Corvallis Public Service Announcement

Hello All,

I have 6 minutes and 28 seconds to write you an update before the computer boots me off.

I made it to Oregon, Corvallis to be perhaps. I'm trying to find Alec, Everybody who reads this who knows Alec, the brother at KDR at Cornell, TELL HIM TO CALL ME.

I lived in the Redwoods for a week, shelter cove, and then in Redwoods National Park, slept on a beach here in OR last night. Gonna try to head back south after this probably, see the Oregon dunes a little closer.

Oh, big news I almost forgot, I'm on my own now, I mailed back all my extra stuff and I'm backpacking from here.

Erik and Rob dropped me of at Oregon State University, and I've been here chilling in Corvallis since. They went to visit a friend in Eugene, we might meet back up, maybe not, they're going to LA eventually.

Thanks so much for all the help you guys!

Erik gave me sweet new shoes, he's A-O.K.

Gonna find a place to charge my phone.

Be Well.

The 101 Cafe

I'm eating the best biscuits and gravy I've ever had, no exaggeration.
The last two nights I've spent living out of a truck in Redwood State Forest in Humboldt, hiking, camping etc.
For maybe a week before that I stayed with Erik's friend Eric in Shelter Cove, also in Humboldt.

We came into town for a hot breakfast, coffee, wifi, and cell access.
I opted to charge my laptop instead of my phone, so congratulations readers, you found me.
This is a great little cafe in the middle of nowhere on rt. 101, the redwood highway.

I'm having an unbelievable time, I am very alive, with many more stories to tell.

Some of which are not appropriate for this blog, but just ask me about Humboldt sometime.
You've probably heard of it, I thought it sounded pretty familiar when we got there...

Probably going to disappear into the woods here for a while longer, I'll let you know when I make it to Oregon.

Be well out there in ceilingland

Poem on page 45. Kenya

Past tense
Relays
Past tensions

To resent
as you repent
Is to strip
True intentions

A cool, controlled
reminiscence
bathing in hate
poisons the mind

wreaks the heart
An itching
unscratchable
Agony

Release the past
Accept the now
here we harbor no ill will

It's a Grind

Pirating another Coffee Shop's free wifi to bring me to you!

Doing time in Folsom.

Hello, as I've been reminded by Abe earlier today, I haven't updated this glob in a week!

So here's my exciting new news, Rob, Erik and I are all geared up and ready to go. Our friend Travis gave us a 3-man tent to use out and about, trail tested personally by him in Alaska. We've all got sleeping bags, we've got food and free schedules, so we'll be leaving on Tuesday if all goes well.

First stop: The Redwoods National Forest.

All I have left to find are some rain pants. When I traded my rain pants for a little wooden set of animals in Kenya, I had this foreboding feeling. It was something like, If I trade these rain pants for this little wooden set of African Animals, It's likely that I will find myself with wet legs in the near future. Well this is the near future I would say, and unless I find myself some new rain pants I will indeed be aquiring a new set of wet legs.

That's all on the rain pant front.

In other news, we got a camper shell for Erik's truck! A steal on craigslist for $80, so now we not only have sweet camping gear as provided by Travis, but now we have a camper to live out of when not in the wild.

Things are looking very good for this haphazard gathering of souls.

Did I tell you Erik collects comic books?
He's got boxes and boxes of back issues, that's what we're up to today. Bringing some of th0se comics to Travis so he can check them out until we return.

Coming back down the coast, I think Travis will be joining us to go hiking in the Sequoia National Park. I'm really looking foreward to that.

The Buddhist institute in Chino Valley is having a seminar series for the next couple weeks so we can't go there until they're open to travellers again. But that has not been nixed from the plans for anyone curious.

I'm not sure how much more internet I can promise for the near future, but I'll try.

We're leaving on Tuesday to go into the redwoods, then coming out the other side we'll be going to Corvallis and Eugene OR. So if you don't hear from me before Tuesday, assume I'm travelling up the coast.

Everything is going very well, love to the all who read this,
Clayton

Birthday

Hooray!

I'm 20 now, I've been alive for two decades. It's rather decadent.

I've spent today at my friend Rob's house, his mom made me a delicious chocalate cake. It was a day filled with food and relaxing contemplation. What more could I ask for?

