Find The Jake

NYC
2004-09-06
New York city is amazing. The buildings are of course massive and even though I got lost a few times I felt like I knew uptown rather well just from so many movies. It was quite crazy. My original quest for NY pizza turned into a White Castle binge.. 13 cheeseburgers and large fry. It was amazing!
Sao Paulo
2004-09-07
My buddy Evandro and his fiance luciani picked me up from the airport tuesday morning at 9am. They drove me around Sao Paulo for a couple hours showing me the sites… I dont think Sao Paulo is a city i want to spend much time in. They took me to the bus station at noon and I bought a ticket to Foz do Iguazu about a 16 hour overnight bus trip. I met Jack a 21 yr old irish bloke on the bus and we have become pretty good pals.

Foz do Iguazu/Buenos Aires
2004-09-08 to 2004-09-10
The waterfalls on the brazilian side on wednesday were a bit disapointing but the gathering at the hostel for some laughs more than made up for it. On thursday a group of us from the hostel went to the argentinian side of the falls they were AMAZING. I hope i can get my pictures loaded soon so you can see. Jack and I caught a 5:45 bus to Buenos Aires. I know I wasnt planning on argentina but it sounded like a good time and other than the bus ride (which was only supposed to be 18 hours) well lets just say it was almost 24 hours on the bus. Policia decided to do background checks on all of us at midnight and didnt let us go till 4am. so we arrived in buenos aires around 5pm. Buenos Aires is a beautiful city. If i didnt know better i would think i was in western europe. Jack and I went to a all you can eat buffet for 25 pesos each (about 7 dollars) and it was basically all meat… really really good meat. We arrived at the restaraunt at 7:50pm and they still werent opening for another 10 minutes… Just an idea of how different life is down here. So we will see how the night shapes up. tchau

buenos aires
2004-09-10 to 2004-09-13
The three days i spent in buenos aires have been crazy! This city never sleeps… I went to a club the other night and things didnt get started till well after midnight then i heard about an after party that started around 8am which i didnt go to then at 2pm i was walking back from the bakery and a couple doors down there was an after after party that started around noon and went until dark.

So like i said this place is nuts…. farewell buenos aires… Hello florianopolis… 26 hour bus ride…ugh

florianopolis
2004-09-14 to 2004-09-17
Ilha Santa Catarina is a the place for brazilian holidays. It was a very very clean city with some incredible beaches… Very nice place check it out for sure…. sorry my computer time is limited today…
Ponta Negra
2004-09-19
Yesterday i left salvador by bus at 5pm and arrived in Natal somewhere around noon i think. I caught a cold in Salvador and got fleeced 50 reals… Needless to say salvador de Bahia didnot leave a good impression. Natal and surrounding area though is very nice. Ponta Negra is located about 14 km south of Natal and is situated on a very nice bay beach thing. I am crazy glad to finally be out of the cities and near the water. Now i just need a hammock, some more hemp around my neck and ankles and wrists and a coconut in my hand and i can fit right in. Just for the record dad hammocks cost about 30-50 reals here… so between 10-15 dollars… so who wants one?

I think i will stay here in ponta negra for at least 3 days if not longer and then maybe relocate to Fernado de Norhano <—bad spelling apparently its an incredibly beautiful island.

I traveled from Florianopolis by plane to Salvador with an american named Sam but he wanted to spend another night in salvador. So i am on my own for the first time really and i must say its exhilerating and terribly lonely at the same time. While i enjoy companions i am in desperate need of some serious relaxation so i am searching for the happy medium. The hostel I checked into here in ponta negra is very hip… has a castle theme to it and i think it will be a good place to relax.

one more night in ponta negra
2004-09-22
Tomorrow i am heading for fortaleza before the money runs out. I was waiting for sam to show up here in natal but if he´s not hear today then im off and running again. Ponta Negra has been very relaxing. i really have no idea what day i arrived and honestly i am not even sure what day it is today. Time seems to have lost all meaning here in northeastern brasil. If someone says they will meet you in half an hour expect to wait three. Its just the way of life here. It might have something to do with the extreme poverity of the area but i am not a student of such deep thoughts.
Today the plan is simple.. same as yesterday… which means sleep and then some more sleep. I am like the three puppies the hostel has. I just move from one spot to another. its bliss. So with a coconut in my hand and sleep on my eyelids i bid you all a very pleasant day or two…
fortaleza
2004-09-24
Fortaleza at first glance out of the hostel is not the most beautiful city in brasil. (sorry samila) But where it lacks in at a glance beauty you can find more than enough in its culture and the beautiful people that live there. I am off to jericocaora in the morning but within the week i will be back hopefully to an apartment in fortaleza and a job teaching english. And possibly life in brasil is muito bom.
i learned how to windsurf today as well… not as easy as they make it look but fun once you get the hang of it.
back to the fort!
2004-09-26 to 2004-09-28
Well im back in fortaleza… Today i am spending deep in research about apartments and jobs… I am really starting to like this city… I think the next couple months will be very rewarding.

