Broken

Erikas mom just looked at the CAT scan and noted that the images show that my sternum is broken and displaced by about 1.5 inches... yea she was surprised that the ER doc in Palau couldn’t tell.  it appears that i am healing and everything will be fine. 6 weeks is the normal recovery time and i seem to be on schedule.

So yea, I jumped off a long abandoned bunker in Nikko bay about 40 feet high, which seemed like a reasonable thing to do, but nope, 40 feet is plenty high to kill you, lucky I didn’t do that much damage. 

Bonus i got these great photos of my ribs.

I think this brings my total broken bone count to five, but how can one really know.

xameslives

I've started Vlogging on youtube. Yea, says the crowd  

come give it a look and Subscribe!

XamesLives Vlog

But more about ME!

In the last year I traveled to and worked in Georgia, New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Vermont, Maine, New Hampshire. and Spent a Month in Honduras and two Months in Palau.

yea, Ive been lame about writing. But my Vlog is going to make up for all of that.

Really check out my Vlog and Subscribe

XamesLives

Gualala

I have a persistent image in my head, walking on a rocky coast, wind blowing and waves crashing, large furry dog at my side.

A gull just flew by, just over the edge, below ground level, the sign says " Danger, eroding cliff edge and Eddy is by my side.

I had blackberry pie for breakfast.

What more could a kid want?

Brooklyn Shave

As i washed my face with a towel almost to hot to touch and spread shaving cream on my 8 year old face, prepared the razor by taking out the blade i knew that shaving was the controllable thing that separated men from boys. Then I saw the movie “My Name Is Nobody” where a trail weary gentle man cowboy (Henry Fonda) sits in a barber chair for a shave, holds his head back while the barber, who we just learned is an assassin, holds a straight razor blade to his stretch back neck, maximally vulnerable, then the click of the hammer of a gun being pulled back and that gun pointed at the barbers crotch, the barber changes his grip on the blade and moves from the neck to the upper cheek and proceeds to give Fonda a clean shave, the barber even seems nervous as he glides the razor up Fonda’s neck, more assassins out side the barbershop seemed confused, Cool and collected Fonda checks his face in the mirror, then gun fight, No, real men get straight razor shaves.

Looking for pizza in Park slope Brooklyn, there are lots of pizza places but no where spoke to me, one place advertised Guinness Blond beer on their marque, really? so much good beer and corporate beer thinks that the word Guinness means good blond beer, for suckers only pease, so no, if they don't know beer, how could they know pizza. The coal fired pizza place didn't seem to serve pie by the slice. 

Then a barber shop, a hair cut was just finished make by the smock getting undone form a patrons neck and carefully pulled free such that hair fell on the floor and not on person.  The barber makes eye contact with me and gestures for me to sit in the chair. I continue to just watch. The barber walks outside, i ask “do you do straight razor shaves?” he responds “of course, eighteen dollars, I do a good job” i think i can see a blade on the counter top. We chat for a bit, my furry face still looks good but its time to shave or clean up my face, and I love a shave so i walk in the door and sit down.

His name is Jack and he left Tajikistan with his family when he was 14, Israel then Brooklyn, where he has been since. We talk while he shaves my head with an electric clipper then electric razor, he asks if i want the straight blade, i say no because i assume it will cost more and I'm feeling only so not cheap. He does my eyebrows and ears too, including separating my monobrow.

Then he adjusts the chair back, i fiddle to a comfortable spot, 

electric razor to remove beard

lotion briskly applied to face

wait

hot towel wrapped up under chin and around entire face including the eyes, but my eyes have been closed since i reclined, sinking deeper and deeper into the barbers chair with each moment.

wait

shaving cream applied by hand

straight razor starting at the cheek, 

his hand drags behind the blade feeling my skin. This continues over my entire face, sometimes it feels like he is pulling the skin tight sometimes that he is just monitoring the blades work. 

The razor to my neck, up it glide, other hand still monitoring and soothing.

(i think i feel a nick as he razors over  my old chin scar that i got learning to rollerblade and superglued closed because there was so much blood and that is what superglue was originally for, right? its a spot that i always cut and most barbers open little but this time there’s no blood i think i imagined the nick, or maybe he healed it as he worked)

slow and deep face massage while applying more lotion, moving my face skin away and around the structure underneath, i wondered if they were even really connected.

second hot towel.

second time with a razor over my entire face

more lotion

he asks if i want aftershave i don't answer and he says, “of course you do” I'm not a fan of the old man smell of aftershave but i know that the is important to finish the job.

it stings good and wakens me from my stupor like relax, i do my best to not wince, think i pulled it off.

maybe the best shave I've ever gotten.

Still doesn't make me a man.

