steve Godfrey. Steve has done quite a bit of his own cross-country cycling with his Bike Tour de Life. When not cycling cross-country you can find him cycling around Austin hand-delivering fliers to local businesses. From the way he talked about it, I could tell he'd been doing that long enough for it to be something of an art for him. We had a good time hanging out and exchanging stories of the road and even though I wasn't able to stay with him, it was nice to make the connection and I appreciated his generous offer to pay for my meal.

I spent my last night back at the old apartment, "camping" on my sleeping pad. While there I helped Vanessa load the rest of her things into her vehicle. I also took responsibility for returning keys and paperwork the next morning to the apartment authorities since Vanessa was going to be at work. Before I left the apartment, I did my best to make sure as many of the items on the "Inspection Checklist" were done, like wiping down counters and the refrigerator. Unfortunately, there was no broom left behind for the floors. In addition, between two sets of previous lessors and/or sub-lessors, there were several bits and pieces of furniture left behind. Nothing I could do about that, but I helped in all the other ways I felt I could. It was a bit strange though being in that position, the last person out of a place I had only "lived" for one night!

I had a full day ahead to spend "noodling" my way back through Austin, as my last stop was not too far away and my next host was not going to be home until later in the evening. Consequently, I took my time. I rested for a while in one of the parks along the Colorado River. I safety-pinned some larger signage to my trailer, hand-written on the backs of pages from one of those desk-top blotter calendars that had been left at the apartment. I was kind of testing the idea to see how people responded. One guy offered me a Snickers bar that was left-over from his lunch as a show of support.

I took my Keens off and let my feet rest in the water of the man-made pond I was sitting next to, and practiced some "stalking" skills by holding my cupped hands under the water and letting the little minnows swim into them. I was able to catch a few of the smaller ones, but the larger ones were more wary and capable of catapulting themselves out of my hands as I slowly lifted them up, letting the water drain away. Of course, it was all "catch and release" for that day - but good to practice should I ever need minnows for bait in the future!



I had made up my mind to get to the Barton Springs Pool before I left Austin. I had actually been there before, I want to say in the late '90s, before I joined the Navy. I went to visit some people who would later stay in my somewhat isolated cabin in Colorado during the "Y2K" transition/scare. However, on this occasion, I only had $3 left, and maybe a little change, and I knew the cost of admission was going to be $3. I tried to swing a freebie by explaining that I was riding my bicycle across the country, but the attendants were not impressed. So, I paid them my last $3 and figured something else would work out. I had food still, and not too many more miles, or stops to go to reach Luling.

And so, I chilled my hot body in the cool springs for a while. Feeling a little self-conscious of my biker's tan as I walked around in my swimwear. It was only as I was working my way to the far side of the pool that I realized there was another area, on the other side of the lower end of the pool where people were also cooling down in what I later found out were the "free" areas on the other side of the fence. Of course, the attendants failed to bring this to my attention at the time I was paying them my Last $3! So...I paid for deeper water, but I doubt it was that much colder. Chalk that up to another lesson learned for how to save money while visiting Austin, Texas!

After swimming for a while, then showering, and getting back into my riding gear, I sat at the eating areas for my cheese and crackers and celery "lunch" and noticed the bees seeking soda drippings around my table. Given the recent reports I'd come across on still decreasing bee populations, I thought I'd try to help the little buggers out with a few drops here and there of my electrolyte drink mix. Sure enough they started to catch on pretty quick and so I upped the offerings to fit into the cap of one of my plastic smoothie bottles. First there were two or three...






Then there were a few more...








And a few more after that...until all the cap I'd pored had been sucked up into their little bee bellies!


There was a group of mostly young girls that came close to my table, some of them being very dramatic about their fear of the bees, so I tried to help them understand that they should not be afraid and that we needed to protect the bees as they were so important for pollinating the flowers for our food. They mostly just looked at me funny. And then ran away from my table squealing!

Since my bike and trailer had been parked in a pretty high traffic area I was able to keep an eye on it from my picnic table. At least a couple of people stopped by and I went over to answer their questions. All-in-all it was a good stop, and I wasn't regretting spending my Last Three Dollars too much!

As I headed back to the main road I stopped at a bike rental shop to put some air in my tires. Although the mechanic on duty was pretty focused inside, I invited him out to see my "rig". He then went to get his boss, the owner of the business, Mark Mitchell. Mark was very intrigued with what I was doing, appreciating the "spirit" of it all. When he heard my tail of having to pay my Last $3 at the pool, he went back inside and came back with a spare tube and $20 to see me on my way. I assured him I would make it last and he trusted my word on that.



