Well, it’s the last day of August, and I arrived in Seattle on the train yesterday. It is indeed surreal to be back in the Northwest, and reconnecting with my sister and her partner after not seeing them since July of 2021.
Today I completed many administrative tasks and phone calls, which feels like such a relief. I may do a few more tomorrow, and possibly a Zoom or two. I also need to work on lodging for some of my next Northwestern stops.
But today’s blog will mostly be a photo essay on my two-day Amtrak journey from Minnesota to Washington. It was a beautiful ride.
Nathan kindly gave me a ride to the train station in St. Paul after dinner on the 28th. That Amtrak station—recently renovated—is breathtaking. I enjoyed seeing it at night, with very few people in the grand space when I arrived a few hours early for the 11 pm train, so that I could appreciate the architectural splendor.
(And of course, what should I find inside—next to the first-class lounge—but a Little Free Library! They are absolutely everywhere.)
The ride went smoothly, through Minnesota overnight, then North Dakota and Montana the next day. There were enough vegan options in the dining car at each meal to keep me satisfied, and I once again enjoyed my “Amtrak cocktail” (sweet tea and vodka) in the sightseer lounge car as the beautiful scenery rolled by outside the windows.
We headed into nighttime again right as we reached East Glacier (I was having a great dinner conversation at the time, with my Indiana tablemates in the dining car).
I awoke the next morning in Wenatchee, Washington, with beautiful golden hills right outside my berth.
Around 11:30 am, we disembarked in Seattle, and my sister and her sweetie picked me up from the station, to save me the hills on the way to their Greenlake abode. The occasion was bittersweet: one of our favorite Seattle vegan-dining stalwarts, the Wayward Café, was closing on that very day, after just a couple of weeks’ notice after many wonderful years in business. Fortunately, the two of them had swooped by the restaurant before they picked me up, and snagged us each a brunch entrée, which we then plated and savored once we reached their house. My garden benedict was delicious.
I’m looking forward to another day of downtime here in Seattle (and even doing a recording for a podcast that will soon feature me—stay tuned!) and then I’ll be heading north to Bellingham for a few days, where I’m looking forward to connecting with several friends.
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Wow. Tonight I board the train to Seattle! I cannot believe I’m already returning to the Northwest… and before you know it, I’ll be passing through Portland again, a year after I departed. Very surreal.
But I’m not done with my loop yet!
And my time in Minneapolis has been magical as well.
I got a chance to spend some lovely time here with Nate and Paula and their cheerful and creative 3-year-old daughter, and their house has been comfortable and full of great conversation during my stay here.
I also got to reconnect with my friend Vika, who is originally from Minneapolis but spent 13 years in Portland, during which time I met her when we both were helping to teach Nonviolent Communication (NVC) to prisoners at the Oregon State Penitentiary, Oregon’s only maximum-security prison.
Vika departed Portland to move back here just one day before I departed on my journey, back in September. We connected here the other day for a picnic and “magical meeting” at Lake of the Isles, at sunset. Vika does wonderfully inspiring work in the world; our life missions are very aligned. You can take a look at her work at www.thrivingworldproject.org.
We talked about my idea of fairy godfunding, among many other topics that inspire us both. (She has piqued my interest in checking out Human Design, which I’ve been curious about but don’t know much yet.)
The next night, she introduced me to her friends Tom and Ranja, who served us a wonderful homemade vegan burrito-bar meal at their home in the Minneapolis suburbs. Tom is a retired engineer, and he is a wizard with bicycles. He recently purchased an e-bike, and he is designing a sort of cover for it to protect the rider from some of the elements. He is using corrugated plastic and aluminum to build a sort of windshield and canopy.
He also has some flexible solar panels, which he hopes to integrate with the design so that the bike’s battery can be charged by the sun while the rider is in motion. So cool!
Another of his projects is an amphibious bike, which he can pedal directly into the lake behind his house, where the pedaling then powers a water wheel at the back of the bike. Plastic barrels on the front and rear fold down to provide flotation.
And perhaps most excitingly, he has recently built a 105-lb trailer for the e-bike, out of the same heavy corrugated plastic. The trailer folds up to be towed behind the bike, and then it can unfold to provide both storage and shelter, including a sleeping space, when at “camp.” It’s such an exciting thing to imagine in use!
Then today, I got to attend a biweekly “Plant Based Popup” event with my hosts. We got some delicious homemade savory and sweet treats there, including some wonderful tacos from a cargo-bike-powered stand (by an entrepreneur who used to run a vegan food cart in Portland called Pyro Pizza!) and an incredibly decadent s’mores cookie.
