Notes

The ultimate battle between good and evil can be reduced to tribal vs. "There is no anthropological opposite. We generally recognise four levels of sociocultural complexity: bands, tribes, chiefdom's, and states. However, bands and tribes are egalitarian and kin-based societies. Sometimes we refer to them both collectively as “tribal” societies, or “tribal level” societies. Chiefdom's and states are stratified societies and tend, as they get more complex, to become more property based rather than kin-based. Some consider chiefdom's to be weak states." The opposite of tribal is state-level. And the opposite of egalitarian is stratified, and of primitive bands and tribes the opposite is complex government. Complex not being synonymous with beneficial. We must be clear on this, it is not.

These old blog pages & posts are to modern internet explorers as the tombs of Akenahten were to my grandparents. Well, perhaps not so dramatic or romanticised; more as the people of the Kemet were to colonial anthropologists. The rapidity at which our society, our species has advanced from the material to the digital electronic world amazes me. Raves were the transitional medium. People don't recognise it as such, but humans first concession to inner exploration from external stimuli, exempting drug exploration, which could be considered internal stimuli, was musical. EDM was programming language code for the evolution of our species.

Notes 5: https://youtube.com/shorts/QdQe4xs72CY?si=2RnESRb6dYmYq__8

I had Notes 1-4 & 6 uploaded on YouTube and decided to delete all, somehow number 5 remained, it was in some 'shorts' category or some shit so it escaped my deletion. I regret deleting it all now as I feel the ideas were worthy of sharing. But, that is how it goes. When I was in secondary school I would regularly destroy my creations, art, writing, anything that smelled of ego and pride or possession of materialistic identity. We are born with nothing, we leave with nothing, only our actions define us kinda thing. But, I still wish I hadn't deleted the notes. They weren't so important really, just some thoughts, and really they were just an avoidance of the deeper thoughts, which I should get to now. However, due to my disability of reading my own writings, and for the fact I don't like how I look on camera (and I guess in life), I will just type the memoir here.

Well, for fuck sake, now I can't find my pile of writings. Ah, found some of them. Haa. I was looking for the physical writings but realised I had typed all this out before on docs. After scrolling into my past and looking through hundreds of posts with titles ranging from "Blog Number 6; Why SSO (Single Sign On) is the S..." to "Chapter 1: I die", I find nothing that resembles the works I am searching for, and yet, I do find the physical copy of the printed version in a file folder, so, in the most inefficient way possible to share a story, here it is to you from hand written, to typed, to printed, to typed again from the printed version:

The Rockies. Hoping back and forth across the continental divide. Thinking of the Dumb and Dumber scene "I thought they'd be a little more rockier than this". But, the rockies are absolutely spectacular. Until Colorado. then the mountains remain as beautiful, as magnificent, but are only a frame surrounding the chauvinistic, if not sexist, grandiose pride of the people living there. 

I drove to the library very early after my planet fitness workout and shower. I park right in front as it is about 8:30am and the library doesn't open until noon, so I pull out the solar panels, set up my laptop and start typing away on my computer. A hillbilly walks up, tries to open the front doors of the library and gets visibily upset when they don't. He turns to me with a look of accusation as if it is my fault the library is closed, or at least my fault he thought it wasn't, he says snarky (snarky and hillbilly don't combine well lemme tell ya) and he says, 'Solar panels, yeah, save the world'. I give no response and he walks off. I am a bit proud of my blank stare skills. About 30 minutes later an employee walks up and politely asks me to leave. I reply the library doesn't open for a few more hours still, and he shrugs with a blank stare that says what can I do. I realize the irratible hillbilly must have made a complaint, the cheap narc. I pack yup my panels and laptop, tell the employee it is no problem to move, and park in the Chase Bank parking on the other side of the library... where the wifi signal is too weak to connect. Fuck. Thwarted. I type all my work out, then walk to the the library and sit in front of the doors to upload.