I still had a few more hot and hilly miles left to go and through some of the busier streets of south Austin. However, by just about the right time, I made it to my Couch Surfing host for the evening, Peg Fuller. We had some friendly interaction and conversation as I rested there for a couple of nights. And then it was back on the road again, with two more stops to go before my last leg to Luling.

Outside Peg Fuller's house on my way to San Marcos, Texas.

Part II of "I've Got the Sun in the Morning and the Moon at Night..."

From the Gethsemane Lutheran Church Hospitality House I once again traveled south through Austin to reach my next destination and Warm Showers hosts, Daniel and Anne Alvarez. As I was getting close to their house, I spotted a metal recycling center on one side of the road and realized...they had a scale that might be big enough for me to weigh my bicycle! I passed by and then turned around as I figured I was not likely to have such an easy opportunity again. (Keep in mind, most truck scales are off of major interstates or highways, not places I would normally be on my bicycle.)

After a little cajoling, they let me take my bike and trailer on the scale. The weight was called out over an intercom... "380 [lbs]"....And my mind was like "What???? You're kidding me!" And, seriously, I thought they were messing with me. But, the guy who made the announcement was either really good at keeping a straight face, or he had, seriously, called it like he saw it.

             Finally on the Scale in Austin, Texas, July 25, 2013

With a deduction of my own weight of roughly 150 lbs (very roughly, by the way), I was looking at 230 lbs with the bike and trailer fully loaded. And here I've been telling everyone, "Oh, I think I'm carrying about 125 or so." Furthermore, at this point, I'm up to about 1600 cross-country miles, with 300 of the most recent miles being through the central Texas hill country...in the summer heat!

To be honest, I'm not sure if it was such a good thing for me to KNOW, more exactly, how much weight I was carrying. What difference did it really make? It wasn't like I was going to suddenly slim down to the 125 lbs I had previously thought I was carrying.  As I have told many people, I accept the fact that, at least for Stages I and II: I've been doing this whole journey The Hard Way, and I see myself setting something of an upper limit for what is possible. There are all kinds of ways to ride a bicycle across the country: with less gear, at a different time of the year, in a different direction, with more money, with another rider or a group - etc., etc. This is the way I have chosen to do it, and I do not see making any major changes when it comes to completing Stage III. We'll see though, as that part of my journey has yet to unfold....?

After weighing in at the metal recycling center, I continued down the road and around the corner to Daniel and Anne's house. It was really great to get to spend time with them. They were quite busy, in the process of painting their house, and taking care of their young son Luke. In addition, their nieces and nephews came to visit along with their father for one of the days I was there.

Joseph and Elena

I shared some of my "Green Smoothie" with Joseph, Elena, Daniel, and Kara and they happily showed off their "smoothie mustaches" for me. I can see the add lines now "Got Smoothie?"

Daniel and Kara

After showing the kids many of the pictures of my trip, including really beautiful pine-needle baskets created by Jan Southern, one of my hosts in Florida, Kara decided WE should make a basket! Although I was hesitant at first and tried too give her some idea of the time it would take, she was quite adamant. So, we looked around outside to see if there were any natural materials we could use, but since their aunt and uncle were away (with me and their father there to look after them), we could not ask about, for instance, removing some fronds from the Saw Palmettos that were growing next to the house.

    One of Jan Southern's Pine Needle Baskets about 9" across.

Eventually we came up with the idea of making a basket out of string, since the kids were certain it would be okay to use some string that their Uncle Dan had let them play with before. We found a ball of jute cord and that's when the fun began.

Although Joseph was not so interested, Elena, Kara, Daniel, and I took turns as we braided three long strands of the string together by weaving ourselves over and under each other. Being quite a bit younger, Daniel was having a little more trouble figuring out what to do. His dad stepped in to help at one point, and then they took a break. That left myself, Kara, and Elena to continue and ... eventually ...we got a really good rhythm going.  (I'm sorry I don't have pictures or video to share here, but the best way I can describe it is to compare it to the "May Pole" dance, where everyone has their own ribbon and the goal is to weave all of the ribbons together from the top of the pole, down to the bottom. That's what we did with our strands of jute cord until we had a single length, three strands thick. Sure...we could have taken turns braiding individually, but it would not have been nearly as much fun!)

The Completed Coil String Basket - Quarters for Scale

With my now 2X thicker cord, I took out my needle and heavy thread from my sewing kit and began to create a "Coiled String Basket". The kids stayed interested for a while, but I realized the rather slow process lost its attraction pretty quickly. Besides, Daniel and Anne returned and that meant it was time for dinner. Nevertheless, after the kids went home, I continued with my work - watching another Robert Sapolsky lecture on aggression while I toiled with my coil until I was able to offer up the completed basket to my hosts with the promise that it would eventually be passed on to their nieces and nephews to "share" between them...somehow...?

