CHG and I went to Halifax! We left MTL on Thursday, slept in a rest stop and arrived on Friday evening. This first things I saw upon arriving in the city were (in this order): a circled A on a cafe wall, a punk with a ton of crotch patches and a skate board, and a dumpster full of pita bread and hot dog buns (which went nicely with the hotdogs in CHG's pack that a that a trucker gave us on the way).
Anyways there's a ton of ridiculous stuff that happened and was great, so much in fact that I'd rather just be lazy and make a list of it all instead of writing pages and pages of wonderful prose. Yea, so, behold:
Wonderful things that happened while going to, coming from and staying in Halifax, NS:
Hitch hiking
Sleeping in a rest stop chair
Getting a pack of hot dogs and chips from a trucker
Dumpstering donuts and a sack of potatoes from a truck stop dumpster
Having great conversations with various drivers
Getting free books and a cd from a ride
Rolling into Halifax
Permaculture Work Party!
Dumpstering cookies and chocolate in Dartmouth
Meeting rad ass local punks
Hanging out with people I haven't seen in probably a year
Meeting musicians who's music I know and love in a social setting
Dumpstering a fresh pair of boots
Sneaking into a fort (kinda)
Cat shit
People smoking cigs
Peanut butter and ice cream cones
Hanging out in rad punk houses
Talking about politics and feeling good
Open mic night
Hitching to Fredericton
Racist trucker giving us a ride and racist discourse
Surprising Ice Cream and sleeping at her house
Hitching all day and getting stuck in the rain
Trying and failing to sleep in a motel for free/work trade
Sleeping in a tent behind some dumpsters behind a restaurant on the side of the highway
More hitchhiking
Getting dropped off a block away from my house
Food, bed and cuddles at home!!!
Showing posts with label hitchhiking. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hitchhiking. Show all posts
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Monday, October 25, 2010
Toronto
Toronto was awesome, since I did too much to write it all out I'll use bullets to cover the highlights:
*Hitchhiking, including riding in an awesome chrome truck
*Food not Bombs at an awesome skate house called Soybomb
*Really Really Free Market in Kensington Market
*Scamming public transit
*PWYC vegan brunch
*zombie walk
*realizing everyone is vegan in Toronto (Chibi was happy very about this)
*sleeping on the most comfortable legs ever on the ride share back to MTL
*Staying at Awkward House with awesome people
*Getting a facial
*watching a bad chick flick
*dumpstering and then making apple sauce
*being that rad house guest/traveler kid
*looking dirty in a clean cut city
*impressing school kids by standing at the side of the road with a sign
*getting a stack of zines and punk CDs for free
*just generally hanging out with Chibi
*Talking about anarchist scenes in NY, MTL and TO
*Getting a bike rack for $10
*exploring a new city
*meeting awesome peeps
*Hitchhiking, including riding in an awesome chrome truck
*Food not Bombs at an awesome skate house called Soybomb
*Really Really Free Market in Kensington Market
*Scamming public transit
*PWYC vegan brunch
*zombie walk
*realizing everyone is vegan in Toronto (Chibi was happy very about this)
*sleeping on the most comfortable legs ever on the ride share back to MTL
*Staying at Awkward House with awesome people
*Getting a facial
*watching a bad chick flick
*dumpstering and then making apple sauce
*being that rad house guest/traveler kid
*looking dirty in a clean cut city
*impressing school kids by standing at the side of the road with a sign
*getting a stack of zines and punk CDs for free
*just generally hanging out with Chibi
*Talking about anarchist scenes in NY, MTL and TO
*Getting a bike rack for $10
*exploring a new city
*meeting awesome peeps
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
fixin bikes, watching movies and talking life
Yesterday was good times, took a nap and hung out at home, later got a call from Kiwi and we met up to fix up bikes which didn't end up doing much for her). Turns out there's a community bike shop less than two blocks from where I live, which is convenient since Kiwi works in a different part of the same building. Kiwi was messing with her chain and I just gave a tune up to my bike (tightening brakes, cleaning and lubing chain etc...).
