Some Thoughts on Gun Violence in America 12/21/2012

My dear friends,

I feel compelled to say a few words about the multiple shootings and death of young people by gun violence.  There are things all of us can do to stop this insanity.  And yes, tighter controls on guns are a part of it but only a part of the answer.  But gun regulations do not get to the root of the problem we have created in our society.  

As I have said here before all things are connected energetically.  We really need to reexamine everything we are doing from an elevated consciousness that knows and understands this reality.   When we allow young people to disconnect from the real world for a make believe virtual one that frequently fills young minds with nothing but violent images and they see this repeated in real life events,war for example, and other media forums we've engaged in a form of unintended brain washing of impressionable young minds.   And what do these images and events imply but that use of violence is acceptable for resolving our differences.   In the virtual world there are no consequences for the protagonists.  In the real world there is real blood on the ground and dead bodies.  Stop this insanity.  Give our children and young people positive things of a nonviolent nature to live for rather than spill real blood and die for.  Reconnect young and old alike with their roots in the natural world rather than being fed a constant diet of negativity and violence found in the virtual one and not infrequently in the real one.  

We create from our thoughts individually and collectively.  Thoughts are creative energy.  And we have created a violent world from the misperception that we are somehow separate from other sentient beings or All That Is, known by many names.  We are only harming ourselves.   This is worth repeating until it really sinks in and begins to make a difference.  Hit you head against the wall often enough and pretty soon you'll figure out this really doesn't work so well and you'll stop doing it.  It is time to stop.   

On this auspicious day let us resolve to make peace on earth and peace with the earth a priority for all of us.   Your peace center lies in the heart.  That is the first place to begin real peace work.   Let your cultivation of that inner light shine forth brightly into our world to help heal and create a new earth from this day forward.    

Feliz Navidad y Ano Nuevo del Yucatan, peace, love and joy to all,

Peace Rider

 

Peace Rider On The Road Again

Hi Lois,

Nice to see a note from you pop up on the screen, a reminder to me to say hello and post on the blog.  

I'm now relaunched in another place arriving Cancun the day before yesterday with bicycle.  Took me a couple of hours to put it together and head down the road toward Morelos south of Cancun about 10 miles.  Stayed with an artist there a couple of times in the course of the Peoples Climate Summit.  Renato was not at home when I showed up but one of the workers there gave me the okay to stay when I explained my connection.

Pitched my tent and crawled in when the mosquitoes came out at nightfall.  Boy was it muggy humid.  I just lay on my pad with only my swim suit on for a long while.  But it cooled off later.  Put on a shirt then towards morning  a light cover.

The next day I wasn't moving fast and got off to a late start or probably just in time southbound for Playa del Carmen as a next stop.  By this time the sun was up, hot and I'm sweating like crazy.  Right around noon I arrived at Playa and tried to call my friend there but only got a message that the phone was disconnected.  I forgot to transfer his street address to my new book.  Oh well, kept going south to Akumal to another friends place where I stayed before.  I was camped next to Nancy de Rosa for the PCS.  She has a  bar and places for rent on the beach, lovely spot. 

But getting here didn't remember the exact turnoff and go down three false trails before finding the right one.  So here today at her place Villas de Rosa and using her computer.  Feet in the sand at sunrise on the beach.  A beach bum yellow lab was on the beach in the evening.  I would throw an unhusked coconut into the surf and he would retrieve it.  If I didn't throw it in he would paw it back into the water, watch it roll back and forth then grab it, haul it back up on the beach and then repeat the game.  

Today, shortly after I finish this will pedal a short way down the road to Gabriel's place, a Maya elder I met at the same time as Nancy.  Two years ago I showed up at his place,  as it happened, on the same day 12/21 but then not aware of what day it was.  Anyway, he has just a sweet spot in the jungle, a community actually, with a gem of a cenote or spring on his finca or farm.  It's perfect for cooling off during the heat of the day.  

So excited to be here, don't know what will happen but then if I did it would spoil the fun of discovery.  Could be the end of the world as we know it, not a physical end but a change in perception and evolution of consciousness.  In fact this seems to be happening and a thing I have mention on the blog. 

Learned that because of the Maya connection a lot of celebrations will be going on at different ruin sites Tulum and Chichen Itza two I know about.  A big music festival at the latter, not sure at the former.  May visit one or both while I'm here but not sure when.  Probably spend Christmas at Gabriel's place but will see where the winds launch me.

Nancy has an organization called SAVE.  You can check it out on the web.  Shes been involved in trying to save the mangroves along the coast and turtle nesting beaches.  But it's been tough going against developers with deep pockets and money to spread around.

Had a wonderful time with the Warrens in Miami.  First stayed with them on way to PCS.  Their young daughter, Natalie,  now out of St. Olafs is trying to start a business in Minnesota to reconnect young women with nature.  A worthy effort.  Connected with her, home for Christmas, just before leaving for Mexico.

About all the news for now

Feliz Navidad y Ano Nuevo, peace, love and joy to all.

