Permission Slips

Monday, February 6th, 2012 Posted by Jessica. Published under Bike Tour Preparations, Mini-Adventure, Personal Stories. No Comments.

I know this sounds obvious, but dropping your current life and embarking on an extended bike tour is no easy task.  People continuously marvel at Rachel and I with our adventures ahead and behind us, remarking “I wish I could do something like that!”  SO many people want to bike tour.  Why aren’t more people doing it?  The excuses are countless: I have a full-time job (so did we!  You can take it as an opportunity to change career tracks, or take an extended leave of absence, or take the risk that you’ll be applying for jobs once you’re finished; but chances are you won’t regret having an adventure once it’s all said and done); I have a mortgage to pay (rent it out– it’s a great way to generate income while traveling!); I have kids (take them with you! What better way for them to learn about the world?  Many families bike tour together!); I can’t afford a $2,000 touring bike (we’ve seen people touring and having an amazing time on mountain bikes, $50 beach cruisers, and Razor scooters– any bike will suffice, I promise!).

And this doesn’t just apply to bike touring.

Getting up the nerve to achieve our goals and live out our dreams is extremely difficult.  I know this first hand, because if it weren’t for Rachel I would still be sitting at my desk job in Boston thinking, “Someday, I’m going to ride my bike across the country!”  I knew I wanted to have an adventure like this, and I knew that life was about much more than working 40-45 hours a week.  But I think deep down, I was waiting for someone to come along and give me permission to take the leap.  I think deep down we’re ALL waiting around for someone to come along and hand us permission slips to live out our dreams.  I was so incredibly lucky to have Rachel come into my life and demand, “What the hell are you waiting for?  Let’s make this bike trip happen!”  Rachel’s the type of person who recognizes that if we want to change our situations, no one’s going to come along and do it for us.  So why waste time being unhappy or unsatisfied?

Not everyone has a supportive person to co-pilot through your adventure planning like I did, so I’m going to try to reach through the Internet tubes and give you a hand: I know this is all easy to say, but it’s not so easy to act on.  That’s where learning to act a bit more impulsively comes in handy.  I know, I know.  You got to where you are today by being very calculated in your decision-making process.  You went to school and followed all the rules, and then snagged yourself a big kid job.  I did that, too!  But sometimes you just have to close your eyes and jump.  Otherwise you might end up 5, 10, 15, 20 years later still saying, “Someday I’m going to do __________!”

And one of the wonderful side effects of taking the leap and achieving your goal is that more aspirations crop up.  Only this time, they seem much more manageable and not out of reach.  After all, you’ve already risked everything and the outcome was amazing.  You knew it would be– it was just that giving yourself permission to take the plunge was scary.  Do you honestly think you’ll go to your deathbed saying, “Gosh, I wish I hadn’t bike toured for a year when I was in my 20s!”, or “What a waste of time backpacking through India was!”, or “I wish I’d experienced less of the world”?

The Big Easy

Monday, January 16th, 2012 Posted by Rachel. Published under Mini-Adventure, National Parks, Personal Stories. No Comments.

New Orleans, Louisiana has a reputation. Unless you live under a rock, you’ve probably heard something about the city. Since I was a small child, I heard about the amazing music, the wild nightlife, the debauchery during Mardi Gras (and the rest of the year too). Like most people, I’d heard how New Orleans was a city like no other, one definitely worth saving the citizens said in the aftermath of notorious Hurricane Katrina in 2005. But I wasn’t sure I was a believer in all that.

In 2001, my family and I came down to New Orleans (NOLA as the locals lovingly call it) to look at University of New Orleans. Being 17 and excited at the prospect of going to school in a city with such a fun reputation meant I was looking forward to our trip. All I really remember is a gigantic, thong clad bottom on Bourbon Street, the smell of trash, driving through poor neighborhoods and being only slightly impressed with the university. And then again on my second trip this past June for my cousin’s wedding, I felt like I was going to get hepatitis C simply walking down Bourbon. I wasn’t all that impressed.