We finished up with our bikes and headed to Cinema Politica to watch a movie about an Argentinian community's resistance (and victory!) against Canadian mining interests that would poison their water for miniscule amounts of gold. Smoothest ride ever with functional brakes and air filled tires.
We got back home and made some pasta (yea, I got pasta now) with vegetables and just when we finished eating and had taken out the nut strudel (we being Kiwi, Kunoichi, DJ and myself) guess who walks in? None other than Rainbow!
We sat and ate nut studel and talked about the fucked up things happening in/to the world, kinda depressing, we kinda transitioned afterward to more not sad things and of course Kunoichi told some fun stories.
Waking up early sucks when people sleep over...
Oh also, I'm probably going to Toronto with Chibi via thumb this weekend :)
We finished up with our bikes and headed to Cinema Politica to watch a movie about an Argentinian community's resistance (and victory!) against Canadian mining interests that would poison their water for miniscule amounts of gold. Smoothest ride ever with functional brakes and air filled tires.
We got back home and made some pasta (yea, I got pasta now) with vegetables and just when we finished eating and had taken out the nut strudel (we being Kiwi, Kunoichi, DJ and myself) guess who walks in? None other than Rainbow!
We sat and ate nut studel and talked about the fucked up things happening in/to the world, kinda depressing, we kinda transitioned afterward to more not sad things and of course Kunoichi told some fun stories.
Waking up early sucks when people sleep over...
Oh also, I'm probably going to Toronto with Chibi via thumb this weekend :)
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Kittens and veggies
This weekend Giggles (friend from Montreal) and I hitched west to Jardins de la Resistance on a whim, planning involved included, printing out a google map, dumpstering cardboard for sign and sewing straps to my bag to attach my sleeping bag to.
Planning? Totally unnecessary! We got there in one ride, she dropped us off right in the front yard of the farm. We walked in met people, got shown around and set up camp.
It was good times there; the first night was soccer, and sitting around a fire.
The next day was the harvest party, where we picked vegetables and shelled beans and all that good stuff. By the time night fell the number of tents had more than tripled and there were a ton of people. There was a cute French girl who may or may not have had a boyfriend, we smiled at each other a lot but not much more happened between us than that, I should get on the ball, last September I would have struck up a conversation like nobody's business. Whatever though, a few people got drunk and sang anarchist folk songs in French which was pretty awesome. Sitting around a fire with the Chaotic Insurrection Ensemble was pretty rad. What's not rad you ask? A guy promising us a ride back into Montreal only to sleep with a drunk chick and ditch us without a word, it was as Giggles put it "slimy".
Fear not, we got a ride none the less from a non-slimy though more scruffy looking anarchist (almost everyone there was an anarchist) who invited us to ride with him. The ride was pretty uneventful, mostly silence, some iPod and way more of me thinking about Ithaca and straightedge than I'd like to admit...
All in all a great experience and a super time and I even have some nice garlic that we got from the farm in the cupboard :)
Saturday, July 17, 2010
Local, organic, mutual aid and travel
Went down to the garden about an hour ago to water the plants, a neighbor and her daughter saw us walking with the watering cans and came along to see how the garden was. She was telling us about getting grants and possibly buying the lot from the city or owner for $1 since it's been abandoned for years. After we finish watering it we're standing around talking and some guy rolls buy on a skate board and asks who's lot it is, it's a squat. He tells us he's down to help out and has a truck and experience and some people who would be down to help out which is cool. I passed him my number and later he called and we decided to set something up for later in the week. It's cool to just get help like that, visibility helps a lot I guess.
Also talked to Cipher a bit and we're gonna travel around a bit in August, set aside the 1st until the 20th. We want to do the Anarchy Summer Camp (http://selfdescribed.org/?p=447) and then do the Western Maryland Zine Fest (http://news.infoshop.org/article.php?story=20100607002621901) then come home. We'll probably hitch there and back. It's be cool to find some people heading there or back to NY though to make things easier but if it doesn't happen than whatever.
Also talked to Cipher a bit and we're gonna travel around a bit in August, set aside the 1st until the 20th. We want to do the Anarchy Summer Camp (http://selfdescribed.org/?p=447) and then do the Western Maryland Zine Fest (http://news.infoshop.org/article.php?story=20100607002621901) then come home. We'll probably hitch there and back. It's be cool to find some people heading there or back to NY though to make things easier but if it doesn't happen than whatever.
