In west philidelphia born n raised, on the playground is where I spent most of my days

I am in philidelphia. I got into town yesterday. I would like to give you a recap now, and as you are reading this blog, I think that's what you're looking for.

I last updated this blog the day before I left richmond.
Friday
Later that day I made fish burritos with John and Cath. John is the friendly barista from crossroads, and Cath is his super awesome roomate. Cath told me she had some friends in dc that I could crash with. great! I left the next afternoon, about 1pm, super excited.

Saturday
I took route 1. I rode 70 miles. Va is hella hilly. hill after hill. they just never stopped. hill after hill with a headwind. This is the first time I've toured on a double. I'm not gonna lie, I spent a lot of the day muttering "I wish I had a granny gear, wish I had a granny gear". I kept futilely flicking my shifter, hoping it had just stuck or caught and I could continue to shift down. But no.

I hate climbing hills. but I'm trying to trick myself into liking them. After I descend, the hill ahead looks so much less steep, and I'll say aloud, "Ha! That doesnt look so bad!" and then I'll wheeze to the top at 8 mph, have a victory cigarette, and do it all over. When I see a giant steep incline rising out of the distance, I try not to let myself feel anxious. I just get in the drops and look 5 feet in front of me, not even watching the summit inch closer. I say to myself, "you could climb this hill forever. You're doing awesome" and then I get to the top. have a victory cigarette. and descend. There have been many hills that I've taken breaks on. Just stopped 2 or 3 times and put my feet on the ground, standing over my bike, just letting the burning in my legs ease up. but I havent walked a single fucking one. fuck yeah! Victory cigarette!

In northern va I slept by the side of the road in this wooded area near this rollerskating rink. I could hear the bass of the music thumping, and I would try to guess what each song was. The last song of the night was definitely salt n' peppa's 'push it'.

Sunday
got into DC. called up Brendan, Cath's friend, and stayed over at his house, 'the corpse fortress'. friendly folks, and the most comfortable couch I think I've ever slept on. Victory cigarettes, beers, matress stabbing with swords, tuna spookin, scrabies. throwin rocks at shit.

Monday
Labor Day, I called this girl Julia. I'm gonna have to make a flow chart to get all these connections straight. I met Julia through Jen who lives at The Flying Brick in Richmond. I didnt end up staying with Julia, but I went to a Laborday BBQ with her. I made baked kale and sweet potato fries, played apples to apples, and had a good ole time. I met an awesome lady named Meg, who told me she had friends I could stay with in Baltimore. Hooray!

Tuesday
The next day in DC, I went to the National Natural history museum. Taxidermied animals, models of tectonic plates, dinosaurs. My favorite part was the giant tank they had full of water bugs, but that is just my style. I got lost in Rock Creek Park for a couple hours. I just kept climbing and descending and climbing and descending. I kept thinking that if I headed in one direction I'd be able to get out, but the roads were windey and half of them dead ended and then I ran out of water. ugh. Never actually made it to the National Cathedral, which was where I was trying to go.
Later that night, Garrett, this friend of Brendan's from the C.F. called me up and invited me to 'The Ruins" with a group of kids. I think The Ruins are the closest thing to The Landfill of the bay I've ever seen. Basically a bunch of trash rocks left over from the rebuilding of some old historic thing, dumped in the middle of this park and forgot about, and in the middle of the night punk kids go there and crawl all over them. good times.

Wednesday
I rode to baltimore on wednesday. good ole rt one. getting into the city from the south side, the road got super shitty with giant potholes. This truck behind me started honking for about a mile behind me, and I usually ignore honking vehicles cause they typically just want to be shitty, but after so long I looked behind me at a stoplight and the passenger of the truck was dangling my squid bag and sleeping pad out of the window. Apparently, I hadnt even noticed that on one of the giant fucking potholes all my shit had come unbungeed from my rear rack and spilled all over the road. This truck full of good samaritans stopped to pick it up for me. My bag, thermarest, lock- Fuck. my tent was missing. I wouldnt have even noticed that my stuff bounced off if that truck hadnt let me know. Thank you so much, anonymous truck!
I went back to find my tent, which wasnt torn, but the poles were crushed. (probably from being run over by a truck, but hey, I got it from REI. I'll just go get new poles)

I stayed with Meg's friend, Rachel, at this awesome warehouse space full of nice people and cats. I really want to hang out in baltimore on my way back down, but I set out for philly the next day

Thursday
I left baltimore at about 2pm after going to a cool bike shop and trying to diagnose a clicking sound. We couldnt get to the bottom of it, but since it still works just fine I'm gonna leave it alone. rode 65 miles. good ole rt one (still). I bought a knee brace, since my knee had just started to hurt and I wanted to prevent it from getting any worse. It feels okay so far.

As soon as I got to PA the road flattened out. I had been feeling pretty exhausted, making less than ten miles an hour, resting on almost every hill, going over this terrifying bridge with no shoulder, but as soon as I hit the expressway I felt like a million bucks. Like I could fucking ride forever. Of course, the sun went down 15 miles later and I slept behind a tree between the highway and an exit. I woke up to what felt like the pressure of an animal's footprint, and I whipped around real fast and started hissing like a cat, a sound that I figured all mammals could recognize as "get the fuck away from me!". but I didnt hear anything scurry off into the bushes, so I think it must have been my imagination.

Friday.
Woke at 7am and set off. Made it into philly at about 4, maybe 55 miles. I felt like a fucking champ. I was trying to make it into Philly by friday to meet up with Cath, and though I did make it in, we didnt meet up that night. My friend Ben, from cleveland, hooked me up with his rad friends Nico and Caroline. I actually had a bedroom to myself, which I passed out at about 11p in and slept till 10am.

Saturday (today!)
Made breakfast. updated blog. gonna go get on with my day.
My fucking saddle sores are out of control. I need to rest up in a serious way. "um, I cant leave town right now, cause my ass is busted up"
Bag balm. vaseline. relief!

BONUS

Wanna make a motherfucking fish burrito? They fucking rule. I'll learn ya: this makes about two hella huge fish burritos
1 can of tuna. SOLID or CHUNK none of that shredded shit
1 Avocado
1 tomato
1/2 onion
giant burrito tortillas
lemon juice
salt
pepper
garlic salt or chopped garlic
earth balance, butter, oil, or whatever
1 bag of spinach\
hot sauce (I like red hot)
<1 cup of rice, I usually make it a cup at a time, but you dont need that much
Optional:
cottage cheese
refried or whole beans
1. Put yer rice on! You do know how to cook rice, dontcha?
2. cook yer damn fish! Squeeze all the juice out of the can of tuna, sear it with some butter in a big pan. I like to burn it a little bit. throw some lemon juice, salt + peppa, garlic in there
when it's about half way cooked add yer bag of spiznach, and the onion (diced)
3. fry yer tortillas! Just throw some butter on a pan, & cook that thang a little bit! then flip!
tortillas cook fast, your rice and fish is probably still cooking. put your avo and tomato (sliced) on your burrito, salt and pepper, then yer hotsauce and beans and cottage cheese (I guess you could use sour cream, I just hate it)
It's all cooked! Put it together and eat it! Fish burritos are probably my favorite thing. and super cheap!