Hola El Paso

to the post office

"is this gonna last forever?"

El Paso/Juarez - one city, two countries. A river that divides. An un-crossable bridge for many.

Here on the north shore of the Rio-Grande, like any other American city, locals enjoy relative security, clean, paved streets, parks and buildings lit up with bright (mostly incandescent) Christmas lights, colleges and universities and a thriving arts and music scene. With 80% of the population Spanish-speaking Chicanos (born in the US of Mexican parents), El Paso sometimes feels like it belongs on the other side of the border. Especially in the down-town core with it's shops full of cheap crap - jeans and hair-extensions, markets full of tortillas and chillies, and the Spanish language everywhere. Welcome to Amexica.

A jaunt across the bridge however quickly proves the distinction of the two sides when more than the name of the river changes. South of the Rio Bravo there is no security, there are few paved roads and there are no Christmas lights, except for the giant Texas lone-star, lit up on a northern mountain overlooking the south. A constant reminder - a snubbed nose - to those who can't cross. Where corrupt police officers are laid-off and join the ranks of the drug cartels who really rule the streets, locals are living in fear. When you're lost in the rain in Juarez these days, whether it's Easter time or not, you better find your way out. With over 100 murders a month, since March, it's a full-on war, and instead of allowing "refugees" north of the border, the Americans are building a wall. No where else in the world does such a rich nation share a border with such a poor one.

We were lucky enough to meet Sam, an American former volunteer at the Annunciation House (a transition house for Mexicans crossing over) who was back in town to visit friends. He offered to take us over to Juarez for the morning to visit Peter and Betty, an 85 year old Carmalite priest and a 75 year old nun, as well as Estelle and Berta, two women raising families in Anapra on the outskirts of Juarez and both strongly involved with women's empowerment and community initiatives.
Peter and Betty have been living a simple life in Juarez for the past 13 years doing social justice work in the community through the church. They talked a bit about the recent rise in violence, much between the Narcos, with one cartel currently trying to oust the other from the area. There have also been many threats to the more wealthy - doctors and teachers - demanding money for "protection." Then of course the women - mostly young, beautiful girls working in the Maquilas (American factories built just south of the border taking advantage of cheap wages). Over 1400 women have been murdered in Juarez since the mid-90s.
Estelle and Berta live in Anapra where many houses are built with old pallets covered with tar paper. They belong to a women's group that raised enough money to build a centre where they have a small garden and offer herbology and computer classes, host children's camps, and build composting toilets to sell to the larger community. The whole morning in Juarez was a total inspiration and we had a two-hour wait on the bridge to contemplate it all.

El Paso has been a real surprise for us. Danielle and I imagined ourselves hanging out at Miriam's house doing crafts all day. And while we have done a bit of that, we've also met lots of great folks in town and seem to have immersed ourselves into the local "scene". It probably helped that for our first week here we were riding around with Ryan and his tall bike.

We met Ryan and Krystee in Austin and hung out with them for most of our time there. They love dumpster diving possibly more than we do, and we'd spend our days biking the streets, loading up with pizza and produce to make delicious meals and long leisurly breakfasts. We went swimming at Barton Springs, held signs for $7/hour one day, worked on bikes at the Rhizome, and checked out the many urban farms and the farmers market. Austin is an oasis in the desert.
Ryan and Krystee are traveling the states in a cozy converted school bus that made the 12 hour drive to El Paso totally enjoyable. We found magic with them here, from witnessing a very tribal dance on the steps of the cathedral for Guadalupe day, to an open-mic night where I read a poem and Krystee sang, to a jam night under the stars overlooking the city, to our night playing stic-n-poke, when we each got a tattoo - a forever reminder of this journey. We were sad to see them go but now have great friends from Chicago.

It's so nice to be here with Miriam in her setting, watching her wearing scrubs and playing with placentas. I'm so proud of her...she works like a maniac and is still finding time to hang out with us and show us an amazing time. We've been having a blast, making food, going on hikes, riding bikes, playing dress-up. We plan to hang around until Christmas before heading into Mexico.

Many warm wishes during these short days of holiday craze. Happy Solstice...the return of the light. Much love my friends.
-Sheri

craftin' and cookin'

sheri tryin on her newly sewn hat

freshly made outta the dumpsta, KEY LIME MERENGUE PIE!!!!