Friday, May 28, 2010
(re)discovering NYC
I've been up to quite a bit since I got here on Sunday and it hasn't even been a week yet. I have a bike, it broke a few times, I fixed it a few times and now I hope it'll be fine.
I went to the Bluestocking cafe on Monday to hear a talk about the summit that took place in Cochabamba on climate change and I learned a lot and a lot of issues that I knew existed became a lot more interconnected in my mind. A big idea I learned besides interconnectedness of issues is that the cause of probably the majority of problems is capitalism, yea maybe I'm a little bit late, but now I know...
At the Bluestocking I met a guy called Joey that told me a lot about the activism and punk scenes in NYC and what I should look for. From what I can tell and the protest I went to (more on this later) the scene here is docile and composed mostly of people older than myself, (I prefer/am used to a youthful militant scene; see Montreal circa now). We talked about anarchist groups and various issue groups and just politics and stuff in general, it was good to hit it off quickly after getting back into the city. Even found out about a free punk show going down Sunday, so I'm excited about that.
After leaving the Bluestocking I called Crisis since I knew he was in the area and we met up, he was riding long boards with his friend from out of town. We crossed the Williamsburg and got lost in Queens trying to get to downtown Brooklyn to dumpster, which was pretty lame but in the end I brought home some fruit from a dumpster that I ran into by chance. Crisis became pretty punk since the last time I saw him, long boards and mohawks.
I hung out with the old park slope crew a bit and it made me realize how much I've changed, M:tG and video games don't interest me nearly as much as they used to, I wanna do activist stuff and sneak around and mosh at shows and dumpster and share with my friends. I went to go see Cipher and he's doing okay, still playing WoW, lol. We talked about our summer plans and he isn't too sure about hitching and would prefer a car :-/. We've all experienced deterioration in our ninja skills since neither of us (or Crisis either I suspect) have been keeping nearly as sharp a vigil on our skills as we used to.
Yesterday I went to a protest against Pacific Rim wanting to mine (read: poison drinking water) in El Salvador, not being able to (because no one wants to drink cyanide) and suing the government because of that (I mean it's only reasonable to go after people who don't let you poison them, right?). I was disappointed when I first arrived and didn't even join the protest, I sat and watched as about ten protesters handed out pamphlets to passersby and spoke close to their table and held up a sign, FROM BEHIND A POLICE FENCE! In Montreal protests are so large that they could never be contained within fencing and I'm sure if police attempted to conflict would erupt. Maybe I've been spoiled by the Montreal scene, I hope I haven't been. As I as sitting to the side watching I saw a friend from high school and we talked about travelling and bikes for a bit then he left and I went to help with the protest, no point not helping, there was a little bit of street theatre towards the end but it was very cheesy and cliche, in the end before leaving I traded contact info with this photographer so I'll write him an email soon asking what's up and how did the photos come out (can I have the ones with me in them?). Joey from Bluestocking told me I should be organizing shit instead of joining it since I'm used to wilder things and I'm starting to think he's right, so far the things I've seen and heard about activism seem too tame in my view. I'll see what I feel after Sunday, and when I know more about my summer, I'm supposed to work for the month of June, I wanna travel to the west coast and squat beach houses with TKJ, Rainbow, Australia, Domin, and Rainbow's friend, they wanna hitch from Toronto after the G20 which I also wish I wasn't missing. Just found out I can't register for classes in winter and fall until I get "special permission" because I didn't do well in school :-/ so that may play a part in something as well.
The plan for Sunday is to do food not bombs at ABC no Rio and then head to a free punk show at Tompkins Square park afterward (ABC no Rio serves there anyway so I'll probably be able to go straight there after serving). It'll help me get a feel of the food not bombs and maybe find people who are down for something more invigorating than what's happening already...