Texas Capital Building in Austin

The next day/evening Anne and I went for a walk with baby Luke and took advantage of the opportunity to enjoy "Music Under the Star" , near the Austin Capital building. 

It was pretty crowded once we got there, so we had to locate our picnic blanket towards the back and off to the side of the bands that played. Daniel came to join us and we proceeded to dine on what was left of the "Special Egg-Fried Rice" I had prepared earlier. 

   With Daniel, Luke, and Anne at "Music Under the Star"

Before I left Daniel, Anne and Luke, I decided to take a closer look at the old treadle sewing machine they had in their guest bedroom where I was staying. It ended up having one of the most unusual bobbin assemblies I have ever seen (see pictures below). 

If you have any familiarity with this particular machine, or know someone who does, or know someone who could work on and/or repair this machine as necessary, especially if you/they are in the area of Austin, Texas, then please contact me with a comment below.  I promised Daniel and Anne that I would try to help network for them either to get a market value for the machine as is or to find someone who could actually help them get it working again.

In my last few hours at the house, I happen to overhear an audio book Anne was listening to entitled The Whole-Brain Child... and I asked her about it. It sounded really interesting and I will be adding it to my list of books to read. Even more so though, I appreciated seeing Anne going the extra mile to educate herself so that she could relate better with her son. I think Luke is lucky to have her as a mom and his very considerate and compassionate father as well.

After taking the photos of the sewing machine, and loading up my bicycle, it was time to head back north once again to my next to last stop in Austin, Texas.

Part I of "I've Got the Sun in the Morning and the Moon at Night!..."

...And...I now have INTERNET ACCESS again!!!! Yeah!!!

To All of My Readers:

My sincere apologies for not being able to keep this blog updated more effectively over the last three months. During my time in Austin, Texas I was moving around a lot between various hosts, many of them students, and in many situations I did not have internet access. I've also had some issues here and there more generally with getting my iPad to recognize wifi transmissions so I could connect where it was available. Finally, preparing a full blog takes quite a bit more time and effort than I can squeeze in with only an hour here and there, especially when I have to use at least some of that time available for checking my e-mail, etc.

Nevertheless, I am back in Santa Barbara, CA now with a comfortable living situation and INTERNET access, and I figured it was time I posted an update here...finally!

Starting from the last weeks of July...


I began my official tour of Austin, Texas with a stop at the home of John and Eve Koonz. As I mentioned in my previous blog, John and Eve are living examples of how ordinary people are making a difference in their homes and in their own back yards.

They keep chickens, and they grow meal worms to help utilize food waste and to have protein rich snacks for the chickens. At first glance, the meal worm habitat might seem "icky", but it did not smell and it was actually quite fascinating to see the bugs going about their business.



John and Eve also dry their clothes outside, commute regularly by bicycle and/or public transportation, and, as I had the opportunity to experience very directly, they were supportive and very generous WarmShowers hosts. John was particularly helpful in planning my route to my second Austin host and even accompanied me through some of the trickier parts of that journey.

Saying Good-Bye to John Koonz in Austin, Texas

My Beverly Hills host asked me not to share pictures or her personal info on my blog. Nevertheless, I am very grateful to have experienced her hospitality and she helped me connect with Pastor Karl Gronberg of the Gethsemane Lutheran Church as well. That connection eventually led to my staying at their "Hospitality House" for a couple of nights.




From the Beverly Hills address I made a little side excursion with the Austin Sierra Club members via MeetUp. We toured the Mayfield Park well known for its Peacocks.





While staying with Austin Sullivan, I went for a hike through the Barton Springs Greenbelt along with his brother's fiancé, Kira. We mostly followed the relatively dry creek bed, and then it started to rain. Given that it was summer in Texas, it was actually a welcome shower.





On the trailhead we found a turtle. I kind of recognized it, but picked it up to take a closer look. That's when it urinated on me and the smell was all I needed to confirm that it was a "Musk Turtle"!



At my host on Beverly Hills Dr. and at Chad Greene's house, I did not have access to the internet. So to keep myself occupied while I was "resting", I selected books to read from those available to me. Since I spent so much of my young adult and adult life reading more non-fiction (and a lot of "self-help" style books), I decided to read some of the shorter classics that I've heard about but never actually read. These included War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells, Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut, The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery, and The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway.