Update… I went to jericoacoara and came back the next day. Jeri was a cool little beach town with animals everywhere and whatnot and all the streets were sand. It´s like hippy central for northern brasil… well outside of salvador.

trip to date
2004-09-28
5 hrs plane AZ-NY
10 hrs plane NY-SAO PAULO
16hrs bus SAO-FOZ DO IGUAÇU
23hrs bus FOZ-BUENOS AIRES ARGENTINA
26hrs bus BUENOS AIRES-FLORIANOPOLIS
5hrs plane FLO-SALVADOR
17hrs bus SALVADOR-NATAL/PONTA NEGRA
8hrs buggy PONTA NEGRA-PRAIA DE PIPA (and back)
8hrs bus NATAL-FORTALEZA
7hrs bus FORTALEZA-JERI
7hrs bus JERI-FORTALEZA

making a grand total of 5 1/2 days on a bus, plane or buggy in the 22 days!
ibis
2004-09-30
Ibis hotel… not exactly the cheapest way to spend a couple nights but definitly comfortable and centrally located. SO tomorrow is the big day. Tomorrow i move into my very own very first apartment. I am sooo excited.
Kinda cool that i will have my own apartment… Even cooler that it is in a different country!
aparmento and beyond
2004-10-06
OK so I now have my very own very first apartment. And it is awesome. If i wasnt so incredibly lazy i would walk back get my camera and find an internet joint with computers that arent from 1890… Well that might be a little stretch but they are old school.

Moving on to other news it would appear that good ol Sam from idaho is going to move into the spare room so jake will have a roomie. That would be fantastic. Although I am happy alone as well its always cool to have another person around. I´ve taken a ton of pics since last time i plugged my camera in… man i should really load some new ones…. hm maybe tomorrow…

That kind of the attitude for everything here in north eastern brazil… No Stress… its a motto… or Xo Stress whatever that means… its on shirts and whatnot and i still havent figured out why its cool to replace the N with an X things i will never understand i guess.

Pleasant Valley Sunday hey….
2004-10-10
OK so sam has moved in. I have a television now which means one thing MUSIC!!! I am very excited about this cause else sam and i would be walking around the apartment wearing headphones and carrying walkmans.
Anyway today is sunday and it would seem that everything except the restaurants… internet cafes and pharmacies are closed. Its pretty refreshing to know that there are places in the world that still observe one day a week off. Although all the churches that i`ve walked past today were locked up tight too soooo im not really sure what the deal is. Today we set out to get sam a cheap guitar and me a set of congos but since everything is closed I dont think we will be accomplishing this already difficult feat. Since sam doesnt want to pay more than 90 reals for a guitar and I dont want to pay more than 60 reals for congos… that is 30us and 20us respectively.
FARTHER UP AND FURTHER IN!!!
2004-10-14
Well i woke up this morning with the all too familiar tugging at my chest. The feeling of knowing that I need to move on again soon. I mentioned this to sam and he was thinking the along the same lines. We decided to do a couple small trips to local beaches and then one big trip to the amazon before heading south again to Rio and Sao Paulo and whatnot. Probably in a couple weeks time. My money situation is getting increasingly difficult to deal with but it will all work out in the end.

goodbye sweet ceara
2004-10-17 to 2004-10-20
Well on sunday i said goodbye to my dear ceara and my friends there and ventured south to the capital Brasilia (50 hours on the bus)… Upon arrival I promptly changed my mind and after hanging my hammock up in the airport for a couple hours I bought a ticket to Sao Paulo. I love flying… its so much faster. Amazing. Anyway now I am staying with Evandro´s father in a very quaint apartment that while is very comfortable it makes me miss my beachfront villa de Iracema. Man that place was sweet. Ah well I guess I will just have to find one similiar in cali right? I am sure I can find one for the same price (250 a month) RIGHT…. So I went three days without a shower.. I am sure that is a record for me and now I am past tired and my body is yearning for the bed that is prepared for me.