We'll see what happens, either way I got some posters that I've passed to my mom to photocopy at her work, I'll wheat paste them around when she brings them back. I ordered Expect Resistance from Crimethinc last night and I'm excited for it to come and all the posters and zines and stickers that'll come with it :D. I'm also happy and curious to see what happens when Ithaca gets here, but I'll probably have to add more padding to the bed since I almost sleep on the floor and she'll probably want it softer.
I went to the Bluestocking cafe on Monday to hear a talk about the summit that took place in Cochabamba on climate change and I learned a lot and a lot of issues that I knew existed became a lot more interconnected in my mind. A big idea I learned besides interconnectedness of issues is that the cause of probably the majority of problems is capitalism, yea maybe I'm a little bit late, but now I know...
At the Bluestocking I met a guy called Joey that told me a lot about the activism and punk scenes in NYC and what I should look for. From what I can tell and the protest I went to (more on this later) the scene here is docile and composed mostly of people older than myself, (I prefer/am used to a youthful militant scene; see Montreal circa now). We talked about anarchist groups and various issue groups and just politics and stuff in general, it was good to hit it off quickly after getting back into the city. Even found out about a free punk show going down Sunday, so I'm excited about that.
After leaving the Bluestocking I called Crisis since I knew he was in the area and we met up, he was riding long boards with his friend from out of town. We crossed the Williamsburg and got lost in Queens trying to get to downtown Brooklyn to dumpster, which was pretty lame but in the end I brought home some fruit from a dumpster that I ran into by chance. Crisis became pretty punk since the last time I saw him, long boards and mohawks.
I hung out with the old park slope crew a bit and it made me realize how much I've changed, M:tG and video games don't interest me nearly as much as they used to, I wanna do activist stuff and sneak around and mosh at shows and dumpster and share with my friends. I went to go see Cipher and he's doing okay, still playing WoW, lol. We talked about our summer plans and he isn't too sure about hitching and would prefer a car :-/. We've all experienced deterioration in our ninja skills since neither of us (or Crisis either I suspect) have been keeping nearly as sharp a vigil on our skills as we used to.
Yesterday I went to a protest against Pacific Rim wanting to mine (read: poison drinking water) in El Salvador, not being able to (because no one wants to drink cyanide) and suing the government because of that (I mean it's only reasonable to go after people who don't let you poison them, right?). I was disappointed when I first arrived and didn't even join the protest, I sat and watched as about ten protesters handed out pamphlets to passersby and spoke close to their table and held up a sign, FROM BEHIND A POLICE FENCE! In Montreal protests are so large that they could never be contained within fencing and I'm sure if police attempted to conflict would erupt. Maybe I've been spoiled by the Montreal scene, I hope I haven't been. As I as sitting to the side watching I saw a friend from high school and we talked about travelling and bikes for a bit then he left and I went to help with the protest, no point not helping, there was a little bit of street theatre towards the end but it was very cheesy and cliche, in the end before leaving I traded contact info with this photographer so I'll write him an email soon asking what's up and how did the photos come out (can I have the ones with me in them?). Joey from Bluestocking told me I should be organizing shit instead of joining it since I'm used to wilder things and I'm starting to think he's right, so far the things I've seen and heard about activism seem too tame in my view. I'll see what I feel after Sunday, and when I know more about my summer, I'm supposed to work for the month of June, I wanna travel to the west coast and squat beach houses with TKJ, Rainbow, Australia, Domin, and Rainbow's friend, they wanna hitch from Toronto after the G20 which I also wish I wasn't missing. Just found out I can't register for classes in winter and fall until I get "special permission" because I didn't do well in school :-/ so that may play a part in something as well.
The plan for Sunday is to do food not bombs at ABC no Rio and then head to a free punk show at Tompkins Square park afterward (ABC no Rio serves there anyway so I'll probably be able to go straight there after serving). It'll help me get a feel of the food not bombs and maybe find people who are down for something more invigorating than what's happening already...
We'll see what happens, either way I got some posters that I've passed to my mom to photocopy at her work, I'll wheat paste them around when she brings them back. I ordered Expect Resistance from Crimethinc last night and I'm excited for it to come and all the posters and zines and stickers that'll come with it :D. I'm also happy and curious to see what happens when Ithaca gets here, but I'll probably have to add more padding to the bed since I almost sleep on the floor and she'll probably want it softer.
