more than i bargained for

quintessential california

i decided to get south fast because i felt it would easier to sleep in my truck with it being warmer. i didnt sign up for this version of "warmer." last night it was hot. this morning it was 75, and by 10am it was almost 90. it was ridiculous! it felt like it was 120 today. i am sure that it wasnt, but it felt that way.

after i got up this morning i set off in search of breakfast, i had some things to take care of and was also hungry. it took me a bit of time to find a place (it was barely 7am) but i found a place and ate, thought about my day. i decided i would go straight to the greyhound station and buy my ticket. get it out of the way, make sure that everything was in order. once that was done i decided to park the truck for the day and just walk.

i parked by where i slept, free parking all day...and about 3 miles outside of downtown. i didnt realize it at the time, but i set myself up for a huge day of walking. and snapping some pictures!

i started heading toward downtown and just enjoying the cool morning. emily called and we chatted for a bit. we will have lunch on moday when i am in portland for a couple hours. i made it to capitol park which was where i wanted to get to.

star charting material

cactus garden

a turtle family

the capitol building

there were orange trees galore with oranges, but they were really really bad. i had a great time trying to knock some down with my water bottle. and then the capitol building was there and while i have always disliked governments i have always loved capitol buildings. the domes, the layouts, etc, they are just really beuatiful buildings to me.

but i kept on. down to old sacramento and the river, rehashing some old times. then i ended up in an outdoor mall and walked around in there, went into some shops just for the air conditioning. then i came back to the capitol building and went inside.

i walked around the capitol building trying to find the open entrance, and eventually i did, i went through the metal check and then i had free reign, self guided tours they call them. it was pretty nice. there werent many people inside and it was air conditioned.

i was there for a good two hours. then i walked back to the truck and and sat in a park typing away and enjoying the day. now my battery is dying, so this post has to end.

my history of sacramento and the origins of 'bht'

the first time i came to sacramento was in the first week of february of the year 2001. i had been living in olympia and was waiting for my lease to run up before i met steve in sacramento to join him on his bike journey.

i left from olympia with some people that i had worked with at target. yes, i worked at target for about 6 months in the year 2000. here is the excerpt from my old journal from that time:

"Leaving, again, but I guess it always feel s that way. I bought a bike yesterday—for $275. Now, I am in Sacramento…Nick and Mike and Ritchie and I drove all night to be here, now. It is unbelievably beautiful, this city. I bought a sticker from a hemp store in "Old Sacramento" it says "SIMPLIFY". It is honest, it is going on my bucket. Nick isn't too keen to experience, he didn't want to leave the expressway at all. But I got him to drive up Freeport Ave and I saw "Mums" a veggie dive recommended in the book. Steve and I will have to check it out when we are both up here. I say, the sun is shinin' down on me hard, but I still cant wait for warmer weather, for San Francisco, for Berkeley, for Michael Parenti and Jesse Michaels, for 924 Gilman and the Modern Times Bookstore. I came so close last year. This time I am fifty miles away and I cannot wait."

just to catch up on that old post, i still have the buckets and the simplify sticker is still on one of them. i never went to mums and i dont beleive i ever went to see michael parenti or the modern times bookstore. i walked by 924 gilman, but it was wholly unspectacular.

i was only in sacramento for a short time the first time, maybe three hours. the folks i came down with wanted to go to some of the skating things in town and i just wanted to experience it. i was in old sacramento today and it wasnt as great as i thought in 2001. i looked for the store where i bought the sticker, i was going to take a picture and write a story about it and the picture would be left aligned right about now...

i like to think that old sacramento has changed alot in the last 8 years, but it probably hasnt, it was probably always as corporate dominated and i was just naieve at the time. oh well.

so, that was the first time i was in sacramento. then steve and i rode our bikes south for some hundreds of miles (which i am sure i will detail when i get there) to santa barbara. i freaked out after a couple months (maybe) and went to indiana to toughen up for a year and a half. then i moved to portland in september of 2002, and in June of 2003 my life brought me back to sacramento.