From Chad's I had a short but Very Hot 4.5 miles or so to Anika Fassia's house. Thinking that it would be a fairly easy ride, I was not as careful as I would normally be and failed to use my damp camp towel under my helmet, and I did not have enough water either. Reaching the peak of the last of a few decent hills, I found myself growing a bit nauseous and light headed, so I pulled off to the side of the road, got onto the sidewalk/curb and rested, holding my bicycle up while I did so. At that point I was probably less than a quarter mile from Annika's house, but every time I stood up to get back on my bicycle, I started getting dizzy again. What was even more frustrating was that there was what looked like a public pool within 50 yards of the concrete retaining wall that rose up over the sidewalk behind me, and that wall was also blasting heat all around me.

Eventually I recovered enough to walk my bike across the multi-lane road to the opposite sidewalk, and down to the street where Annika lived. Even as I walked though, I was still not feeling well, so I had to stop again, within what turned out to be about 20 yards from Annika's house, and sit on the curb once more. Eventually, she and one of her housemates came out to meet me and we all walked back to the house together. All in all, it was a "lesson learned" to never take the heat for granted, no matter how short a ride might be!



One thing I noticed shortly after I got settled in the house was that it seemed Anika's guest bathroom toilette was not shutting off properly. When I helped her understand that the water was simply flowing out and through the sewer pipe, she welcomed my assistance in figuring out how to repair it. At first we tried a new flap, and then once it was clear that was not enough, and that the leaking was coming from the valve itself, we decided to replace that as well, "we" as in Anika paid for the parts and I installed them!

And here I am "modeling" the finished repairs.

Another benefit of staying with Anika was being around for the beginning of an artistic transformation of her living room fire place. Artist Stefanie Distefano was in charge.

Me and Anika at the beginning.

Stefanie at work.

The Completed Fireplace

What was particularly cool about this project was that Anika got together with all of her friends to make many of the tiles that Stefanie eventually assembled into the mosaic. Along with her friends, I appreciate the investment of energy and attention that Anika has chosen to put into her relationships, her home, and into her neighborhood and community in Austin, Texas. And I'm really glad she has chosen to be a part of the WarmShowers community as well!

From Anika's I was generously transported back to the northern part of town by Pastor Karl Gronberg of the Gethsemane Lutheran Church. I felt it was okay for me to accept his assistance since I had already covered the distance by bicycle previously, and I would be leaving on my own to travel back south in a couple of days. While staying at the church "Hospitality House" I was once again without internet, or television, but I did have access to Pastor Karl's library in the house/office next door.

One of the books I pulled from the shelves was a massive volume entitled Psychological Aspects of Pauline Theology by Gerd Theissen. On Page 9 I read: "The Bible was able to become one of the most important textbooks of human behavior and experience precisely because in it 'dominating' models recede and models that first fail, but overcome are so numerous."

In other words... It is full of UNDERDOG Stories! (Something that Paul K. Chappell also writes about in his most recent book The Art of Waging Peace....)

Boy! Did that set my mind on a tangent?!

What I have come to appreciate from reading Lila... by Robert Pirsig is that...in truth...the evolution of Life Itself is an ongoing drama of all kinds of Underdog Stories! (More specifically, the interaction of what he describes as "static" and "Dynamic" "Quality".)

The bottom line is...the actual probability of ANY of THIS existing is so remote, that for it to have all arisen the way it has means THE Underdog - i.e. Life Itself - is WINNING, beating the odds, over and over again, and...moving the process of evolution towards more and more highly evolved and adaptive organisms - including human beings, who, for all their presumed "faults" (i.e. "sins"), have the greatest capacity to Interact Dynamically with their environment(s) than any other organisms on this planet! (Although...some research is pointing a finger at viruses and bacteria that may be living out their very own "underdog stories" and using Us to help Them!)

And now we are in a stage where we are evolving our cultures to catch up with our evolving technologies. I'd say we got a little ahead of ourselves with nuclear weapons, among other things, and Now it is time to re-evaluate Why we are doing the things we Can do, with more of a moral compass for what we Should Do. Furthermore, we have a Central Nervous System - the Internet - that we never had to work with before and it is slowly but surely linking all of us as individual cells into a more coherent, Body Human, that includes more and more individual human beings.

That's a lot to be thinking about, so I'm going to pause this update for now. I will add though, that I was able to share some of these ideas at the talk I gave to the Millville Quaker Friends Meeting in Pennsylvania, and the talk was very well received. (I promise I will share more about that in a future post.)

As always, I am grateful for ALL of the different experiences I have been able to have on this, my own "Underdog Journey", and I am grateful to ALL of the people who have helped me along the way!

Please stay-tuned for "Part II" of this blog series...Coming Soon!