Palante, onward,

Don 

Some Thoughts from On the Road 12/9/2012

If you think it's hopeless because of what's happening on the surface think again.  If you think we are abandoned in our hour of need you would be mistaken.  Human consciousness is evolving. We are a race awakening.  We are being pushed to a higher level of consciousness because our survival on the planet depends on it.   A wise person would not wait until a full blown crisis was at hand when current severe climate events are indicators of what will only get worse as the atmosphere warms further and sea levels continue to rise.   We know governments will not save us.  It is as Margaret Mead once said ¨Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world.  Indeed it is the only thing that ever has.¨   

We cannot solve our problems at the same level of egoic consciousness that created them to paraphrase Einstein.  The growing perception is that we are all One.  It is an illusion that we are now or ever have been separate from one another, creation or All That Is many call God.  The egoic state of consciousness by its very nature reinforces a perception of separation.  This widespread belief reinforces the illusion, that there is no connection (energetically) between ourselves or any other thing in the created order.  It is from this false belief, just a thought really, that all of our problems have arisen.  It has served its purpose which was to provide a contrasting field in our physical reality.  We could not know in our experience what Oneness is without having experienced separation, or what the good is without the evil, the up without the down.   We now have a collective memory of these experiences with their pain and trauma.  It is no longer necessary to keep repeating these experiences but only to remember.     It is past time to create a heaven on earth instead of the recreating the hell that has been our long history.  We risk our survival on the planet if we persist.

Sending our young people to fight our wars with the belief that killing is justified creates an internal conflict between the mind/egoic state of consciousness and what the Higher Self within each of us knows is only harming itself.  Healing those who return with PTSD requires great compassion and understanding.  Wars and violence inflicted on the "other" we label as enemy become unacceptable practices when we know in advance we are only harming ourselves.  

All thought is creative of our experience individually and collectively.  Thought is energy. In that sense we are co creators with the Divine of our experience.  From the misperception of separation we have created the world we live in.  As we collectively awaken and turn aside from our past it is important for each of us to flee negativity, especially with the chaotic events unfolding at the moment.  I like what Peace Pilgrim had to say about this, I don´t eat junk food and I don´t think junk thoughts (negativity).  On the other hand thoughts with the highest vibration (energy) are love, peace and joy for example.  It is these thoughts that have the greatest coherence and power to change the world we live in.  

There is nothing to fear as we create a new world based on the reality of interconnectedness or Oneness.  Change and impermanence are constants in our world.  Death, there is no death, only a change of worlds,¨ Chief Seattle.   We are spiritual beings, not our minds or bodies, having a human experience.  We are not without recourse or help in our hour of greatest need.  We only have to ask.  

Be open minded,  keep love, peace and joy in your heart and a smile on your face as we tip toe through the tulips - we're in very good hands. 

As for me I will be tip toeing south by bus from Boquete to catch a plane from Panama City to Miami this Friday the 14th.   I will be in Miami a few days before flying to Cancun in the Yucatan of Mexico to close out the year there with friends.  The adventure continues, have-bicycle-will-travel.  More down the road.  

Peace Rider - Don

 

Peace Rider from Boquete, Panama 11/26/12

Dear Friends,

 

At this wiritng sitting in an internet cafe off the man drag, there´s only one in Boquete,  my home for now in the western highlands of Panama.  An array of flowers are in bloom gracing this place with their beauty and fragrances.  At my friend George´s place humming birds aggressive little creatures with their own kind dart about seeking flowers and nectar as well as vieing for sugar water at his feeder.  In the dry season these get filled more often than now when there are so many floral sources to choose from.

 

For some reason a small bat has been coming to the house attaching itself to the walls at night leaving its calling card  in the process making more work for Amalia, George´s AM helper and my Spanish coach. 

 

It´s blessedly cooler here being higher in elevation and rainy - it poured yesterday and the day before.  My plan to walk into town yesterday and watch the parade celebrating independence from Spain was aborted by the rain.  George has seen enough of these he didn´t want to venture into town to see the locura (craziness).  The parade went on but I waited until today to venture out with most of the rain past.   The news reported flooding and homes being washed away in Colon on the north coast in roughly the center of the country.. 

 

It´s rather nice to have no agenda and to just sit and enjoy the place and its beauty.  My Spanish is improving with practice.  The computer I´m using has its commands in Spanish, more practice.   One of the things I came to look for in town this day was harina integral, wheat flour. Bleached white flour is the other more common choice.  There was none a couple of days ago but I found some in two different stores today and bought a stash for the house.  Amalia bakes bread for George and the rest of us with a mixture of wheat and white flour.   I made an eatable version a couple of days ago and rice pudding last night.  Enjoy the process and the results are usually eatable with some renderings being a wee bit denser than  others.  The latest of mine got favorable reviews.

 

Into my second reading of Adyashanti - Falling Into Grace.  Tammy is helping George and I become more sensitive to the energies around us including our own.  We all have the ability but it does take letting go of the mind and being present.  Our minds are a tool, not who we are.  We are the awareness, the consciousness behind it something we can tune into and many are.  Adyanshanti is worth reading for his insights into the nature of mind growing out of his experience and searching for a way out of the human dilemma and suffering.  He speaks to the fundamentals of spiritual practice from a non-dogmatic point of view with fresh insights into the teachings and life of Jesus and the Buddha.   

 

Time to head back up the hill and home with a load of harina integral while the bajareque, mountain mist, is not falling.

 

Peace Rider

 

 

Peace Rider in Panama

Dear Friends,

 

I didn´t quite get to final thoughts on my ride as planned, apologies.   I headed out of Denver soon after I arrived to help Eddie at his cabin near Fairplay in South Park. My good intentions fell by the way side upon return amidst seeing other friends,  swapping worn out tires for new ones, making a new pants guard and deciding which things to keep and which to leave behind and oh yes, packing it all up.  Getting my break apart bicycle into its "suitcase" takes time and I usually end up sweating "blood" to make it fit.    

 

In the end I took most of my stuff with me rather leave things for my college friends Eddie and Babbie to deal with later.  Long underwear will come in real handy in Miami - right?  I was very grateful for their help throughout especially Babbie getting up at 4:30 AM to get me to the airport for an early flight.  I return to Miami and another friends place there then to the Yucatan in mid-December.  I left my bicycle behind there with Richard and Lisa but will take it to Mexico.