I've neglected to post for some time, a bit of travel has happened, a road trip around the west with a wedding, hotsprings, and an engine fire near Los Banōs. 4 star accommodations in China a new tall cargo bike for daily travel and now I'm in Brooklyn drinking cold brew.

Chi 

Day 1 Puerto Escondido

An airplane brought me here, but I don't know the name of this town I'm in, I ran across the empty beach, well down a way there were men cast net fishing in the surf, dropping clothes I almost couldn't feel the water except that it pushed and pulled really hard, trying to keep me on the sand.

In town there are street venders selling fresh caught fish and shrimp, shops selling farm tools and cooking burners and pans. Tonight's dinner at a Clayudaia was perfect, a Casodia like thing cooked on an open charcoal and wood fire with a BBQed slab of meet on top.

It feels like the third world, primitive and simple, but I know it's just conservative home to many people, but the hotel pool closes at 10:00.

Mexico City

Looking out my plane window as we climb out of LA I see vertical and horizontal white cement, tall things in grouped lines, low tangles of other bitty  specs, all white tones

Rich blue on the rightI and I think there was a pod of whales,I'm speculating of course, because there is no way for me to know what those white and grew blobs are. 

I know geography well enough to understand that the next time I look out the window, when the movie I'm watching on the seat mounted iPad like screen pauses and the Vegas like interior of the plane becomes apparent. I'm in modern space age Mexican space and time machine.  

Low flat w ring of mountains a vast city with specks of color everywhere, disorganized looking streets and buildings

Chinese, Korean and Spanish conversations going of all around are comforting, I have almost no expectation of being understood. The calmness and home that I last felt when hitch hiking,  

Manolos tacos, pastor ( beef and pork) stacked on a vertical spit like gyro lamb.  And a Leon cervesa.   

It's as as home as I know.

Still 14?

I started forgetting my age when I was 28, thought I was 27, Beth did the math and convinced me I was in fact 28.  Today if asked I'll usually say 14, but really it's just confusing to me. 

A couple of weeks ago someone I quickly knew knew would be my friend invited me to go to Portland's gay pride parade, she was "dressing up" I didn't know what that meant, until she sent a picture.

I replied with this, the day was grand.

 

My feet get cold every day, even when it is not that cold out, today i realized that water is leaking into my waterproof Sorel Caribous, there is a tiny hole in the burly rubber sole. I think i can find it if i fill the boot with hot water then look at the sole with a thermo imaging camera… i ruled out filling up the boot with compressed air and looking for bubbles, filling the boot with colored water and careful looking.

… rain and snow. i need to go skiing

ill just have an enlightened brownie at Enlighten Cafe provo utah

The trap

Sitting in a hammock after eating lunch at a long table under a tree after taking down a circus tent, after a night in a caravan, after a day of working on a small sail boat after my last night at Pius's place... Hamid asked if I want a beer, I don't think a day has gone by while I've been in Geneva that someone hasn't offered me a drink. Yesterday it was three beers by three different people, two offers of dinner and two offers of a place to stay, oh and I had to turn down a game of pitonque

Natacha and Adrian say I'm like a rainbow or a unicorn. Tony asked if I would travel with him to find a spot to set up an intentional community.  It feels like home, but knowingly temporary home... The sun just made its way out from around my nest of trees and Hamid just handed me a Calvinus blanche I think I'll adjust my perch.

 Jeremy gave me a bike, the Bike Switzerland guys ( if you want a nice bike tour these are the guys to see) helped me out with safety equipment... My path seems like to be full of only opportunities.

But which direction to ride, Italy, Germany, Switzerland?

Two weeks of work fell in my lap,

They say this place holds people

Several yesterday's and right now

At the start of this trip I had two destinations, Miami ( to catch a ship) and back to Portland Oregon. In the mean time I knew there would additional intermediate destinations. But I really have been trying to stay open to the next destination it Seems there are no ferries from Spain to Tunisia and Algerian visa's are expensive and hard to get and tourist vistas are impossiable to Lybia... And Atali said come to Geneva.

Ive been warned many times by assorted people about the Calvinistic nature of the people of Geneva, about Swiss laws that say that if you see a crime being committed and do nothing to stop it then you are an accomplice. I was invited to a party my first day here and was greeted warmly and told that work was easy to find and that I should stay.  But then not long after someone I met kind of hid from me in public,  people here tell me that is normal behavior for people from Geneva.

Someone just asked me if I had any rolling papers.

Then Atali started acting distant, told me to buy my own food... I had been, then while we were talking she sat back and accused me of being judgmental??? Barked at me about making a fool of myself I front of her friends and got really cold...

