finally

Hi everyone,

Sorry it's been so long. I know I really suck at this blogging thing. It's hard when you're on the road without a computer, and when you're partying in different cities so much that you don't have time to get online.

Anyway, here's what's happened lately:

I biked into St. Louis, and a guy bought me a zero to sixty, which I learned is a jaeger-bomb chased by a shot of jaeger. Disgusting, and it hit me hard. Then I run across a food-not-bombs picnic where people saw me biking by and asked if I was touring and if I wanted something to eat. Of course I did. Then someone there asked me where I was staying, and I said I wasn't sure, and they offered me a place to stay. So I stayed at Kabat House, a Catholic worker house in St. Louis. I met a lot of awesome people in the community, and it was so awesome that I stayed there for 15 nights. Tery drove me out of town and I started biking south again.

I met three people doing a ride called the Tour de Hunter Saturday night and camped with them for the night, and rode with them for a few hours the next morning before we parted ways. They all rode racing bikes, and trying to keep up with them kicked my ass, and more specifically, my left knee. I pedaled through the pain though, put in a bunch of miles, and did the same the next day. By Tuesday I couldn't really ride, so I rode 20 miles and arrived at Reelfoot Lake State Park and checked into the campground at 9 am. I cooked a meal, ate, and didn't get up until 10 am the next day. While I was sleeping a big dumb squirrel broke on of the zippers on my front pannier. A super nice dude named Jim brought me a meal the next morning. He asked if I wanted some eggs, and I said sure! He comes back with a plate full of scrambled eggs, bacon, toast, jelly, and tomatoes, and a cup of coffee. Just a ton of food. I thanked him and started biking for the day.

I met a kind-of-lost dude named Issac who was also touring, and we biked together for a few days, until Memphis, but he decided he wanted to bike alone so we parted ways. I needed a bunch of parts at a bike shop in Memphis, and it was taking forever to get them, and I was bonking, and I hadn't found a place to stay yet, so I was pretty miserable. Then someone comes in the shop and asks who's touring? And If I needed a place to stay. So I staying with Zac and his girlfriend Lauren for a few days. A super awesome mechanic named Dennis helped me get my biked all tuned-up (he actually had me come over to his place and worked on my bike with me). I also met Lisa when I got into Memphis. She who was riding from Chicago to New Orleans, and we left together after a week of partying in Memphis.

Lisa and I got to Jackson and decided that rather than trying to figure out how to get into New Orleans and bike through the rain we would take the train in. My first real "cheating" of the trip. The first of many.

We partied in New Orleans for a while. Halloween in New Orleans was off the chain. I had such a good time the whole time I was there. Lisa broke her toe and took a train back to Chicago. After being in town for about a week and not biking much I was feeling restless, so I biked around Lake Pontchartrain. Left at about 3 pm and got back at about 6 am.

In New Orleans I stayed with a friend's friend, Alicia (Thanks, Alicia!). It was awesome. She had several other visitors staying with her too, including a dude named Ian, who was driving back to a town outside Houston on Friday night, so I bummed a ride with him. I stayed there for a few days, checked out the Texas Rennaisance Festival (it was awesome!) and bummed a ride down to Galveston. I was going to ride, but who am I to turn down a ride? (Thanks, Joe!) Biked along the gulf for a few days. I crashed at Magnolia Beach for a few days (set up my hammock in a cabana - it was pretty sweet).

I kept going, and stayed outside of Bay City, then outside of Tivoli, and then today I biked into Corpus Christi, when I got a phone call from a man named Skip. He was answering my message I sent him on warmshowers. He's letting me stay at his place tonight, and he's going into Harlingen (or something like that) tomorrow, so I'm going to get a ride with him. Then I'll be almost in Mexico! Skip and his wife have been great hosts. They let me take a shower, and fed me, and he even took me to Best Buy where I bought a camera, so I promise that my future posts (and I promise to update more frequently too) will have lots of fun pictures!

-Chris