I am off from Minneapolis tomorrow (Monday) morning, and I have not updated my blog. I think this will be a perpetual problem, but I'm okay with that.
I'm headed across western Minnesota to South Dakota where I'll see the Badlands and the Black Hills and south to Denver. I'm hoping that the thunderstorms will be mild and there will be no tornadoes.
Monday, July 19, 2010
Saturday, July 17, 2010
Milwaukee where those who aren't from the city pronounce it with an L
Sorry this post doesn't contain many pictures and the next one contains zero currently. Hopefully I'll get around to it before my trip ends.
My stay in Milwaukee was with Nathaniel and Sean in the Riverwest neighborhood. Great couchsurfing hosts, as well as amazing artists! The other person is the picture is Stephanie (Stefanie, Stephany, spelling???).
The Riverwest neighborhood is great with a food coop, a local bike shop, a local handmade clothing store, good restaurants, etc. I wandered part of the neighborhood with Nathaniel. They were having Power Down Week, where they thought about and lessened their consumption and held various workshops and events. I only made it to the end of the week party where I saw and helped cook in the earthen oven they built and met a bunch of great people.
They have this great race, Riverwest24, a 24-hour bicycle race, with solo riders, tandems and teams. I felt like there was a sense of community there.
Aside from that I met up with Paula (one of the warmshowers hosts from Racine) at the Historic Downer Ave bicycle race and learned about road racing. I really wished that I could have gotten a massage like those bicycle racers.
I volunteered at Growing Power, one of the most well-known urban agriculture projects in the US. It is composed of primarily greenhouses (They are so hot!) with aquaponics, a combination of hydroponics and aquaculture (raising fish). They raise mostly watercress and a bit of tomatoes in the hydroponics. Tilapia is the standard for aquaculture and they have a partnership with the Great Lakes Water Institute to raise lake perch, preserving the population and offering a product without the contaminants. Aside from aquaponics, they grow sunflower sprouts and wheatgrass to raise money for their education programs, and have lots of worm composting. They also have some chickens and turkeys in hoophouses and some goats in a pen. A number of beehives are at the corner of the property. This is all on 2 acres. 31 staff and at the time I visited 10 interns.
My stay in Milwaukee was with Nathaniel and Sean in the Riverwest neighborhood. Great couchsurfing hosts, as well as amazing artists! The other person is the picture is Stephanie (Stefanie, Stephany, spelling???).
The Riverwest neighborhood is great with a food coop, a local bike shop, a local handmade clothing store, good restaurants, etc. I wandered part of the neighborhood with Nathaniel. They were having Power Down Week, where they thought about and lessened their consumption and held various workshops and events. I only made it to the end of the week party where I saw and helped cook in the earthen oven they built and met a bunch of great people.
They have this great race, Riverwest24, a 24-hour bicycle race, with solo riders, tandems and teams. I felt like there was a sense of community there.
Aside from that I met up with Paula (one of the warmshowers hosts from Racine) at the Historic Downer Ave bicycle race and learned about road racing. I really wished that I could have gotten a massage like those bicycle racers.
I volunteered at Growing Power, one of the most well-known urban agriculture projects in the US. It is composed of primarily greenhouses (They are so hot!) with aquaponics, a combination of hydroponics and aquaculture (raising fish). They raise mostly watercress and a bit of tomatoes in the hydroponics. Tilapia is the standard for aquaculture and they have a partnership with the Great Lakes Water Institute to raise lake perch, preserving the population and offering a product without the contaminants. Aside from aquaponics, they grow sunflower sprouts and wheatgrass to raise money for their education programs, and have lots of worm composting. They also have some chickens and turkeys in hoophouses and some goats in a pen. A number of beehives are at the corner of the property. This is all on 2 acres. 31 staff and at the time I visited 10 interns.
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
The journey from Chicago to Milwaukee, a stop in between of Racine
Bike trails are my friends. I really enjoy them for the lack of vehicular traffic, the good surfaces they have and the other cyclists I get to see when I see anyone. I get a bit frustrated with the lack of signs leading a rider between trails, even when the two ends are in the same town. They do lack the great welcome signs that the roads have. Here are the signs that signifies the Illinois/Wisconsin state lines. No warm welcome.
It was a pretty much uneventful time going from Chicago to Racine. I rode through a sculpture park in the 'burbs north of Chicago. Interesting sculptures but nothing that made me stop my bike to take a picture.
Racine was the first time I used the warmshowers website to find a host and it was amazing. John and Paula are a great couple that fed me a delicious dinner and breakfast. Paula helped me with my route to Milwaukee. They told me about the other bicyclists they hosted (Bikeloc, 2 guys bicycling across the country setting up potlucks at different communities and asking people about local foods, eventually creating a documentary,and Bike and Brew, a tour of microbreweries).