 

I was gifted several books complementary to one another in different ways but speaking to the theme of this ride - elevation of consciousness.  They are:  Falling Into Grace, insights into an end to suffering by Adyashanti, You Can Heal your Your Life by Louise Hay, and the Man Who Planted Trees by Jim Robbins.  

 

I´ve found them affirming.  See what you think.  I´m into all three savoring them from a relaxed perspective at another friend´s home on a mountainside outside Boquete in western Panama.  Cool but rainy here now in the wet season.

 

We are being pushed to break with the past and the illusion of separation to save ourselves in the face of an ecological crisis we have yet to take seriously.  It´s a four alarm fire and it doesn´t care who slept with whom.

 

More later now that I´m dismounted.  Got to git, my not so ample posterior is sore from sitting at the computer too this day.

 

Don - Peace Rider

 

 

 

 

Peace Rider Arrives Safely in Denver 11/1/2012

Just a quick note to let all know who are following the blog that I made it safely to North Glen, CO my destination for the moment.  I left the next day for South Park to help my college friend Eddie Kockman with some work around his cabin near Fairplay. 

 

When we return to Denver no later than this Thursday will try to carve put time to together a longer piece on final thoughts and learnings from my third jaunt across the country by bicycle. 

 

I would say in brief that traveling across Montana and Wyoming I was reminded of a similar windy passage across Kansas on my first ride.  Sometimes the winds were a bane with stong crosswinds out of the west and southwest and at other times a real boost with a stong tailwind pushing me along.  I was very glad to not be on a west bound slog.   But it did give me a real sense of what our pioneer forefathers faced heading out onto the prairies.  I thoroughly enjoyed free camping on the prairie often led to the only stand of trees for miles around.  Without a heated tent a morning and evening campfire to cook on and warm hands was a boon to a body weary from a days hard but satisfy work. 

 

As it stands now I will be leaving Colorado November 13th,  to catch up with friends in Panama, rest a bit and let what needs to happen next clarify.

 

Peace Rider - Don

Peace Rider Out of Casper, Wyoming this AM 10/26/12

Winter finally caught me Wednesday morning about 35 miles north of here on the edge of an Anadarko oil patch south of the town of Midwest.  I awoke to morning rain, the fourth day in a row.  Rain soon turned to light snow.  Thought it might let up a bit and waited awhile but when that didn't happen I broke camp, this time on a flat place in a ravine beside the road.  I was also nearly out of water.  The bank was steep enough so traffic on the road couldn't see me.  I like to remain out of sight and mind.  

 

If there's wood I like to build a fire, especially in the AM to warm hands after handling a cold wet tent.  That didn't happen this morning.   

 

I had been travelling segments of the I-25 interstate to Casper where there was no frontage road.  Where I had taken the latter there were more ups and downs and it was beginning to wear.  I took the Casper exit marked Visitor Center, 188A which was a good choice.  I met Niki there and she helped me find a place to stay nearby at the Showboat Motel, an older place, no five star but adequate, a hard warm shelter out of the weather.  The Visitor Center also has computers and am putting this together from there before heading out of town. 

 

With more snow in the forcast and still not recovered I took an extra day of rest. 

 

One of the themes running through this journey is where I end up free camping.  More often than not it has been among some of our oldest living things - trees.  Somehow these ancient beings resonate at some deeper level with me.   Out on the prairie it has been among some really huge cottonwood trees.  On occassion they were the only tree for miles around.  I never have to enter a place that says no trespassing or posted private property.  I'm led to other places which may be gated but unsigned. 

 

Just south of Hardin and a few miles from the Custer battlefield site I was reminded that up ahead I might see something familiar.  Rounding a bend,  I saw a line of hills rising in the distance with knobs like the knuckles on the back of your hand.  The thought came to me the Rattlesnake Hills.  Signs around the battlefield said watch out for rattlesnakes, as it happened.  Was there a vague familiarit to this place.  I couldn't say.  It was certainly a moving place,  a turning point for native Americans, a last stand for a vanishing way of life and a last stand for one driven more by ego than compassion or understanding.  And Custer and 210 soldiers of his 7th Calvary paid the price and were rubbed out at Last Stand hill. 

 

I wanted to camp by the Little Bighorn River where the indian encampment was located.  From the Visitor Center I headed south along the frontage road a few miles then turned east on Whistling Water Loop.  All of this land is part of the Crow indian reservation.  There were homes along the loop.  I stopped at one nearest the river but no one seemed to be around and a barking dog dissuaded me from further investigation.  Further on I passed a white house with people standing outside.  They yelled something at me and I turned around.  Ray a young Crow person came up to me and was curious about what I was doing and asked a lot of questions.  I said I was looking for a place to camp on the Little Big Horn river.  About that time an older person came up to me.  He said his name was Real Bird.  My friend Rocky later informed me that he is a Crow historian involved with reinactment of The Last Stand.  I told him of my desire to camp on the Little Big Horn river and he said if I took the driveway towards the river past the horse corral I could camp there.  There were two house along the driveway he pointed to back the way I had come but no one was around he said. 

 

So I ended up on the river, as near as I could tell at Medicine Tail Ford.  Just to the north across the river was Medicine Tail Coulee.  This was one of the places where on June 25th 1876, thousands of warriors crossed to attack Custer at Last Stand Hill.  For miles up and down the river one of the largest encampments of native Americans had come to be in this place.  They were defending their homeland and families.   Major Reno first came upon it from the south and was attacked and then retreated from a place now called Garryowen. 