This was somewhere in the middle of my travels already, having left from San Diego and gone to Seattle, then headed east, then southeast, and then west... but after all that, after the 'funeral', the spreading of ashes, the awkward stoned attempt at paying respect to my father and his lineage, our lineage, the long line of people who loved each other, and fucked our existence into being, and then wandering south to Texas, then, after that, what seemed like a lifetime, I met up with Nice. Patsita. And what a champion of a character she is. And all the way around the country, and back again, back to Colorado, and then north and west and south. There are so many stories I hardly know how to organise it or relate it to you, but, here are some notes I found on my computer. They are really just an outline for an episode we had wanted to make for our podcast, as so many did during Covid;

Johnny and Jay … didn't do anything for awhile … we are back now... and Doing Trailer Life.

We're living in a white and yellow 1965 Shasta 12 foot travel trailer. (we’ve done some small trips in it before, and Johnny has been living in it since April).

Travelling around the country looking for crystals and mushrooms like some genuine hippies. (We already have a collection of Selenite crystals we dug up at the Great Salt Plains Lake in Arkansas) First ranger at Arkansas laurel creek... first mine was a sham. It’s been two weeks and 1000 miles and we have so many stories to tell (tell a story)

We started in Dallas, Johnny picked Jay up at the airport. 

There’s free wifi at DFW. Johnny pulled up in the truck and trailer, right on the arrivals lane. Nervous, excited, happy to see him. We started in a hotel, because a long international flight needs a nice hotel relax/recovery)

Drove to hotel in mt pleasant , TX Stopped to get gas at buckee’s - too much. No one wore masks… left

Flags everywhere. Massive, gigantic flags. In a row. Vertically. Horizontally. Hotel was good. Slept. Jet lagged. Woke early. Texas shaped waffles. (These are Jays notes).

Got Pfizer shot. Being sick in the trailer. Laurel creek, going to Daisy Recreational area but tried a random road, owl, heat related nakedness, white tail deer. Speaking of wildlife...

Each region had immediately noticeable wildlife in the form of roadkill

Oklahoma- armadillos 20% carry leprosy..

Colo- a big pile of dead deer 

COLORADo Not my favorite place, seem less chilled than expected (examples)

We are in Denver now, put our pants on and came down from Lost Creek Wilderness a couple days ago. (Talk about lost creek): Lost Creek Wilderness in Pike N.F. about two hours from here -dodging a lightning storm. 

hunting

Finding camping. Everything closed. When up a random road. Lucky! Got a beautiful spot on the mountain. 

Climbed the Rocky peaks. Sun burned as ballsssss. Johnny got scratches when an unstable rock rolled on to him.

Big orange sheep. Big horned sheep.

A whole day without anyone. 

Naked hiking Pike national forest.

Ranger stopped by, we were naked. Panic.

Ranger encounters at different places.

good/bad/ getting kicked out/ really welcoming peeps etc.

Wildlife areas- I thought it meant a reservation/ sanctuary 

Shooting range for people who like to kill…

Animals restocked every year so these fuckers can take a life and feel important. 

Must pay the govt. (state of CO) a fee to kill..

A regions character can be seen/felt in so many different ways, the radio stations, road signs, the language y’all be speakin’, thrift stores. In fort smith the habitat for humanity ReStore had fuck all for hardware and construction materials, but some of the most beautiful turn of the century cabinets and dressers at half the cost of ikea crap. The road signs; Braums Ice Cream; “Now Hiring Adults” Texas “Don’t kill roadworkers avoid a 10,000 fine” Colorado “Preventing Forest Fires is good for business”

Chilli burrito with corn = awesome.

Need to come up with better ways to cook/clean. Maybe make a bunch of rice at a time and jar or Tupperware them? 

Food is a struggle. I like real food… But cleaning is difficult with limited water.. 

Fun fact about Enid; “Enid is known as the "Wheat Capital" of the United States for its immense grain storage capacity- it has the third-largest grain storage capacity in the world.”