Last Call
2004-10-25
Well here i sit in Sao Paulo… It´s raining outside and it looks beautiful.. I am going to go play in it in a little while cause i need to get some more stuff before deciding to go home. I think I gained 5-10 pounds the last couple days in evandros dads house. It is absolutely insane. At meal times i cannot look away from my plate for a minute without having more food heaped on to it. So when I get back to Phoenix I think some very long bike rides will be in order.
And this is Last Call people if you want something from brasil speak up now or hold your piece for another trip. I went to an Offspring show the other night. It was hilarious. I seriously think maybe 30-40 of the 800 some people there new any of the right words and good actually sing along in intelligible english. I bought some pirated FORRO cds so we can all have a big FORRO party when i get home. The reason i bought pirated cds is cause i need to support the local community ya know!

And soon after I flew home…

Many trips
2005-06-22

At the end of April I went to LA to meet a bunch of crazy people from the travelpunk.com message boards. I had just recently acquired a new job with a pro baseball team that had me working a ton of hours so getting away for that weekend was pure bliss. I drove into Fullerton on wednesday night and the next morning drove around for a bit until hooking up with eveyone at my buddys apartment in Hollywood. We all went out that night and had a good time on the town and crashed out at the pad. On Friday some more people flew in and once again we hit the town ending up in Santa Monica on the promenade and ending the night again in Fullerton. The next morning I drove home and worked my tail off for another month for that baseball team before I had to call it quits. Those 3 days were the only three I had off the entire time I worked for them.

The day after I quit I grabbed my friend steve and headed to Rocky Point Mexico. After we crossed the border we decided that Rocky Point would be too touristy and we wanted some real mexico, we drove straight to the west coast of the Baja Peninsula and spent the night at a best western in Ensenada. The next morning we awoke to find ourselves still trapped in a tourist hole so we started to drive south. About an hour and a half down the road I saw a sign for a youth hostel that claimed to be right on the beach. It was and it was gorgeous. We spent two nights there driving up and down the beach and generally having a good time. The second night we were there we met a couple of girls and invited them to the sunset on the beach with us. Came to find out that they were headed to Muluge the next morning and asked for a ride to the bus station.

Now steve and I having nothing better to do decided to drive these lovely ladies down to muluge ourselves thus saving them a long and agonizing bus ride and giving us a chance to see the rest of baja. So saturday morning we packed up and drove south to muluge. 10 hours later we pulled into this delightful little bungalow village thing called Ecomundo. The place is straight out of a movie. Little bamboo bungalows right on the beach. Ecomundo is located on Bahia de Concepcion, which is a large bay off the sea of cortez. We arrived around 11 that night and went walking in the surf. My second step landed my on a stingray which decided to leave it`s mark on the top of my foot.

Sunday morning came to find the three girls asleep on their cots in the hut and steve and I crashed outside on the hammocks. Turns out Ecomundo is run by a couple in their late twenties from colorado. Gary and Tracy were fantastic hosts. Gary got us set-up with a pair of kayaks and we proceeded to spend the rest of the day out in the bay soakin up the rays and getting some exercise. The entire location is amazing and I cannot wait to return. The huts have no running water or electricty and yet somehow that doesnt matter. It is perfect.

Late sunday night steve and I decided we had to get back and one of the girls needed to head back to san diego anyway so we took off from Ecomundo after some tears and left two of the girls there. Steve, Davina and I pulled into San Diego around 12 on monday where steve and I left Davina and continued our drive back to this oven known as Phoenix.

And that was my Fall of 2004 and Spring of 2005!

If you haven’t tried hitch-hiking, I encourage you to give a go. Here are a few things I’ve learned over the years.

1. Keep an open mind. Getting into a stranger’s vehicle is always an adventure and one best experienced with a wide range of acceptance. Avoid politics and religion at all costs! Else you might find yourself pulled over to the side of a forgotten dirt road in the Colorado Rockies being anointed with oil and having your eternal soul prayed for by a traveling big-tent revivalist. After a long half-hour of his and his wife’s tears, prayers, singing and dancing, I did get to my stop but I learned to be mindful of the driver’s ideas before spouting my own.
2. Always check the sobriety of the driver. I cannot stress this enough. It is one thing to accidentally get into a car with a couple of mafia guys and another thing entirely to get in with a drunk driver. Your fun hitching experience just became a white-knuckled “oh god! oh god! I don’t wanna die! oh god! oh god!” experience. In retrospect, the anointing was probably a good precursor to the drunken Mini Cooper ride of death. It made roller coasters feel like the tilt-a-whirl.
3. Showers are clutch. As a hitcher I feel it’s just common courtesy to not smell or look like the ditch you were sleeping in while waiting for a ride. Put on some decent looking clothes and a smile. You’ll get farther, faster.
4. Direct tactics almost always work. Like walking up to someone in the rental car facility. It lets them know you are a normal person just looking for a lift and sets them more at ease. It’ll get you places faster than standing next to the airport exit ramp, and if by some chance you forget your favorite book on the seat, you can trace the car through the rental agency.
5. Avoid telling them your final destination. Always ask where they are headed instead of the other way around. I made the mistake of informing the Mini Cooper guy of my final stop, so there was no saying “Oh hey look, there’s my stop!” You can always get out early that way if you aren’t happy with the lack of legroom in the back seat. That, and your buddy’s “Dude, why did I let you talk me into this” look. Which leads me to…
6. Start with a buddy. If you are a first time hitcher, grab a friend. It’ll make you more confident and relaxed, a much easier way to enjoy the ride.
7. The most important rule: Be a hoopy frood and always know where your towel is.