Friday, May 21, 2010
Homer, NY...
I feel strange being so close to NYC, to home, friends, family, a new scene to discover, yet I'm here in Homer with Ithaca, it's not bad per say, but the anticipation combined with a lack of excitement is getting to me. Here's what I've been doing since I got here:
hitched into Homer and met most of Ithaca's immediate family. Her parents are split so we checked out both houses and we stay at her mom's in a room upstairs.
The weekend Ithaca worked at a bakery doing catering, I worked on Saturday but not Sunday, both days I went into Ithaca on a bike and checked that out, it was alright, on Sunday I had an alright time, dumpstered some donuts for lunch after getting told off for trying to table dive some lunch. Bought a book, yea with money and all that, cause you know it was a local store and all (Resistance: The Radical Social and Political History of the Lower East Side). Other than that just biked around, met a parkour guy at Ithaca University and we talked a bit but didn't jam. Other than that I've just been hanging around with Ithaca in Homer, it's getting to me, I want to be in a large city again wear I can dumpster all the time, and ride a bike around and do parkour and interact with a much larger amount of people.
Went canoeing today in the morning with Ithaca and her grandfather, I always feel weird around him because he's a proud republican guy and I never really talk politics around him but I have my political (read:anarchist) patches all over my shorts and my anarchy bag on my shoulder all the time, whatever...
Either yesterday or the day before I'm not too sure Ithaca's dad dropped us off in Syracuse a bit and we got to hang around there. We (read:I while Ithaca walked away nervously) wheat-pasted some anti-war and anti-consumerism stuff up randomly along with two small anarchist posters. We also checked out the Syracuse Peace Council which seems to be the activist scene there, it's strange for me, I'm used to a youthful militant activist scene slightly associated with punk rock, students and sub/counter culture and definitely associated with bikes, but these people were all older, strictly non-violent and very formal, it was nice to see a different type of scene with different types of people and all that but I feel much more interested in a youth scene that's more fast paced and on bikes and all that. Got some pins, got some condoms and dumpstered bagels, not much else happened. Ithaca is contemplating staying in Syracuse and working there a bit, if she's down with that she should go for it but I couldn't pull that off in a small city with no youth scene, but then again I don't know the city like she does so I can't see it how she does...
I'm anxious to get to NY and see all my friends! Originally we were supposed to hitch to NYC on Monday, but a lot of work opportunities have come up and Ithaca is gonna stay another week, I'm on some "fuck that" because I honestly can't stay here much longer without going crazy or become really docile and passive. So I had planned to take a greyhound on Monday, there's a ska show in Syracuse on Sunday night anyway so I could just go with my back pack and sleep outside and hit the train the next morning. When Ithaca told me that she wasn't gonna hitch with me I decided forget it I wanna hurry home and decided to leave on Sunday morning if she thought I could go with her to work on a farm in the morning (some drama with a clingy ex and potential drama if I'm around while he's there and alla that, bleh), I didn't mind missing a ska show if it meant surprising my parents and being home faster, but I just checked online about 2 minutes ago and the buses for NYC are all on Monday...
I guess I'm gonna have to ask Ithaca if I can go to the farm and try to avoid drama (which I already do, you never see me involved in bull like that) because staying at her mom's place and doing internet and books all day won't cut it. I'm kinda happy to be sleeping outside though especially in a city I don't know I just hope the weather is dry, waking up to rain isn't the most fun (but it's still pretty fun).
I miss NYC, I miss my friends, I want more interesting things to happen around me. This summer I wanna go to punk shows with Crisis, travel with Cipher or TKJ, play urban games with Shorty, dumpster with everyone, go to the beach, get in trouble, climb roofs, do parkour with the whole NY crew (both of them). ugh...
I'll be home soon though.
Also: with Pagoda I think stuff is gonna be finished, I saw her before leaving MTL and we hung out at a drawing club which was super boring. We biked back to her place in St Henri and went to bed. we made out a bit before she told me that lately (the last six months) she's been much more into girls then into guys (which I understand since I feel the same way, unfortunately I'm not bi:( ) so we just slept and nothing happened. I wanna stay friends and will probably try to stay friends when get back to MTL, I mean, bikes, dumpstering and agreement on a lot of political and social issues is till great even if there isn't sex involved.
hitched into Homer and met most of Ithaca's immediate family. Her parents are split so we checked out both houses and we stay at her mom's in a room upstairs.