 

The latter is the name of an Irish tune played by the Seventh Calvary.  It was at Garryowen where years later a monument was erected and the phrase "burying the hatchet," came to be as the foundation for peace making that continues.  There is an excellent private museum there I visited. 

 

A piece of fascinating American history to revisit and wonder at the what ifs. 

 

From there south to Sheridan and Buffalo and then Casper there seemed to be deer everywhere, sometimes just lying about in the fields although they would often get up and run away at my passing.  Where the brush gave way to open prairie I saw my first antelope which seemed quite common and would usually take off when they saw this strange slow moving apparition passing by.  Large black dots in distant fields proved to be flocks of wild turkeys seemingly keyed into places where it was safe to alight, sometimes in folks front yards.  

 

There's always more to tell but I need to check out of the motel and head down the road.  The adventure continues on an improving weather trend, cooler at nights but warming in the day.   

 

Catch you down the road!

 

Peace Rider

 

  

 

 

Peace Rider Off the Road in Billings, MT 10/17/12

I literally blew in here yesterday swept along by a fast moving front that came with rain.  It chased and caught me after Broadview on Hgy. 3 into Billings.  Found myself in the shadow of a toppled tank and old grain elevator changing into rain gear in the lee of shelter before it really let loose.   The miles melted away with the push from behind.  I reached the rimrock cliffs overlooking this city nestled in the Yellowstone River valley, the green and gold of autumn color below a grand sight.. 

 

What I thought was to be a quick in and out turned into something else and an opportunity to catch up on rest and the blogosphere.  By the airport before I hit the bike trail along the rim rock a shift cable let go dashing hopes of riding out of town quickly.  Got directions to a couple of bike shops all on the other side of town and set out along the easiest route.  A high schooler  whipped out his smart phone found a map and pointed me off in the direction already headed when i stopped to ask directions.   Then with no bike shop in sight where expected crossed busy Grant Ave. and happened to see a person working at a garage nearby.  Asked where I could find a bike shop he said oh, it's just across the street from where I'd just come.  The Ski Station as it turns out is a summer bike shop but had just switched to winter gear.  Scott, the owner replaced the cable that had come loose then gave me a couple of replacements for a minimal charge.  Adam, one of his employees, got busy on my behalf, made phone calsl and located a Warm Showers host family I could stay with.  The Universe is here to support you.   Tomorrow its down the road for the Little Big Horn country.   Woody Woodbury and Mary Jane are taking good care of me letting me have the run of the house and use of their computer. 

 

So just a brief update of routing since the last posting with a stories to share.  From the Downey's elk ranch 40 miles south of Calgary I headed south on Highway 22 toward Waterton International Peace Park.  At Longview about nine miles south where I'd first hit 22 before backtracking I met an amazing woman when I stopped at a roadside cafe to warm up.  She's an energy healer, and clairvoyant among other things as it turned out..  She told me some things about myself affirming  what came to me earlier as well as a route of travel drawing me to the Little Big Horn country.  Earth Energies her card read.  I stayed awhile longer for soup and sandwich to hear more. 

 

The second day south and within an easy days ride of Waterton I'm asking the question late in the day where are we supposed to camp tonight?  I hear top of the next hill in a lovely spot. I'm thinking trees and rivers  something similar to other camps projecting something into words not otherwise implied.  At the top of the next grade not far south of Pincher Creek and dark coming on I see trees up ahead, that must be it but then I come to a farm with brightly painted red out buildings.  I hear stop but hesitate and then stop again as I continue on thinking this can't be the place.  Then I get to thinking maybe I screwed up.  At the next farm stop and ask if I can set up a tent somewhere in the yard.  No, they don't know me.  This was in a place with trees.  Get to the top of a far hill where the road flattens out.  I see some tall brush off to my left ahead and a possible camp site and stop near a barb wire gate to go in.  But the wire holding the gate fast was so tight I couldn't budge it, blocked, getting colder and darker- I'm getting the message.  I retreated about a mile to where that inner Guide said stop.  Turns out Gary had just purchased the place in June and was batching it.  Showed me his antique car collection in another building he was redoing as a shop.  He offered a warm place in one of his out buildings but said your welcome in the house as well.  Turns out he's a Christian who believes deeds matter more than just words, a shower, bed, conversation and food kindnesses extended to a stranger.   Listen to your inner Guide when in doubt,  It didn't come to me until later that his address added up to the number thirteen, a lucky number according to the Maya way of thinking that means love.   The divine communicates with us in a variety of ways if we pay attention, sometimes symbolically.

 

I was into Waterton Park on 10/6 and left the next day which was Canadian Thanksgiving.  Spent a lovely evening over food with a French Canadian couple on a year long trip across Canada and the US.  Also met Rick a free spirit living in a van  inside the Park.  We biked together part way up the now closed for the season road to Red Rock canyon up the Blakiston valley, so beautiful.   Many piles of berry laden bear crap on the road a reminder of bruins on the loose but none smoking from fresh deposition.  Rick would ride over each with a yahoo whoop to let 'em know he'd been there.  Clearly he'd found a place and a home and loved it.  But it's a windy place and left the next day for the border wind at my back.  A thought came to mind then passed of how nice it would be to have a Thanksgiving dinner somewhere. 

