holidaysinthewesternworld....elpaso,sedona,lasvegas...and salt lake city..

sheri,miriam and krystee with their good friends bicycles......after a nice ride around el paso...and what a blessing to be with such beautiful people,miriam lives in elpaso......she claimed she didn't know where to take us,but she tooook us on an adventure and offfered us a warm environment......she didn't even sleeeep for 37 hours once bc of her job and we all danced the night away.that was amazing.............
this would be cat mafia bus after a night parked in the middddle of sedona...a beautiful view....
winter came in flagstaff,az,so we tried to escape asap,but this was a sight to seeee,a snowman and his littttle friend....
nicholas fry.he came with us for a few days as we explored sedona....an old friend in a new time...it was amzing to spend time with him...............especially in the unknown world....at least unknown to us....(but we did find some great dumpsters in sedona...it was his dumpster training skool.....and we ate well that night,,,,,,,very well...........)
the tall bike by candlelight in the park in el paso.....quite the spectacle as always...

salt lake city.that is where we r today......it is about 22 degrees.last night we went to an amazing show at boing,an anarchist collective,,,,,when we got there, people were loading about 20 boxes of food upstairs for food not bombs,,,,,and there is a huge library,a few cats and bikes everywhere,and of course a free box on the porch........they proceeded to transform the comfortable living space into a concert hall in 2.3 minutes flat.including soundproofing the room with mattresses over all the windows...................people started flooooding in and when the show started,everyone was asked to sit.there were about 30 silent smiling faces with legs crossed anticipating what was to come..........and what was to come was james miska and chaz,a man i am unaware of his last night or even the spelling of his first,but i am aware of the fact that he could touch that guitar in some amazing ways..........but james and chaz took turns playing songs for over an hour or so..........everyone listened so intently.and to hear james play again made me so happy...........he pushes every limit while making such beautiful music,,,and chaz was creating symphonies of sound and color and emotion with his eyes closed and fingers dancing.......and as sooon as they were done,the next act started setting up,a band,trebuje,,,which is what the mattresses were for.......james plays guitar,and eric is the singer screamer exclaimer,,,and it was his birthday.....but the atmosphere quickly turned into one of participation ,the second the music started the room was alive with dancing and jumping and pushing,,,,,friends that loved thier friends music.i stood back and watched as this happened.....and not one single person was holding a bottle of alcohol.this was sheeeeer indulgence in the noise and music and vibrations.....everyone was one massssive explosion.it was an amazing site...................................i am gonna put up a few pictures.....not in order of happpening,,,,,,,but some nice ones...........

some memories from el paso....

what time is it in elpasO?what time is it everywhere obviously...........
here we r at the scene of debras dumpster.....where danielle is looking lovely and ryan is on a secret missssion.
after a 20 mile bike ride up giagantic mountains,we returned with so much foood we found,it almost couldn't all fit on the table.......we made a huge pot of dumpster soup and tabouli,,,,,fruit salad and bagels for breakfast....and had snacks for days..............it was a beautiful sight
dumpster fashion showw with danielle and sheri......
we were riding by this warehouse and because of his great elevation,ryan could seee into this dumpster and see that it was full of clothes....we all got a blazer and sported them the rest of the night...and ryan got some beautiful mariachi pants,and they were sewn by the hands of the angels just for him..........

in el paso we had great adventures by bicycle with our friends, sheri,danielle and miriam.....pirates looking for treasure which we found many..........and we were also detectives in the circumstance of the mysterious dumpster full of debra's whole office....clocks,rugs,shredders,,,even the mini blinds,,,,,hmmmm,we never solved the mystery,but took hundreds of magnets with her name and have converted them into beautiful magnetic pictures of other things for the walls of our bussssssssssss,well maybe like 7....

christmasinvegas

hello this is krystee.i woke up this morning on starthistle lane in las vegas.......we spent the last few days in sedona, az with our friend nick,and it was rainy yet the beauty of that place radiated thru.......there are national forests all around there and u can camp or park in them for up to a weeeeek,,,and we found a really amazing spot away from civilization,,,except a model airplane racing track thing,,but noone was using it...there were these huge rocks everywhere resembling dinosaur egggs,they were broken off in layers,and we found one piece that was a perfect chair,,,,,i didn't sit in it bc there was a big puddle in the seat,,,but i was amazed at nature........and.we have beeeeen having some goood food, ryan cooked us up some stir fry on our stove in the middle of the wildernessssssssss...............and hanging out with nick was really good........his energy is extremely positive and openminded........i like that alot.it has been a few years since i actually got to hang out with him for longer than 1 hour...............we had a plan to go to the grand canyon,since we were sooooo close,but as we proceeded in that direction,a huge snow storm hit and continued,as we just decided to go to vegas bc of the snow,and it decided to come with us.......apparently it hasn't snowed there for 4 years.and we got the grand entrance......but today i woke up,back to starthistle,i woke up and the sun was out and spirits were high.we have been doing a bit of exploring,and we can actually see today,the mountains here are beautiful and majestic.........we found a salvation army,,,,that warmed my heart,and we got a french presssssss for 2.50.yeah.coffffffeeeee.that really warmed my heart............we r just meandering around today,,,,but we aim to do a bit of busking around here and of course dumpstering........still have the feather mentality........we shall see where the wind takes us

AUSTIN

Austin has been an incredible time of peaceful solitude, soft interaction and leisurely breakfasts. I've had time to work on my bike, finish a couple sewing projects, get to know some good people, and dumpster dive for incredible food all in the embrace of a magical land constructed in discarded bicycle remains called bio-squat. I began feeling maybe a little too comfortable in our situation and now feel satisfied with our Tuesday departure to El Paso.