I like the music in here, electronic, 60s sounding, all French, loyce e os gnomes Brazilian guitar fuzzy

More and more pleased with my biking set up, new handle stem, handle bars, and mounted at a little bike shop that did its best to be invisible, no sign, off the street, down two sets of stairs then back under the street in an area with what look like embassies.

Many used bikes in all states of repair. One bike was being moved and it's back wheel wasn't rolling, I noticed a unlock between the frame and rear wheel.

in Carouge, checking out a bike shop and looking for a used rear bike rack. It's raining so I stopped into a shop, turns out to be a little restaurant, Fanta place mats, country western swing music playing, but old paint on the walls little tables, a man in the visible kitchen, I walk back and ask

Do you speak English?

No, wife ( and points)

She walks up

What would you like

We negotiate for a minute, they indicate that they are making salad and resoto with chicken, I say yes, pleased that I've found a place that only serves one thing each day

Proz jean Michel

He said " i love to hear, it's nice to meet you"

Sex pistols are playing in the next room, I couldn't pack anything but a back pack to that music, Golda is packing her entire room and moving out. I don't understand, yes she is finishing up her studies in pedagogy, doesn't have any money but she thinks she can't stay here anymore even though she invited me to stay, and I'll still be here after she a leaves this old decaying student apartment. 6 bedrooms each with sinks, one toilet and one bath, wood and tile floors, balconies, wood and glass double doors all over the place. And the elevator... Wood paneling and doors, steel grate outer door, nothing automatic. at first not sure if it's even safe, maybe an operator should be running it, but there isn't enough room for one.

Bikes locked to the stair railing, mines just out side the room I'm squatting.

After Atali wrote me " you can't stay anymore because you didn't say hi last night" I met up with Reto and Rafaela for beer, Reto said he had found a couch for one night, I started talking to Rafaela's two friends and they said, " you can stay with us" then I learned they didn't really know Rafaela.

At football two days before I was given a bike, then at pétanque I was offered a car. I think I've found and visited all of the used bike shops in town and successfully outfitted my bike for the journey onward, but I was just offered two weeks of work.

I can't hear the sex pistols any more but birds and street sounds.

Up to date travel recap

I must've fallen asleep, didn't feel like I slept but I was tired and the wait didn't feel very long before we started moving again... Through the yard and we kept moving...

But this was just going to be me catching up with the travel recap...

I'm the tale of the train moving while I'm moving back to the unit and having to get on the moving train and crawl along the side of the car.

Off the train in Kansas city, yea not Chicago, sleeping in a ravine behind a house, riding 20 miles to a truck... stop getting kicked out of two separate truck stops

Three rides in cars

Picked up by a truck that took me to Atlanta, one night in the truck

One hitch ride, spent the night at new friends house, they gave me a ride to the other side of Atlanta, 40 mile bike ride because that spot was impossible to hitch out of, ride on truck to lake city Florida.

Two days until boat so I bought a bus ticket to Miami.

One night in Jacksonville where I met some nice people and was even hosted for the night by a very nice person that I met

So after a night in the bus station learning that greyhound lost my gear trying to find my gear I walked to the boat, stopping on the way to buy a scarf.

11 days in the Vegas like luxury of shows, pools, buffets, restaurants dancing and sun of the cruise ship ( not to mention one day of motion sickness)

I took as much food from the cruise ship as I could pack, bread cheese, salami and apples.

Barcelona, a night in a hostel after my CouchSurfing hookup didn't pan out, metro out of town to a freeway on ramp. I got information about where to hitch out of from the desk clerk at the hostel.

All day waiting then three rides up into the mountains, a night in the hills,

A ride to the next town walked across town a different road caught a ride to a main freeway, but I had to walk through a big field, through a big culvert under train tracks, jumped a fence to a gas station on the main free way

Ride with a trucker to Lion.

Ride to airport train to Geneva...where I'm staying with Atali.

Reddit...Is this proof?

http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1eoqit/around_the_world_bywalking_riding_bike/

Back to the train narrative, in North Platte

24 hours later we stopped at what I assumed was outside the north platte yard, several sets of tracks to the right and left of us, but the north platte train yard was supposed to be the busiest train yard in the world, and this did not seem all that busy...seemed we must be waiting clearance to enter, or maybe this is were the crew change took place... I contemplated a move to a rideable train car further up the train because the word was that North Platte was "hot" there were even claims of dog searches and infrared scanners. The advice was to leave the train, walk, or ride my bike to the far side of the yard and catch out on that side. But was that posable? Was there security that would catch me if I wandered off in the open, would I be able to find roads that paralleled the main line, would I be able to find the main line, do trains stop in a convenient spot to catch out on? If I stayed in the unit would I be able to get off and hide again....