More obstacles; Parking, sleeping (lost creek, kansas middle night party kids)

Great Salt plain lake. Camped secretly at the state park.. all dispersed camping areas closed.. left before dawn. Sunrise at the salt plain. Digging. Running barefoot. Beetles. Broken crystals. Big hole. 

went to Chickasaw national park. Webs said Crystal clear water. Reality was different. Water green, slightly murky. A lot of big Latino families. Hiked. Got lost. Didn’t find little Niangara falls.. lots of spiders. 

Camp sites full. But got running water. Didn’t use the restrooms… too many screaming kids. Damn kids. 

Rain, thunder, lightning, Wooden frame (didn’t consider it).

Arguments; Serial Killer Kansas. not been able to really get away. Being together all the time. 

Each region had immediately noticeable wildlife in the form of roadkill, armadillos; 20% carry leprosy..

A regions character can be seen/felt in so many different ways, the radio stations, road signs, the language y’all be speakin’, thrift stores. In Fort Smith the habitat for humanity ReStore had fuck all for hardware and construction materials, but some of the most beautiful turn of the century cabinets and dressers at half the cost of ikea crap. The road signs; Braums Ice Cream; “Now Hiring Adults”. Texas; “Don’t kill roadworkers, avoid a 10,000 fine”.Colorado; “Preventing Forest Fires is good for business”.

We're going cross-country, not quite glamping, but not roughin it either.

What did you feel when I picked you up at Dallas airport? 

I was a bit nervous, I saw the trailer pulled out but I was excited to start this new episode of us. It felt like intruding onto someone else’s space and i was struggling to find space for any of my belonging even though I actually packed pretty light this time. the hardest part was keeping cool and clean. I’ve always showered twice a day all my life but there's no shower in the trailer, and with the crazy heat, humidity in Texas and Arkansas. It was easy to become frustrated and antsy. But we managed to get a good shower in every two-three days and then usually it was twice a day, but when we were proper camping we were spraying off and wet towel wiping everyday. It should be easier now that we’re heading north and its cooling down."

We want this to be an authentic podcast detailing the goods and the bads.  

Something we didnt anticipated. Woodframe in the lighting storm. Trailers that are aluminium have enough metal around you to act like a Faraday cage. My trailer is wood-framed with an aluminum outer shell that would probably explode if a lightning hit it. When we were in Pike National Forrest and we got caught in a storm and had to hide out in our truck, hoping we wouldn’t get hit... and hoping hard since we were the highest metal thing on that peak and the trees around were sparse and just barely taller than the trailer. 

Great Salt plain lake. Camped secretly at the state park.. all dispersed camping areas closed.. left before dawn. Sunrise at the salt plain. Digging. Running barefoot. Beetles. Broken crystals. Big hole. We went looking for selenite crystals at the Great salt Plains Lake Recreation Area. it’s the only place in the world that has these specific crystals with hourglass shape mud formed inside the crystal. Was pretty cool. The place was gorgeous. Looks like a massive snow covered plain, but its all salt. If youre going there digging, we recommend to be gentle and dig close to the surface. All the crystals were at a shallow depth. I had more fun just digging holes than finding the crystals. It was beautiful. I thought that was a beautiful sunrise. I got their right when they were opening up.

Jay: Yeah it's a no pants kind of in this trailer, a truck driving up so I went into the trailer too hide for a second and then we were just and just to be funny if someone drove off looking out the back of the trailer obviously Rangers do you guys hunting fishing at all we saw some pretty cool middle-of-the-night campsite and then we saw sign beautiful owl in the middle of the degrees but our other stories and such will be next week.

We’ve learned the most important things in trailer life are eating, pooping, and showering. That’s really what you are considering when full-time living on the road. Finding a parking/sleeping spot… Johnny likes to just wing-it, jay likes to plan ahead, it seems to work out best when we plan ahead and then be flexible as we are getting there. We get lucky a lot, like the lost creek site.

LATER: Let’s have an episode dedicated to each of these topics?

Eating, some people just eat spam and crap… and I am pretty bad about that actually; I eat granola and pb&j most the time. Jay has higher standards with culinary experiences so, I am learning how to make more complex trailer dishes. 