as i said, it was june. but let me take you back to portland in may of 2002. i had been living outside in portland for a couple of months before i found a place to live with a guy called roman off of 34th and yamhill or something in the southeast. i had been following portland.indymedia.org for awhile and was going to some of their meeting and trying to be more active in the activist community. i had met some people that were forming an anarchist coalition, which eventually became called ACAN...i totally forget precisely what it stands for, but the words anarchist, community, and network are in there somewhere.

through those folks and the portland imc folks, i became aware of an anti-wto protest in sacramento, that also had to do with fighting genetic engineering. i wasnt entirely certain what it was all about, but i knew i had to be there, mostly to establish more credit. the new activist folks that i hung around with all had fancy activist names that were usually entirely different from their real names, and you would only know that if you ever learned their real names. some of them i still have no idea about. most of them i have figured out. anyway.

i wanted one. an activist name to go along with my burgeoning activist lifestyle and stuff. at the time i wasnt aware that people generally earn or are bestowed nicknames, giving one to yourself doesnt usually pan out. so, i kept on going to meetings and trying to be more active. to me that meant talking to people and taking care of things that needed to be taken care of. that meant picking up slack and following through. i was pretty good at that stuff.

i got in touch with some people in sacramento well before the mobilization, because i wanted to be sure that i had food and housing. i contacted some folks from the sacramento food not bombs because that kind of helper role was precisely what i wanted to be doing, so i tried to get myself in there early. that didnt really pan out, becasue the person i was talking with wasnt very organized, or so i thought. and for housing i starting calling folks that were on the hotline and lined up some housing for myself.

i was going to the imc meetings in portland, because doing media coverage also felt like a nice helper role that i could easily slide into. at some point the folks at one of the meetings were talking about traveling down there and getting housing. i needed a ride and already had lined up housing, so i offered up ready made housing in exchange for a ride. i think that single act got the imc folks starting to trust me and give me some respect.

the convergence center now

june comes around and we are all headed down to sacramento early to set up a media center. before i left, i dont remeber this, but apparently i had fashioned my facial hair to be a mustache that came down my face...sometimes known as a handlebar mustache. we are there a number of days before the protest, just to get things set up. and this is what i like, setting things up, setting up processes and getting things in order, making things efficient and such. i think i fit right in with the early organizers.

as a side note of moderate interest, at this time i was still making hemp necklaces and i had brought some down with me to try to sell. and one of the first things i did when i got out of the car in sacramento was sell some necklaces to lisa fithian. it was the first and last time that i ever sold a hemp necklace. she bought two for $8 each i beleive.

so, i am there and i am getting things done! i am helping set things up at the convergence center, participating in the consensus meetings like a pro, and just doing things. i helped get together a moderatley successful pirate radio station for the convergence, and helped network the imc center, and genreally starting field commanding the welcome center. that job, as per consensus organizing comittee belonged to a woman name bernadette. she was very appreciative of my help and gave me new roles that i eagerly accepting and accomplished.

it was really one of the highlights of my life, because i wa so accepted and involved in what was going on, something that i had never really felt before in my life. so it was great. and this is starting ramble, i know.

so i had told some of the folks that i had come down with that i wanted to have a nickname, i wanted to leave sacramento a different person. naturally because of my mustache some folks started calling me handlebar. some other folks also starting calling me thunderbolt...i am not entirely sure of the origin of that one. and of course, up until june of 2003 everyone in the world called me brian (everyone except my uncle snake who called me bubba.)

so, i was doing good work and working with people from food not bombs, indymedia (primarily) and the welcoming comittee and i was also being called different names by different people. the convergence spokesperson, bernadette, got tired of it and took me aside one day, explained that it was too confusing to be known by such different names and perform the role i was, so she asked me which i would like to be called by.