Jessica and I still wanted to come down to the Big Easy on this trip though. I mean, you don’t go to Gonzales (about an hour driving north) and don’t make the trip down. We were a bit worried about our safety, worried that it wouldn’t live up to it’s reputation yet again. But we hopped on the LA Swift bus last Tuesday anyway. Side note: We took the bus down because it was only $5 and we’re completely over riding our bikes into cities. It whisked us away and within an hour, Jessica’s high school classmate, Hillary, was picking us up to take us to the apartment she shares with her husband, Zack, in Uptown.

During the 5 mile drive from the tip of the French Quarter to their apartment, Hillary gave us a quick rundown of the area. Turns out that the St. Charles Street has a streetcar line and as a result is a vibrant, albeit pretty rich, community along it. She pointed out Loyola and Tulane and a gigantic park called Audubon Park, home to the NOLA Zoo and a 2.5 mile running and bicycle path that is very well used. Hillary also took us back to the French Quarter on her way to a meeting so we could have dinner that night. Thanks to her, we had an amazing meal. Check out Coop’s Place on Decatur if you are ever in NOLA. Jessica highly recommends the Creole Pasta. It’s her fave of the ENTIRE trip so far.

Over the past week, we’ve discovered that NOLA is exactly, exactly like the reputation. Its citizens are unbelievably sweet and so grateful for your business. The owner of the restaurant Fat Hen in Uptown gave us cookies and lots of extra dressing for our food just because we were new patrons. An antique store owner told us we absolutely had to go to Frenchmen Street, and then every single other person told us the same thing. Apparently, it’s THE place for good food, good music and more locals than tourists.

What really made the trip special though, was the warm reception from the women we ended up interviewing. On our first night in town, we walked past an Urban Outfitters where I hesitated because I had become obsessed with getting back into jeans, which are my favorite item of clothing. Jessica said, “Just try a pair on to feel it again.” To which I replied, “I’ll never take them off again.” When I didn’t like the first pair, I sent Jessica to find a second one, and the fitting room attendant stepped in to help. Jessica said, “Sorry she’s being so picky, she hasn’t worn jeans for 5 months.” The conversation was started then and we asked if she would be willing to talk to us on camera. Aba, that was her name, is amazing and so strong. We can’t wait to share her story with you all.

Then on Thursday, the evening before we were supposed to leave, we met up with 4 women whom I’d emailed from the National Organization for Women Meetup, hoping they might know someone we could interview. The conversation was easy and fun. They explained that NOLA is very, very liberal and a great place to live. They also convinced us to stay an extra three days so that we could interview them later. It was easy to say yes! And so worth it as well. It also allowed us to see a few more sights we’d been meaning to get to but time hadn’t allowed. There’s a fantastic World War II museum, and the National Historical Parks are informative and great. They talk about what life in LA is like, its history and the Jazz park has free performances, so we caught some great jazz too.

As much as I have loved every single place we’ve stopped, loved the people we’ve met and stayed with, the food we’ve eaten and the cities we’ve gotten to know, I haven’t been actually tempted to actually move to a place yet. I’m not sold since I absolutely melt in temperatures over 85, but NOLA is now my second favorite city on the planet after Berlin. I’m even a little sad I didn’t go to school down here afterall. It is alive like no other city. It should be at the top of everyone’s list for places to visit. Just make sure you ask Jessica and I to hook you into the local crowd. Locals love to show off their city and will make sure you don’t just get the Bourbon experience. We’ll be back for Mardi Gras and for Southern Decadence (their “pride” weekend) and just for fun.

Wompatuck! Our First Tour

Wednesday, July 6th, 2011 Posted by Rachel. Published under Bike Tour Preparations, Mini-Adventure. No Comments.

Yesterday, we arrived home from a two and a half day bike tour.  You might think it a bit silly for me to say this since we are now less than two months away from leaving on a “quit-your-job” long bike tour, but it was our first official bike tour.  It was immediately clear that we needed this trip because we needed to test our gear, our bodies and our minds.  But it was also very clear that we’re ready for the long haul.

