Boats

So I made it on my ferry to Juneau. It was quite exciting and I barely made it in time to get Tigerlily Battleaxe on. I was the last person to check in before they closed it down. So now I'm on the boat and I met some sweet people. I have found that since I stopped writing everything down in this blog it has been harder for me to tell stories when I've been on the road. People ask me to tell stories about my trip and it is hard because it is like trying to describe a feeling. I love everything about my journey all the people I have met, everything I have learned, and all of the fun I have had. Now however I can't wait to get home and see everyone and be able to go back to work. It is going to be weird to have to stay in one place for awhile anyways and that feeling should at least entertain me. One of the people I met on the ferry is moving to the Riv and she is a bomb musician so she will be hanging out with the crew hopefully when we get back. So everyone I will see you Thursday or Friday night (at my kick ass party). Also who knew that a ferry would have internet. Weird.

Homecoming

So I have begun my final trek on this longish journey of mine. Soon I will be in Portland then in Seattle then in Bellingham and then off north through the chilly Pacific Ocean. Nothing can be better than knowing that all of you are up there and I can't wait to see and hug each and everyone of you. I just need to stock up and books now so that I don't run out of things to do on the boat which I probably will anyways but I imagine that there has to be a bunch of really cool people and I just need to find them. I imagine that most of them will be in the beer garden area. Usally thats how it works and if all else fails I will just make friends with the boat crew and hang out with them.

Comments

I'm not sure how to respond to comments but I have read each and every one of them.

Bliss

Nothing can really express how cool and awesome that monastery was in Northern California I will never ever be able to say just how thankful I am that John set all of that up for me. It was so nice to be able to be there and the monks were bomb. That is the only word that can completely give a voice to what I feel. I love them and will always remember them and I can't wait to go visit Spruce Island. So now I am back in Monmouth OR after seeing Luke down in Medford OR. He is doing well. I found Pandora radio online and it is cool everyone should go check it out right now.. I will wait... cool huh?
So life is wonderful right now I can now say that I am proud to be an American and to all the unpatriotic fake Americans out there all I can say is if you don't like it you can leave. Ya that's right. Did everyone see what I did there. (It's funny cause that is what all those people have been saying to people who see America as a forum of freedom and see expressing our views as showing how lucky we are to live in a place where you don't disappear because of how you feel about an issue) So that is all I have to say about that.
On the other sides of things life is also great just because it is. I have never felt more in touch with God and never felt more like Alexis in my entire life. So to everyone out there feeling a little sad just send me an email or something and when I get back I will give you an extra special hug. (Warning this special hugs may cause tears and a want to change your life for the better) (oh and also they may make you feel like you will be loved no matter what by at least one person on this planet) Life is just too good right now. I have a bunch of stress and things to deal with when I get back but I look forward to being busy and for the first time in my life I am actually thinking about kicking butt in school just because. So I hope that everyone at least got a little smile out of me being a goofball in this post and I look forward to seeing everyone because I really have missed each and every person in my life at some point on this trip. So know that I love you all each for all of the strengths you have and for the weaknesses too. I hope that you all love me for all of mine too. Love as God does, Live as Christ wills, Free the Holy Spirit inside you.

The blog

Well as my hundreds of readers probably know I have begun to not be able to write everything down in the Blog as I would have nothing to tell people when I got back home. So I will just give another update. I am currently in Red Bluff or something in California. I saw the Rays and they have an awesome church. It kind of makes me want to brave the heat and move down there for awhile maybe I will. It was really nice and I got to meet probably the coolest person I have met to this day a dude names John Ma'ea or something like that. Being down in that church really hit home with me that something was missing in my life back home and in general. I used to be excited about religion and God and then something happened I just stopped. I realized down there that I have always been a happy fellow but with the church I am even happier. This was a great realization and I can't wait to come back home to the Riv and begin living life as the true Alexis that laughs with the world instead of at it. Also I'm going to a monastery and I'm stoked about it.

Grand Canyon

The Grand Canyon was one of the coolest things I have ever seen. It has made my top ten things to do before I die to go down and explore it for a week or so. However that will be a different adventure.