The weekend Ithaca worked at a bakery doing catering, I worked on Saturday but not Sunday, both days I went into Ithaca on a bike and checked that out, it was alright, on Sunday I had an alright time, dumpstered some donuts for lunch after getting told off for trying to table dive some lunch. Bought a book, yea with money and all that, cause you know it was a local store and all (Resistance: The Radical Social and Political History of the Lower East Side). Other than that just biked around, met a parkour guy at Ithaca University and we talked a bit but didn't jam. Other than that I've just been hanging around with Ithaca in Homer, it's getting to me, I want to be in a large city again wear I can dumpster all the time, and ride a bike around and do parkour and interact with a much larger amount of people.
Went canoeing today in the morning with Ithaca and her grandfather, I always feel weird around him because he's a proud republican guy and I never really talk politics around him but I have my political (read:anarchist) patches all over my shorts and my anarchy bag on my shoulder all the time, whatever...
Either yesterday or the day before I'm not too sure Ithaca's dad dropped us off in Syracuse a bit and we got to hang around there. We (read:I while Ithaca walked away nervously) wheat-pasted some anti-war and anti-consumerism stuff up randomly along with two small anarchist posters. We also checked out the Syracuse Peace Council which seems to be the activist scene there, it's strange for me, I'm used to a youthful militant activist scene slightly associated with punk rock, students and sub/counter culture and definitely associated with bikes, but these people were all older, strictly non-violent and very formal, it was nice to see a different type of scene with different types of people and all that but I feel much more interested in a youth scene that's more fast paced and on bikes and all that. Got some pins, got some condoms and dumpstered bagels, not much else happened. Ithaca is contemplating staying in Syracuse and working there a bit, if she's down with that she should go for it but I couldn't pull that off in a small city with no youth scene, but then again I don't know the city like she does so I can't see it how she does...
I'm anxious to get to NY and see all my friends! Originally we were supposed to hitch to NYC on Monday, but a lot of work opportunities have come up and Ithaca is gonna stay another week, I'm on some "fuck that" because I honestly can't stay here much longer without going crazy or become really docile and passive. So I had planned to take a greyhound on Monday, there's a ska show in Syracuse on Sunday night anyway so I could just go with my back pack and sleep outside and hit the train the next morning. When Ithaca told me that she wasn't gonna hitch with me I decided forget it I wanna hurry home and decided to leave on Sunday morning if she thought I could go with her to work on a farm in the morning (some drama with a clingy ex and potential drama if I'm around while he's there and alla that, bleh), I didn't mind missing a ska show if it meant surprising my parents and being home faster, but I just checked online about 2 minutes ago and the buses for NYC are all on Monday...
I guess I'm gonna have to ask Ithaca if I can go to the farm and try to avoid drama (which I already do, you never see me involved in bull like that) because staying at her mom's place and doing internet and books all day won't cut it. I'm kinda happy to be sleeping outside though especially in a city I don't know I just hope the weather is dry, waking up to rain isn't the most fun (but it's still pretty fun).
I miss NYC, I miss my friends, I want more interesting things to happen around me. This summer I wanna go to punk shows with Crisis, travel with Cipher or TKJ, play urban games with Shorty, dumpster with everyone, go to the beach, get in trouble, climb roofs, do parkour with the whole NY crew (both of them). ugh...
I'll be home soon though.
Also: with Pagoda I think stuff is gonna be finished, I saw her before leaving MTL and we hung out at a drawing club which was super boring. We biked back to her place in St Henri and went to bed. we made out a bit before she told me that lately (the last six months) she's been much more into girls then into guys (which I understand since I feel the same way, unfortunately I'm not bi:( ) so we just slept and nothing happened. I wanna stay friends and will probably try to stay friends when get back to MTL, I mean, bikes, dumpstering and agreement on a lot of political and social issues is till great even if there isn't sex involved.