A few months ago, I searched for Massachusetts State Parks and proposed to Jessica that we ride to Wompatuck State Park, which is only about 18 miles south of Brighton, MA where we live on the South Shore (right before the Cape starts).  Of course, she said yes!  Turns out the park is quite bike friendly too!  It’s pretty hilly, but that’s training right?  It has all these paths that are paved, miles of them, and aside from leaves and roots tearing up some asphalt in places, it’s all in great condition for lovely in woods riding.

After spending Friday evening packing (video to come), we left Saturday morning-ish and within about 30 min, we were already in need of a break.  Hence, lesson #1: Eat a solid breakfast and eat it right before you leave, not several hours.

Then we had to stop again 30 minutes later because I felt I needed to pump my rear tire.  Only I wasn’t super familiar with my travel pump and let out the air before we realized we should have just looked a video up on Jessica’s iPhone.  But then I got things rolling again.  But then my panniers started behaving badly.  Hence lesson #2: You get what you pay for.  “Affordable” panniers do not match the quality of Ortliebs.  Needless to say, I am now the proud owner of new Ortlieb panniers.  Thank you REI return policy.  (We had to ride to REI in Hingham on Monday to exchange them out because the ride back would have been torture without switching them out.)

We arrived roughly 3 hours later, but our GPS said it was only about 2 hours of actual riding time, so right on riding time schedule!  Setting up camp was easy even though we were desperately tired.  Lesson #3: Despite carrying the extra load, and feeling tired, we weren’t completely destroyed!  And it was good too because the wood we were sold by the camp store was too wet to really get a timely meal.  It was worth it though because our hobo dinners and campfire bananas (recipe to follow) were a real treat.

On Sunday we explored Hingham (cute but not much), found a grocery store to get a few snacks (Lesson #4: We’re singlehandedly going to keep Clif bars in business ourselves on the trip, methinks), rode around some of the bike paths in the park, and then looked up how to play gin rummy (or something) to fill the time until it was time to eat again!

Monday I woke up very hot already.  Not a good sign.  Jessica said it was just that I was sticky and dirty from not showering the day before. But that leads to Lesson #5: I am going to need campsite clothes and a fresh shirt pretty much every day if I’m sweating a lot during the ride.  I did not like putting on the same shirt that very much was covered in my sweat.  Sure it didn’t smell thanks to the anti-microbial technology these fancy pants clothes have now, but it was sweaty nonetheless.  And I did not like it.  Lesson learned!

We took our sweet time leaving and didn’t get out of the park until the very last minute (11am check out).  Well… Lesson #6: Rachel is really going to have to get used to getting familiar with the morning sun because it’s FAR too late in the summer heat to get going at 11am.  See photo for reference of just how bad looking I get in searing heat.  It got so bad that I was literally incapable of any reasoning or completing full sentences.  Lesson #7: Rachel is mean to Jessica in the heat.  SORRY!!!!

As previously mentioned, we rode to REI to swap out my panniers for better (and significantly more expensive) ones, ate some ice cream to try and cool down and then Jessica agreed to ride to the Braintree station to catch the train back into town instead of riding.  I just couldn’t do it.  It took a little convincing and negotiating but in the end we both got what we wanted (more on that in a second).

After the 6 miles more to Braintree I didn’t feel completely dead from the heat and ride, but I knew that I would be better off quitting while I’m ahead.  Lesson #8: In temperatures as hot as it was yesterday, I can’t keep going.  Good thing we’re taking our time.  Better to set up camp and enjoy the day by working on our documentary or reading or writing.

