back in the Circuit

08/23/2012 1922 South Bay, CA

Chapter 4

Every beginning starts with another's Ending

My final leg of this trip has been something besides final. One of my stops was a co-op house named Ithaka, named after Odyssea's home. Greece is my Ithaka, but this is my Odyssey. Mingling with so many cultures, living in Nature, while thinking about where I stand relative to this infinitesimal point of time in a vast sea of existences is humbling and sobering. Seeing America in 8 days was an implicit slap across the face for every time I had thought I knew the answer or understood another person thus far. My hearing has improved dramatically over the past 2 weeks, while my thinking posture has changed quite probably due to burger diet.

Dolores Park, SF

I had a flight to Boston a couple of nights ago to meet with my brother who is extending the Nakos legacy at Brown. Proud that he will be part of a power house of avant-garde individuals. Glad that he will we be away from familiar grounds and among dreamers. My mind was liberated after 4 years in Brunonia, but it also taught me that emancipation of one's self starts with college; it doesn't end with it. At college I was a dabbler and serendipity did not occur in ordinary situations, while stepping out of my zone of comfort promised a genuinely original perspective. Remember the peanut butter and egg bagel sandwich? Still haven't tried it, yet still ripping on it? That played in my head in conjunction with favorable vocational opportunities that have arisen as of late in the area and I decided to postpone my return eastwards. Will I be back soon? I don't know. I am aware that I have the option of a disruptive life choice, being farther from Ithaka I have a greater possible Odyssey to douse my restless adolescence in.

It started after reaching the evening of the 17th in Union Square, SF. I thought I was in the hood and I still hadn't been in Oakland. After checking and fitting 6 of us in a double, we made headway for the Mission. The City was pumping with energy, the streets are wide and people use bicycles as a primary means of transportation. I felt at ease with this vibe, but didn't appreciate the majesty of it until I went through Haight and Dolores Park. I thought I was where Brown students reside after graduation, a liberal city that paves the way for the rest of America with its unconventional lifestyle. People take pride in themselves and advocate the truth from within them. They don't try, they live.

My spirit has found peace during this trip and my body feels rejuvenated. I feel oddly calm relative to my pre-road trip sluggish persona and obviously this is because my soul is soothed by a landscape I happened to see merely by saying: "yea Davey, I'll drive with you across the country" and a string of good luck. Making it safely is a blessing. No doubt. How can I maintain this momentum? Of course get a job; were you expecting some deep ass philosophy?

Baz Luhrmann said we should wear sunscreen. I think I am.

I'm On Earth

08/19/2012 1216 San Francisco, CA

Chapter 3

Nature the Inculcator

Mexican Hat, AZ

We entered Roswell, New Mexico thinking it would be our final intermittent lodging grounds before we would acclimate ourselves in Lake Havasu. Unfortunately, this propagated the lack of expectations that I have had thus far and we improvised on the go. Mesa Verde, CO was our first stop.

Roaming through the ruins of Mesa Verde was an incomplete experience or rather exposed a blatant truth to myself; my disconnect with the Natives that stemmed from my aloofness in a sea of European and American tourists. It took hundreds of years to befriend Nature and distinguish allies such as raccoons and deer from foes like poison ivy and diamondback snakes. The course of man through space and time is lost and not kindled by a generation that is born head first on to a LCD screen. However to come to this realization I wasn't merely sprawled on a couch contemplating a Google image search; I coursed the beaten trails of Earth. 

Grand Canyon, AZ

From Mesa Verde we headed southwest to the state of Arizona that shattered my undefined wall of expectations. The evening was spent stargazing under the forest canopies, while drinking corn moonshine to ease my transition to sleep in the cool ambience of the grounds. Couldn't help but think that cosmic forces shaped this wildly beautiful terrain and in turn facilitated our birth as a species. We ascended the mountains with our own inventions, wheels, axes and concrete being the cornerstones in marking our establishment and comfort, while coexisted with the other guests of Earth. To foster such a harmony with the other guests in the forest trails we force ourselves to recycle and act mindfully on a micro scale so as to create the least possible minor disturbances with our passing. Whereas in our cities we lack (forget?) this inclination and get lost in a concoction of people among brick and wooden structures; we neglect our roots and how we became. We have created the iPhone and strive to create a better one to document our lives and communicate with each other. What shall we create next to please our desires to please? How much more shall this put us at odds with our inherent Nature?