Friday, May 14, 2010
Hitching to Homer
On Thursday Ithaca and I hitched to her home town of Homer, NY. It took a while we started at around 8.30-9ish and arrived about 12 hours later. We got there in six rides. We started at an onramp in the old port which sucked because the only peeps driving around were yuppies and business people so no one there picked us up. After waiting around for a while we called a friend and found out where the close onramp was going west and went there. It seemed much more promising and the cars there had to stop at a light before hitting the ramp so we had time every red light to run around with our sign ("PLEASE" on one side and "we are awesome" on the other) and smile at people. After maybe 30 minutes we got our first ride from a college student/painter who was on hit way to pick up some paint. I rode up from and since it was a van Ithaca rode in the back with the paint, he was pretty chill and we talked about hitching and school and just stuffs in general. He drove us maybe 15-20 minutes and dropped us off at a nice onramp.
At this onramp I ate a bit of snacks and we thumbed and signed at everyone for maybe 20 minutes before getting picked up by a Quebec trucker/motorcycle driver who traveled the US and Canada on his bike and had a ton of crazy stories. He really thought we were brave to hitch around though, and said he would never do it himself, which we thought was pretty strange. He told us a bunch of stories and dropped us on the side of the highway near an onramp.
We waited there a bit where I changed into a red t-shirt to look less sketchy and after a short wait we got picked up by some guy in a red car blasting metal. He only drove us about 5 or 10 minutes before letting us off at a deserted onramp, we had seen some guys with backpacks hitching while we rode with him. The spot he dropped us off at sucked, there were no cars and the ones that came didn't even pretend to care about picking us up. After a while we decided to walk down a bit. We walked and stopped and walked and stopped a lot then had lunch and kept it up, the whole time cars didn't even slow down for us, but Ithaca took a few naps and got some free sunburn...
After walking and thumbing for probably a few hours we got close to a gas station but it was closed, luckily there were a few houses nearby and we knocked and asked for a ride to the nearest gas station, the woman at the house was really nice, dressed kinda funky in all black and had a bunch of dogs. She agreed to drive us even though it wasn't too far according to her (half hour walk, we weren't feeling that). At the gas station Ithaca used the bathroom and we checked out he map a bit, then we started asking people filling up for rides.
After maybe 20 minutes an older guy agreed to give us a ride after we told him we were trustworthy, although he did mention that he wouldn't have picked us up on the side of the road. He agreed that hitch hiking wasn't what it used to be. He was driving towards Toronto and could take us really close to the border which would save us a ton of time. We loaded our stuff into his pick up (I kept my big bag on my lap) and were off. He had a ton of stories, about his children and grandchildren and traveling and hitching around, it was a fun ride. Ithaca took a nap a bit and then we we're out.
We walked along the highway towards the border flying the sign whenever a car came toward us and we caught a ride that agreed to take us all the way to around Syracuse where Ithaca could get us picked up by her mom. The guy who gave us a ride was really quiet and straight forward, he didn't talk much. At the border the guards were assholes, they seemed super condescending towards our ride about picking up hitchers and they made us all get out the car and wait around while they searched all out bags. They put everything back in the wrong bags when we were able to get into the car an hour later, not to mention that the waiting room we stayed in was full of only Muslims and Asians with a few black guys and younger people, *cough* profiling *cough*. After that though it was smooth sailing, we go dropped close to Syracuse, Ithaca called her moms and she picked us up about half an hour later and took us to her house where we ate some, visited Ithaca's father for a while and then hit the sack.
At this onramp I ate a bit of snacks and we thumbed and signed at everyone for maybe 20 minutes before getting picked up by a Quebec trucker/motorcycle driver who traveled the US and Canada on his bike and had a ton of crazy stories. He really thought we were brave to hitch around though, and said he would never do it himself, which we thought was pretty strange. He told us a bunch of stories and dropped us on the side of the highway near an onramp.