R.I.P. Douglas Adams

Over the last few months I have gone out to walk at night, I did it in Guam and I do now in Phoenix as well.

Walking just for the sake of walking.

I feel like that’s what I am doing now in my life. There are so many goals and so many ideas about what life should be. Am I chasing my own or someone else’s? It’s hard to know sometimes.

Feeling like what you are doing with yourself is inconsequential is never a good feeling.  You can stay or you can go, it doesn’t really matter. As long as the bills get paid. This is the essence of western civilization. Students go to college for years for an engineering degree and then end up driving school buses. Whatever pays the bills. “Passion is an empty pursuit!” screams the culture, while all around the advertisements tell us what we have to wear and accessorize with, how to fit the mold of a society gone mad with being accepted. We are in the middle of a war with the lowest support rating in history and nowhere to be seen are protests that can even come close to resembling the legendary ones of the 70’s. Why? “Passion is an empty pursuit!” screams the 9-5er’s, as they slide their plastic through the machine, digging ever deeper their pit of disenchanted happiness.

“You certainly have lived quite a bit in your short life” says the bossman. “Life isn’t made for the dead” I respond.

The key is finding your own path through the concrete jungles of our culture, wading through and pushing, while paying your dues. Finally running when long last the trees and rivers can be seen in the distance, knowing that freedom is almost yours.

I’ve been trying to find my path for a long time now and I have a feeling that there is no map for me. It won’t be an easy journey and it rarely will make sense but it will be one unique to me. We have but one trip in us, let’s make it one worth taking.

I was working for a US airline and taking full advantage of the free flight benefits the employees were offered. For my first trip, I decided to head North to visit my family in Chicago and escape the oppressive heat of Phoenix in August. As will often happen when flying standby, the direct flights were all over-sold and that made creativity the name of the game.

In a situation like this it’s a race to beat the other standby passengers to the next best options, so I bolted over to the departure listing screen and decided what the next closest city was with the next available flight. Getting bumped off of a flight always makes the whole experience more of a crazy adventure and with the right attitude it can end up being the best part of the trip.

Milwaukee was the best alternative for getting to Chi-town, so I jumped on the next flight out and decided to figure out the rest of the logistics after landing. Finding yourself in a strange, new airport, totally lost and without transportation, can be a bit disconcerting, but as a backpacker life comes at you fast. You might lose your passport and be stranded, or you might get off at the wrong bus stop; either way you learn to improvise. The flight landed around eleven-thirty at night and, as fate would have it, all the buses had stopped running for the night.

The options at times like this are always slim. In this case they were to sleep in the airport to wait for the morning bus, call a shuttle service, rent a car, or try to hitch it. Sleeping in airports is an old pastime of mine and one I enjoy, but I was pretty energized and decided to give hitching it a go before resorting to shoveling out a ridiculous amount of cash for a two hour ride.

I boldly walked into the car rental area and asked for a show of hands on who was going to Chicago. Two business men in front of me, dressed in nice Italian suits, hesitantly raised their hands.

“Where you guys headed?”
“O’Hare”
“Can I bum a ride?”
“Uh… Sure. You’s gonna pay the tolls.”
“Deal.”

John and Steve had flown out of O’Hare to Newark earlier that morning and had almost gotten stuck there after their flight back had been cancelled. Like me, they thought of rerouting through Milwaukee instead.

“So what were you guys doing in Jersey today?” I probed innocently from the back seat of the premium full-size rental car. “A little business down by the docks” came the paused response from John, the driver. “Ok…” I replied, fully amused with the possibilities. “What kind of business do ya’ll do?” Silence emanated from the front of the car.

“Uh, Jake, What about you’s? What do you do? What brings you to Chicago?” Steve asked, changing the subject. I told the guys about my job, where I was from, and about my travels. Then, being the inquisitive idiot, I again posed a question: “Were you guys filling cement shoes in Jersey or something?” More silence. “Jake, be glad you’re not riding in the trunk.” I laugh as I answer my cell - it’s my mother calling to check on me. I make it a point to not tell my parents about hitching adventures until after they are over, but this time I went with the straight approach.