Arizona

So on this whole trip of mine since I left I have not been pulled over or even really seen any cops. Then coming into Arizona I got pulled over. So the thing was that he was looking no real surprises here for pot and he was quite rude until he had searched my van and found nothing. Then he felt bad about being a hard ass to a nice guy like me and he tried to make small talk and told me some places to go in Flagstaff so that was all well and good. So hanging here in Flagstaff has been pretty fun so far I have only been here for a little bit but Katie and James Matthew have been awesome. This once again shows to me that the friends I have are the best people on the planet. Everywhere I go people open their homes at a moments notice and they are just so nice and generous. So thank you to everyone I have stayed with you guys and ladies all rock.

Oregon

I am having a wonderful time here and it makes me kind of sad because I don't really want to move on but it is getting close to being time. I can hear the road calling to me. From here in Monmouth I will be heading south to California and then to Arizona. I'm looking forward to seeing the redwoods.

Journey

So I just wanted to point out for the record that this trip was not embarked upon so that I could see many places. I came on it to see people that I love and get some personal time to be able to think about my life and what I want from it. If I only made it to Canada I still would have considered it a success. I have been having a wonderful time here in the mainland so far.

I am hanging out with Matthew (My step-brother) and then I'm heading back up to see Kristen for a hippe/pirate (oh yes that's right) festival and I think I'm going to go up to Portland and roam around the city that inspired Elliot Smith. The first part of this post is a little bit pointed so I'm sorry for that but I thought I would make that clear.

Seattle Blows

Well I rolled into Seattle again and I drove around calling Tay Tay and Audrey but neither of them picked up their phones and I didn't want to inconvenience Eric and Lacey again so I decided to say screw it all and I came down to Monmouth where my cousin is and it was a very good decision to come here instead. The other sad thing is that me being an idiot I lost my ID which so far has not stopped many places from serving me booze since I have taken to carrying around my birth certificate and my social security card. So I sent back home for another temporary ID which should come in the mail. So yeah that's all I got now.

Sad but Happy

So my camera bit the bucket (heh a combination of bit the bullet and kicked the bucket) so on the whole picture thing you are screwed unless other people along the way have cameras and they take the pictures and send them to me. I have been in Pullman and I am now at the end of a wonderful stay with some wonderful people. I am heading back to Seattle and the really good news is that Cousin Kirsten is now back in Oregon so I will be heading there and hopefully hanging out for a long time down there.

Goodbye Montana

So I left Montana and heading back in the lovely direction of west. Adrien and Jess were so much fun and so nice to let me stay in their apartment for so long and me not really doing anything helpful while I was there. I had a blast seeing the Bozeman and getting to hang out with some riv kids down in the big sky state. I made it to Pullman WA because CATI Bischoff is here and I get to hang out with her. So far it has been awesome and I have been kinda couch surfing between her place and her fiance Tom's place. Also sadly I need to fix my camera because to turn it on you have to use pliers and that is just a pain in the ass. More to come stay tuned... (Don't really stay tuned just come back)

Bozeman Montana

So I made it to Bozeman Montana pretty sweet. I called up Adrien and he let me stay at his apt with his lady friend Jess who is awesome. I got to Boze and then within 20 minutes I was here hanging out and getting ready to go off to a bar called Molly's it was fun and I played a lot of pool. Here are some pictures of the next couple of days they were fun and filled with playing many games.

Left to right Jess, Adrien, and Flipper he got the name cause he walked in while they were watching jaws or something about 4 years ago and he said oohh flipper I love this movie.

Tyler Goodnight

Adrien with his shirt ripped off by two ladies. (not as exciting as it sounds)

Derek one of there friends or Chewbacca

Connie or Consuela

Montana drive

Montana found the mountains

Big Sky, it was pretty cool

Pictures

Cool Lake/River in Oregon

They have no Mountains

They lost them

Where could they have gone?

Traveling to the Boze

So driving through northern Oregon and Eastern Washington is the most boring thing ever EVER!!!! Also anyone who didn't grow up with mountains everywhere how did you live? I would have died or moved as soon as I could but then I guess that's why you are in Alaska now. Good choice people good choice.