Miriam makin' supper

sheri writin' postcards home
"is it still morning?"

sewing at Miriam's

when you're lost in the rain in juarez and it's easter time too

so i'll be staying in el paso for a while kids, the weather's been kind to me and there's too much to do, it seems (unexpectedly)

our ride here from Austin Texas turned into a plutonic love affair with two Chicagonians whom we spent every waking moment with making food, dressing up like mariachis and 1990's office clerks, checkered coats and one piece stretch jean pantsuits. we biked around the steep hills of El Paso thanks to miriam and her neighbour that let me borrow her bike AND her recent issues of 'small farms journal'. el Paso, also known as 'el Chuco' or 'Chucotown', has consumed our time with tours of miriams clinic where she is studying to become a midwife. she showed us a placenta just born, met the other midwives in training. we've been to an open mic night at a fancy restaurant with BYOB - awesome talant. we've watched the tribal dances for Guadie on La Dia De Guadalupe on the steps of the catholic church downtown at night, and have found the coolest watering hole in town, the tap, which is like the woodbine only with about a seventh of the patrons and spanish love songs on the jukebox. another night we cut our hair and got tattoos.

sheri's bday took us to Soledad Canyon by Las Cruces for a hike in the mountains. we are never surrounded by trees here, only shrub, cacti, juniper, thorny bushes and patches of long grass. later we played pool and ate a massive plate of flautas with beans and rice and guac... and of course payed for it the next morning with an uncomfortable poo.

learning some interesting facts about Poncho Villa, leader and hero of the northern mexican revolution. he was a womanizer and murdered 90 soldaderas by tying them in bundles of 10-12 women, then shot and burned them because they wouldn't tell him who fired a bullet.

Juarez, the sister city south of the border, is a place i assumed i'd bypass considering it is the most violent border city on the US/Mex border. two warring drug cartels run the town, one is best friends with the president and about 10-20 murders occur daily. there have been over 1000 murders this year alone, 83 of them are targeted women that are mutilated or tortured. they are not just sex trade workers or in the drug business, they are family of doctors and teachers who refuse to accept and buy "security" from the cartel, a gangster or police. the complexity of the situation is overwhelming, the players with long stories and grudges, the history of the violence incomprehendable to me right now. 1400 women are missing in the last 10 years.

we visited Juarez yesterday and had a great visit. a dude we met randomly was going to visit friends who have been living there for 13 years, and took us along. crossing the border was breezy, we simply paid the toll and crossed the bridge over the Rio Grande (which is just a trickle right now). in Juarez, we met an amazing nun and priest (75 and 85 years old who look about 60) doing great work with womyn's organizations and youth. from there we met some local women who have started a collective making ecological toilets with ceramic, and then sell them cheaply and educate people in the community how to use them. they also have an apothecary cabinet using local herbs and someone in their community teaches them how to make salves and tinctures. there is also a computer training at this centre, and they are awaiting the arrival of a milking cow from the NGO Heifer. it should be coming soon, we saw the pen ready. these women lead incredibly hard lives raising kids, volunteering at the centre and working in the 'maquila' (factory). two women we met, Berta and Tina build cell phone chips all night long in the maquila. NAFTA has done a great job of leaving Mexico starving for processed goods. cheap mexican labour is used for assembly lines, not producing real goods or services - that is left for bigger markets in Canada and the US.

driving around Juarez was totally third world, we needed a dune buggy to evade some holes in the desert streets, most houses were made out of pallets and roofing paper or some had cinderblock walls. black crosses line the streets to mark the life of every woman that has been killed this year, militia men in head to toe black with assault rifles pull over anyone they want. we saw 3 cyclists being accosted near the border highway and were glad it wasn't us. crossing back in to the States took about 1 hour (which was not a long time for a Tuesday apparently) and due to our whiteness, a passport check wasn't needed.

i know the cold air is pushing hard on you. while the cactus christmas is totally upon us. i expected less evergreen themed yard decorations all around. santa is still in his red fleece with white trimmed fur and mittens, the plastic snowpeople somehow remain frozen in the desert heat. lots of people cheeze it up with singing LED lights all night long. there is not a lot of cacti decorations, and the town square in el Paso is lit up continuously. kinda gross...

we have decided to stay until the 25th to be with miriam. i'm hoping you all have a good holiday, spend the solstice outside, hug your neighbour, eat well and slowly, drink til rosy and stare wide eyed at the moon
love dani

Happy B-Day Sheri!