 

Took a short cut into the country over gravel roads to get to the border crossing on Hgy. 2.  The pass through the Park had closed for the season.  Ended up for the night in a cow pasture camped next to some ancient diamond willow judging from the orange lichen growing on the branches.  Thought the new road I descended to get there would be a quagmire if it rained overnight.  It did and it was until I took to the grass on the hillside and ended the slipp'in and slid'in slog to the top.  Cold, overcast and raining most of that day.  At the junction to Hgy. 2 and pavement the stop flag came into mind again at a farm on the corner.  So I did and asked if they had a place I could warm up for a few minutes.  I was cold.  They did and I stayed.  Their four kids were off from school and found them all playing a card game of up the river down the river when a wet me showed up.    A second Thanksgiving dinner for other friends was planned for later and I was invited.  Now how about that!  I stayed.   Well fed and warmed i thanked John and Charlene Berry for their kindness and hit the road late in the day.   The rain had ended by then. They are a Mormon family with deep roots in this part of Alberta. 

 

At dark  I rode into Babb, MT 10 miles south of the border and a Thompson Motel stay to dry out.  From there out of the mountains through Browning into Great Falls for a night down by the river side.  Pelicans of all things swimming on the river.   En route  a fresh snow on the tent one morning kept me holed up by a camp fire until clearing later in the day.   The evening before it began to rain turning  to snow.    But I had been led to a copse of cottonwood with plenty of fuel for warming/drying and home to two large owls, maybe Great Horned that flew off when I showed up.  And it was the only significant woodlands for miles around. 

 

As it happened my grandparents on my dad's side were early homesteaders in the Great Falls area near the turn of the last century.  But it was tough go and they returned to Missouri.  Soon after my mom and dad were married  they taught school in the Great Falls area - connections and reconnections. 

 

Clearly winter is nipping at my heels now with weather patterns and cooler temperatures.  But I'm well, taken care of and blessed to have the sky as my roof and a warm sleeping bag to crawl into at days end.  More down the road.  Love to you all. 

 

Peace Rider

 

Peace Rider

 

  

 

 

Peace Rider - Don On the Road

Hi Lois,

 

Like earlier rides I've found it hard to keep in contact via blogging.  I do have several more detailed posts at <ridefortheplanet.blogspot.com>.  Please feel free to share this with others. 

 

Will forward to other friends with time running out but know I will unintentionally miss some, apologies in advance.   May just post this as another verbose PR blog.   I have a cell phone that will work back in the States.

 

Well, let me just say - wow!.  This experience has just been sooo enriching on the superficial as well as spiritual (energetic) level.

 

I reached Whitehorse the same day(9/5/12), left on the Borough bus for the Salcha Store, another to Big Delta, then with a GI, army now but ex Marine (was corrected, once a Marine always a Marine) in a nice way railing against socialism, Obama and more all the way to Whitehorse.  Definitely not a boring ride and very much appreciated the kindness.  On parting at the bus terminal he gave me a back pack water canteen that hikers and cyclists use.    

 

Visited Malkomb Boothroyd, a friend and young rider I joined with others on my second trip to DC.  He's amazing - really, working to help protect the Peel R. watershed in the Yukon from mineral withdrawals.  The bus I intended to take from there broke down with a weekend to wait for the next.  Instead took a cab to the Highway to try my luck with a cardboard sign saying Watson Lake and another Fort Nelson. 

 

Three more interesting rides got me to an old friend's place outside Ft. Nelson and me with two large duffel's (one with the BOB trailer disassembled, one with food and more gear, one with the collapsed bike plus a day pack - no threat here.  The bonus - I got a brief soak in Liard Hot Springs between Watson and Nelson while my ride ate lunch in a nearby Lodge.  Would have missed it on the bus.

 

I found my friend not in good health.  He had a heart attack a year ago but was fit  to travel to Europe for an anniversay celebration with his brothers with help from a granddaughter.  Only found this out after a call from Whitehorse.   

 

I rode with John and his partner Vi to Grand Prairie where his daughter lives.  They continued on a day later to the airport in Calgary after dropping me off outside town.   So in the end I was very grateful to spend more time with them on the drive south to GP.  Serendipity at work.   

 

Started biking from GP (ahead of winter) going via Grand Cache to Entrance Ranch near Hinton, AB where an activist friend met on the first ride lives.  Over many hills of green gold wondering what I'd gotten myself into again pushing up the steeper hills, arriving pretty whipped.  I went a different way the first time due to snow conditions.  This route passed directly by the Ranch on a long steep downhill, ya hoooo - and was far more scenic.   

 

The richness of connecting with friends from the first trip in this area  was precious.  Don Laird met me at the Ranch one evening.  We went for a long soak and more male bonding at Miette Hot Springs inside Jasper park.  Towering mountains rise around it,  simply awesome! 

 

From the Ranch I haven't yet updated the blog.  But from there I left for Jasper Park 9/21 to see Dave and Kim Wallace living in the town of Jasper inside the Park.  She was a teacher in the French school there when I spoke to her class in '09 but has moved on.  She's writing a thesis with a tentative title of Climate Change from the Inside (ourselves) Out, will be interesting. 

 

All the while indian summer and warm temperatures reigned, fall colors were peaking.  I was incredibly blessed to be there. 

 

Undecided still upon a route south initially, all leadings seemed to point to the Icefield Parkway southbound through one of the most awesome pieces of real estate on the planet, the Canadian Rockies.   Being late in the season there were fewer tourists about so leaving on 9/24 a Monday, was the right moment to depart, less traffic with the weekend over, temps in 70's.  I went east in Nov. of '09 because of snow conditions on the Parkway.

 

The weather held until Tues, tent bound until a front with rain passed then skedaddled.  From then on a few clouds but just drop dead gorgeous weather south to L. Louise,  through Banff, Canmore followed by a jog south later onto Highway 40 through Kananaskis Country, 541 to Longview back tracking eight miles to another friend's (from flying days)  place near Black Diamond, 40 miles south of Calgary. 