Another train traveling the same direction pulled up on the track next to us. I think it is a train that we passed on a siding, I think we are waiting to pull into the yard, I decided to wait.

We move forward picking up speed, it's surprising how fast the train accelerates, past a light tower... We slow... More tracks and trains and lights up high and everywhere... The instruments inside seem to indicate fuel quantity at empty... A pickup truck drives past, and another seems to be following us, then turns off and drives away. I wonder if I've been seen, if anyone cares, if they've called the police, if the yard is "hot"

We stop... Another truck drives past, I climb down, with gear, on the side of the unit opposite where all of the trucks have been driving and walk up the train to the 48 that has a floor, set out a tarp, get my things as low and out of sight as possible and curl up with the tarp folded over me and wait to get moving.

Rainy day in Geneva

Off and on rain, stayed inside looked for work, some new friends suggest it is easy here and the pay is good, but I'm not having any luck.

Sunny yesterday I met a French girl from Africa who was far cuter then she looked, happy and alive, different than normal Geneva people, she insisted that I get out of Geneva, she kept saying Vellee, go to Vellee.

I need more comfortable shoes if I'm going to hike thought the Alps

Visited the apple store, played patenque, went to a bar and met a man from Kosovo who said, and believed " America saved my country" ( i shed a tear) and I think he is right. Then had a beer at a underground bar on the second floor, called Pachinko, with a particle physicists that works at CERN who said " it quacks like a duck and smells like a duck and we are sure we have a bird" in regards to the Higgs Bosan.

The first day of trains

Travel recap.

After spending a night under the 42nd street over pass and traveling back and forth between that spot and Jewbitz truck stop, several hours talking to truck drivers, getting kicked out of said truck stop, eating fabulous goat soup at a Mexican dive, drinking beer and chatting with ted under said overpass, hunting around portland with Ted, at about 10:00 pm I caught a west bound train to Chicago.

Rode in the pusher Unit through Oregon and Idaho ( an engine that is on the back of the train.) it is heated has a toilet, drinking water and an instrument that tells speed and other things that are interesting to me. The views were spectacular, and I could climb outside and ride in the open air. I had MRE's to eat and made a little bed on the floor. I suspected that the unit need to be inspected once a day ( there was an inspection sheet on the wall that was per printed for the year with a space for each day. Ted told me that he thought there was an inspection in Pocatello, I did the math.

It felt like we were making good time, the train never stopped, it often slowed while either on a siding track or while another train was on a siding track so the two could pass each other in opposite directions.

At about midnight of the second day a truck started following us as we pulled into the freight yard in what I thought was Pocatello yard. the train was still moving but I took all my stuff with me out the side of the train opposite the truck... Waited for complete stop then climbed down and into the shadow of the train sitting on the track next to us... I was wearing all black. I watched the truck and realized that the light was such that the truck driver probably couldn't see me. I set my bike and backpack down in the shadows and walked up to the truck making sure to now be as visible and non threatening as possible, i.e. stayed 10 feet or so away from the truck and stood still, stooping over as to ask a question. The man in the truck opened his door and got out, he was wearing thick heavy clothes and put a flip down full face safety shield on his head and said

yes?

Are you inspecting this train?

Yes

He did not appeared concerned by my presence

Listen... I don't want to be trouble, but I just got off that train... And I'm planning on getting back on...

Don't touch anything, I didn't see you... See that blue flashing light on the train, I will take it off when I'm done, there is another guy inspecting the rest of the train, he will take off the other blue light when he is done. I'm the only one who will get in the train.

I retreated back into the shadows. Then climbed up into the unit and set up my bed as soon as he drove off.

Geneva

Hitchhiked to Geneva Switzerland, I'm staying with Atali for a bit

Hitchhiked all the way to Aiguafreda Catalonia Spain

Three rides in 7 hours for total of about 50K. I'm in the mountains north of Barcelona. Learned today that Tapas refers to the little plate placed on top of a beer to keep flys out of it

Ocean view

The simple realization that I had a room steward made me feel like a genius, yea I felt bad, it's a job no one should have to do, but gloves and a vacuum... Not too bad really... After that I took the maximum dosage of meclizine... And room service which brought said meclizine and dinner and breakfast became my favorite thing. And all that the first day at sea, long before the 50 foot waves, the biggest seas the Epic had ever seen...

All that conspired and the wind rain and cold to keep me from using the.giant water slides, pools and hot tubs on board. I did make it to shows i.e. Blueman group and Legends in concert, a magic show, an a cappella singing group... I don't remember everything right now...

Once I started feling better I also spent more time with friends I met aboard. Michael and Dorcas, Theo and assorted other people.

Once in the Mediterranean the seas got calm mad the sun came out...