hike at Soledad Canyon, by Las Cruces, New Mexico

sheri and miriam lost their heads in the desert

danielle and sheri

3 beauties of the mountain


nice moves, miriam!

random El Paso adventures

the CatMafiaBus

Sun Harvest dumpster score

want some? ...ladies night out

the bathroom was actually more fun than the bar

el paso treats us well

it took a few tries, but sheri rides a tall bike smoothly now

long shadows listening to horrid xmas carols in the square

a free blazer found for each of us!

this is our album cover, if we were a band

a wide state

hallo my friends,
hope the winter is treating you all well. you'll be glad to know i, too, have seen a lot snow this winter... well, at least more than i expected to. we drove with some chicago kids we met driving a school bus around amerika across texas from austin, right through a snowstorm and white all around us.... CRAZY!

austin was good to us, a bit of a vacation actually, we got bikes from the rhizome collective and fixed them up to be ridden to mexico and given to some people down there. we stayed at biosquat, which we found quite by accident even tho i had heard about it from geoff before, and loitered there for a coupla weeks, almost. interesting and magical bicycle structures all over the property on the east side of town. we camped in the tree fort and every night watched austin's downtown lights sparkle in the distance. the dumpstering was always fruitful there, unlike NOLA, and we tried to go to as many art openings that we could for the free wine and snacks. if it weren't for whole foods and central market with all their free samples of fruit, cheese, bread, meat, coffee, quiche and crackers we might have actually spent money in this town. austin is a pretty hilly city, after a week of killing ourselves on the steeper hills with huge mountain bikes we finally found the long ways around everything - and FLAT! i finally went swimming! yay! barton springs was beautifully clear and cold on a hot day.... i felt like jackie onasis in my zebra striped bathing suit and sunglasses.

we are in el paso, now, visiting miriam and prepping ourselves for the longer haul in mexico. we're trying to figure out where to go..... where to go......

i have had some ups and downs in the last coupla. trying to keep spirits up by getting up early and having some time to myself. started to wear red lipstick when we ride bikes around and dress up in ridiculous outfits we find in garbage bins. it's so funny, when we ride together as four northerners, the motley crew of us.

well, i gotta go, but i'll write again soon. love y'all, ~d...

Austin at Biosquat

sheri almost got her face stuck in the bike-frame fence

sheri and ryan in the bike shop/office

our tent pitched in a tree fort

Bikes Across Borders...the Rhizome Collective

TN > MS > LA > TX

hiya all

lastly in memphis tennessee there was an amazing midnight bike ride down to the river underneath the pillars of a century old wooden bridge over the mississippi where us 30 cyclists made s'mores over the bonfire and watched the barges and their floodlights roll past in the thick fog. other great stuff happened but they're small details.

memphis, like st. louis and detroit and other american cities has suffered from "white flight", the ghetto-ization of inner city that once was a thriving industrial sector based around the river port and is now home to broken glass, alcoholism and poverty

i did find some great folks to hang out with there, including 3 californian chicas cycling west - east and it was fun sharing stories from the road with other gals

we got a ride through most of mississippi the state, and ate delicious hot boiled peanuts on the roadside. they were soooooo friggin good, like edamame of the south. you suck the peanut out of it's shell, it's the texture of baked beans with hot oily salty liquid all over your chin. i wish i could eat them everyday

the weather got real damp and cold in our tent, which made for some boring miserable nights. i was reading a great book from a southern author, carson mccullers (the heart is a lonely hunter) which killed some evening hours. any chance we could get to sleep indoors we did: in a college apartment (a.k.a. pig-sty) with roaches crawling everywhere, to a preacher's 2nd quarters (possibly the old slave house?) on the back property. we've otherwise tented in trailer parks in louisiana which was, uhh, interesting and behind businesses and other random spots.

we got a lift over lake ponchitrain into new orleans , cause there is no shoulder on the bridge for cyclists, and we got taken for a tour via automobile with a nice dude. we lived in algiers for 2 nights and crossed the mississippi river a lot via ferry. there is so much to say about nola i don't know where to start.... mostly it was a sensory overload in every respect. alcohol, stilettos, booming stereos, face tattoos, pet goats, book stores, cruisers, daquiris, buskers, boats, debris, neon lights, barf, transients, food, potholes, trendy hair-doos, street cleaners, art, expensive grocery, dancing, tourists, voodoo and so much more. we stayed at a collective árt house' north of the quarter and had a chill time watching the activity of this city. classically, we ate a shrimp and oyster po boy, but i enjoyed the chicken pot pie from the 'pie lady' better. we participated in a '2nd line' which is a huge parade every sunday in various black neighbourhoods. 2 fantastic brass bands, lots of cheap alcohol and cigars, feathers and costumes, shimmies in the streets.... we paraded around with 100's of people for hours and had a riot. altho it was a short visit, nola seems to be a place of 2 extremes, the poor and the rich, the black and the white, the destruction and resurrection. there are holes where people have abandoned their lives here, and other places look like no storm every touched a roof shingle

