los angeles, ca

well, now that arizona is behind me...

some highlights:

• wind that melts your skin
• "enjoy the cool weather" and "it's really not that bad out there today" re: 90 degree days
  
• 'misters' spraying water over outside patio seating...in a desert...
• getting accepted to volunteer at dandelion farm
• last minute cancellation of ALL plans
• it's my bike in a box!
• NOT buying new clothes (i'm so awesome)
  
• migraine headache that had me passed out on the bathroom floor for hours
• gender stereotypes and new state mottos
  
• 1am train with migraine hangover to LA

i arrived in LA at around 9am after (mostly) sleeping off the remainder of the migraine on the train. then i ordered some maps to be delivered to tyler's place (pronto!), half-assedly put the bike back together, then took it back apart to put it in tyler's car, dropped it off at a bike shop to have it tuned up once again, and bought myself some soymilk, bananas, and a mango. i'm pretty sure the best ever cure for hypotonic dehydration is banana mango mash with a glass of soy milk. oh, also, it's delicious.

so i'm in LA for the weekend, mostly on my own, since unfortunatly tyler is hosting his mom and they're going to be in palm springs until monday. my bike won't be ready to go until monday evening, and tho there's a chance my maps will be here tomorrow it's far more likely not til tuesday am, so best case scenario i'll be riding north starting the 26th. apparently, there's a constant headwind riding north up the california coast. that sounds awesome.

taking it easy

my bike made it all the way to arizona

that's one bad ass bike.

albuquerque, nm

the bike ride to damascus from maury's ended up being 108 miles, which was awesome, especially considering i didn't have any weight (well, nearly) on the bike. maury carted all my stuff to trail days in the jeep. i thought initially that west virginia won, what with the rail trails and pretty scenery, but i've since determined that my favorite days are based on weather and not really anything else. virginia was my favorite biking. it is such beautiful country, and so nostalgic. and the 70 degree, sunny days don't hurt, either.

trail days came and went, and sunday morning at 8am maury and i left damascus in her jeep to make the long trek out to phoenix. we pulled into albuquerque this afternoon around 5ish (mountain time) after two LOOOOONG days on the road (yesterday we drove for a combined total of 16 hrs! to oklahoma city). with few exceptions (california at the age of 3, san francisco for a day with the parents back in highschool, and hawaii for 5 days) this is by far the farthest west i've ever been in this country, and most certainly the first time i've really felt like i got to experience it at all.

i went for a walk with aaron and the dogs in the mesa, surrounded, of course, by enormous death clouds of doom. aaron didn't know about my acquired lightning phobia, so we had a conversation that went like this:

"are we going to be murdered by lightning?" asks jess
"hopefully" replies aaron

groom, tx

a spiritual experience you'll never forget

mississippi river crossing

it's a long drive from virginia to oklahoma city. this is just one of the many exciting things you may be able to experience along the way.

virginia!!!!

this is the top of potts mtn. which was a pretty big climb, but more importantly, it was a HUGE descent. so so so much fun.

i'm in christiansburg with maury. tomorrow i'm hopefully riding to damascus. and that's it...wow.

thinking about tagging along with maury out to pheonix arizona... because why not!?

finally, a computer!

i feel like for some reason i've been computer deprived lately...

anyway, rode the rest of the greenbrier river trail to lewisburg, wv, today. now i'm at robin's house, where she showed me around town (which is very cute, and pretty progressive for west virginia) and finally got my ipod charged up and uploaded some photos.

turns out i didn't exactly regret the cowboy camping as much as not do it. i woke up at 2:30am to rain on my face (it had just started, and i'm pretty good at waking up when that happens) so i just got up real quick, set up my skeleton tent (just the fly and footprint) and then went right back to bed. it kept raining until about 9:15, when i decided to finally wake up, and just sort of spat at me for the rest of the day.
the trail is very pretty, i would totally recommend it to anyone. a couple of tunnels that make for interesting journey, since they are unlit, and you cannot see the ground when you ride through them.

virginia tomorrow! wooooo!

the cheat...is to the limit

on schedule to be at maury's on the 12th, which is tuesday.

bert played 'quickens' over two triple word scores, fyi.

at the campus of wvu, which is in morgantown, there is a P(ersonal) R(apid) T(ransport) system, which apparently is some kind of big deal. it just looks like an old, run down above ground subway to me.

bert also told me that mother's day was invented in west virginia, which i called bullshit. then on friday when i left his place i rode past the house of the woman who apparently loved her mom so much she invented a holiday for her. so it turns out it wasn't bull.

i also got my bike tuned up in morgantown, needed new brake pads and a good cleaning after all the rain i've been hitting. they told me the spring on my rear derailer was old/getting loose, would need to replace it soon.

then i got to philippi, where there is an old club called "club hot wv" that looks run down, i dont think it's ever open anymore. and apparently philippi is the site of the first land battle of the civil war. i dunno if that's really somethign to boast about, but that's the town's claim to fame.