none of them seemed particularly great, so i shrugged and said i dont know. she said, okay, thought for a moment and said "i am going to call you bht, thats what you will go by." and that was all i ever wanted. i got my activist name. that is the majority of the story. people in sacramento started calling me bht and resolved that when i got back to portland that would be my new name. i took two of my closer friends aside and told them thats what i would like to be called from now on, and so be it.

however, over the years when i am asked what bht stands for i do not say brian handlebar thunderbolt, the story is a bit too long and everyone would want a story. so, ironically enough, another person from sacramento gave me a great meaning for the letters, that summed up why i thought i was given the name and what it meant to me. so, whenever asked what bht stands for i would reply "its californian for bein' hella tight."

sacramento-ho!

today i traveled way too far way too fast. round about 500 miles maybe? i am in the bed so i cant look at my mileage figures just now. and i am keeping mileage figures, the amount i travel per day, when i get gas (how much and HOW MUCH), my miles per gallon...and let me tell you, my mpg is way better than expected. doing this highway travel i am getting 27 mpg which is spectacular for this old pickup truck.

so, i am trying to be upbeat in my writing, but a terrible cloud has descended upon me that i want to get out of the way but it takes my day out of order.

so, here goes: i am going back to portland...tomorrow. because i just cant handle life on the road? no. because i have to go to some jobs seminar in order to continue getting unemployment? yes.

SHITTY! what a bomb when emily sent me an email saying i got this letter in the mail demanded my attendance. i thought about just blowing it off and seeing if they really did cancel my benefits. then i thought if they did and i got screwed, then this trip would take a whole new perspective or be over. so i called the number they gave me and talked to a lady, i can do my training on monday instead of on thursday. so i am going to hop a bus and be in portland for about 10 hours on monday.

...

i just spent a great deal of time trying to purchase tickets, i will have to go in there tomorrow.

in other news. i had a pretty good first half of my day! everything went by so fast, i am getting so far faster than i wanted to. i stopped in weed which wasnt all that, then i realized that if i wanted to end in redding i would have to do something in between becasue of my rate of travel. so along the way was a national park that boasting spelunking!

i would love to get to go into caves and exlore, so it seemed like a great diversion. after i traveled on the side road for awhile, i finally got to shasta lake caverns. there were a ton of kids there, a ton of people period. so i parked far away from the crowd and when i got out a deer was right behind me. so i snapped some photos thinking everything would work out. then i went toward the entrane and it turns out you have to cross shasta lake in a boat to get to the caves and you have to pay for the tour. i wasnt into that.

so i meandered down by the boat launch and there was nothing going on. i hung out down there and took some pictures, then started back up the trail when the loudspeaker announced that the next tour would be leaving in 10 minutes, the boat is coming back now. so i decided to wait and see what kind of ticket taking they did, since i was already in a ticket only area. once more people made their way down and the boat pulled up i watched a few of them get on the boat and not show any kind of ticket, so i went on down and boarded the boat.

the boat left dock and i thought it was pretty sweet. the boat driver then said that we were going to cross the lake and then take a bus to the caves. so i thought they would take the tickets at the bus and i would just be turned around. at least it was fun on the boat.

we get to the other side and we all file on the bus, no tickets taken. the bus driver says when we get to the top we will meet our tour guide and get a briefing before we enter the caves, and i thought now they are going to take the tickets and i would be turned around at the top of the mountain.

no such thing. they never took tickets and after we got to the top we started a guided tour of the caves. it was pretty interesting, but i would hav loved going off on my own. about 17 times better than the portland underground tour...and free!

here are some pictures:





in reverse order: the first deer i saw. the boat. the lake expanse (what i could capture). the best picture from inside the caves. i forgot that on our way back across the lake we saw two more deer on the shore.

after that i hopped on over to redding to be disappointed again. thats where i got mail about my unemployment. i looked at the map and decided to just go to sacramento. it was a straight shot down i-5 and took about an hour and a half. when i got here i started thinking more about my situation and realized that i should just fly back to portland for the thing.

