Mobile, AL-- I wish I could think (do I?) but. . .

Owen James H. . . arrived 5:56am, November 27, 2011 8 lbs, 20.5" (My Nephew)

I doubt I can say much. It is so good to be back to my schedule-free life. No busses to catch, no equipment or maps or things to try to order in time to get them to arrive to someplace where I'll be. . .

I've got the maps for the Florida Trail. That is the plan. The razor scooter still is a wonderful way to travel. . . Megabus was a good way to get north and back south for less than $5. . .and I missed my 745am bus yesterday in atlanta, so I got to learn that city a bit more. . .

Every day spent in a place scooting around increases the connections and the "posessions" and the possibility of staying longer. . .

and that possibility confuses me. . .

I still look forward to getting out in the woods and writing all the people whose addresses I've collected from my last trip. . . and those who wrote back. . . (do you remember that peace pilgrim wrote letters?)

Here are some upcoming addresses:

I will be picking up mail at the following address no earlier than 12/6:

Colin Leath
General Delivery
Navarre, FL 32566

After 12/7 to 1/1 and perhaps 1/5, the following will work:

Colin Leath c/o Carolynn Patten
719 NE 5th St
Gainesville, FL 32601

Willow for share international (?) in Atlanta. . .
The muscle-y guy along the atlanta beltline, the gravel part, probably looking for sex.
All the people I asked for directions to the Quarry. . . someday to be the largest park in atlanta(?)
 
The Peachtree branch of the atlanta library next to the atlanta museum of design where they were celebrating world aids day. . .
 
Being so glad to be done with busses and the diesel. . .
yet still being alongside roads and 'inside the machine'. . .
 
I may want to be in Scottsmoor FL by 1/14 for WFR recertification course. . . we'll see.
 
My mind is empty? I hope the stuff (my scooter and pack) they made me leave outside is still there. . .
 
mobile library has the most draconian and arbitrary restrictive admission policy. Atlanta Central just sent me to another branch (they wouldn't let me bring the scooter in).  Here it is way worse and not clearly spelled out. Basically anyone who looks homeless(?). You can park a car on library property but you cannot leave your scooter and backpack on library property. You cannot bring clothes into the library. . . (in a bag)
 
some local links:

• http://lagniappemobile.com/ (local alt weekly)
• http://www.occupymobile.org/
• http://rumorunion.com/rumorunion/home.html (performance art? cool mobile people?)
• http://mplonline.org/ (the library . . . where I am now. . .)
• http://www.healthylivinghealthyplanet.com/ surprisingly good resource. . .

The preacher guy who was on his phone nearly the whole 6-hour busride. . .

Martin Luther King's neighborhood, where I'll visit when I go through atlanta again.

That's enough from this mind.

love and best wishes and blessings--

I went up to greenknees farm from Jacksonville, FL (where I got to on my scooter trip) for Thanksgiving. And then went to Woodberry Forest (a boarding school in VA) where one of my sisters and her husband work. That sister had a baby while I was there! (Her husband helped me find a wonderful place to camp near the challenge course; I saw two bald eagles along the rapidan(?) river. I ran for 20 minutes for the first time in a long time. . . I met phil and Linda and others. I played croquet. I found out my dad played croquet as a kid. . . and what are the rules to croquet? ? ).

I got to eat some turnips and arugula (and bok choy and lettuce and ??) that I planted / helped plant.

I got to read an amazing book:

Amazon.com: Customer Reviews: Alex Stewart: Portrait of a Pioneer

I've had so much bad luck trying to order books recently from non-amazon sites. . .
but you could try to find it cheaper at gettextbooks.com or similar sites.

----------------------

Oh-- and on the megabus from Knoxville to Atlanta I was able to run off during one six-minute stop (the only stop) and get _Middlemarch_ and a ronald dahl adult book and an ursula k leguin book from the good will at that stop for $1.50. . .

If you write me a card-- I'll write back eventually (if I get enough alone time in the woods).

And, yes, I got stressed and overwhelmed and somewhat unhappy and confused while working on leaving again at last (and was challenged by eating during that time). . . and I was able to scoot from the farm to the bus stop (I scooted the other way when I arrived).

_The man who couldn't eat_ by ranier is a book they have on display here.

enough rambling. . .

And I learned more about my family and why I am this way.

Scooting / scoot-hiking / pack scooting (with a Razor A5) & good attitude, or at least not a bad one

(I wasn't wearing my mirror due to low traffic that day. Here you can find the other photos from the sequence.)

[------------ addenda 2/03/2012:
more info about my experiences with the scooter can be found at
   http://gear.j9k.org/2012/03/scooters.html   ]
[------------ addenda 10/27: two tips:

1. I use a Take A Look cycling mirror ($15) that clips on to sunglasses or clear safety glasses ($3-5 @ ACE or Walmart). I also now have a bit of florescent cloth & reflective tape pinned to the back of my pack. 
2. In libraries along the way I xerox Delorme atlas pages (use the autoscale setting & legal-size paper) so I can find and take back roads and hiking trails.