“Hey Mom! No, I’m fine. I hitched a ride with these two mafia guys who just finished doing a lil business down on the docks in Jersey, if you know what I mean,” I said, trying my best Italian mafia voice. I get a scowl from Steve in the front and he tells me to stop scaring my mother. “Listen Mom, I’m gravy. I’ll call you from Grandpa’s.”

We go back to talking about the weather and other inconsequential things when finally John confesses: “Aight, listen. We’s pro fishermen. We had a tournament in Jersey today.” I turned this over in my head, realizing they only had two small day bags. “Where’s your gear? Your poles and whatnot?” Once again, nothing but silence from the front seat. Steve starts laughing ominously and asks if I’ll ever hitch again after this.

We pulled into O’Hare’s rental return and I somehow managed to get out of being fitted for concrete shoes and tossed off a bridge. The mafia guys made sure I had a ride the rest of the way to my grandparents before they headed off.

My love affair with thumbing rides comes down to the mystery of what awaits inside the stranger’s car. It is an exhilarating experience to find oneself in some of the situations that hitching provides. At the end of the day you learn who you share the road with everyday, people we would otherwise ignore from inside our own air-conditioned box on wheels.

That’s what the world really needs, isn’t it? Just a few more people willing to open their doors and hearts to the strangers that surround them.

Today was my first day off in over two weeks and I enjoyed it to the fullest. I woke up around 11:30, which I believe is a more than sensible time for any man to wake up, took a shower and grabbed my friend Philip before heading to the bank to pick up my ATM card and some cash. Afterwards we jumped a bus to the mall and caught a matinée of the new Fantastic Four flick. We decided then to hunt down a new microbrewery that a PIC guest had clued me into and while we were exploring the area found what we believed to be the remnants of an old Spanish fort. We then literally accidentally found Mermaid Brewery. I sampled their Blond, Pale Ale and IPA before settling down for a glass of Orange Wheat, aka Hefeweisen, followed by an Irish Red. The beers were excellent and the bowl of gumbo was super tasty as well. Philip and I left Mermaid feeling pretty good, albeit a little too happy to be completely sober. Micro-brewed beers, I believe, have a better effect on your body than the run of the mill craptastic domestics so many seem to believe are water from heaven. If only everyone could have good taste.

After leaving the brewery, Philip and I felt like walking for awhile before calling a taxi or trying to catch a bus. We did eventually walk all the way to the mall we had seen the movie at, a good 3 miles or so away. Along the way we stumbled upon the Stairway to Heaven, so in case you ever wondered where it was, set your mind at ease, it’s in Agana.
It was a fantabulous day.

Don’t forget to check out all the new photos and show me some love in the comments!

Here’s my favorite poem. Enjoy the read.

“Song of the Open Road” by Walt Whitman

1
AFOOT and light-hearted I take to the open road,
Healthy, free, the world before me,
The long brown path before me leading wherever I choose.

Henceforth I ask not good-fortune, I myself am good-fortune,
Henceforth I whimper no more, postpone no more, need nothing,
Done with indoor complaints, libraries, querulous criticisms,
Strong and content I travel the open road.

The earth, that is sufficient,
I do not want the constellations any nearer,
I know they are very well where they are,
I know they suffice for those who belong to them.

(Still here I carry my old delicious burdens,
I carry them, men and women, I carry them with me wherever
I go,
I swear it is impossible for me to get rid of them,
I am fill’d with them, and I will fill them in return.)

2
You road I enter upon and look around, I believe you are not all
that is here,
I believe that much unseen is also here.

Here the profound lesson of reception, nor preference nor denial,
The black with his woolly head, the felon, the diseas’d, the
illiterate person, are not denied;
The birth, the hasting after the physician, the beggar’s tramp, the
drunkard’s stagger, the laughing party of mechanics,
The escaped youth, the rich person’s carriage, the fop, the eloping
couple,
The early market-man, the hearse, the moving of furniture into the
town, the return back from the town,
They pass, I also pass, any thing passes, none can be interdicted,
None but are accepted, none but shall be dear to me.

3
You air that serves me with breath to speak!
You objects that call from diffusion my meanings and give them
shape!
You light that wraps me and all things in delicate equable showers!
You paths worn in the irregular hollows by the roadsides!
I believe you are latent with unseen existences, you are so dear to
me.