i stayed with trevor, we made some awesome bread and pasta. i ate ramps for the first time, which i was really excited about, and had some mountaineer nut brown ale, which is a local west virginia beer, and quite good i might add.

trevor helped me work out my route from philippe to elkins, whcih was actually a lot of work, given it's only about 30 miles away. there's a huge mtn in the way, called laurel mtn, and the only easy way past it is on a major 4 lane highway. i ended up climbing over the mtn on a partially dirt road through 'pleasure valley' (why it was called this i have no idea) and then riding a rail trail the last 12 miles or so into town, where i met gibson.

gibson and i went up into some tiny town and watched the hot seats (formerly known as special ed and the short bus), an awesome bluegrass band, at the fiddlehead.

also, best meal ever: whole wheat tortilla, dark chocolate peanut butter, honey, raisins, all rolled up. YUM

i left pretty early this am, around 9:40 (yes, for me that's early), and again had a huge mtn to ride over (cheat mtn), to get to the greenbriar river valley and out of the tygert river valley. i got passed by a motorcyclist who honked and very adimately gave me a thumbs up.
it was a LONG steady climb, but an awesome day for it, sunny, pretty still, 70ish degrees, and then i rode the rest of the day al ong the valley, first on a road that just winds along the side of back mtn, and then along the greenbriar river rail trail,
which, as anticipated, has been the entire trip's highlight. got a flat about 10 miles from my final stopping spot, but i fixed that w/out a hitch using my compressed co2 for the first time, then set up camp at one of the trail side campsites. made a fire (which i didn't intend to do, but there was all this firewood already here, so i felt obligated) and then cowboy camping. hopefully i don't regret the lack of tent, but i think it's gonna be a really nice night.

west virginia

bert got a single word score of 293 playing scrabble last night.

oh, and i'm in west virginia. be in virginia in a couple few days. woo

worst. ride. ever.

1. it was 82 miles (about 20 more than i was expecting)
2. i got a late start
3. i got lost on my way out of altoona, and ended up wasting at least a half hour and 5 miles
4. i got lost again looking for old rt. 22 in gallitzin, and wasted another half hour and 5 miles
5. it was cold and cloudy and off and on spitting rain all day
6. i was (of my own fault, bad planning) riding on a us highway that was 4 lane divided, but not illegal to ride on, for a good distance
7. to avoid this highway, i ended up taking back roads that went straight up and over several mountains
8. i didn't get in until nearly 8pm

but then i had a shower and burritos and played scrabble. i'm so exhausted. better riding tomorrow, with any luck!

altoona, pa

it rained all day. this picture was taken in arch spring, pa, in the sinking valley. really pretty farm land all day, tho it would certainly have been nicer without the constant rain. at the least, i had a tail wind, so i wasn't completely miserable trying to climb my way out of the sinking valley over brush mtn.

i spent the last couple of days with neon in state college, pa, mostly just hanging out, checking out the town. her parents took me out to dinner on sunday night, while she was working, and i had some great homemade (restaurant made?) spinach pasta. i'm in the altoona public library now, checking out my routes, uploading pictures, drying out, and waiting for my cs host to arrive home from work. trail days is fast approaching. and i'm still having fun, despite the rain. wooo!

pennsylvania smells like poop

of the horse, cow, pig, chicken variety. i wonder why...?

and that's a horse drawn buggy in the second picture. those crazy amish.

i found religion

thou shalt not spike in thy neighbors court

magic hat

number 9. way to be awesome. i like learning to drink beer.

i'm in lewisburg, pa at the moment, drinkin' a beer, hanging out, listening to swan lake. just wanted to post quick and mention that for some reason google maps is limiting the number of items it will display on one page, so my map now only shows my two most recent stops, BUT if you want to look at my full journey, it's available if you click to see the larger map (which is linked right below it).

i should be in state college tomorrow. totally psyched.

this town is shamokin'

i can't help it. the town's name is shamokin. i mean, come on.

unfortunately this town has a really strict library, which doesn't allow me to check my email. lizzzaaaame.

yesterday was cloudy all day, but no rain, thankfully. just cloudy and a cross wind. all day through farm-ville usa. i saw a giant truck spraying poison on a field of trees, which i suppose is why the (fir) trees were all uniformly conical in shape. i felt bad for my lungs and the world. sigh.

last night i stayed in west penn, pa, which is part of tamaqua, which is apparently considered the foothills of the poconos. my couchsurfing hosts were great, served me spinach pies, grape leaves, salad, and fresh from the garden asparagus(!!) which i've never had before. it was so so good. i mean wow. i thought i liked asparagus before. but just wow.

this morning i set off just as it was starting to rain, and it just stopped, at maybe 3:15pm, but i'm not sure it's gonna stay stopped. it rained for reals. a lot. i pulled into the library here as much to dry off as i did to get some computer time in. and you wanna talk gross? rain is one thing, but street spray soaking my legs is totally another. pretty gross. and then that drips down into my shoes, which have become FILLED with water. dirty water. street water. mmmm.

about 30 more miles to go today. and into state college tomorrow to visit neon! wooo!