Due to the holiday, we weren’t allowed on the Red Line with our bikes, so we took the commuter rail instead.  Which was just fine by both of us.  Turns out though that since it took us to South Station instead of all the way to Harvard Square, we still had a ways to ride home (no T access in town either).  And this is how we both got what we wanted.  I needed a break from the heat, and Jessica needed 7 more miles to get the right amount of miles in.  Both of which were accomplished.  The ride wasn’t as bad on the way back from South Station.  That is until a soccer ball rolled into the street directly in my path and over it I went.  I’m pretty sure that my (now thankfully) heavy panniers kept me upright.  I also was quite impressed by my high pressure tires!  Lesson #9: If you want to ride over a soccer ball (or anything else) high pressure tires are a great, great option.  Only my peaceful mood and my chain were disturbed.  And fortunately for me, I didn’t have to ride home with greasy hands.  The college kids who were playing with said soccer ball were also grilling and therefore had paper towels.  The sun was hot still too, but there were far fewer hills and thus, I believe a far easier ride than what I would have faced if we had not taken the train.

In the end we needed a hosing down!  The cold water felt great.

And on Tuesday?  I wasn’t even sore.  I’m quite tired and a little stiff but in general, I’m doing quite well.  Thus concludes my entry about our trip!  For more pictures, check out our Facebook page!!

One final lesson – #10: I’m already getting very close to being ready to go on our cross-country trip, but still need a few more test rides!  Which we’ll do in Wisconsin at my parent’s lake house in early August.  I’m SO excited.

So today is my birthday…

Friday, June 17th, 2011 Posted by Jessica. Published under Bike Tour Preparations, Mini-Adventure. No Comments.

25 years ago today at 3:33pm EST, my dear mother pushed me out of her womb three days late without epidural. Talk about brave! She’s always been an extremely strong, often times badass, female role model for me growing up. Whenever I’ve had crazy ideas like living with Aboriginal protestors in tents outside the Australian parliament house, my mom’s response was always “You go girl!”, while my dad, though also supportive, was more apt to say, “Now think this through, Jess.” Guess who I take after more? (Hint: definitely the parent who left home in rural east Tennessee and moved to Hawaii at the age of 17)

As Rachel and I continue planning our bike trip, I’ve begun to realize that so many more people than just my mom and dad are supporting me. When Rachel and I launched our Kickstarter campaign, I was extremely wary and pessimistic. I HATE asking for money, and asking for money from people whom I truly care about was especially difficult. But here we are now with only $220 left to raise and 33 days left to do it. I feel so confident we’re going to make it, now.

I’m not friends with rich people by any means, either. We all know the economy sucks right now, but Rachel and I have friends and family who still care about us and believe in us enough to donate what they can. Some of our friends who donated are currently unemployed. Some of them are working jobs while also enrolled in school full time. Some are retired and don’t have disposable income streaming in. Some of them are freelance artists. Some of them have families to provide for and kids to feed. One is currently serving in the Peace Corps. Many of them have an exhausting amount of college loans to pay off. Most of them I don’t keep in contact with nearly as much as I should. Friends and family who couldn’t afford to donate passed our Kickstarter link around, which is just as awesome as donating. I’m just so completely blown away by the kindness of the people around me.

So today is my birthday. Usually around my birthday I get really anxious. I think a combination of not having a lot of friends in high school mixed with having a birthday when most people are on vacation made it so not many people were around on my birthday throughout the years. Last year I got really anxious again and Rachel and my awesome friend Meagan (our web designer!) planned an amazing birthday for me that involved a fancy Mexican restaurant, a homemade owl cake, and drinking wine in my tent in my living room.

This year I don’t feel insecure at all. Thank you so much to all the people who’ve supported me throughout the years and continue to believe in me now. The love I feel for all of you is indescribable and I promise I won’t let you down and I will return the favor when you need it.

Adding hiking to our bike trip

Monday, May 23rd, 2011 Posted by Jessica. Published under Bike Tour Preparations, Gear + Product Review, Mini-Adventure. No Comments.