------------- ]

Greetings from the library in Homer, GA. I've been traveling south from Maryville, TN to the Florida Trail using a Razor A5 kick scooter. Here's an update on how that has been working.

The scooter works for this kind of travel:

• I can carry it on my shoulder--with the wheels forward-- and walk in the woods and up gravel roads and around town.
• I can ride down gravel roads. The rear wheel is getting rather eaten up from this however. But I have used it for Mr. Colin's Wild Ride for perhaps 12 miles and probably more of gravel road travel.
• I can go probably 9 miles an hour including breaks in rolling terrain. I have yet to go more 16 miles in one day however.
• People generally smile at this mode of travel. "Excellent, Sir!" (when scooting by a traffic jam outside of Helen, GA); "You've come a long way, my man." (when passed 6+ miles later by a family I'd seen at Brass Bald, the highest point in Georgia).
• I've hitched two rides--very easy to do with something so portable. One ride was offered, the other I asked of a guy on a gravel road who I'd seen on the trail earlier-- I still have yet to stand by the side of the road with my thumb out.

Issues:

• In the rain the brake is nearly useless. Going downhill is potentially very dangerous. Fortunately a flat foot sliding on the pavement can be used to keep speed down. Or you can walk down. The change in braking power when going from dry to wet pavement is instant.
• The brake gets hot and wears down the wheel. Going down from Brass Bald, I melted part of my shoe and shaved off a bit more of the wheel. Fortunately the Vibram part of the sole of the shoe doesn't seem to melt (it does get hot)--just the foamish part in the instep (Merrell Trail Gloves (and the purple is dirty girl gaiters))
• I want to get the headset tightened in a bike shop.
• I got two metric allen wrenches to be able to tighten parts-- the handle is tall enough for me (I'm 6'3") but it is made loose so it can slide up and down easily. I try not to put much pressure on it. And I crank down on it with the allen wrench if I'll be scooting for a while.
• I can hurt myself by swinging the foot platform into my ankle--when picking up the scooter or if the front wheel hits a rock and the back pops up. Not a huge issue but something one learns to avoid.

 -------
Bad Attitude?

And the last post wasn't super-uplifting--or at least my memory of it wasn't--, and I've been thinking about that. I found a copy of _Don't Sweat the Small Stuff. . . And It's All Small Stuff_ by Richard Carlson. His book has helped me with the bad attitude, in particular with the tip that analyzing bad moods or bad feelings is not helpful--so just stop that down-spiraling thinking / analysis-paralysis. The mood will change.

Perhaps I'll address this more later as I have more experience watching the bad attitude and trying what I remember of his suggestions. For a week now, his advice has been helpful. I recommend the book and I was sad to find that he died in 2006. Carlson shares a bit of his struggle to have a good mood and to be a happy person--the book is a collection of some of his strategies.

The Trip Teaches / Gives Me What I Need?

I've been, for the most part, having fun / being challenged in good ways by this trip. I've been sitting for 45 minutes each day--this has been nice. I've written letters and cards. I've found books to read. I've met people--the guys who gave me rides; a fiddler, Kelsey, taking a class at the John C Campbell Folk School; and the seven University of Georgia alums/students having breakfast out along a gravel National Forest road. A guy yesterday in a Mexican/hispanic indoor flea market in Cornelia, GA. I've learned more about history and the region (I camped along a road made to force-march the first nation / Indians west on--the trail of tears--near Tatham Gap).

I decided not to volunteer with Kripalu--or at least to continue the application process--after having the interview. The size of the place and the tone I was getting & the number of staff who commute by car (nearly all?) made me want to visit before committing to be there 4 months. I've been loving sleeping outside--beautiful fall--and I don't want that or my wandering and exploring and freedom to end on 1/1/2012. When I set out I wasn't sure how this trip would go and was happy to have the prospect of an end. And I do look forward to being able to work spring season in California/AZ with Naturalists At Large--we'll see.

And: A bigger (forgotten by me) story here is that Gohkale's directions of how to stand, sit, sleep and move have kept me for the most part from being in pain. So I have not been motivated to go to a yoga center for health and wellness. . . I'm still working on making my food good out here though.

It's getting dark--I'd better go.

Oh: I updated j9k.org to have a link to my page offering my service to facilitate or support solos / sit spots. I'd like to serve others and that is one way, other than scoot-hiking around, that I've thought of.

I'm planning to pick up mail, general delivery, in Eatonton GA 31024 no earlier than Friday probably (and probably later).

Avoiding Thinking?

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I'd rather have one place to go to modify things I publish online. So I'll try having the main version be @ google docs.