You flagg’d walks of the cities! you strong curbs at the edges!
You ferries! you planks and posts of wharves! you timber-lined
side! you distant ships!
You rows of houses! you window-pierc’d facades! you roofs!
You porches and entrances! you copings and iron guards!
You windows whose transparent shells might expose so much!
You doors and ascending steps! you arches!
You gray stones of interminable pavements! you trodden crossings!
From all that has touch’d you I believe you have imparted to
yourselves, and now would impart the same secretly to me,
From the living and the dead you have peopled your impassive
surfaces, and the spirits thereof would be evident and amicable
with me.

4
The earth expanding right hand and left hand,
The picture alive, every part in its best light,
The music falling in where it is wanted, and stopping where it is
not wanted,
The cheerful voice of the public road, the gay fresh sentiment of
the road.

O highway I travel, do you say to me Do not leave me?
Do you say Venture not-if you leave me you are lost?
Do you say I am already prepared, I am well-beaten and undenied,
adhere to me?

O public road, I say back I am not afraid to leave you, yet I love
you,
You express me better than I can express myself,
You shall be more to me than my poem.

I think heroic deeds were all conceiv’d in the open air, and all
free poems also,
I think I could stop here myself and do miracles,
I think whatever I shall meet on the road I shall like, and whoever
beholds me shall like me,
I think whoever I see must be happy.

5
From this hour I ordain myself loos’d of limits and imaginary lines,
Going where I list, my own master total and absolute,
Listening to others, considering well what they say,
Pausing, searching, receiving, contemplating,
Gently, but with undeniable will, divesting myself of the holds that
would hold me.

I inhale great draughts of space,
The east and the west are mine, and the north and the south are
mine.

I am larger, better than I thought,
I did not know I held so much goodness.

All seems beautiful to me,
can repeat over to men and women You have done such good to me
I would do the same to you,
I will recruit for myself and you as I go,
I will scatter myself among men and women as I go,
I will toss a new gladness and roughness among them,
Whoever denies me it shall not trouble me,
Whoever accepts me he or she shall be blessed and shall bless me.

6
Now if a thousand perfect men were to appear it would not amaze me,
Now if a thousand beautiful forms of women appear’d it would not
astonish me.

Now I see the secret of the making of the best persons,
It is to grow in the open air and to eat and sleep with the earth.

Here a great personal deed has room,
(Such a deed seizes upon the hearts of the whole race of men,
Its effusion of strength and will overwhelms law and mocks all
authority and all argument against it.)

Here is the test of wisdom,
Wisdom is not finally tested in schools,
Wisdom cannot be pass’d from one having it to another not having it,
Wisdom is of the soul, is not susceptible of proof, is its own
proof,
Applies to all stages and objects and qualities and is content,
Is the certainty of the reality and immortality of things, and the
excellence of things;
Something there is in the float of the sight of things that provokes
it out of the soul.

Now I re-examine philosophies and religions,
They may prove well in lecture-rooms, yet not prove at all under the
spacious clouds and along the landscape and flowing currents.

Here is realization,
Here is a man tallied-he realizes here what he has in him,
The past, the future, majesty, love-if they are vacant of you, you
are vacant of them.

Only the kernel of every object nourishes;
Where is he who tears off the husks for you and me?
Where is he that undoes stratagems and envelopes for you and me?

Here is adhesiveness, it is not previously fashion’d, it is apropos;
Do you know what it is as you pass to be loved by strangers?
Do you know the talk of those turning eye-balls?

7
Here is the efflux of the soul,
The efflux of the soul comes from within through embower’d gates,
ever provoking questions,
These yearnings why are they? these thoughts in the darkness why are
they?
Why are there men and women that while they are nigh me the sunlight
expands my blood?
Why when they leave me do my pennants of joy sink flat and lank?
Why are there trees I never walk under but large and melodious
thoughts descend upon me?
(I think they hang there winter and summer on those trees and always
drop fruit as I pass;)
What is it I interchange so suddenly with strangers?
What with some driver as I ride on the seat by his side?
What with some fisherman drawing his seine by the shore as I walk by
and pause?
What gives me to be free to a woman’s and man’s good-will? what
gives them to be free to mine?

8
The efflux of the soul is happiness, here is happiness,
I think it pervades the open air, waiting at all times,
Now it flows unto us, we are rightly charged.

Here rises the fluid and attaching character,
The fluid and attaching character is the freshness and sweetness of
man and woman,
(The herbs of the morning sprout no fresher and sweeter every day
out of the roots of themselves, than it sprouts fresh and sweet
continually out of itself.)

Toward the fluid and attaching character exudes the sweat of the
love of young and old,
From it falls distill’d the charm that mocks beauty and attainments,
Toward it heaves the shuddering longing ache of contact.