Cameras are hard to use

So I just realized that I have not added any photos in a couple of really long posts so heh heh. Cameras are just so hard to use. I met up with Mr. T and my step brother Matt (Mr. T is Steve Templeton for the non community folk(he is Matt's dad(it's a long and rather complicated tale that I don't want to tell ask someone who knows me if you really want to know))) that was a lot of (()) which always is rather exciting for me to do. So it is very early in the morning and I am getting ready to head off to Montana which should take me quite awhile because I don't think I will have a tailwind the whole way. It is funny that when I do have a tailwind I can actually make the speed limit other wise I just get to see the blurs of cars passing me. Anyways Mr. T bought me dinner twice and quite a bit of beer and let me sstay in his and Matts hotel room so thank you very much to him for all of that. With how damn hot it is down here I can not say thank you enough to letting me use the air conditioner. It is funny how hard it is to maintain a temperature without some sort of eletricity.

I deem Eugene Oregon cool but to hot for me right now. Matt moves into his apartment soon so I will come back and stay with him then but until then I will go north and find a climate that suits me a little better. I also only have my two pairs of black shorts and those are starting to smell and I also look more like a homeless person then I ever have before. I kind of want to get really hoboed out and go to a soup kitchen. I probably wont but it would be fun.

Olympia and more

So I swung down to Olympia from Seattle. This was a cool little town where I got a amazing cup of coffee and moved toward the fish tail brewery. After this I drove up to the Evergreen college and talked with a very cool lady about grad school there. This campus was so cool it was like being in south east Alaska. It was about as home as I could feel without actually being home.

I then started down the road to Eugene Oregon because I plan to head back up to Olympia at some point before it gets to cold up there. I would like to spend some more time in Seattle area but I needed to get back on the road before I got all soft. So I drove like a madman through cities (which house some cool people who are always offering help with directions whenever you ask) cities I have decided are the most confusing things ever. Why people decided to become so numerous that they would need a madman to design some of the highway systems is beyond me. But that is not the story today.

I rolled into Eugene and called my step brother Matt who turns out will not be getting into his apt (abreviated for covy folk) until next week and was about 4 hours away or something like that. I found a cool guy who directed me to a place to park and a sweet brew pub. After having a great couple of beers and one of the best burgers I have ever had (a kobe burger with blue cheese) I walked back to the bus. I walked up to a couple of older men to ask if they could advise a better parking area than on the street and they waved me off and turned around pretending I was not there. I was mad and I thought about doing some rather passive aggressive way but I asked God to give me the patience to overcome this and I didn't do anything and I walked to the bus and got all ready to go to bed. On a bathroom break out of it one of the old men named Niche from Russia came up and asked what my question was. After a long very nice conversation the man who waived me off, reapetedly apologized and they both set me up with places to park for weeks on end. They also happened to be Orthodox and recommended a church to go to this Sunday. This is why God is a mjor theme here because he showed me the goodness of people and helped give me a push to go to church this Sunday. It was really nice and I fell asleep about as happy as I could be.

This morning I went to a Starbucks and a very nice man helped me out by letting me use his phone and telling me where to watch the football game (which Matt is going to so I'm going to hook up with him afterwards) and enjoy myself with the company of others. So I am off because the second half of the game is hopefully about to start and thats the only part of a football gamethat I really care about anyways.

Photo

Thought I would post this one cause it was the last one of me and Crow and Tigerlily

Little Things

So I made it to Seattle and it is huge. Kind of scary how big a city can be. People keep telling me that the city has stopped or not started as I'm driving but to me it all looks like one giant city. Well I put this one up to say for starters that my cousin Eric and his wonderful wife Lacey are saints literal saints. They put up with me getting lost in the city and driving out of the city then back in to try to find their place. Then they blew up an air mattress and fed me at midnight. They are amazing especially since I just surprised them and said I was in town at about 8pm last night. So thank you to them.

In the last post I forgot to mention a few things. One is that Crow left me with an atlas guide of America and so now I am no longer driving around blind. Also in a thrift store in Canada I found a cassette of Peter Pan and so while listening to it the bus became Tigerlily which is very exciting for me to finally have a name for my home on wheels. So today I'm just hanging out and doing laundry and taking a very needed shower. I think that there might have been something else but I'm sure that it will come to me later.