Pooping. Well, most of the time we just use public bathrooms… and if we are proper camping we have a shovel. We also have a bucket. The bucket is a 5 gallon construction bucket with extra sturdy garbage bag liners with kitty litter tossed in the bottom. It works surprisingly well and honestly, is usually preferred to public facilities.

Showering. Gym membership. Or, getting a garden sprayer for when in the woods, or just using a wash cloth and sponge bath style gets a person quite clean, takes a little longer for rinsing but most parts still get sparkly.

Drove to Daisy state park but found another sign to Laurel creek recreational area. Took an adventure down dirt road. 

Owl in the road. 

Got to a secluded spot in the middle of the lake. Slept. Jay had a fever. Cold. Chills. 

Jay: Next day was hot. The camping spot was beautiful but I had a bad fever. 39.5c vomiting.

Covid vaccine is no joke… Cleaned out trailer and made some room for my stuff. Felt a bit more at home in the trailer but still a little like I’m intruding on Johnny’s space. Naked most of the time. Pooped while watching the moon. Ranger said we could stay for free..Rory? Larry? Something like that. 

Fort Smith; PF front lawn- first night city parking. Best showers so far. Enid - PF showers are alright.

That was my entire notes on Enid, yet somehow it kept coming up, at the stamp library Enid postcards and stamps a plenty. Also found other odd facts about it at random.

Hutchinson, KS Cosmosphere, we didn’t go. 

Planet fitness showers again. Stock up on food.

Monument rock - Kansas; Arrived at night. Seemed massive. Dusty. Bats. Fuck loads of bugs. Slept until about 1am when the drunk kids arrived blasting “I can make your bed rock.” They got attacked by bats and left. Wasp and apple in the morning.

Day time and the massive Monument Rock was so much smaller. Pooped. Swallow nests. 

Keystone gallery. Fossils of Kansas ancient dwellers (mostly aquatic species)

Painted car. Evolution talks. 

Colorado

Mike higbee’s wildlife area: 

Shooting range for people who like to kill…

Animals restocked every year so these fuckers can take a life and feel important. 

Must pay the state of CO a fee to kill… 

Followed a web’s advice on camp grounds to here, almost accidentally got shot by bird hunters, was kicked out by ranger. Needed a hunting, fishing or wildlife area pass to be on property. So many bugs. Big ones. Everywhere. 

Went to John martin reservoir. Same story, not getting shot, just kicked out. We just fucked off to the closest PF in Town (pueblo) it was 24/7 alright! Slept in parking lot. Security came to tell us we need to leave. But we’re PF member.. told him we’re going in PF. He wasn't happy he couldn't kick us out so he left. Worked out for us. Showered.

Colorado Springs. Stocked up. Lenny needs radiator drained and new coolant.

Pike national forest. Finding camping. Everything closed. When up a random road. Lucky! Got a beautiful spot on the mountain. 

Big orange sheep. Big horned sheep.

A whole day without anyone. 

Chilli burrito with corn = awesome.

Need to come up with better ways to cook/clean. Maybe make a bunch of rice at a time and jar or Tupperware them? 

Food is a struggle. I like real food… But cleaning is difficult with limited water..

Naked hike. Climbed the Rocky peaks. Sun burned as ballsssss. Johnny got scratches when an unstable rock rolled on to him.

More people hunting. 

Ranger stopped by, we were naked. Panic.

Drive back was stressful. Brakes going out, burning off. Lenny over heating. Ups and downs the mountains we go. Stopped a few times to cool off. Finally made it to Aurora.

The brakes were my fault it seems, the attaching hardware on one side had been misaligned so the brake pad was contacting the rotor at an angle and so they glazed on the top and bottom (for the inner and outer respectively). Replaced the pads with the old pads I had saved (the original replacement had only required one side) and we were ready to roll again.

Staying at Jay’s ‘auntie and uncle’s house; Long Gkit and Go Lee (leelee). They are lovely people, not true relations, just her parents' good friends. We travel to Gunnison NP stay at a cabin at the KOA. It’s nice, not my style of camping but they are positive people and enjoyable to be around. 

Melted cooler.