9
Allons! whoever you are come travel with me!
Traveling with me you find what never tires.

The earth never tires,
The earth is rude, silent, incomprehensible at first, Nature is rude
and incomprehensible at first,
Be not discouraged, keep on, there are divine things well envelop’d,
I swear to you there are divine things more beautiful than words can
tell.

Allons! we must not stop here,
However sweet these laid-up stores, however convenient this dwelling
we cannot remain here,
However shelter’d this port and however calm these waters we must
not anchor here,
However welcome the hospitality that surrounds us we are permitted
to receive it but a little while.

10
Allons! the inducements shall be greater,
We will sail pathless and wild seas,
We will go where winds blow, waves dash, and the Yankee clipper
speeds by under full sail.

Allons! with power, liberty, the earth, the elements,
Health, defiance, gayety, self-esteem, curiosity;
Allons! from all formules!
From your formules, O bat-eyed and materialistic priests.

The stale cadaver blocks up the passage-the burial waits no longer.

Allons! yet take warning!
He traveling with me needs the best blood, thews, endurance,
None may come to the trial till he or she bring courage and health,
Come not here if you have already spent the best of yourself,
Only those may come who come in sweet and determin’d bodies,
No diseas’d person, no rum-drinker or venereal taint is permitted
here.

(I and mine do not convince by arguments, similes, rhymes,
We convince by our presence.)

11
Listen! I will be honest with you,
I do not offer the old smooth prizes, but offer rough new prizes,
These are the days that must happen to you:
You shall not heap up what is call’d riches,
You shall scatter with lavish hand all that you earn or achieve,
You but arrive at the city to which you were destin’d, you hardly
settle yourself to satisfaction before you are call’d by an
irresistible call to depart,
You shall be treated to the ironical smiles and mockings of those
who remain behind you,
What beckonings of love you receive you shall only answer with
passionate kisses of parting,
You shall not allow the hold of those who spread their reach’d hands
toward you.

12
Allons! after the great Companions, and to belong to them!
They too are on the road - they are the swift and majestic men - they
are the greatest women,
Enjoyers of calms of seas and storms of seas,
Sailors of many a ship, walkers of many a mile of land,
Habitues of many distant countries, habitues of far-distant
dwellings,
Trusters of men and women, observers of cities, solitary toilers,
Pausers and contemplators of tufts, blossoms, shells of the shore,
Dancers at wedding-dances, kissers of brides, tender helpers of
children, bearers of children,
Soldiers of revolts, standers by gaping graves, lowerers-down of
coffins,
Journeyers over consecutive seasons, over the years, the curious
years each emerging from that which preceded it,
Journeyers as with companions, namely their own diverse phases,
Forth-steppers from the latent unrealized baby-days,
Journeyers gayly with their own youth, journeyers with their bearded
and well-grain’d manhood,
Journeyers with their womanhood, ample, unsurpass’d, content,
Journeyers with their own sublime old age of manhood or womanhood,
Old age, calm, expanded, broad with the haughty breadth of the
universe,
Old age, flowing free with the delicious near-by freedom of death.

13
Allons! to that which is endless as it was beginningless,
To undergo much, tramps of days, rests of nights,
To merge all in the travel they tend to, and the days and nights
they tend to,
Again to merge them in the start of superior journeys,
To see nothing anywhere but what you may reach it and pass it,
To conceive no time, however distant, but what you may reach it and
pass it,
To look up or down no road but it stretches and waits for you,
however long but it stretches and waits for you,
To see no being, not God’s or any, but you also go thither,
To see no possession but you may possess it, enjoying all without
labor or purchase, abstracting the feast yet not abstracting one
particle of it,
To take the best of the farmer’s farm and the rich man’s elegant
villa, and the chaste blessings of the well-married couple, and
the fruits of orchards and flowers of gardens,
To take to your use out of the compact cities as you pass through,
To carry buildings and streets with you afterward wherever you go,
To gather the minds of men out of their brains as you encounter
them, to gather the love out of their hearts,
To take your lovers on the road with you, for all that you leave
them behind you,
To know the universe itself as a road, as many roads, as roads for
traveling souls.

All parts away for the progress of souls,
All religion, all solid things, arts, governments-all that was or is
apparent upon this globe or any globe, falls into niches and
corners before the procession of souls along the grand roads
of the universe.

Of the progress of the souls of men and women along the grand roads
of the universe, all other progress is the needed emblem and
sustenance.

Forever alive, forever forward,
Stately, solemn, sad, withdrawn, baffled, mad, turbulent, feeble,
dissatisfied,
Desperate, proud, fond, sick, accepted by men, rejected by men,
They go! they go! I know that they go, but I know not where they go,
But I know that they go toward the best - toward something great.