to sum up fast, we're in austin now after ditching 1/2 my bicycle. our time together was finished, to tell the truth the last coupla days of riding i wanted to kick it to our final destination rather than ride. riding through the south wasn't like the northern part at all - there is so much civilization down here, and nothing seems wild and vast and untouched like spaces in the northern part of the country. i feel less free to go where i want on a whim but lighter: carrying 1/2 the gear i started out with. hahhh..... i need a massage....

love d

bye bye byeks

9th Ward Second Line parade....

Yes...it's true. I spent an hour playing tetris with my bike and a cardboard box outside of Michael's Cycles in the French quarter of New Orleans and now I am bike-less. At least until tomorrow when we go pick up some loner bikes from the Rhizome Collective, an educational center for urban sustainability and center for community organizing here in Austin.

Yes...Austin. We spent 10 hours in a car yesterday with two girls we found on Craig's list rideshare. I guess we were both just ready to be done with the cycle-touring part of this adventure and wanted to be moving at a faster pace. To be honest I think we've been done with that since Memphis.

Although it was great to have our bikes in that city. We ended up hooking up with the local bike crew for their weekly night ride. They took us all through the crazy Memphis streets, down through trails and alleys and finally to a park by the river where we locked up our bikes off the path in the bushes and continued on foot down these stone steps and over rocks and vines down to the rocky, misty shore of the Mississippi. It was a foggy night and some of the kids had made a fire pit earlier, so we had a lovely bonfire and drank beer and ate smores as the cars and trains rode past on the old bridge overhead and a huge barge floated past in the water below. It was such a magical night with so many great folks.

Afterwards we rode back, passing the Vegas-like Beale St. strip where the flashy lights are the only sign of it's former musical glory. Apparently Blues is dead in Memphis, and these days you'd have more luck catching stunning sounds at an open-mic night than some Beale St. club. Which we did - the intense and political young piano-hammering dude, the older, folksy, guitar-playing blind woman with an eerie voice and honest words, and the 4 piece 20-something band rockin out in this little coffee shop. Amazing.

We caught a ride out of Memphis with Ashley, one of our couch-surfing hosts there. She took us the 5-hour drive to Hattiesburg, munching on the southern, delicious roadside snack of boiled peanuts along the way. She was going there to hang out with friends at an art party and took us along. So we partied with the art-school kids of MS getting tips on what to do and eat once we got to NOLA.

It was about a 3 day ride from there to NOLA. We spent a night in the old slave quarter house in the yard of "Two-Bits", Lumberton, MS's methodist preacher. A cold night in Jan's trailer park beside an abandoned trailer in Bogalusa MS. And when we got to Slidell, LA and the banks of the Ponchartrain, we strangers were not exactly turned away, but 'put up' in our tent behind Peggy's financial business. We didn't meet any swamp-folks but we did see lots of houses up on stilts.

We had to hitch a ride over the bridge to New Orleans because it was too narrow. We got picked up by Rennie who not only took us over the bridge but also gave us the grand tour of the city. Showing us still-abandoned areas that had been hit hard by katrina, the beautiful mansions of the garden district, the river-side walkway and the quaint, winding, european streets of the French quarter. He also took us out for a balcony lunch of gumbo and crawfish bisque and to the apparently infamous Cafe du Monde for beignets, a doughy roll covered in icing sugar.

Our first two nights in NOLA we stayed with Saleem Kareem a high-school English teacher who was too into partying for our tastes. But we did enjoy checking out the Bourbon St. night life with him one night - it had to be done. We had gotten a contact from a girl we met in Memphis which brought us to this huge mansion full of young artists. We were met at the door by Dave who asked few questions and led us to one of 3 empty rooms in the basement with a big matress on the floor. Despite the cockroaches it was comfy and warm for the rest of our nights in NOLA. We slowly met the other residents, all very humble, unpretentious kids just doing their thing. They had this huge tree fort and other crazy scavenged goods throughout their backyard.