Rob lives outside of Davis, in Vacaville, Cow-ville if you will. It's pretty chill.

I met Rob playing music outside Peet's Coffee Shop in Davis with his friend Erik, that was 3 nights ago. The night I met them they decided to join me on my travels, so Rob quit his job, and we're waiting on Erik to pick us up and then we're on the road. No destination in particular.

I've been making plans to make T-shirts, and it turns out so have Rob and Erik, what a coincidence! Erik has a silkscreen machine, and I have poems I want to make into clothes.

We're also making songs, we'll play music and let people know that the world isn't as down in the dumps as the employment rate.

I'm finally reading Kerouac, On The Road has been suggested to me so many times, I woke up today knowing I had to start it, so that's what I'm about to do.

Happy Sunday Everyone :)

Help for the disorganized

It's a long journey, this blog is already very long.

I just looked at it, I don't want to look at it anymore until it's fixed.

Anyone know anything about blogs to make this less of a novel to read?

I'm not saying I don't want it to be long and involved (that's what she said)

But I would like some help with links and sorting out the page.

Comments, volunteers? I'll give you admin access or whatever if anyone's willing to clean this mess a bit, I'd rather spit content at an editor than play the pretty margins game.

Love,
Clayton

Me: On Gmail

1:14 PM me: on gmail?

I kinda wish I'd been born before cell phones and internet

1:15 PM I'd be so much better at relationships in the 1800's

I can write nice letters

and I have good intentions

And I still love

but its never enough

Roni: yes but we're babe

so you have to work with what we have

me: but i don't want to be trapped by a cell signal

1:16 PM if i want to go where there isn't phone and internet i wish it wasn't this absurd freaky thing

but eveyone is so plugged in now

its not to escape contact per se

1:17 PM although that is nice for clearing my thoughts

Its more because I really think that there are amazing things worth seeing out there

way out there

1:18 PM not to say there aren't good things in the grid too

cities are really cool

architecture is amazing

I'm not some nature freak who doesn't like people

I just do want to spend time out as well

1:19 PM I like both worlds and so much, the vast majority, of my life has been surrounded by people stuff

1:22 PM Roni: i think it really comes down to how you want to live your life

i mean

i have phone and internet and haven't been on it all the time with people back home

1:23 PM me: To be fair...when I met you I told you I wanted to live in trees

I will write before I speak as I fast until completion

Mon Feb 2nd

IHOP: It begins, watching Maddie and Marshall eating Omlettes and Pancakes

In order to better understand precisely what I am saying, I am going to write my responses before speaking

Marshall's meal looks amazing, spinach and mushrooms are so good!

Do you usually sort your food as you eat it?

Rice. We were both right? That's funny

The mexican place

I think that even though the conversational flow will at first appear disjointed and possibly confusing, sustained thought on a topic will reveal trends that will be relatively easy to read.

Like right now, I'm saying two things on the same topic and looking back at this section you will be able to tell there was a conversation

I think she was talking to the man on the bench

I'm going to start using a smaller notepad, this big one is for the car

Can I drive? I could take the night shift if its a short trip from Vegas to LA

I'm not writing sounds but mmhmm seems alright if you cant see me nodding

I can also read signs and other things already written

If I have a bunch of pre-written phrases I can use them. It's like vocabulary flashcards

The salt is really unique here, on the car. We're the only car with salt

Freaking Awesome! They're talking about it in spanish

My camera is dying but its ok I have more batteries

The heat shimmer looks like water

Theres nothing I can teach you, you need context.

Innate knowledge discoverable only on your own, it rests in rockslides.

In growing plants. Planets being born.

Read the surrounding chapter if you are perplexed.

I believe there is a collective universal consciousness. A higher knowledge.

The army is practicing over there, there's a bunch of Humvee's

It's really nice that you have Grandparents that think about you and call you.

I've never had a casual conversation with my grandparents, It's always an event.

I think It's my fault that conversations with my grandparents seem tense.

I don't even know if they notice it, it could all be in my head.

I think I have an issue with ageism, but mostly with relatives, I'm working on it, I'm getting better

Ageism goes both ways, but I always thought I was a victim, I realize now I'm also a perpetrator

This is chapparal, It's a lot like the saanna, It's a bit drier here, the plants are smaller, sparser

Do you want to visit the Berkley people?