It was a good day to ride to Milwaukee. I had a snack near an overpass, the only shade I could find and noticed a nest on the top corner of the tunnel.
Of course, I didn't follow the directions and ended up on a nice ride of the lake shore before heading in the right direction.
It was a pretty much uneventful time going from Chicago to Racine. I rode through a sculpture park in the 'burbs north of Chicago. Interesting sculptures but nothing that made me stop my bike to take a picture.
Racine was the first time I used the warmshowers website to find a host and it was amazing. John and Paula are a great couple that fed me a delicious dinner and breakfast. Paula helped me with my route to Milwaukee. They told me about the other bicyclists they hosted (Bikeloc, 2 guys bicycling across the country setting up potlucks at different communities and asking people about local foods, eventually creating a documentary,and Bike and Brew, a tour of microbreweries).
It was a good day to ride to Milwaukee. I had a snack near an overpass, the only shade I could find and noticed a nest on the top corner of the tunnel.
Of course, I didn't follow the directions and ended up on a nice ride of the lake shore before heading in the right direction.
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Chicago, eating well and getting rained on
I ended up meeting James awhile after I said I would be there. He is a very gracious person and directed me to a good restaurant to get large amounts of yummy, filling food. I crashed quickly after eating, not even noticing when they came back from the bar. It was a crazy, long day of riding (90 miles) and hiking (at least 5 1/2).
The next day I met up with my sister Jaclyn for brunch. She had chosen Orange, the home of the Frushi, and she had to order it just to try it.
Coconut rice and fruit. Okay but pretty ridiculous.
Jaclyn was worried about my weight. I looked a little skinnier to her, so she made sure I got enough to eat. She even took me out to eat for dinner at Publican, a local food restaurant specializing in pork. Delicious!
I went to the Art Institute, where I ran into Heather Self and got an update about some people back in Virginia. It was pretty crazy running into someone I knew. It made my hazy day seem even more surrealistic.
Of course, we walked around a bit of Millenium Park. I had a lesson about taking a picture without having the camera in the picture.
Can you spot us? In the bean, not at the Bollywood-style music video shooting down by the riverfront.
In general, Chicago was about wandering, but not too far because the city is just so sprawling.
I went to the midweek Green City Market in Lincoln Park, where it rained and some vendors didn't show, but I got to see a cooking demonstration by Rick Bayless.
I ended up volunteering at City Farm, an urban farm that sells to restaurants, local residents and at a farmers market. They had insane germination in the beet beds, so we took some time to thin it out.
The last evening I was there a storm rolled through. I ended up being drenched by it. A textured yellow sky with purple and green streaks. It was amazing to see. Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures, but maybe I'll get one from James to put up. Plus I need a photo of James and Caitlin because I'm a bad blogger and didn't take one.
The next day I met up with my sister Jaclyn for brunch. She had chosen Orange, the home of the Frushi, and she had to order it just to try it.
Coconut rice and fruit. Okay but pretty ridiculous.
Jaclyn was worried about my weight. I looked a little skinnier to her, so she made sure I got enough to eat. She even took me out to eat for dinner at Publican, a local food restaurant specializing in pork. Delicious!
I went to the Art Institute, where I ran into Heather Self and got an update about some people back in Virginia. It was pretty crazy running into someone I knew. It made my hazy day seem even more surrealistic.
Of course, we walked around a bit of Millenium Park. I had a lesson about taking a picture without having the camera in the picture.
Can you spot us? In the bean, not at the Bollywood-style music video shooting down by the riverfront.
In general, Chicago was about wandering, but not too far because the city is just so sprawling.
I went to the midweek Green City Market in Lincoln Park, where it rained and some vendors didn't show, but I got to see a cooking demonstration by Rick Bayless.
I ended up volunteering at City Farm, an urban farm that sells to restaurants, local residents and at a farmers market. They had insane germination in the beet beds, so we took some time to thin it out.
The last evening I was there a storm rolled through. I ended up being drenched by it. A textured yellow sky with purple and green streaks. It was amazing to see. Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures, but maybe I'll get one from James to put up. Plus I need a photo of James and Caitlin because I'm a bad blogger and didn't take one.
Friday, July 9, 2010
I promise to try to catch up on the blog.
As you all can tell, I keep getting further behind on the blog. I'm about to enter the Mississippi River area and head towards the headwaters. I promise to try to catch up on the blog when I am in Minneapolis. It would be much easier if there was a heat wave or a lot of rain, but I'm not hoping for that. I hope everyone on the East Coast gets some much needed relief from the heat with some rain and the Midwest gets no more rain for a while.
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