El Norte

There is a land to the north where people live in peace and harmony, have guaranteed medical care, and commute by jetpacks. After the long dark night that we call the Bush administration, many of my fellow americans have spoke longingly of this land. A shangri la that we all, at times, have threatened to move to out of sheer frustration. A land where the palementary discussions sound more like a PTA meeting. A land where gay marriage was legalized one day with no fuss or acrimony. A land where they put pictures of kids toboganing and playing ice hockey on their money. They call this place Canada.

Truckin

We are in Iowa City currently, which is about half-way there. Yesterday there was a tornado warning and a big storm. Roughly 8 inches/hour was falling and the most beautiful lightning I've ever seen. Today we are picking up Bobby Hardage (Blog name: mark twain) who has been gutting flooded houses in Cedar Rapids with a volunteer organization. We are taking him to Toronto because he wanted to see Toronto.

When traveling across the country you have got to have a good ipod playlist. For Wyoming we had lots of James McMurtry and Sonic Youth. Nebraska: Bruce Springstein and alt country. Iowa is Willie Nelson country. Next up is Illinois, which should be based on Chicago blues. We drive a bit through Indiana and head to Michigan, which seem to me to be good states for Rock and Roll. After that, we have selected a bunch of Canadian bands, like Arcade Fire and Bran Van 3000, both based in Montreal.

The North Woods

For our defacto honeymoon, La Lissa and I went to North Idaho and Washington where the temps were cooler than SLC. On our tandem we checked out the route of the Hiawatha, an old rail line traversing Montana and North Idaho that has been converted to a bike path. The route starts with a two-mile long tunnel, which was cold and dark. After that the route slowly descends through the mountains over many old trestle bridges and smaller tunnels.





We spent a week in Seattle bumming around and doing city things. On our way back to North Idaho we stopped in the western Cascades and backpacked up the middle fork of the Snoqualme River about 12 miles to a hot springs. The upper cascades were totally snowed in still. The ranger said that trail openings are postponed about 1.5 months from normal.

Justin Cox Photo in Dirt Rag

In the latest issue of Dirt Rag I found an add for the Granny Gear races. I saw that old Univega bike, then noticed the single chainring, then noticed the Hup United jersey... Its Justin!!!!!