That new, homes.

Well, after a 3 year hiatus,  enough Pabst, and a looming cross-country move, I have decide to revive the blog.

Aren't we always on a really long ride of some sort?  Life is always pushing us or telling us to push ourselves one way or another, and my life is pushing me back towards northern Michigan. In two weeks. Wow. 

This next leg will be spent a bit differently than the last that I wrote about.  Myself, my dog,  and my father (post Memphis) Will be making the same 2.5 month journey in 3 days. In a moving truck. With my dad.

Don't get me wrong,  since the epic bike ride, I have done a nearly identical route on my motorcycle,  so the trip will neither be new or exciting,  which I accept,  it's just that Im not ready for the romance to die.  If you will. 

Im not sure if i sound condescending,  excited,  our boring,  but regardless of the way I sound, a new journey is unfolding before me.  Stay tuned,  our don't,  the choice is yours.

-m

Living in a LOVE Shack, baby.

Hey hey hey....we got a new place!

After spending more than a month hanging with the chickens at Chad's house, we decided it was time to move on. We didn't want to get too settled on a long journey like this, and Chad deserved his home back. Thanks a million Chad. We had a great time.

We posted an ad on Craigslist, and within a few days found someone who was willing to host us for another month or so.

Naomi, our new host, is a fellow traveler, and has been all over. She spent some time in Thailand, New Zealand, Europe, and L.A., just to name a few. She understood our situation and was eager to help out. She lives not more than 5 minutes from Reginelli's Pizza, so getting to work is damn easy. She has an unused tool shed in her back yard that she offered to us, so Mike and I took her up on it. It is cozy, to say the least, but feels a little bit like summer camp. We have a small couch, a few shelves to store our few things, and a workbench that is doubling as a bunk bed for the time being.

Mike's job at Naked Pizza doesn't give him as many hours as he'd like, so recently he's been spending his free time making stencils, stickers, and practicing his graffiti. He's getting pretty good, and it keeps him busy during the day.

Alex has been working a little too much, and has decided to quite one of his jobs in favor of the other. Having worked the past 11 days in a row is exhaustive. There is also a leather store a few miles outside of town, and hopefully with some free time Alex will get to craft and work on projects of his own. There is an awesome art scene and plenty of markets for us to get some exposure and make some cash. Let's make it happen.

Matt has opted to move back to Chicago and stay with our main man Ian, after he was offered a full time job by his previous employers at Erewhon. Good for you Matt. He still hopes to make it to the west coast and continue traveling, but for now, the city calls!

We'll get some pretty pics of the shack soon. It really is quite awesome, and has a natural character all it's own. It's like staying in a clubhouse from when we were kids.

Here's to staying young!

Selects from Michael's Lense

A collection of photos from Baton Rouge and New Orleans. Hope you enjoy.

Xmas has come and gone......finally.

Good afternoon. Sorry for the long wait between updates. We've been busy getting jobs, digging through dumpsters, and finding places to stay. Things you may have missed:

Matt Moll went back to Michigan for X-Mas. His brother Phil has survived boot camp, so the family came to Nola to pick up Matt. They took a trip to Georgia to visit Phil for graduation. Hopefully Matt can make it back to Nola soon, for some much needed debauchery, but only time will tell.

Mike works at a pizza place now, called Naked Pizza. They are a small company, and specialize in "healthy" pizzas with wheat crust and gluten free blah blah blah and vegetables. Get yourself one, they're pretty tasty. He makes pizza, plays on the bongos, and chases girls. He enjoys it.

Alex has two jobs, one at a pizza place called Reginelli's and another at a French bakery called La Madeleine. He washes dishes, operates cash registers, and serves white people French pastries. It kind of sucks, but money is money, and we need some.

Beside searching the city for jobs, the boys have spent a good amount of time dumpster diving. The city is rich with waste, and in one day they were able to score a feast of sweet potatoes, green beans, tomatoes, apples, bananas, donuts, rice krispy bars, canned apple sauce, several loaves of bread, fig bars, and all sorts of other goodies. Paying for food is a sham, and I don't want anyone to do it ever again.


Before Matt took off we had a few opportunities to meet people and couchsurf around town. We hung out with some squatter kids in the Bywater area, and a math teacher who lives in Uptown. Morgan, our friend from Nashville, hooked us up with her friend Chad, who lives just outside of town, and he put us up for a few days. Thanks for the warm beds, everyone.

New Orleans has some of the shittiest roads we have ever ridden. Potholes and patchwork make up most of it. Mike had about half a dozen flat tires before he finally hit the big one (a crater three feet wide in the middle of the road) and it ate his bike. His handlebars snapped off, and Mike went over the top. He survived. Since his bike was now un-rideable, he got a replacement delivered via Matt's parents a week later. He now cruises these mean streets on his purple and turquoise single speed, a favorite from Chicago.

On Sunday night, all the locals head over to the Hare Krishna temple for free supper. They have the best Indian food in town, and it's no wonder that it feels like church social. All the people we've met in town so far show up, and it's a good chance to catch up.

While at Sunday Social, we ran into another guy named Chad, whom we met a week earlier in Baton Rouge. He lives here, and coincidentally has a big house he's fixing up. Chad's pretty busy with work, and we needed a semi-permanent living solution, so we offered to work on the house in exchange for low-income housing. We are now sanding walls, prepping for paint, and building gardens. There are chickens in the yard, and sometimes in the kitchen. There is a dog named Copper, and everyone gets along pretty well.