While there, I also met up with my Facebook friend Donovan. We only got to talk for a brief while, but he seems to have led a fascinating life so far, and I’m curious to learn more about his passions of human health and environmental responsibility, as well as the interesting ways he uses his skills and creativity to bring about good in the world.
That’s what my journey is about: meeting these fascinating folks, picking their brains (and inviting them to pick mine) and connecting them with others wherever possible. (For example, Donovan may be able to make some bicycle recommendations to Nate and Paula, who are in the market, while Vika might be able to help them sell some extra plants they have in the yard. I love these synergies!)
Other things I have enjoyed during my time here: going to a vegan “chicken” restaurant (run by The Herbivorous Butcher, based here in the Twin Cities) and a vegan boutique, visiting George Floyd Square (less than a mile from my hosts’ house, in a residential neighborhood) and enjoying some incredibly fluffy homemade blueberry-chocolate-chip pancakes, courtesy of Paula’s cast-iron wizardry!
I love this place and its people. I look forward to returning sometime.
Now, I’m off to two full nights on the train. Sadly, I will be skipping my planned stop in Glacier National Park (the timing isn’t quite right this time) but I will enjoy rolling through it. And in the late morning of Tuesday the 30th, I will be reunited with my sister and her partner in Seattle, whom I last saw in person last July, more than a year ago!
This will probably be my last post for a couple of days, since internet access is very spotty on long-distance trains. But when you next hear from me, I will be in the Northwest!
Surreal.
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Nate and I didn’t do all the neighborhood fruit foraging we had planned (yet!) but he did take me on a five-hour excursion—with his adorable 3-year-old daughter in his Burley trailer—all around various local creek and lake bike paths.
I’ll let the photos tell the story.
My favorite part was when we went through the Lake Harriet Rose Garden. The hibiscus flowers, painted boats, beautiful trees and grounds, and incredible skies all blended together to create a sort of Alice in Wonderland effect.
What a beautiful city. I’m looking forward to a few more days here!
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I’m here at the home of Nate, Paula, and Hildie, and we’ve been having a lovely time so far! We had a nice vegan crockpot dinner, al fresco in the backyard. When it got dark afterward, a family of five or six raccoons came out to climb up on the grape arbors right near us for an extended midnight snack, which was kind of surreal to witness.
The earlier part of the day, I spent bicycling from the St. Paul hotel to their place about 13 miles west in Minneapolis, enjoying the sights… but a good chunk of the day was also devoted to bike-shop stuff.
I mentioned in yesterday’s post that in addition to my train-ride disruptions, I had had a snafu taking up some of my attention and energy.
What happened is that about 25 miles into my beautiful 26-mile ride from Madison to Columbus, I noticed that my right trailer tire had gone flat. Argh!! This was only my fourth flat on this year’s journey, but the second on that wheel within about a month.
I was pretty sure I knew when it had happened: I had watched myself rolling over a chunk of steel-belted radial tire debris, and I cursed the luck that had put it in my path. (I had steered to avoid it with my bike’s tires, but then I saw the trailer wheel roll over it.)
As it turned out, though, I don’t think that was the culprit (unless it was an additional culprit, which is possible): I discovered the offending enormous nail (tack? thick rusty something) a little later.
Some of you may know that I hate changing flats.
I hate it so much that I refuse to do it.
A number of people—in “real life” as well as online bicycle forums—have stated or implied that this stance of mine is unacceptable.
“Oh, you have to be able to change your own tires!”
“Are you kidding? That’s an essential skill! Just practice a little, and you’ll be a pro soon!”
“No one should ever get on a bike without being able to fix a flat.”
Know what? I don’t care.
I have fixed flats. Probably half a dozen over the years. It’s not foreign to me.
But I hate it. And I choose not to do things that I hate, if I can manage to avoid it in any way.
I can’t tell you how empowering that feels. (And if you’re reading this and feeling tempted to chime in that fixing my own flats would feel even more empowering, please save it; I’m not interested.)
I love autonomy. I love making my own decisions about what is important to me in life. And I love living that. And I love modeling it for others, too. A (small) part of why I’m doing this journey, and doing it the way I am, is to show people that you can be adventurous, even if you’re not “perfect.” Even if you don’t like to camp. Even if you don’t like to bike up big hills, or on rugged gravel, or over long distances. Even if you can’t—or simply won’t—fix your own flats.