too late for flights, amtrack doesnt have great service, greyhound it is. i decided to do that instead of driving back simply because it should work out to be cheaper. and secondarily becasue i dont want to put the truck through so much constant driving.

and so here i am. sweating my ass off in the back of my truck and typing my blog. tomorrow i will go to the greyhound station first thing and buy some tickets, then i will recount my history in sacramento and write a story about the origins of the name "bht."

its all happening x2

8am: so i am leaving klamath falls, it is 8am. i have broken my fast and emptied my bowels. i am on the road. i have no passengers lined up, but the world at my fingertips. i am driving and mt. shasta is in front of me, a cargo train is cruising next to me and the oldies station is playing very appropriate music.

i am so happy. it is really starting to set in now this new freedom that i am embarking on. i was nervous yesterday and my shoulder tensed up and caused me pain. it is loose now, even after a not terribly comfortable night in the truck.

the night was okay though. after i left waldo's i just drove up this huge hill into a residential neighborhood and found a relatively level place amongst other cars and houses and just parked. i got out of the fron and into the back. simple as that. shortly after, however, the neighbor came out and was just standing on the curb for a long time and i got nervous, what if he saw me and called the cops or something. but he was just letting his dog run around.

after that, no problems. i used some shirts to cover the back windows so folks cant just look inside and i went to sleep around 9pm. like i said, not terribly comfortable, i tossed and turned for awhile, but i slept most of the night and got up around 6.30. then i got dressed and just left. i thought about walking around the neighborhood i was at but decided against it.

then i got some breakfast and took care of some things, and hit the road. the aforementioned excitement and revelation overtook me and i had to pull over to write this down. i am on my way toward weed, ca now. heading south on 97. my plan is to get to redding, ca today and spend the night there.

10am: now i am in weed california. i crossed the border at 8.45 am and was immediately struck with how much poorer the roads were and about a 40 mile cloud of dust on the horizon. dirty california. i drove for awhile and then got stopped by the fresh fruit patrol, which is something i had forgotten about. when you drive into california you have to do a little mini border check to see if you are transporting any fresh fruits across the border...not entirely sure why, but i asked the lady what the dust cloud was and she said that it was just fog...

i just kept on driving with mt. shasta looming ever closer. and eventually i came to a vista where there were a few other people. one of them asked me to take a group photo of them, i did, and in kind they took one of me as well. thanks!

the vista was beautiful, mt shasta is huge! after about 10 minutes of reading and looking i decided to leave. as i was getting into the truck i remembered! binoculars! i wasnt sure why i brought them, but i did, so i got them out and used them. amazingly i could see climbers on the shasta cinder cone. i kind of wished there was someone there to share it with.

then i got to weed and drove around the old downtown, got lost a bit. i always thought that weed would be much bigger, but it is just another little town. i just got some gas and now i have to jump onto i-5 south to redding.

farewell bend

aloha. aloha. the day has come and gone i am now in klamath falls oregon. it is in the south central of oregon, about 20 miles from the border of california...or so it appears.

i picked up my passenger, rubin, who was great, around 10 am this morning in portland. we opted to take highway 26 east to 97 south, instead of going i-5 south to highway 22 east. i think we chose the better route. we went up to mt. hood, but that is a heavily trafficked area so there wasnt any problem. the other highway goes through three sisters mountain and apparently would have been much windier and taken us to a higher elevation.

the truck held up pretty well, although i forgot about my ne'er used fifth gear until after i had dropped rubin off in bend. i was cruising at 70mph in fourth gear and the truck didnt seem to really want to do that, but i was testing the limits. there was a brief time when i thought that the truck was just going to fall apart, but it persevered.


rubin was a talker, which wasnt bad at all. it helped me to forgot about being so nervous for a little while and just be. we chatted about a number of different things, mostly small talk and politics, some familial history and other get to know you stuff. he was a great first rider on my trip and i was certainly happy for it.