 

He has an elk ranch near Black Diamond.  I arrived just ahead of another front, with snow this time.Typing this from the nearby library in Turner Valley.  Yesterday helped vet and Pat and Tanis Downey AI, artificially inseminate, 30 of his cow elk all the while cold and sleeting outside the unheated barn.  Elk steaks upon arrival a superb treat.  Just never know what you might get yourself into when you go for it.   I was glad to help, more so to have a hard roof overhead, a shower and a bed.   

 

 Mid-way or so up Highway 40 to Highwood Pass at 7239' I stopped at a small grocery/gas store to make a phone call and buy some food.   I was so focused on looking for an outside pay phone I missed the fact I  was going wrong way around the parking lot.  I only discovered this on leaving.  There must have been 20 motorcyclists parked there gasing up and buying food (a weekend). They certainly didn't miss some dude on a bicycle riding in,  BOB trailer flag flying, with two big polar bear signs draped on either side broadcasting Ride for the Planet on each.  No one said a thing but you could slice the vibes inside that store with a knife.  Wearing my Peace Rider jacket would have been overkill.  I arrived wearing  a black wool, long sleeve undershirt, my "black leather jacket."  I left with a smile. Canadians are generally a peaceful lot and all wore helmets, likely required. 

 

Didn't see a lot of wildlife.  Unlike Denali, the roads through these parks don't restrict access or speed so latter not surprising.  The Bow River Parkway was an exception, an alternate route, from Lake Louise to Banff off the main highway.  It had more of the intimate feeling on a narrow winding road with fewer cars and slower speed. 

 

For me being in the wilderness and finding solitude is a time I've received clarity on what I'm supposed to do when I really grow up.  So it seems there's this balancing of energy between the journey inward, then outward again to rejoin the human melieu.  I also sense a shift going on beneath the surface to bring the divine male and female energies within us back into balance.  Interestingly this is happening more among women I'm meeting.  Perhaps, in the distant past as some suggest, it was female energy that was out of balance.   

 

In brief my work and goal in very general terms is peace on earth and peace with the earth through an elevation of consciousness, guided by the Way of Peace which is Love.  Each of us has a role to play, as one thread in the unique tapestry of creation.  If nothing else in these chaotic times cling to peace and love in your hearts and make that your daily focus.  I'm going with the flow to see where this errant thread is woven.

 

It may seem at superficial glance to be hopeless.  But one young woman I met at Entrance Ranch, a Reiki Master (energy healing), said to me that a source whose name escapes me now predicted that to cause a paradigm shift it would take the square root of one percent of the world population focused on peace, love and change to make it happen.  She said across the planet this number now exists.  Hmmmm?

 

Thought is creative energy individually and collectively.  Focused thought of a relatively small number of people (prayer) is powerful indeed as you know.    Love, peace, joy are energies with the highest frequency of vibration (divine light being the highest) that lower frequencies of anger, hate, envy and the like simply cannot overcome.  Beware, be aware what you think lest you create that in your experience. All thought is creative.   

 

Kim told me that the meaning of apocalypse is lifting of the veil.  It seems to be happening beneath the surface as we are impelled to a greater understanding of who and what we are in relation to All That Is. 

 

A lot to here to digest.  Please especially thank Chuck and Cari for me with my warmest regards for keeping me on the road with their generous donation of king salmon bellies and strips.  I'm carefully rationing them.  They would love biking here in the fall time.

 

The trailer is great, lighter now that I forwarded my carrying bags to Colorado and eaten into my food stock furthe.  Thank to you and Robert for that.  That's my shorter term destination with more friends then it seems to Mexico again to be in the Yucatan in December.  

 

Leaving here tomorrow southbound on Rte 22, then by or through Waterton Peace Park, how appropriate, then into Montana, I think passing near the Custer battlefield site.  Of course, all subject to change depending on weather.  Staying out of the mountains with winter nipping at my heels.  

 

Using a lighter weight tent from Tent Tarp in CA, a Stratospire  1, you might care to check out on line.  Weighs only two pounds but a tight fit for two people.  I love it. 

 

A jumble of thoughts but I'm well  taken cared of and must run or bike back!

 

So if your still awake to this point ---

 

Love and abrazos to all,

 

Peace Rider

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On Mon, Oct 1, 2012 at 11:54 AM, Lois Hendersonn <loisinak@gmail.com> wrote:

And how you are doing?  I'd love to hear what your current plan is and how this trip is for you.  

At  meeting we had a baby welcoming with bonfire for Niko Adair.  Notzahia made a beautiful poster for him that we all signed.  Next week meeting for business and the week after we will have a cake or something to welcome Diane Preston in to membership.  (I think that's when we teach her the secret hand shake too!)  Hope things are going well.  Lois

Entrance Ranch, Hinton Alberta 9/19/12

J - Yo, Peace Rider where you been for so long, missed hearing from you.  What took you so long to get back on your bicycle - dude?

 

PR - It's a long story.   But I'm back, tilting at windmills perhaps but peace on earth and peace with the earth is possible.  I ride with hope and a sore back side, something you might understand. 

 

J - Now you're talking my language.  You do like to abuse your body.  You have a destination in mind?  You beat your head against a wall in DC the last two times with climate change..  Going for a third!