--------
Broke silence for a phone conversation with Mom+Dad, Mom asked about college applications
--------

I'll break for you guys anytime you ask too, I'm mostly doing this for myself

No worries

Be well

You guys can eat

Thanksgiving is a celebration, like Mardis Gras, they aren't backwards

It used to be a big event to have many dishes

Lovely

It's groundhog's day

Hey now, no resentment

I should establish residency

That's a really nice white Mustang, "I'd rather be by the river," it said around the plate

He owns a luxury car that he'd rather not be in

I really like driving, I'd like my first car back

The engine died

I can't be with Roni in New Zealand

I'm alright with it I guess, It sucks though

I'm going to try to go still

It'll still be just as hard

I think she isn't doing this to me, it just happened

Plans change

She texted me because I cant keep in touch

I told her that

Although I could have, I really wanted to move freely

Is there a will work organic website?

Time to look for work

Under what?

It's not indentured servitude

But yeah...That was really big news with Roni :(

"I" Thoughts

Hello to all my many many lovely followers :-P

I'm really excited to be able to share with you when I do get online, but also perplexed by the concept of just how much there is to share once I'm here.

You see, I've done many many things since I last had the lovely luxury of surfing the world wide web. One of the most substantially different things (besides crossing the country) being that I fasted silently for three days. Let me get my soup, then I'll explain...

...It's good soup, new england clam chowder.

So anyway, I'm here in Davis, California. We made it!!!

Along the way, since Kansas, we had some fun times, and I wasn't totally sure how to convey them all to you.

We:
Slept in a park in Oklahoma, after sketchy back-road wandering
Slept in a hotel in Vegas, after late night superbowl slots
Slept in a travelodge somewhere in SoCal, after walking the boardwalk in Santa Monica
Slept in Maddie's new apartment in Davis!

I'd provide pictures, but her wireless doesn't let me on :(
So I'm using Maddie's apt. mate's computer, Kate is awesome, she's from Brooklyn.

In the future I'll get photos up of the trip, but in the meantime I do have something tangible of the journey to present...The things I chose to say!

Like I was saying, I fasted silently for three days...Well, it wasn't quite silent, but I did get hungry. I'd been planning the semi-silence since before I left, just ask my good friend Zachary. But the food aspect was spontaneous.

But wait you might ask me, you were traveling with two other people in a tiny car, and meeting new people all over the place, how could you just not talk for all that?

Well let me get more soup and I'll tell you...

...In case you were wondering, I'm eating my soup with the very last of Ted the whole wheat bread, he came with us all the way across the country. His heel and ante-heel absorb soup like a champ. I'm also drinking a cross-continental voyager, some Odwalla Superfood! It's plants, but a drink? It's citrus-y but green? It actually might be a little sketchy from the voyage but still tastes like the superfood I love to drink so I don't care. As for Ted, well, Ted is bread.

Silence, right, anyway, before leaving Vegas we stopped in an IHOP, I had my 18"x24" Sketch pad with me to jot down views of the strip, there are some nice palm trees. I didn't order anything to eat at breakfast because I had made up my mind to begin regular fasting the night before. But as Maddie and Marshall were waiting for their food, it occured to me that this would be a good time to begin my vow of semi-silence.

My quiet contemplation entailed writing every thing I spoke, before I said it. It was like being mute, but able to read things out loud. I also read signs on the road and other things written, but random thoughts popping in my head, had to jot them down first.

So now I have a huge archive of all the things I wrote for those three days, from Vegas to Davis.

And they're all transcribed from my rite in the rain book onto a file that is saved on my computer, which, in case you missed it, is in wireless exile...bummer.

So you don't get to see those quite yet. But I promise, there's fun stuff, call up your friends, get ready!!!

All the juicy half-conversation goodness you could possibly want right on your boob-tube!
Plus some of the stuff I just thought and didn't say. You're in my head! Creepy.

As a reconciliation gift, today I'll post two half-conversations that weren't in the rite in the rain book. Like I said I started recording the silence on a huge piece of sketch paper, so you'll see the prize excerpts from that. Also there's a glimpse of my romantic life ooOooOoOooO.

Till later, keep your fingers out of the toaster
Clayton