A photographer who lives there, Jeremy took us out on Sunday to a "Second Line" parade in the notorious 9th ward, a poorer. less developed area of the city where people know how to party and celebrate life. Second-Lines happen every Sunday somewhere in the city and are put on by various community social-organizing clubs. There were 2 brass bands with dancers who marched and danced through the streets, collecting people along the way to join in on the dancing and drinking, which is legal on the streets of New Orleans. It was an all afternoon mobile party and by the end I was exhausted. New Orleans was exhausting in general. It was a total sensory overload of people, and music and buildings and food.

I feel a bit relieved to be at our new haven here in Austin. The Bio-squat is a small peice of land on the edge of the city where kids over the years have built a little eco-village. There's bike part sculptures and forts everywhere. We're sleeping up in a tree house platform with only a roof to cover us. The weather is so humid and mild. Cacti and air-plants are everywhere. We spent the day here alone just relaxing as people are gathering with families for the big U.S. turkey day. I look forward to exploring Austin tomorrow.

Hope all is well with all of you. Bye for now.
Love Sheri

You thought you knew us....

roadkill

8 flat tires an still rollin

there be a lotta glass on tha road

hallowe en seems so long ago, but for the update i was a mime (that talked all night and danced badly). we went on a scary haunted bike ride round town, met some cool dudes that took us to 'new roots farm' fire an potluck, and turned my front wheel into schrader from presta in a pinch.

if anyone needs to go to st louis (pronounced lewis, you frenchies) i think i can give a great tour: cherokee street, the arch, ted drewe's frozen custard, the craft alliance, the waterfront, the moolah theatre, worker owned organic bakery, afghani restaurants, big thrift stores and much more... we did it.

from st. l mo. we unsuccessfully attempted to catch a boat out of kimmswick. "just missed the season" we were told... and they DIDN'T laugh at us. so apparently, it's possible.

we meandered steep ozark hills for a coupla "lost" days: windin' narrow roads without shoulders as 18-wheelers carrying coal dust barrellin down our necks. we met nice folks in towns with swastikas and anti-abortionist jargon. we were in the thick of hillbilly country when barack won the votes of middle class amerika.

earl the plumber saved our skin and drove us back to the mississippi river, where we gathered ourselves, and found a place to stay with judy in cape girardeau (remember the anglophone accent). she's a 70 year old cyclist in better shape than sheri or i who does a million cool things and lives in a mansion. in cape we went on a fast and drunk night-bicycle ride, ate free burritos and hit up the farmers market.

a few days later, biking back in to illinois, then over the big ohio river into kentucky i had my first real southern experience. i got to ride in a 'horse an buggy' an eat BBQ briskett. all i need now is some pecan pie and a porch swing. can't wait to try frogs legs and fried okra.

hey, didga know Mean Gene makes Burgers To Go? well, he does, in Wickliffe, KY.

we're in tennessee now, after a restful WARM night in a church and suffering through the morning service wasn't even all that bad (except for the "pledge allegiance to the flag" bit, and singin "god bless america"). it was worth the free things we got in return. sometimes i think this trip is all check and balance

we're goin to memphis. anybody know anything good goin on there, send it my way.

~lotsa southernly love, d

Memphis bound...on wheels

Well, we've been all over the place since the last time I wrote, but I think we know where we're going now.

We had a good time on Halloween! The best part was this spooky bike ride we went on with a bunch of folks all dressed up and checking out the haunted sights of St. Louis. We met this cool dude, Mark who fed us sweet persimmons soufle from marble-sized fruit he found at the park, and invited us to a pot-luck the next night at New Roots urban farm collective, where a group of folks have an empty lot in north St. Louis with a big market garden, an outdoor kitchen and a bunch of chickens...very cool.

We headed out of St. Louis to the town of Kimswick where we heard was the last gas-up for a while for boats heading south. But apparently we're a bit late in the season to catch pleasure-boaters heading south and barges aren't legally allowed to take passengers. So we were pretty bummed out to get back on our bikes, after we'd been so high on hopes. But we gathered ourselves and decided to head south-west instead towards the Ozarks and East-wind intentional community, where a group of about 80 folks all live together and run a nut-butter factory out in the hills. We'd met a couple from there at Dancing Rabbit and they invited us to come for a visit. But after a couple days into our detour as the hills got bigger, the roads narrower and the accents thicker, we were starting to question out direction. We were in Boondocks, USA where folks with thick, slow drawls were saying this like, "Kay-ni-duh...that's like a whole 'nother country, ain't it??" So after a few miles of close calls with semis and a driver screaming out the window at us, we decided no amount of free peanut butter was worth continuing, and that we'd hitch a ride back towards the river the very next day.