After taking the Boston Appalachian Mountain Club hiking class and going on the weekend trips, Rachel and I have realized that we need to stop thinking about our bike trip as simply a bike trip across the country, and more as a biking AND hiking trip.  In accumulating gear for our trip over the past year, we read up on other bike touring blogs for what to buy.  One of the first purchases we made were Keen cycling sandals, thinking they’d be great for both cycling and hiking.  Rachel learned the hard way on one of our hiking trips that while they’re a great trail shoe, actual hiking provides the fun of slippery-sweaty feet and no ankle support.  Neither of us want to risk hurting ourselves on the trip in exchange for lighter panniers, so now it looks like we’ll be bringing these sandals AND hiking boots.

Going on day hikes also requires bringing some sort of pack for you to carry your lunch, rain jacket, headlamp, etc in.  I bought the tiny 9-liter REI Stroke 9 backpack, figuring it was small enough to fit in a pannier or even wear while biking for extra hydration, since it can fit a 2-liter Camelback bladder; but also big enough to stuff a rolled-up rain jacket and trail food in.  So far on the hikes I’ve been on I’ve definitely had the smallest pack on the trail, but I’ve managed to fit everything that I needed in it.  Rachel’s purchased the slightly larger 19-liter REI Stroke 19 backpack, figuring she can stow it across her rear bike rack while she’s not hiking.  Rachel has yet to pick her’s up from REI (since she ordered it online and had it shipped to the store), so I’m not sure yet if I’ll be jealous of the extra space she’ll have or be glad that I can wear mine as a hydration pack comfortably while cycling.

Other than the shoes and the backpacks, the rest of our gear is roughly the same for biking and hiking.  Smartwool socks are excellent for both, and I’ve learned while hiking that my cycling jersey does the job at wicking sweat on the trail as well.  We both have a pair of convertible trail pants, figuring they’ll be handy on and off the trail while we’re not hiking.  Layering while avoiding cotton works the same as well at retaining warmth.  Rain jacket, rain pants, gloves, all the same.  Who knew bike touring and hiking could go hand-in-hand so comfortably?

I’m shocked I like hiking.

Thursday, May 19th, 2011 Posted by Jessica. Published under Bike Tour Preparations, Mini-Adventure. No Comments.

I grew up in the Smoky Mountains.  My neighborhood was tucked right on the side of a mountain ridge where if I stood at the top of my street, I could see two other mountain peaks poking out behind my neighbor’s house and hear cows echoing through the valley in the mornings while I waited for the school bus.  My neighbor’s back yard led for miles through thick forest, uninterrupted by roads until you finally reached a farm the next county over.  I think I’ve only hiked through the Smoky Mountains once, when I was about eight years old.  I remember the hike leader telling me to stop looking at the ground when I was walking, to enjoy the scenery around me.  I looked up and immediately tripped on a tree root sticking out of the ground, faceplanting into the dirt.  I didn’t care for hiking in the woods after that.

Rachel and I on top of Mt. Monadnock

Years passed, and I didn’t hike.  I played in the woods behind my house plenty, and I have fond memories of my dad taking my brother and I to the local arboretum for long walks as a kid, but I never was interested in hiking.  When Rachel suggested we take a hiking class through Boston’s chapter of the Appalachian Mountain Club, I agreed, thinking it would be useful to apply the skills we learned to our bike trip.  I didn’t know that we’d actually get to go on hikes through the class.  When I saw that we would get to hike, I figured it’d be good fitness training for our trip and not much else.  I also thought that as a bike commuter for the past three years I wouldn’t care much for hiking because it’s so much slower than riding a bike (walking down the street is pretty lame when I could be zipping by on my Surly) and I wouldn’t like having to carry a heavy bag on my back.  I was really wrong!

Beautiful view from the trail on the Welch-Dickey Loop in the White Mountains

The breathtaking views at the top are enough alone to make the effort worth it.  I even love the climbing part.  As Rachel can attest to, the White Mountains in the Northeast are notoriously rocky and boulder-y.  There were times when I felt like I was literally walking up a stone wall– I couldn’t believe the trail went that way!  But it was SO much fun.  I felt like a spider monkey scaling the rock walls like that.  While hiking, I felt like I was learning so many new things about my body: what it could do, how it could balance on a vertical wall, how it was strong enough to climb over boulders.  Believe me– I’ve never considered myself athletic by any stretch of the imagination.  I’m pretty wimpy and don’t have any muscle definition.  But hiking has really struck a new chord with me and I am now eagerly anticipating the hikes we will go on once we launch.