We waited there a bit where I changed into a red t-shirt to look less sketchy and after a short wait we got picked up by some guy in a red car blasting metal. He only drove us about 5 or 10 minutes before letting us off at a deserted onramp, we had seen some guys with backpacks hitching while we rode with him. The spot he dropped us off at sucked, there were no cars and the ones that came didn't even pretend to care about picking us up. After a while we decided to walk down a bit. We walked and stopped and walked and stopped a lot then had lunch and kept it up, the whole time cars didn't even slow down for us, but Ithaca took a few naps and got some free sunburn...
After walking and thumbing for probably a few hours we got close to a gas station but it was closed, luckily there were a few houses nearby and we knocked and asked for a ride to the nearest gas station, the woman at the house was really nice, dressed kinda funky in all black and had a bunch of dogs. She agreed to drive us even though it wasn't too far according to her (half hour walk, we weren't feeling that). At the gas station Ithaca used the bathroom and we checked out he map a bit, then we started asking people filling up for rides.
After maybe 20 minutes an older guy agreed to give us a ride after we told him we were trustworthy, although he did mention that he wouldn't have picked us up on the side of the road. He agreed that hitch hiking wasn't what it used to be. He was driving towards Toronto and could take us really close to the border which would save us a ton of time. We loaded our stuff into his pick up (I kept my big bag on my lap) and were off. He had a ton of stories, about his children and grandchildren and traveling and hitching around, it was a fun ride. Ithaca took a nap a bit and then we we're out.
We walked along the highway towards the border flying the sign whenever a car came toward us and we caught a ride that agreed to take us all the way to around Syracuse where Ithaca could get us picked up by her mom. The guy who gave us a ride was really quiet and straight forward, he didn't talk much. At the border the guards were assholes, they seemed super condescending towards our ride about picking up hitchers and they made us all get out the car and wait around while they searched all out bags. They put everything back in the wrong bags when we were able to get into the car an hour later, not to mention that the waiting room we stayed in was full of only Muslims and Asians with a few black guys and younger people, *cough* profiling *cough*. After that though it was smooth sailing, we go dropped close to Syracuse, Ithaca called her moms and she picked us up about half an hour later and took us to her house where we ate some, visited Ithaca's father for a while and then hit the sack.
Sunday, May 9, 2010
Food not bombs and planning to leave
I've been sleeping at the coop for the last few days, it's pretty chill, just hanging with Ithaca and TKJ and Australia. Before yesterday me and Ithaca and a friend of ours dumpstered and prepared a meal at the native friendship center. On the way after dumpstering me and Ithaca stopped at the anarchist bookstore to ask for hitching advice and to see if I could trade pastries for some patches, the girl behind the counter wouldn't trade me but she gave me a patch for free so I gave her food for free (which is the same thing in the end).
At the friendship center (a place where Ice Cream went a lot apparently), we cooked up a stir fry and a fruit salad. While we ate we all socialized and our friend got hit on awkwardly by this guy...
We started a movie but left a bit in because we felt like heading and our friend had to go meet some friends. Ended up at the coop and hung there. That night Ithaca pour an awesome bath with oils and mint and stuff to get me healthy and we sat in the dark with candles. it was pretty great.
We have a concrete plan to leave and get to NY now. We're going to hitch to Ithaca's home town which is of course near Ithaca and stay there a bit and work some. Afterward we're gonna hitch to Brooklyn and she'll stay for a bit. We're not sure yet but we may come up to Montreal again and attend an event about living locally that she helped plan, but it's iffy and depends on some outside factors. Either way I'm excited for the trip.
At the friendship center (a place where Ice Cream went a lot apparently), we cooked up a stir fry and a fruit salad. While we ate we all socialized and our friend got hit on awkwardly by this guy...
We started a movie but left a bit in because we felt like heading and our friend had to go meet some friends. Ended up at the coop and hung there. That night Ithaca pour an awesome bath with oils and mint and stuff to get me healthy and we sat in the dark with candles. it was pretty great.
We have a concrete plan to leave and get to NY now. We're going to hitch to Ithaca's home town which is of course near Ithaca and stay there a bit and work some. Afterward we're gonna hitch to Brooklyn and she'll stay for a bit. We're not sure yet but we may come up to Montreal again and attend an event about living locally that she helped plan, but it's iffy and depends on some outside factors. Either way I'm excited for the trip.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