day 3 sign holding

this is krystee speaking.today we held signs on the side of the road for 5 hours today. i would have never envisioned myself doing such a thing, but it turned out to be an amazing experience.5 hours thinking, exploring my memories, singing songs,writing new ones, listening to my dear friends make their beautiful music.we r going to do it for 2 more days and then we will depart from austin.and drive to el paso. we met these girls that rode bicycles from winnepeg to new orleans....they went much the same path as we did and met many of the same people and went to the same places..............we have spent alot of time with them and it has been amazing............very leisurely we got to experience the past week or so together...these girls have shown us how to take dumpster food and turn it into amazing delicious meals.we have rode bikes alot over many a hill and thru many a climate change.it will be 70 or 80 degrees in the afternoon and then drop to 30 by night.we spent the last week or so parked outside of this place called bio squat.we gave the girls a ride home after a show and the place they were staying was an amazing secret spot in the woods.........the people that lived there invited us to stay awhile.....and we did.i had been craving a mountain experience or some quiet nature time.i feel blessed by the moments i spent there..........we didn't even know what we were looking for and found something amazing and out of this world.......that seems to be a reoccurring theme in my experiences this far......i just keep being led into situations where we meet amazing people,new friends, get magically provided for, and see places i could have never imagined, and welcomed into peoples environments............of course there has been many moments where i felt out of place, scared, lonley, homesick.....unsure what i was looking for, but all woven in and out of these feelings is a sense of wonder at what unfolds.......i could have always said that,things always happen before my eyes and leave me in a state of wonder.i couldn't have it any other way.but this time on the bus is pulling and stretching me and showering me with beautiful moments.............

and i think of so many people i love so often..........it also amazes me that i know all of u that i do know..............i am blessed.i am.i am.

2 more days to think.and then we will move on again.

Our first day in Austin proves to be adventurous.  

And Fruitful. providing dumpsters of abundance

Leaving New Orleans

Fire at the levy in the lower ninth

We'll miss you Common Ground

pitterpatterearlymorningrainondepartureday

goodmorninggreysky.todayisthedaywewillmoveon
fromneworleans...movingwestward....thisplacehasbecome
abeautifulcomfortablelaboriousmemory.andiwillreturn.
somedaytothisground. ..............but for now,like a feather,
we shall be carried onto our next destination.............
.austin.tx....................life is like a box of chocolate.u never
do know what u gonna be getttting

Through working with House to Home (www.housetohomeproject.org), we met a bunch of people that work with this organization called Common Ground
(www.commongroundrelief.org). Common Ground was started right after Katrina working in efforts to keep the lower 9th ward residential. It's a sort of collective that offers the residence of the lower 9th "immediate aid...and longterm support in rebuilding these communities in just and sustainable ways."(pamphlet from common grounds) It is completely volunteer run and provides legal assistance, media coverage, wetlands restoration, construction services and mowing services, which is much of what we have been doing, mowing. The residence that have not been able to move back for what ever reason are being fined outrageous amounts per day for not having their lawns maintained, to which the city intends to take control of and turn the neighborhood into some sort of strip mall or something. 85% of the lower 9th were, and for many, still are home, or now lawn, owners. It's been great. I've been working with common ground during the day and working at Bubba Gumps at night. We plan on heading to Austin on Monday.

Out side of the Warehouse of House to Home

This picture was taken at about 11pm on the back patio of Common Ground. The joy of a slow shutter speed.

this was a dead end street that i had to carry my bike up some stairs to cross a bridge,,,,,and a few times in the dark i saw these shoes and they just called out to be remembered.....


this is james.we were wandering around dauphine street and found a pile of baby shoes by a garbage.....they were so amazing we had to do something,what better than a display at the corner of dauphine and desire.we matched them up and put them in a circle.....imagining them being a congregation of young minds in some unified thought..........
in the morning, upon returning to that spot,a change had occurred.no more matches.everyone had taken their shoes off and abandoned their labels ...

cotton candy and crazee music midday in new orleans....it was the book fair and it was a big party on the street..............a band of accordians and makeshift drums and dogs and kids and a lady passsing out cotton candy without any expectation for reimbursment..........and i do love the smell of cotttton candy....

A house I saw after delivering furniture. It was completely painted in shades of orange even the lawn. Posted outside was a small white sign with green lettering saying "P.1" later I googled it and found it to be, "Prospect.1 New Orleans [P.1], the largest biennial of international contemporary art ever organized in the United States, opened to the public on November 1, 2008 in museums, historic buildings, and found sites throughout New Orleans." (www.prospectneworleans.org)

House to Home

So, we hooked up with this organization called House to Home that gets furniture, about to be thrown away, from prop houses in NYC and distributes it to families in need through United Way and Habitat for Humanity.







We had a group of kids from americorps volunteer for a couple days, but for now, we're currently a very small team of about 7 people organizing and distributing furniture for 18 families in about a week. It's pretty crazy.

AmeriCorps kids



Waiting to pick up 36 mattresses from a furniture bank. It took a very long time, luckily magic hour was upon us.



The longest stretch without showering, 6 days, and the dirtiest work we've done...so far. We showered that evening.



Somehow early that morning, about 6 am, I scratched my eyeball in my sleep. Weird. I should start wearing gloves to bed.


This guy drove by while we were waiting to scream something about getting his picture taken to show to his x-wife. He had an American flag flying above his truck and an Obama sign duct taped to the back.