That morning we woke with a good start to find out that Obama had been elected! Thank goodness the election craze is over now. Our day got better when we got picked up by Earl the plumber who took us the whole two hours to Cape Girardeau in his boat car, asking our opinions about love and telling us about his four wives that all ran away. We were just glad to be out of the Ozarks in a hurry.

In the Cape he dropped us off in a parking lot that just happened to be across the street from the bicycle shop. So we headed over and met some great folks who invited us out to their wed. night ride and phoned up Judy the local bike-tourer host. She's 70 years old and puts us to shame with her level of activity. She lives alone with her yappy dog Ginger in a huge mansion that her grandmother designed and she grew up in and we stayed two nights to regroup and figure out our next plan.

That night we met the local bike geeks at Burrito-Ville. A small group of 20-somethings riding fancy fixed-gear bikes with bull-horn handles, clicking around on their clipless peddle shoes, wearing layers of lycra, nylon, and fleece with water-proof courier bags filled with cans of cheap local beer. At first we thought, 'who are these kids?' But after a few drinks we all loosened up and had a great night buzzing around the streets like a swarm of bees, shouting out "Car up!" or "car back!" to keep each other safe. With blinking red lights in the half-moon night darkness, we rode to the old bridge and looked out at the river at night, to an old fort in town and to a couple of parks. They ride fast and drink hard. We had fun.

Judy sent us on our way down the back roads through a slice of Kentucky and into Tenessee, where we've been having a true southern experience. We met some old-timers who took us on a horse and buggy right and told us to go eat BBQ at Nicky's restaurant. Well, Nicky turned out to be quite a sweet-heart. He bought our lunch and phoned up his church to let us stay for the night. We ended up helping him out at a catering gig that night too after one of his girls phoned in sick and we made $40. each. The next morning we went to service at his church and made even more money from generous folks. They just gave us cash and wished us good luck on our travels. It's been a profitable few days with about $80 each in total! That should keep us going for quite a while.

We should be in Memphis tonight or tomorrow and we're hoping to get a ride out of there on Craig's list all the way to NOLA (New Orleans, Louisiana). We're both getting a bit sick of riding and camping and small-town after small-town. We still do about 60km a day but in better time, though since the time change we have to stop sooner and sit around in the dark more. The weather is getting cold again and we're just keen to get south. Thanks for all the wishes of wind at our backs, though more often than not it's from the south.
Looking forward to a change of pace.
Take care for now.
Love Sheri

black cat series

sighting

chase

escape

Hallowe'en

water, fire, earth

happy hallowe'en says mime and earth

gettin' ready

sheri gathered foliage from the backyard for her hair piece

ST. L. MO.

howdy,
the accent is gettin thicker as we move i.o.a. rails to trails were not as
nice as minnesotas, but still pretty.  i fell on a slippery patch and only
got some skin torn off, and went with crooked handlebars for about a
week an a half.

we have meandered from the flood zones of cedar falls and cedar rapids,
where we had awesome sleeps in abandoned backyards with prolific
apple trees.  then we met john, an indescribable character who took us
to a town called west branch where we slept in his haunted house
(seriously!) he's renovating.  his wife beth took us to a barn dance
where i burned about 7000 calories swingin my pardner dosey-doe-ing
all around the floor.

from iowa city, john drove us all over the countryside showing us this
and that, various demolition/reconstruction projects he's working on,
like old churches and brick opera houses.  we ate lunch at "teets and
tobe's" and sheri was asked if she believed in jesus.  john wants a
building in winnipeg (for free) if anyone has any leads....

we made it to fairfield, the big thing there is meditation, and they all
worship maharishi.  we stayed in kate's backyard and she introduced
her roommate, erik, who's job it was to meditate for the greater good of
the world.  erik gets paid 700 bux a month from a texan oil tycoon that
owns 29 rigs in the gulf to meditate(!) and offset the big bad oil karma. 
this place was so fucked up, but we found delicious coffee and saw a
rock an roll show for free where i sat next to the mayor.