i dropped him off about 10 miles past bend and i deliberated for a moment about keeping on since i was already past it and it didnt look like much from the highway or going back and exploring. i was just about to keep on and then i remembered that the deschutes brewery was in bend, so i set off for wireless to find. and i found it just in time to kick back some free samples and take the tour of the factory.

there were only two other people on the tour, and the tour was just okay. there wasnt that much going on in there of note, but it was real interesting to watch the bottling process! i took a number of pictures inside the facility and specifically of the bottling, but none of them came out worth anything.

after that it was almost five and the cool nature things i wanted to do were about to close, so i hightailed it out of there to try to catch them before five and before they closed...but i went the wrong direction! so by the time i got turned around and found the right way it was past five and i had to just drive by the cool looking lava monuments and petrified forests because i wanted to get further than bend for my first day. grin and bear it.

so i continued on 97 south and my plan was to go to crater lake tonight and just stay at a campground near there. foiled again. the road to crater lake was closed due to 81 inches of snow in the ground. i was directed to go to the NEXT entrance which was 40 miles south and then i would have to drive about 60 miles north from there just to get to the base. i decided against it and just kept driving.

and highway 97 is barren. i cruised at 70 most of the way and there was just nothing to speak of. i drove and drove, i kept wanting to stop at the next town but the next town was always just a gas station and a mini mart, nothing to speak of. klamath falls was a bit further than i wanted to go but i was going fast and there just wasnt anything else.

i made it to k falls about 7pm and i was hungry! i hadnt eaten really at all during the day. i had some gummy worms and a snickers bar that rubin had bought me, so i started looking for something that would quench my hunger and have wireless so i could do some typing. eventually i found a little place on the old main street, a micro-brewery called "Waldo's" that had food and wi-fi. i found some parking and came in.

now i am eating a sandwich, haveing a beer, watching a basketball game and writing about my day. all good things. when i am done here i will go off the street and find parking somewhere, hopefully level, and climb in the back of my truck to enjoy my first night on the road!

we'll see what tomorrow brings.

Day One

well, today is the first day of the rest of my life. and the beginning of a journey. i couldnt sleep much this morning and got up earlier than i wanted to. that will probably become a very common occurrence. everything is in the truck now aside from me and my computer. i got my check in the mail yesterday and when the bank opens i will take them the check cash it and then go pick up my buddy rubin.

and then off to "farewell bend" as it was originally called. not inhabited by europeans until 1824, not settled until 1905. the largest city in central oregon...boasting about 80,000 inhabitants. also, the only city in the continental united states aside from portland that has an extinct volcano within city limits. i believe it is called pilot butte.

my plan is to take i-5 south to salem and then head east on highway 20 which basically takes me to bend. it shouldnt take more than three hours. then i leave rubin behind and explore bend for a bit. there is the deschutes brewery that i will try to visit, and probably something else. i will walk around and take some pictures and see what it is like.

i am nervous to start just because. i will be nervous for the first night alone away from home in the truck. but hopefully the joy of the road will allay some of that nervousness.

its all happening!

today is my last day in the great city of portland. last for now. i am sure i will return, but my departure is of an indefinate length and my first destination is bend, oregon. it is situated in the center of oregon a little west of the true middle.

there is a person named rubin that i am taking from portland to bend tomorrow morning. it is about a three hour trip, i hope we dont get stranded. bend isnt the destination i was hoping for, i was thinking more south, but this is what adventure is all about i guess. following the winds of change and allowing them to parse through me and change me as well as everything else.

also, i have never been to central oregon and it would be nice to see it.

in other news, i am not very pleased with my truck right now. or with money. the other day the IRS sent me a letter saying that i miscalculated my refund and i owed them $377 back. i grappled with whether or not to pay them, i am trying to clean up my credit and not owe any money, so i just paid it. it bit into my savings more than i wanted to before i left.