 

PR - No, of course not, it wasn't the destination that was important in any event but the journey and friends made along the way.  It really is about conscious raising following your dreams, inspiring others letting it all hang out.  As Einstein famously said, to paraphrase crudely, you can't solve current problems at the same level of consciousness.  The good news is that's changing and I'm meeting more folks who are moving in that direction.   it's change, evolution, a revolution of a different sort.

 

J - Back to your question of destination.  For the moment it's Colorado and Mexico also beckons for the 12/21/12 Maya calendar cycle end date.    

 

PR - I'm recovering at Entrance Ranch, just north of Hinton, AB check it out on the web.  I met Rocky Notnes on my first ride through here in the winter of '09.  His vision is to create a healing/retreat center here,  more than just a place to stay with trail rides.  Tell your rich friends about it.  He could use some of your pocket change.

 

J - Yeah right, and me with barely a pot to - -.

 

PR - All right forget it.

 

J - So you started in Grand Prairie?

 

PR - Yeah, my friends John Brucker, daughter Wendy and Vi Anderson dropped me off just south of town and out of heavy traffic.  John and Vi continued on to Calgary so John could catch a flight to Germany to visit his brothers.  Vi was going to see her daughter in Vernon.

 

J - You made pretty good time for an old f---  if it took only three and a half days.  You're pushing yourself  hard amigo.

 

PR - Maybe so, it felt like it when I rolled into the Ranch late on Monday.  Fewer ups and downs and less walking up hills the last day but more miles over a little flatter terrain.  The physical demands and fatigue are just part of being on a bicycle.  But there are moments that make it worthwhile, the onset of fall colors  splashed on the hillsides, an elk bugling behind camp one frosty morning, a lone wolf crossing up ahead, and the warmth of a camp fire on cold fingers.

 

Then my arrival at Entrance Ranch late in the day was really sweet.  Mario greeted me coming down the steps of the main house.  He's  taking a Oneness mural (8'x12') on the road across Canada to the United Nation. www.unfoldingdreams.org.  The latter site has a graphic of it.  Then I met shaved head Thekla, Reiki master, a self described roamer, servant to the world who arrived here again the day before to help Rocky. 

 

She's the only person who's ever offered to draw a bath for me then have dinner waiting.  Sinking weary bones into a hot tub and then food was about as close to bliss as you can get..

 

J - Where to next?

 

PR - West to Jasper then over the Icefield Parkway, weather permitting.  But first a visit with Kim Wallace and Dave, friends the '09 trip.

 

J -  That route through the Rockies is supposed to be one of the most scenic - right?

 

PR - That's what I've been hearing and fall colors in the park are nearing their peak.  My friend Don Laird from Edson and I drove in to Meiji Hot Springs in the Park and had a great soak anc conversation.  Pretty sweet, yes?

 

More down the road, held in the arms of the moon and the bosom of the Earth.

 

  

 

Yeah, when the student is ready a teacher comes.  She has enhanced my appreciation and interested in energy healing and its application.

 

What's the next stop.

 

Probably leave here Friday and head for Jasper and connect with Kim Wallace again (met on '09 ride).  But for tonight it's soak in a Hot Springs near Jasper with friend Don Laird with some fine dining thrown in. 

 

  

 

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Peace Rider Back On The Road Again

In brief or maybe not, I left Alaska 5 September.  But this time hoping to catch a ride further south to get ahead of winter in the north before climbing on my bicycle.

With this in mind for ease of transport my Norco Quest bicycle was modified with  two S&S couplers and bought a carrying case to go with a now break apart bicycle.

I caught the Borough bus as far as the Salcha store.  The White Line there is a relatively new route on the Richardson Highway.  But I wasn't traveling light.  My bicycle case 26"x26"x10," was the lightest and least bulky, a disassembled B.O.B trailer and assorted gear in a very large duffel and another with food and more gear plus a day pack.  I held up my sign with destination Whitehorse and four rides later I was there late in the day thanks to the kindness of strangers.  I had a very enjoyable visit with Malkolmb Boothroyd, a young environmental activist, whom I had ridden with a year before from Chicago to Washington, DC.   I am friends of the family.  He's a take charge young man working on a campaign to set aside the Peel River watershed from mineral development.  The public and First Nations people want it protected but the government supports development, an all too familiar circumstance where values clash.

I intended to catch a Greyhound Bus to Ft. Nelson the following day but at the terminal I was told the northbound bus had broken down and the next bus wasn't leaving until Monday.  My friends in Ft. Nelson were leaving on Wednesday, I had learned, so it was back to the Highway and hold up a sign.  It started to rain and still no ride.  It didn't help that two people were trying to do the same thing within site of me.  They were also stuck.  They left under a steady rain.  Shortly thereafter I caught a ride to Marsh Lake and accepted an offer to sleep out of the rain for the night on Ian McIntyre's shop floor.  The next morning Ian drove me to a likely spot of the Highway and I alternately held up my sign, jogged back and forth to stay warm and uprooted invasive White Sweet Clover at road side.  A couple of hours later an RV with a family from Minnesota stopped and I was south bound to Watson Lake.  They were headed down the Cassiar Highway which turns off just short of there.  

On my winter ride in '09 I had stayed with a Warm Showers (volunteer hosts for bicyclists) in Watson Lake and called ahead to see if there was room "in the inn."  There was.  Joe and Nicki Schmitz and four children had a sign to add to the many thousands at the Watson Lake sign forest in town.   I got off there and Barry Drury picked me up.  His wife Susan had left to pick up their son Jason and girl friend in Whitehorse.  When they arrived back in Watson Lake, it was they, I learned,  who were ahead of me on the road out of Whitehorse also trying to hitch a ride home.  