Dorky and happy on my way up the mountain.

Short and Sweet equals Long and Exhausting?

Wednesday, April 20th, 2011 Posted by Rachel. Published under Bike Tour Preparations, Mini-Adventure. No Comments.

Jessica and I did the traditional road trip this past weekend.  Driving in a motor vehicle thousands of miles, stopping only for the bathroom and junk food.  And it was fantastic.  But not so fantastic that I would rather do that than bicycle across the country.  For one thing, a car is insulated from the outside.  Climate control and recycled air.  Certainly good for when you have crappy weather like this April has been for us so far, but not really closer to nature.  It’s also not very energy efficient.

We drove these thousands of miles out of necessity.  I needed to sell my car not only because I won’t need it when we’re on the road, but also because my job changed recently and I no longer needed it.  Insurance is expensive!  Now why didn’t I just sell it here you ask?  Because we have things we don’t want to sell off.  Jessica and I aren’t doing the completely-rid-ourselves-of-all-possessions kind of bike tour.  We’re selling as much as we can part with, but things like my Christopher Moore and Harry Potter books or Jessica’s electric guitar are staying.  They’re just staying in my parent’s basement is all.  Also, we’ve decided to launch from Madison.  So we’ll have to get ourselves there somehow.  I borrowed my parents van for the next few months and that way we’ll get my beautiful, Humphrey Bogart-escque desk and dresser plus the remain clothes, books and various objects and ourselves back to Wisconsin when the time comes.

This mini-road trip was a fantastic escape despite the weather and long hours on the road.  I’m still recovering from overnight driving – exhaustion to the max, but would do it again in a heartbeat.  It was the first time Jessica had been to Madison and given a proper tour.  Aside from the crazy governor, I’ve been trying to convince her that the Midwest is a viable location for recovering from our cross-country trip.  I doubt the snow on Saturday helped with that argument though, so I might have to think up another plan.

It was good to get home for the few short days too.  We had custard.  (Best way to eat frozen dairy ever.)  And we had New Glarus Beer.  (Only sold in Wisconsin, but by far some of the best beer on the planet.)  I introduced Jessica to my parents crazy cats, Marty and Calvin.  And we were able to get kitty litter buckets out of which we’ll make our panniers.  We even got to stand in the presence of Sarah Palin.  (Her jacket was very shiny.)  And boo.  I got to see my cousin who was a foot shorter than me last time I saw him and is now taller than me.  We hugged my 98 year old grandfather and I started a family tree from our genealogy books in the basement.  We bought excellent cheese curds that squeak when you eat them.  And there was snow in April… Kind of makes me want to stay there forever.  Who needs to be an adult and work?

Oh yeah, I do.

In the end, though, I was happy for my own bed with my own pillows.  Mini-road trip closed.

It’s been great, Orlando!

Tuesday, March 15th, 2011 Posted by Rachel. Published under Mini-Adventure. No Comments.

Hello Dear Reader!

It’s been a while.  We hope you didn’t think we’d forgotten you.  We were just having too much fun in the sun.  And I take full responsibility for slacking on sharing all this with you.  Jessica is innocent!

For the first time in likely my entire life, I (we) went on a vacation that I didn’t want to return from.  With the only exception possibly being when I lived in New York City and I went west with my family for a week at Glacier National Park.  It’s a very different feeling returning home from a fantastic vacation instead of one that was exhausting and not entirely fun, like our trip to Assateague Island this past August/ September.