then we went to dancing rabbit, an ecovillage near rutledge missouri. 
once we hit missouri we were in misery cause the hills became STEEP. 
i started to walk my bike up some hills, how pathetic.  rutledge is in the
middle of amish country, lots of braids, bonnets, beards and buggies.

from there, some annoying folks trying to be kind crossed our path. 
somehow, we attracted the people that wanted us to stay in their warm
homes (it was getting cold outside) but AT A PRICE: they wanted us to
listen to their life stories as well as the gossip in the neighbourhood as
well as the history of their house as well as their relatives medical history
as well as their dog's habits as well as bla blah blah.  it was a week of
headaches, altho i was thankful for the cushy mattresses and warm sleep.

we jumped into illinois to hit the pretty calhoon county with high white bluffs
and the mississippi beside us.  thru grafton, i ate catfish and drank cider.

now we're in st. louis, couchsurfing and seeing all the free stuff we can.
there is some awesome stuff here: art, farmer's markets, apple harvest,
greenspace, food, but zero bike culture.  i think i've counted 14 bikes on
the road since we've been here (including us).  st. l mo is super friendly,
everyone wants to talk to you, everybody smiles and some ramble on the
streets about jesus.  every building is made of bricks, which surprises me. 
there is a lot of industry by the river, an st. louisians don't really have a
connection to it.  too bad, we just picked up huck finn to kindle the spirit of
the place.

we're thinking about hopping a boat outta here?  that's probably a pipe
dream.  we're waiting to leave after the dias del muertos (nov 2)

ciao, daniela

Missourippi

As soon as we crossed the state line into Missouri, the black-top got blacker, the greenery got greener and the hills got a hell of a lot hillier. There was no doubt we were in a new state and we even had a soaring eagle and horse-drawn Amish woman to usher us in.
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> By the end I was really enjoying Iowa too though. We experienced a barn dance with square-dancing, line-dancing and circle-dancing. We explored an old opera house and slept in the big, old, haunted "Hoover" house. We learned about the wonders of transcendental meditation and the "flying" that goes on in the domes at the Maharishi University where a Texan oil tycoon pays $1million a month to 500 people to meditate every day. Overall Iowa turned out to be much more diverse than it had appeared at first glance.
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> Our first stop in Missouri was Memphis where we encountered Twila, our first denial for a yard to sleep in...she even called the cops. Luckily her neighbour was much nicer. Our second stop was Dancing Rabbit, a ten-year-old eco-village with 35 full members and 10 not-yet members. It's quite similar to what's going on at Prairie's Edge but 5 times as populated. Lot's of awesome little structures all built very close together, out of a variety of cob, earthen bag, and straw-bale. Someone even built a home in an old grain bin. They also have a big communal building with a wood-fired boiler and radiant flooring. There are two other intentional communities with slightly different focuses within walking distance. And the local mennonite-run all-purpose store in the nearby town of 150 folks, sells things like vegan burgers, agave nectar and goji berries...go figure. You gotta cater to the customers I guess. We spent a few nights and days that mostly rained so spent our time visiting, hiking around, reading and playing Settlers of Cataan.
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> From there we headed south-east towards the great Mississippi river and Mark Twain country. We stayed in Hannibal, his historic hometown with Cindy the librarian who took us out for supper and baked us cookies for the road. We travelled south along the Illinois side of the river from there because it was much flatter. We followed a winding road with the river on one side and tall limestone bluffs along the other...so beautiful. We stayed with trucker Jay in Mozier, Il who talked our ears off about his whole town and whole family which were mostly one and the same. In touristy Grafton we had our first taste of river catfish and sampled a few hard ciders at the pub.
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> Now we're in St. Louis staying with two cool girls we found on couchsurfing.com. We're going to stay for Halloween so we can hit up a party where I'll be Earth to Jess and Zoe's Fire and Water and Danielle will be a mime. We've been spending our time cooking, crafting, checking out free galleries, thrift-store shopping, and just biking around in the sunshine in this pretty bike-unfriendly city. We spent the day yesterday at the water front hoping to find a lift south on a boat of some kind. But it seems that our newly-acquired copy of Huck Finn will have to fulfill those desires for now. We haven't given up all hope yet though. I'll let you know how it all pans out. Hope all is well up north. St. Louis still hasn't had a frost yet.
> Bye for now.
> Love Sheri

a sign of things to come

roadside wall

look who sheri found in the outhouse...

us by the Mississippi