Whoever you are, come forth! or man or woman come forth!
You must not stay sleeping and dallying there in the house, though
you built it, or though it has been built for you.

Out of the dark confinement! out from behind the screen!
It is useless to protest, I know all and expose it.

Behold through you as bad as the rest,
Through the laughter, dancing, dining, supping, of people,
Inside of dresses and ornaments, inside of those wash’d and trimm’d
faces,
Behold a secret silent loathing and despair.

No husband, no wife, no friend, trusted to hear the confession,
Another self, a duplicate of every one, skulking and hiding it goes,
Formless and wordless through the streets of the cities, polite and
bland in the parlors,
In the cars of railroads, in steamboats, in the public assembly,
Home to the houses of men and women, at the table, in the bedroom,
everywhere,
Smartly attired, countenance smiling, form upright, death under the
breast-bones, hell under the skull-bones,
Under the broadcloth and gloves, under the ribbons and artificial
flowers,
Keeping fair with the customs, speaking not a syllable of itself,
Speaking of any thing else but never of itself.

14
Allons! through struggles and wars!
The goal that was named cannot be countermanded.

Have the past struggles succeeded?
What has succeeded? yourself? your nation? Nature?
Now understand me well - it is provided in the essence of things that
from any fruition of success, no matter what, shall come forth
something to make a greater struggle necessary.

My call is the call of battle, I nourish active rebellion,
He going with me must go well arm’d,
He going with me goes often with spare diet, poverty, angry enemies,
desertions.

15
Allons! the road is before us!
It is safe - I have tried it - my own feet have tried it well - be not
detain’d!
Let the paper remain on the desk unwritten, and the book on the
shelf unopen’d!
Let the tools remain in the workshop! let the money remain unearn’d!
Let the school stand! mind not the cry of the teacher!
Let the preacher preach in his pulpit! let the lawyer plead in the
court, and the judge expound the law.

Camerado, I give you my hand!
I give you my love more precious than money,
I give you myself before preaching or law;
Will you give me yourselp. will you come travel with me?
Shall we stick by each other as long as we live?

Ok now I am home and in a state of somewhat soberness.

I caught a cab from teri’s this morning and got to the airport just in time to waltz into the last seat for my flight home today. Then I started a 6 hour shift trying to shake off the headache from last night and sort out the details.

First off I would like to apologize about the post up top. I normally don’t swear like a sailor… I swear.

Secondly um I am sorry for drunk dialing and I would also like to formally apologize to the City Of Toronto for peeing on your bus station. I would like to offer thanks to the nice police lady that let me go though, your kindness will be forever passed on.

Thanks to Molson for picking me up and showing me a good time with her friends on friday. “I FEEL LIKE I JUST WON THE STANLEY CUP!” is not a phrase I think I will ever hear again.

So then after the party at her friends place she took me to my hostel where I promptly went and got some grub, (sidenote: Tim Horton’s everything bagel, toasted with butter is amazing. Have at least five if you visit canada) and then I went to sleep.

I woke up around 10:20 the next morning to the realization that I had 10 minutes to check out before I got charged for an extra day so I speed showered and ran on out into the brightness of the rainy toronto day.

Knowing absolutely nothing about toronto other than they have a large tower, I decided that was a good place to start. The CN Tower costs about 30 dollars canadian and is not worth the money in my opinion. However across the street is the Steam Whistle Brewing Company and they have a tour for 8 dollars which I highly recommend!

Continuing on with my aimless wandering I decided to try and find a ship I had seen from the tower and spent some time down by the lake eating more bagels and sipping some hot chocolate.

An important thing to remember if you are coming from a warm climate and headed to toronto is a coat, something I failed to bring along. If you are a warm blooded chicagoan at heart like me then, don’t worry about it too much. T-Dot isn’t as cold as they pretend it is.

After I cruised through the toronto international art fair I headed to Union to await Teri who was coming down early to keep me company. Shortly after meeting her we found ExpatBen and Travelling Welshman and Molsongirl.

Two pitchers later we headed to East side and found Simply_Angelic there as well. After dinner we decided to head to someplace with cheaper beers and ended up at this fantastic place the Beir Market where we spent the remainder of the night.

After that well… the whole bus incident and then some drunk dialing again at Teri’s and then i passed the F out for the night until I awoke this morning to a throbbing headache and some notion that I had to travel 1500 some odd miles.

Sooo yeah, all in all the meetup was great. It was super sweet to finally meet the t-dot girls and to meet ben and alex, next round is on you boys in england, eh?