There are workarounds. Do what you love! Leave the things you hate, as much as you possibly can.
So. With that off my chest…
Since I refuse to fix flats, I do need to pull in other forms of creative problem solving.
What that looked like yesterday was, to start with, gambling that I could bike the remaining mile or so to Columbus without damaging the wheel’s rim. I looked at the map and saw that there was a park within about a third of a mile.
Good! I was hungry anyway—and a couple hours early for the train—so I could pull over there, find a shady bench, relax and remind myself not to get upset or freak out, have a snack, and come up with an action plan, which would probably include finding the nearest bike shop in town and heading over there.
When I got to the park and sat on that bench, though, opening a Clif bar, I checked Google Maps and discovered that this town was too small to have a bike shop.
Oof. Really??
Not one.
The nearest shop was about 14 miles away.
No way should I ride that far with a flat. Plus I didn’t have the time.
OK. Don’t freak out.
What about a Lyft? How much would that cost? Would the timing be feasible?
I checked.
$25.99 one way, and about 45 minutes to get there.
I could maybe afford that time, but definitely couldn’t justify the cost.
OK. Don’t freak out.
Maybe at the train station I would find a fellow cyclist who would enjoy helping me fix the flat…?
Maybe. But I couldn’t count on it.
But the station was less than a mile away, so at least I felt OK about biking that far.
I reasoned that it should still be easy and non-risky to the wheel to simply load the bike onto the train as is. Then unload it in St. Paul.
Unfortunately we would be arriving near midnight, so no bike shop would be open then.
But I had had the foresight to book a hotel as close as possible to the station. (I certainly hadn’t foreseen this complication, but I know that some sort of complication is always possible, so for late-night train arrivals, I’m willing to spend a bit more money than I otherwise would to get the very closest hotel.) As you may recall from yesterday’s post, it was only half a mile away.
I could do this!
Let’s see… search Google Maps for the closest bike shop to the hotel.
About six blocks. Nice!
OK… what time do I have to check out of the hotel? What time does the shop open?
11:00. 1:00.
Argh… but doable.
Is there a vegan-friendly restaurant nearby, and/or a park, so that I could spend my time there between 11 and 1?
Yes and yes. Both within a block of the bike shop.
OK!
I made some calls, to the bike shop and hotel, to confirm these things.
Confirmed!
Now, I knew that the nearby bike shop would almost certainly not have the replacement tire I would need; most bike shops don’t carry Brompton-sized tires. (At this time, I was assuming the tire had been shredded by the car tire fragment. That may not have been the case, but as I later discovered, the nail had damaged it enough that it would indeed require replacement.)
So, that would be an additional step. But fortunately, I carry two spare tires, after my Warmshowers hosts on my very first night—way back in September—warned me sternly of just such situations. I also carry two spare tubes. (I may not be willing to do the work, but I do make sure to at least carry the tools and materials so that somebody can!)
Still sitting on the park bench, I visualized the whole sequence in my mind:
Bike to the train station. Load the rig onto the train. Unload at 11 pm, and bike as “gently” as possible to the hotel. Check out of the hotel at 11 am, and bike as gently as possible to the restaurant and/or park, depending how hungry I was. At 1:00, proceed to the bike shop. Have them use my tube and tire to make the repair. Then, go to the sole Brompton-certified shop in Minneapolis (none in St. Paul) to have them replace the tire. (At this point, I picked up the phone and called that shop to make sure they had the 16” Schwalbe Marathon Plus in stock. They did. Could they replace it on a walk-in basis? They could.) I would also buy a new spare tube there, to replenish my stock.
Then—wallet lighter but mechanical confidence restored—I could proceed to my hosts’ place and get on with my enjoyment of the journey.
And… that is almost exactly what unfolded:
I managed to load and unload the rig on the train with no problems.
I got to the hotel around midnight.
I checked out at 11 this morning, and headed to the restaurant. Sadly, they were slammed and running behind, so I found a nearby Chipotle instead.
After lunch, I went to the bike shop near the hotel. It turned out to be inside the train station! The irony is that they stay open until 9 pm—later than any other bike shop in town, the owner told me—but still not late enough for me to have handled the whole thing last night upon arrival, which would have been soooo slick! (I had checked those hours while sitting on the park bench, though, so I knew what to expect.)
The person who did replace that tube at that shop was a boy who didn’t look more than 11 or 12. I wasn’t sure if he might be the son of the owner, but he addressed her by her first name, so I’m guessing not?