September

Ah where did the time go. Just yesterday it seems I was still in Alaska cursing the rain and hydroplaning through most of the damn state. That was really exciting except that I had left the attachment for my stove back home and so I got really sad and decided that I was just going to eat pistachios and drink white russians so I did and I was very happy when I woke up. I then went and found Crow in the middle of my second day and he came all the way through Canada with me and is here now in Bellingham where he will take off for Ohio on a greyhound. He hitchhiked from New York to Alaska and was heading back down. The dude has been hitching for 5 years and had some sweet stories to tell.

Through the Canadian border they didn't even search me I was rather mad. They just asked to see my id and birth certificate THATS IT. As mentioned above I was irate and I wanted to tell them to search me but I decided just to call it good. Through Canada which by the way is fucking huge. I had to use the curse word because behemoth just doesn't cut it. It was amazing though to see all of the little towns and here people talking in silly Canadian French and saying all the stereotypical words like about and a all the time.

Next interesting stop was the hot springs (I got the part for my stove this day) at Llyard or something like that. They were sweet I got there around 9pm and it was so nice to just soak in the gross smelling water and listen to these drunk Canadian frat/hockey players go on to each other about how many splashes of water in the face they owed each other.
(Very drunk and slurry)
"No see you splashed me twice so I get to splash you once"
"Nooooo cause you splashed me so we are even"
"We aren't even you splashed me twice"
-splash-
and then it would start again. I laughed very hard till they noticed I was laughing and then I had to move away cause I did not want to get splashed in the face one bit. Then back at the campsite I found this cool group of people who I spent the rest of the night with around their campfire one of their names was Robin and I can't really remember the others names.

Then from there Crow and I took off and drove late into the night when we came upon to Swiss gentlemen who had started a campfire at a rest area. We asked them about this and they said it was the perfect place because since no one else ever made campfires there firewood was in abundance. So I got to talk to them about everything under the sun and I think they will be coming to Alaska in the winter next year in order to get in some good old fashioned skiing.

Then the next day was spent in a mad dash through the first sunny day and warmth in the freezing cold bus which was now a delightful not below freezing late into the night and huge trucks with their bright as the sun brights which they turn off right after they smite your eyes and make you blind. The cool thing is that I found a whole bunch of cool tapes both on the way and before I left so this whole night was spent listening to the New Testament on tape.

Today we finally made it back into America and Washington no less the very best president besides Teddy. So here I am in Bellingham at a Borders Books waiting to call and find out my cousins number to surprise him so I can park in his neighborhood tonight. Cheers I made it through Canada alive.

Canada has no internet

These were some Swiss boys I meet at a rest stop and they had started a fire so I hung out with them. Also on the far left is Crow who I picked up coming into Canada
Burgers (Crow again)
The Lake from Series of Unfortunate Events this thing was huge
Cool sign place I can't remember what it was called.
Just a cool shot during a bathroom break
Phantom Bus
Sweet view in Haines Junction also before I saw the large on the picture post options
A cool stop going through AK

Goodbye Alaska

Well the day has come for me to leave. Not all of my parts have come in the mail but the good news is that I can have them mailed to me when I reach whatever destination that holds my interest for awhile. It is a rainy dismal day and nothing could be a better motivator for me to get the hell out of here. So for awhile it will just be me and my little van trekking across the state at mighty speeds.

Also this was the last Milk and Cookie Movie Monday night with the two founding fathers for awhile.

Going away party smashing success

Well John did a good thing and combined two going away parties into one. This is the good bye Toben goodbye Alex party.



This is Toben with the score board for the night





















The one and only Paul Flahive












The Giant Midgets (This is John)














EXPLODICONS (the Johnson brothers)









PBR United

Still here ready to go

Well I have hit some snags in getting out on time... Mostly me just being lazy and procrastinating. I have to wait till my social security card comes in the mail and also wait for the general maintenance parts to arrive from far off in the world. My current earliest date I can leave is Wednesday August 27th bleh. I wanted to be on the road but it feels right to leave when I am. Tonight John Kendall is throwing me a goodbye bash and it should be rather fun. Well much love for all and I will be gone soon.