and that brings us to the truck problems. i think i should get a tune-up on the truck, however the prices i am offered as disparate, from $65 just to see if i need a tune-up to $540 for the full tune-up. i cannot afford that right now. so i am grappling with it. i want to just leave and if i need to get a tune-up on the road, then do it...if i have the money now, i should have it later.

i have just made up my mind. i will get the tune up now. damnit!

some refinements are necessary.

last night i did a test sleep in the truck, just outside of my house, on the curb. it was trickier than i had imagined to get into the truck. see, once i am inside you would have to be looking to find someone inside, but no one can see you get in or youre busted. and this morning was trash day.

so a number of neighbors were coming and going as i tried to make it inside, and then forgot something so i had to make it inside again. vaguely comical but i eventually made it in. IT WAS COLD IN THERE!!! i have a small blanket in there, and thats it. i think i will need to bolster my covers. i have a sleeping bag, but it is really bulky and i dont want to have to get in and out of a sleeping bag every night or on hot nights just try to use the edge of the sleeping bag or something. i dont want to use the sleeping bag. maybe i will just get another blanket...

it also rained last night, and i am proud to say that the anti-rain measures i have implemented have worked very well and there was no sign of water gaining entry this morning.

i didnt sleep through the night. there was traffic and people around which was loud and i was a bit nervous. what if one of my neighbors caught me. i would be somewhat embarrassed. i think that if i am roused on the road by strangers it is different, i brush it off and go somewhere else. but me neighbors? i have to see them this morning and then explain to them that i am just testing out sleeping in my truck. it would probably be okay, i am sure it would, but not something i wanted to deal with.

the mattress i have is also insufficient. today i am going to the foam store to get some foam padding to put under the mattress and hopefully offer some more comfort. right now o am on a futon mattress that is on a sheet of 3/8" plywood on top of a metal truck bed. that doesnt add up to three star comfort. maybe one star, but just maybe.

also, i looked online determine when my check would arrive. and it doesnt look great. it looks like the check would be mailed today, so i would get it tomorrow at the earliest and more likely on thursday. tick tick tick, the days of adventure are starting slow.

overall this is something i beleive i can become acclimated to very quickly and that it will generate joy. i will be sure to take pictures just before i leave and try to post visual updates as the space changes and adapts.

another day

my intention, a good intention, is to give daily updates. when i am on the road, that may be logistically impossible, but right now it is possible. however, there just really anything more to update until i can go.

i guess i can say now i am 99% in the truck. i moved about half my clothes in there, and i started stocking some foodstuffs. right now it is mostly ramen, as an emergency/if i feel like it ration. i have a little campstove that runs on little propane tanks. i have a little cooking set for which i obtained a little spatula. the point is, everything is small. hopefully i will get smaller to match my living situation.

emily and i were in the truck together last night and it can host two people, albeit not very comfortably. but its possible.

oh! here is the update i have been searching for: i got my plant up! thats right, yesterday while thrifting i came across a small plastic pot with an attached bottom. i needed plastic so it doesnt break, i needed small so it fit, i found what i needed. so i got it up and have a spider plant in there currently, i hope it does well.

tick... tick... tick...

well. everything seems to be prepared. i have 98% of my things in the truck now. pretty much i just need to take my clothes out there and then i could drive away at any moment.

and when will that moment come? due to a personal error i am at the mercy of the state to send me my first check so i can cash it and then i can set off. i contacted my friend in santa cruz to meet up with when i get there. i also have a friend in los angeles that i will be seeing.

i spent some time yesterday seeing old friends before i set off. it was nice. then i broke down (and cried -- not really) my big computer and finished transferring files to this tiny laptop that i have. got rid of my desk and chair, now there is just an empty space where it used to be. it looks so sad, like an old building was just torn down but everything around it remains and there is this emptiness for the moment that pretends to fill the void.

i was trying to be poetic, but it really is just a desk. and a chair. and a big computer. ahh, i cant wait to just start!