Lake Powell, AZ

Our last stop in the wilderness was in Zion, UT. We had favorable predisposition for this site, due to its name and its scenery. We were partially right, as the name did the landscape justice, but not the groundkeepers, who don’t hesitate to cap butts with $125 fines for disorderly conduct and unreasonable noise. Was it unreasonable to be talk loudly on the outskirts of camp with a full family, parents and baby present? All the while we suggested receding into our tents to avoid further locomotion. The unidentified Mormon park ranger enjoyed shining flashlights in our mugs, while dictating us. 

Anyway, you can't have ups without downs. That didn't dismay my broke ass. Not at all, because I was on a mission to Angel's Landing. Not a location for the average person that is fearful of heights. Yet I thought, if I don't confront my fears, if I don't take myself outside of my zone of comfort, what teachings of Nature will I omit?

Angel's Landing, Zion

Zion, UT

 I was cautious and felt gravity pull on me near cliffs, where there was nothing between me and a sheer 900 ft drop. But I took it one step at a time and climbed edges, stood by cliffs, felt the vertigo. I internalized it as a lesson to my brief life thus far; the need to take things one step at a time. I'm addicted now to hiking steep cliffs. To conquer a fear is to live outside your knowledge; to have a mouthful of what you don't rationalize.

Now I'm off to the West Coast, my final destination before I start off a "real" life.

Oh below is a gem from New Orleans. The lady in the pink is a momma. 

Cousin Ben and the locals, NOLA

Y'all be easy

08/12/2012 511 Austin, TX

Chapter 2

Baby Mama: "Oh they gone"

                                                                                       

 Writing about this trip is like having eggs with my peanut butter, which for me is a special meal. It reminds of when I discovered peanut butter at the dining hall and decided to sandwich an omelet with the pb caked bagel and vuala, you got a unique gastronomic perspective. Consequently, food has a lot to say about a person and his mentality. Who the heck eats peanut butter and an egg omelet with their bagel? NOLA is immersed in frying oil and so are the people. Their are crisp, spicy, promiscuous and genuine as you can see left.

My favorite moment was when David's forehead got slammed at least a couple of times into the waitress's breasts that created enough reverse momentum to effortlessly propel his skull into an upright position to receive a laboratory test tube "double" shot. 

Jokes aside we met 3 local townie girls, one of which you can see above preparing to have her way with senor David. But it was all orchestrated by cousin Ben (expect a picture of the mischief), who shamelessly mingled with locals to garner a perspective, which is the man's genuine predisposition in a very chill environment.

                                                                  

We walk into the bayou and encounter 2 young southerners in their early teens paddling towards us. They offer us dip and we chat for a bit. Eventually David and Cousin Ben take a little boat tour and realize that these teenagers are premature prepubescent men. The proof? they face up with a deer and rifle it in the face, that takes big cojones. 

Strangest of all and yet the most pleasing is that none of this was meticulously planned. We were provided with the means and merely had a personal agenda of two things: be on SF the 17th and camp in Lake Havasu for a couple of nights all that in 8 days and we meandered our way through the Dirty South to Nu Olans and now Austin. 2 strict conditions and yet I'm still here in the DS and on pace to NoCal. 

No plan and yet safe and happy. People that is life. Trust yo gut, do the right thing and you are there.

08/10/2012 508am Knoxville, TN

Chapter 1 

You know you are in Virginia if..

..there is chicken and a crushed can of bud light on the floor of a gas station off the high way. You also know you are out of your zone of comfort when you are in a car for 15 hours for 900+ miles in the first of 8 days in an attempt to reach San Francisco.

David, Ben & myself started from Providence, RI, my home for the past 4 years and also home of what I perceived as 'Murica. Space and time today and the following days are not going to be the same as relativity is sinking in. Travelling does wonders to the soul and defines luck as the wheels go.

We had a fruitful first day and zoomed by Connecticut and New Jersey within a heartbeat and a full motion fist pump respectively. Port Clinton, Pennsylvania was the first pit stop and by a stroke of luck we ended up in this quaint rural part of the country. Today was marked by a cultural gastronomic experience as I had my first PA cheesesteak sandwhich at Borans Port Clinton Hotel. I found myself asking why do restaurants in the 21st century have a hard time finely grinding steak meat like they do in Pennsylvania? 

While I still ponder this quintessential question, I shall have to rest for our arrival to New Orleans tomorrow. Where shall this journey take me? Am I to meet an eccentric figure like Ignatius J. Reilly of "A confederacy of dunces"? Am I to have a deep fried chicken contest with the local 10 year old reigning champ? Or am I to start a parade down the French Quarter? Place your bets and we'll meet again at the next wifi hot spot. or television. or radio station.