I’ve been sifting through the emotions on this one; attempting to understand why this vacation above all others was so grand.  It’s was the first time I’d ever been to a resort instead of camping or staying at singular hotels.  But the environmentalist in me was screaming!  Especially as we walked around Universal Studios, sat on roller coasters, ate junk food and as miles of kitschy strip malls rolled past us.  I feel a bit dirty about it and feel like I need to plant 3,000 trees to repent for our week in Orlando.

Regardless, as the week wore on, I became quite sad as our return flight neared.  I’ve decide though, that this actually goes to the heart of a bike tourist’s soul.  Jessica and I haven’t started our tour yet, but we’ve crossed the most important line – the one we crossed when we both decided, yes, let’s do this.  We also have nomadic tendencies.  Settling in one place too long starts to feel a bit strange, like a shirt that’s just a size too large.

At a conference this past February, I heard another woman who’s maybe only 5-8 years older than me, talk about her struggles to stay in one job, stay in one place.  She knew it was best for her career, a career she loved, and she had recently been married, so the stability of her position was needed.  But she couldn’t quite shake the feeling that I think many people close to my age feel.  “What if there’s something better around the corner?”  “Why should I stay in one place for an extended period?”

Now, I think that this woman was in a slightly different position than me.  She is in a middle range position.  I am still in an entry-level job, but am ready for more.  Boy, that recession is hitting me now!  So why should I stay?

It’s tough to have the patience to see something through until the end.  Jessica and I are working on moving on.  But we’re not there just yet, and I’m at that plateau.  And the trip to Orlando was a little bit like a call home.  “It’s time to travel again! Time to see more of the world!”

We’ve got a lot to share with you still, and will be playing a bit of catch up (the internet at the resort held us back).  It’s just not always easy to put to words this moment in time.  I’m standing on the top of a mountain about to head back down, but I have to wait until the wind blows away the storm clouds and we have sun again!

After Australia: Getting my life back

Friday, February 11th, 2011 Posted by Jessica. Published under Bike Tour Preparations, Mini-Adventure. No Comments.

Now that I’ve had the week to decompress and fully come to terms with everything I lost in Australia, I’m now faced with the task of trying to replace everything.

There are the boring things:

• Must go to the DMV while it’s open (super annoying hours and of course Cambridge has no DMV and I have to go to Boston or Watertown) and get a Massachusetts drivers license
• Must order new health and dental insurance cards (done!)
• Must order new debit card (done!)
• Must file a claim through Bank of America to get back the money that was stolen from my account (done!– but I still have more paperwork that will be mailed to me)
• Must order new Medic Alert pacemaker ID card (I really hope this doesn’t cost money)
• Must order new Guidant pacemaker ID card (the one that was stolen was the original I’d had since I was 15 and had the serial number info on it– I don’t even know if this is actually replaceable, but it’s important)
• Must apply for a real grown up credit card because it has buyer protection for things like theft (and I have a credit score of literally “zero” at the moment)
• Must buy new wallet (a snazzy one)
• Must buy new earbuds (yes, they stole that too– and I need them at  the gym)

Then the big ones:

• New digital camera.  I’m thinking of possibly getting a better (more professional) digital camera this time around.  Thoughts?
• Replacement video camera.   Ugh.  Still makes my heart hurt.
• I also need to figure out if I can transfer over the extended warranty from the previous camera.

I’m making a list and making it public because I really need to make sure I do everything.  Especially the tedious stuff– I’m pretty busy, but I need to make sure it all gets done.  No more “What if I had all of my things with me?” or “What if I hadn’t brought the video camera to Australia?”  Too late.  No looking back.  I just have to move forward and move on.

Escaping Jonestown

Wednesday, February 9th, 2011 Posted by Jessica. Published under Mini-Adventure. 4 Comments.

I came back from Australia last Friday night, but I’m only now feeling capable of writing about everything that happened in my last few days there.  I left Australia very sunburned, exhausted, extremely angry at myself, heartbroken, and missing about $1,400 in cash and gear (and irreplaceable interview footage).  You have no idea how many times I’ve called myself an idiot over the last week.