I think that's about all for now. Just wanted to get you caught up with where we are now. We'll try our best to post more often, now that we are situated and getting out.

Peace,
Almosis

December 2nd, as i write this.

Wow. much has happened since we last posted...Here's the text, photo's coming soon.

The last time we wrote about our adventures was when we were in Natchez. We had our night out, and nothing much was going on. The town is very quaint and quite charming, however, the social life does not exist during hunting season. The little city had plenty of antebellum homes, a few museums, and gambling on a river boat. While we were there, the weather could not have been better, it was our first really nice day in a long while (weather wise), and while we were the, we were able to secure some housing in a town 60 miles away, Jackson Louisiana.

We made our way down a moderately trafficked, but generously shouldered, slice of haven that is U.S. 61. This was a long day, that was broken up by a trip down some back roads and across state lines. A very pretty ride. we even stopped at Valhalla, and rode again.

We finally made it to our evenings destination, and we were very glad we did. Perry and Lep, our hosts, were very cool. big time cyclists who have been in the game of bicycle bossin for over 15 years. They fed us tasty snacks, and cool beverages, then let us use their outdoor shower. Our hosts definitely had a nice spread, we were all very envious. The a fore mentioned outdoor shower is located on a good size piece of land, comes complete with an awesome workshop/bunk house, hurricane shelter, eco friendly house, and pet deer. yeah, this place was cool fo sho.

After our night at Perry and Lep's, we were off to Baton Rouge. Louisiana is so interesting to look at, by really? All of these oil refineries and litter on the side of the road make it kind of hard too... its sad.

On the way into B.R. Michael got his first flat, thats was changed quickly, but not before he had a chance to sit in ANOTHER Fire Ant's nest. After that, it was a short ride to the next stop. We made it to our host's place on state st. which is a very cool part of town. we defiantly had a blast there! Karien was super cool and relaxed with everything, she let us come and go, showed us some cool things, and brought us tasty treats home from work! thanks!

Chris and Morgan, the guys upstairs were pretty cool too, the had us over for thanksgiving, which was really cool. We all just kind of came together as stragglers, and really brought something cool together. It wasn't the fanciest or anything, but it was good, and no one went hungry, which is the most imporant part.

The day after Thanksgiving was critical mass. This day was a cold and dreary day, but we still managed to make it. It was a small group of riders, but we still had a blast anyway! The Mass ended up snaking its way downtown, back to camput, and eventually to someones house, for a party! This was a really fun party, tons of awesome people, some snacks, drum circles, and then the DJ showed up... it quickly turned into a dance party, and it couldn't have been better!

We finally took off the next morning. minus one. While in Baton Rouge, Matt accidentally injured his ankle, rendering him incapable for a day. Alex and Michael felt it was best to take off and Matt agreed. So they did,their journey, which was quite some way out of the way, but a great ride non-the-less, took them to some pretty cool parts of the world. They followed the river for most of it, crossing twice, once by ferry and the other by moving truck. On their first day out, the made it 65 miles through the sugar cane fields and bayou all the way to the little town of Napoleanville, there the stayed in the Catholic church's Rec. hall.

The next morning started off early and was ended quickly by a bit of gear malfunction, as well as sore bodies. Mike and Alex were lucky enough to have hooked up the right people at the right time, not to long after the breakdown, we were picked up by a very nice guy and take to the hardware store to get it fixed. Shortly after repairs and the realization that they may not be able to make it the next 50 miles.

With plans to hitchhike the rest of the way in their heads, they sat down at a mall to gather their ideas and voila, like that they were on their way to the big easy with a nice guy whom the helped out with some work in exchange for a ride.

Matt's story is a different one, Matt got up early on Saturday, and set out to make it to New Orleans in one day. Thats not an easy ride, its about 85 miles and no other way but highways. It's even more difficult when you are on a bum ankle, but Matt made it, which was just crazy. crazy...

One way or another, and miles of beautiful country, we find ourselves here, in New Orleans. And we like it, we really do. There is just a feel about it that lets you know that you could get down on it. We have decided to stay her for a while, a month or two, just to give it a try (and gather up some moola). Y'all should come on down, its a cool place, and a good time. latter!

Cranksgiving in Baton Rouge

Just a quick note tonight, the laptop isn't working with the Internet here, so were writing this on a phone...
We just want to say how much we miss everyone whom we haven't seen in a long while, old friends, hometowns, and our folks. Be that as it may, we have found so Many kind people in our travels, that it isn't so bad. So for our néw friends, Brian, John, Lauren, Morgan, Kory, Dina, and our hosts here in Batin Rouge, thanks, alot.
Love, peace, and chain grease,
Michael, Alex, and Matt

We made it!

Today after a quick but climactic ten miles we completed the Natchez Trace. We ended up first heading to the visitor center to see if we could finagle some free camping around town, but without any leads and having a sense of accomplishment we decided to bunker down at the days in. Tonight we plan on taking to the streets in downtown Natchez to celebrate, hoping to find good times and others to share them with. There aren't a lot of new pictures to post but here are some that we may have skipped over.
















The Trace truly was an amazing experience and would recommend it to anyone. Now onto New Orleans!