Tyson. & Maggie

Stayed a week, really enjoyed being around Tyson, reminded me of Bruno… but I think many old big dogs have that lazy personality. Tyson was well taken care of but also had a little lonliness about him, a solid stubborn disposition but not without respect to a persons requests, he would push his self-determination as far as he could, leaning into the leash and holding his ground until you gave a full angry tug in the direction you needed to go, then he would happily trot that way as if he had intended on going that direction the whole time anyway.

Colorado; Not my favorite place. Aurora Brian (886)

Out to dinner with Rocky, I find I don’t like him or perhaps I feel he doesn’t like me, there was hostility and I’m not sure why, I feel that jay talks to her parents about our problems, her parents talk to their friends Kit and Lee, and their friends talk to their children… Or maybe that's in my head.

Salida. Mtn.Bike (w/ Joe. w/Aaron. w/jay. w/ Joe & Aaron)

Staining the barn.

Cooking dinners Tanya - Jo Bread on a Stick

Making fridge magnets from old stamps 1990 DPR Goat, ‘88 Large Tooth Sawfish, 1858-1958 CCCP horse and plane (also accidentally ruined a pair of Joe’s fancy pants because I was using epoxy but at higher elevation much more catalyst is needed, so I had thought it was no longer goopy, it was, sorry Joe)

<3Xrobots

Headlight polish kit

Goats & horses- herding

White Chalk Cliffs. Dad memories. St. Elmo. Mary Murphy Mine. (Editing note, this is an excellent example of just how much, how many stories are not being told. Nice and I almost died at Mary Murphy Mine, and the White Chalk Cliffs campground... my brothers and I almost died on a camptrip with Dad back in the 90's, well, not quite died, but it sure as hell is a proper story worth telling and I hope I get back to it).

Issues with truck; 

Overheating, Heater core, Wheel rattling, Radiator plug gasket o-ring, Hickups (tps probably).

Denver to Laramie- 2 hours north and 40 degree temperature difference. Almost went to salt lake city for some trailer repairs (insulation, awning pole, heater, etc.). Decided to tough it out with a 45w heater plugged into the cigarette lighter (since the heater core went out), we drove to Lander and blew the 15 amp cig lighter fuse using the 45w heater… put in a 20 amp and good to go. Simple fix.

Past Lander up to Shoshone NP, Sink Canyon, Popo Agie falls, So proud of jay hiking all over the damn place. Camped in Dispersed area, derelict trailer people bumming tobacco. I had some loose leaf pipe tobacco left over from a mistake in Illinois when I tried getting some cigarette tobacco for a spliff.. handed that over. Mtn bike again w/jay again had to pedal back up from sinks canyon tourist area because I’d forgotten to lock the truck.

Beavers

Sinks Canyon was maybe my favorite place in the country so far, the fall leaves a spectacular visual cacophony while hiking.

Overnight at Big Sandy Reservoir on the way to Granite Creek Hotsprings (So many antelope in Wyoming)

The rockies. Hoping back and forth across the continental divide. The rockies, absolutely spectacular… until Colorado. Then the mts were still exceptional but the people, the rules… all full to bursting with grandiose sense of self-worth and pride in living in The Colorado. Its chauvinistic  nationalization at state level. A bit similar to Texas in prideful to a sinful smugness attitude.

Montana.

Wash.

Rest stop exit 204 smokey point. People living in vans with tarps. Rv’s with tarps. Cars with tarps… washington is very rainy and there were a lot of tarps. Bi-Mart parking lot port orchard also filled with trailers and old dilapidated rv’s with tarps.

“Celebrate going digital” Cedar Casino Olympics NP. So beautiful and away from it all… celebrate digital… it is a sorrowful tragedy not for celebration.

Editing note again, Before Covid there were some people living homeless, but since Covid it just kept increasing, the country slowly tearing at the seams and poor people, thread bare people, tarp people trying to exist in a society that has no empathy for things that have no profit motive. I don't mean to end the stories here, but it is a good place in the story to take a minute to think of the rest of the world. The others trying to survive.