Basically, last Monday night I was hanging out with Ray watching Australian television (which is a lot like America’s cable access programming) in a tent less than 15 feet away from my tent where all of my belongings were zipped inside.  Shane and Nikki, the protesters I was staying with, were out in their car with their two dogs for about an hour.  When they returned at about 11:30pm, I decided I was ready for bed and headed back to my tent.  That’s when I discovered my tent door unzipped and my wallet (with my credit card, drivers license, several movie passes, my pacemaker cards, my health insurance cards, and about $80 Australian dollars and $80 US dollars inside), my digital camera, my work’s cardiod microphone and XLR-mini cable, and the tiny $850 high-definition hard drive video camera Rachel and I had bought barely two weeks prior with all of my footage that I’d shot while in Australia on the drive.

I was absolutely devastated.  I fell to my knees beside my tent and started sobbing and hyperventilating.  I was on the other side of the world on a continent by myself staying with people I’d known for less than two weeks and I basically had nothing but a tent, my clothes, my passport, and my plane ticket back to the United States left.  I had come to this country wanting to help Aboriginal Australia because as a Cherokee and as someone who never knew much about my own history because of displacement and because of abuse and alcoholism throughout generations, I felt an incredibly deep connection to their cause.  I came to Australia wanting to film Aboriginal life and their fight for sovereignty to show people in the United States the truth about how a treaty needed to be drawn up and Australia’s 500 Aboriginal nations needed federal recognition.  I wanted to bring back film footage and photos of this place I’d grown to view as sacred for the last four years.  And I was robbed.

I woke up at 7am the next morning, having hardly slept at all.  I walked all over the Tent Embassy lawn and surrounding areas looking for any signs of my belongings until the National Library opened so I could email Rachel to tell her the news and try to call my parents.  I felt like a tiny ant on this vast desert continent wandering around alone in 95 degree heat.  My bank emailed to tell me my account was frozen because of “suspicious activity”– someone managed to get $200 out.  Great.  Calling my parents collect from the pay phone in the basement was incredibly hard– I hadn’t had to ask my parents for money in several years, but now I was alone on the other side of the world with nothing.  Nothing.  I pretty much had no other option.  I broke down and started sobbing into the phone, telling my mom what happened and that I didn’t know what to do.  My mom was awesome (both of my parents were amazing) and tried to calm me down and assure me that her and my dad would wire me some money to get me through the rest of my time in Australia.  I’m eternally grateful.

Ray drove me to the police station and I filed a police report.  The police said they would go around to the pawn shops in the area and look for the video camera, but they said it could be traded to several different drug dealers before it ended up at a pawn shop– and who knows where in Australia it would be by then?  I’m not keeping my hopes up.  I can buy a new camera– the footage is what’s lost forever.

You might be wondering how I could be such an idiot to leave so many expensive things unattended in a tent in a city.  My only answer is that after staying at the Tent Embassy for a while, you start to feel like it’s your home.  And you start to forget that you’re in a city and very vulnerable and you think no one would invade your privacy by opening your tent– let alone stealing all of your stuff.  And I guess I am an idiot for that.

The Aboriginal Tent Embassy is very different from four years ago.  I had a pretty good time up until I was robbed, but even before that happened the romanticism I’d felt towards the Tent Embassy for four years was gone.  The people there were different.  The protest was different.  Drug dependency was much more prominent.  Many of the people at the Tent Embassy no longer got along with each other and were actually somewhat at war with each other (and I think my tent unfortunately got in the middle of that when I was robbed).  I’m not saying I think the protesters are “doing it wrong”– as an outsider, I have absolutely no authority to tell them how to do their protest, and I’m sure after almost 40 years the Tent Embassy is continuously changing.  I just don’t feel the deep, visceral connection that I once did– even before I lost everything.  Which breaks my heart worse than my possessions being stolen.  I’m still trying to find a way to fill the hole.

On the upside, I guess, my passport and plane tickets were left alone.  I wasn’t physically hurt.  I just have to start over.