The next AM Barry dropped me on the edge of town near the weigh station and 13 cars later I was south bound at a high rate of speed to Ft. Nelson.  Kenny Gilmore a contractor from Deese Lake was kind enough to drop me at Liard Hot Springs for a quick soak while he ate lunch at the lodge on the other side of the Highway.   The burger was greasy and expensive but the soup edible he angrily related when we were back on the road.  

Even with construction of a new access platform and change facility the springs are wonderful and I was grateful of the opportunity.  Had I travelled by bus I would have missed it.  South of Coal River a small herd of bison was bedded down on the shoulder and grazing on grass in the road right-of-way 

Mid-afternoon we arrived in Ft. Nelson and I connected with John Brucker and Vi Anderson.  I had met John and his young family 46 years earlier in Nahanni Butte when I set out on my first long distance kayak trip in the north.  I planned by route to at least pass by the "Dangerous River," the Nahanni described by Raymond Patterson in his book of the same title.  

I'm in Ft. Nelson at this posting leaving 9/13, with John and Vi for Grand Prairie where his daughter lives.  They are continuing on to Calgary where John will catch a plane to Europe.  Vi will go to Vernon,BC to see her daughter.  The plan of the moment for me is to start bicycling from there to Hinton via Grand Cache on the Big Horn Highway.  A few miles north of Hinton is the Exchange Ranch and another friend to reconnect with from my winter trip.  

The route beyond is less certain but the destination for the near term is a friend's place outside Denver, Colorado.   

I regret you weren't with me to savor the brief peak I had at the lives and circumstances of the folks who cared for and helped me.

The Why of It

I suppose some might shake their heads in wonderment at someone riding a bicycle working to bring peace on earth and peace with the earth.  But here's the thing, each of us has a larger purpose in coming to this life.  And as I said to a group of high school students you can live an ordinary life revolving around yourself or you can live an extraordinary life dedicated to something larger than self.  Perhaps it's less important that you ultimately succeed at the latter than having the courage to set out into the unknown in the first place.  It's a choice.  Once you've taken that first step all others that may become necessary down the road become just a little bit easier because you took that very first step.  

But how do you know then if you've found yours?  Does it expand you, put another way is there juice in it for you, does it give a sense of inner peace even though your outward circumstances may require changing?      

The Universe exists to support you.   It is one of the three principles of happiness according to Shimoff I've found true in my own life.  This is not left brain logic show me the facts and proof beforehand way of perception but rather apprehended by right brain intuitive sense of things reinforced by first hand experience.  In the end it is the willingness to proceed and overcome in the face of one's fears and the unknown trusting that events and life will unfold in a manner that work to the higher good. 

In the way of the seeker you can avoid slamming the door in your face at the outset by aligning your life with universal values of honesty, integrity, courage, compassion, love and kindness.  A large injection of humility and open mindedness are help aids in the process of discernment. 

It's all too easy to look at the state of our world and outward circumstance and conclude it's hopeless.  I wouldn't be on the road again if that were the case.  Clearly there are formidable challenges not the least of which is climate change.  But there is always more going on than meets the eye.  We are a race awakening to an expanded view of who and what we are in relation to All That Is.  We know things can change overnight and it will not take a majority to cause that shift.  The problems we face cannot be solved with the same level of conscious (Einstein).  This is what awakening is about and many have already made the journey or already arrived.

More about the Way of Peace and my understanding of it down to road.  But in short it remains the Way of Love spoken of by spiritual masters through the ages.

Peace Rider 

 

 

   

On the Road from Tegucigalpa, Honduras 1/2/2011

Arrived here this AM tired after climbing over two mountain ranges..  This Sunday is literally a day of rest for me.  After finishing here try and climb out of the valley into the surrounding pine hills headed for Danli.  Won´t get there today though.

Beyond Danli will head into Nicaragua via Somoto and Estelli.  If road conditions permit down the east side of Lake Managua crossing into Costa Rica at outlet of Lake and San Juan River.  From there to San Jose, CR.  Hopefully, get to Boquete and my friend´s place by mid-Jan.  But one day at a time4

Had a Channel 10 TV crew catch me on the outskirts of San Pedro Sula a few days back.  Did some filming and an on the spot interview, my first.  In Belise a family just out of a 7th Day Church Service invited me to have dinner with them, it was noon time.  Wonderful!  Chickens, dog and cat underfoot in their simple home but a family rich in way that count most.

Camping out at night, try to find an out of the way and mind spot.  A place is always provided.  I´m cared for.  Manage to find small patch of nature everywhere, my favorite spots in trees by riverside.  I´m usually awake by 5:30 but don´t get up until 6:00 and just getting light.  Begin packing my things, dry the tent if I´m able, usually a heavy dew fall overnight.

Last night and this AM first rain in weeks, this at higher elevation between 4 & 5 thousand feet in pine forest.   On the road by 8:30 or so, start looking for a place to camp about 5:00 and usually in bed by 7:30 PM or so.  Usual dinner fare rice, pasta, onion, dried beans and some seasoning, bread if I have it and fruit dessert.  Cooking on an alcohol stove.  Alcohol from local pharmacy, use few drops of paint thinner to light.

Long nights but I need the rest.

It really has been a joy being on  the road again.  Lots of things going on.  Many vendors at road side selling fresh fruit, pineapples, mandaring oranges and bananas, apples from the States, and inexpensive.  One hot day milk from a cold coconut really hit the spot.  Another purchase was a small bottle of African bee honey.

Water I´m getting from gas stations or streams.  It´s been hot and sweaty work climbing hills and drinking buckets.  Disinfect all with iodine drops.

Got to hit road.