Wanderlust

In Philadelphia, and almost done

It’s Nora, bringing you, once again, some morning group blogging, this time from (k)notsquat, the fabulous collective that has been our home in Philly. We’re just two days of riding and less than 100 miles from New York City, and it feels strange and unexpected, to me anyway, to be so close to the end of Wanderlust. We had our last meeting in Philadelphia last night, and it was incredibly inspiring to meet the activists and educators who came out to talk with us. The meetings were an experiment – both in whether or not we’d be able to organize meetings in cities we weren’t from, in places we’d never been to, and an experiment in creating space. It always felt to me like I spent so much time working with people that I never got a chance to talk to them about why they were there. I don’t know what kinds of connections or realizations will come out of the conversations we’ve had, but I do know that I come out of every conversation feeling like there is a movement, a network of people working together to create a world in which women have the resources they need to make healthy decisions about their bodies and their lives.

Mel here, *drafting* off Nora’s thoughts (see bike nerds, I AM learning some lingo). Someone at last night’s meeting said they were feeling depressed by the state of affairs in Philly and they wanted me to tell them an inspirational story from somewhere with a “stronger” movement than Philly. I responded that the inspirational thing for me was not a particular place per se but the fact that people came out in each place we passed thro and opened themselves to meaningful exchanges. In every single meeting, people came to talk about their struggles to promote healthier bodies and lives for women, and they came open and willing to connect with each other as well as with perfect strangers from out-of-town (who on top of it all probly didn’t smell very good). In almost every place, people expressed a sense of isolation. I tried to explain to the group I was talking with last night the kind of feeling it gives me when I move thro community after community expressing the same sense of isolation and yet there are all these people at all these meetings, and they’re doing and thinking and going against the grain of their community’s espoused values. That’s the heart of it, for me anyways, and I look forward to spending more time thinking about Wanderlust and all the ways that it has inspired me.

Kathleen here!–I’m almost home to New York….its so close its as if I can taste it! The ride into Philly was really long….a 70 mile plus day of up and down hills IN THE RAIN and without food for the first 6 hours of it. I was soooo tired at the end of the day. I was a bit skeptical when I got to this place we are staying but then I warmed up to it once I found out more about what this house is about….Yesterday I spent part of the day checking emails and relaxing!!! I later biked thru Philly and visited a medical museum that was pretty cool….but overpriced. I then went shopping for a new outfit (all my clothes are so nasty…plus I needed an outfit for our New York welcome back party). Our meeting that night was jam packed with interested people from the Philly area who are interested in what we are doing. One of my mom’s friends, Ruth, came and it really meant a lot to me. Later we went to a bar and the chef gave the pizza to us to for free! That was really nice We were all giddy and I got up and started dancing and as Erin was spinning me I fell FLAT on my face and almost hit a table. Everyone at the bar stopped. Good thing I wasn’t hurt too bad. Only my pride was bruised a little, lol…. My knee hurts, I have like rug burn now! We met some cool girls from Drexel last night at the bar, and they danced with us and got caught up in all of the craziness of us wanderlusties. Wow…..I’m really sad…

More to come, from the rest of the crew, but now we’re off to Princeton!

July 1, 2008 at 2:18 pm 1 comment

Things we lost on the road

It’s Nora again, bringing you Monday morning blogging.

After a thunderstorm last night that turned out to be not nearly as severe as the weather advisories said it was going to be, we’re eating breakfast at Falls Lake State Park under a clear blue post-storm sky, and I’m eating salmon cream cheese, which is delicious.  In honor of the fact that my tent (which has been with me for several years and many bike trips) almost got lost in Chapel Hill, this morning we bring you a blog about things we’ve lost on the road.

Before we begin, though, I would like to state for the record that I don’t think you get electrocuted if lightning hits the lake when you’re swimming.  Any meteorologists out there want to chime in?

Because I’m writing, I begin with me.  So far, I’ve lost one tent (recovered), shampoo and conditioner,  1 yellow sarong, and 1 diva cup (left in the hotel in Birmingham)

Mel hasn’t lost anything yet. Except her modesty. She is very lucky.

Becky so far has lost:

1 biking glove (1 day old)
3 towels
3 bike socks
1 rearview mirror

We hang our laundry on the roof of the van to dry every day, and apparently Becky’s towels were not such big fans of that.  I did recover one pair of her socks on an overpass in Alabama – we’d ridden by, and my thoughts, as I pedaled, went like this:  “Wow, that’s a nice pair of bike socks. I wonder what it’s doing on the side of the road.”

…

“those probably fell off the van.”

Heather doesn’t think she’s lost anything but sleep, so far, and Stacey claims to have lost one argyle sock, which we think is highly suspicious given that there is no good reason to even have argyle socks on Wanderlust.

There are also lots of things that get lost every day and refound – the van keys, the can opener, the bike tools box, the lighter for the stove.  We thought we lost the bug dope box one day, but it turned out it was just in the van.

Elisa has lost the use of her camelbak because of – and there’s no other way to say this – cat pee.  It may actually not have been a cat, but something definitely, emphatically, undoubtedly peed on her camelbak. She washed it in vinegar in Charleston, and now it smells like vinegar, and also still like pee.

Lizbrite claims not to have lost anything, and we’re thinking about looking in her bag for all the stuff we’re lost, because she’s got a suspicious little smile on her face.

Kathleen may or may not have lost anything, (we’re not sure because she’s still sleeping) but she did find her dog, Diamond, at the goldfish farm in Bunnlevel.

Vanessa and Elisa found a parrot at the Recyclery in Carrboro, but I’m relatively convinced that it’s actually my parrot which someone stole off my bike in New York City a few months ago.  It was probably a traveling child caravan that then ditched the stolen goods in the woods of North Carolina.

June 24, 2008 at 1:08 am 2 comments