I sat next to him on a matching comfortable chair (the bike shop was recently expanded to also be a coffee shop, and he sat on the chair to do his work, without a greasy apron or any other such “wrenching” apparatus) and thanked him for helping me with this repair.
“Oh, you’re welcome! Surprisingly, this is actually one of my favorite things to do.”
Wow.
I mean… there it is.
I hate, hate, hate to do that task. Here was someone who loves to do it. And now, I’m paying him to do it for me.
Win-win. This is the kind of life I love living.
When the tube was replaced, I headed out the door for the 12-mile ride to Perennial Cycle, in Minneapolis.
What a cool shop! They had folded Bromptons stacked artfully on shelves. In fact, a customer was just walking out the door with his beautiful brand-new deep red one.
Of all the Brompton shops I’ve visited so far this year around the country, most of them haven’t actually had the bikes in stock, or at least not prominently displayed. It felt cool to see that.
The mechanic got straight to work on replacing the tire shortly after I arrived, and even noticed a piece of embedded glass in the spare I had been using! He removed the glass in front of me, but showed how it hadn’t gone all the way through, so he deemed the tire still OK for use as a spare.
So then… that was it. My wallet was indeed lighter (those Marathon Pluses aren’t cheap, but they are worth every penny) and now I was free to complete my day’s journey. Nate and Paula live less than a mile from the shop, so it was easy-peasy.
So that’s the story! Now it’s late and I need to sleep. Nate says he will show me some good neighborhood fruit foraging trees tomorrow!
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Today was a full day! I bicycled 26 miles, from my hotel just north of Madison up to the tiny town of Columbus, Wisconsin, and then I boarded the train to St. Paul.
The riding weather was perfect, and the scenery was bucolic and wonderful.
When I arrived in Columbus, what should I see outside the Amtrak station but a lovely little shaded seating area… with a Little Free Library!
I enjoyed the train ride, although it was not without incident. I had a coach seat, and spent about half my time there, and half in the sightseer lounge, enjoying dinner, snacks, and a cocktail, with beautiful late-evening-light views.
But at first, the passenger seated next to me in the coach was an annoyingly drunk and disruptive fellow. He had been trying to light up a cigarette, a few rows back, and I heard the conductor threatening to throw him off the train. After a brief lecture, she seemed to relent, seating him next to me (doh!) and encouraging him to “sleep it off,” even bringing him a couple of bottles of water. (These are normally not distributed for free in coach.) The water didn’t impress him, and he gave it to me while grumbling to no one in particular about how “my brother runs all these trains” and “I should just drive this fucking train myself” and “I can’t believe they tried to kick me off this train!”
Arghhhhh… was I really going to endure five hours of this?
As it turned out, no. At the next stop, shortly after Columbus, three local police officers boarded the train and did indeed help the conductors to escort him off.
While I’m not generally a fan of getting police involved in situations where they are not necessary—and I’ve seen conductors force unruly passengers off trains without law-enforcement backup in the past—I admit I was very pleased to be rid of that seatmate.
When I returned from my trip to the lounge car an hour or two later, though, I was soon joined by another seatmate who was also returning from the lounge. Apparently, when I boarded I had taken his seat; he had initially retreated to the lounge to avoid the obnoxious guy. He didn’t seem to mind taking the aisle seat now, though, and quickly absorbed himself into a movie on his tablet.
But then the young girl one row up across the aisle started throwing up. Oof… I felt bad for her, but I also did not enjoy the proximity of the event to me. Her mother seemed to keep it all under control pretty well, but the event did recur a couple of times before all of us disembarked in St. Paul.
Never a dull moment, I suppose… (and there was another incident today, too, but I’ll save it for tomorrow’s post.)
I still love train travel. This was my first time at the St. Paul depot. I had visited the Twin Cities once before, about a dozen years ago, but that time I flew. (I remember being awed by the extent of the urban canopy as we descended, on Memorial Day weekend.)
Tonight’s hotel is only ten blocks from the station (by my design) and when I arrived… wow! What a difference from the subpar places I usually scrounge at the bottom of the budget bracket wherever I go. This place was one of the least expensive I could find, but it seems so fancy! I wish I could stay here much longer than just the few waking hours I have tonight and tomorrow morning. I’m savoring the lovely soaps, the aesthetic of the room… and the QUIET. (That first Madison place was so noisy, with unruly guests roaming the hall all night long. One guy was literally shouting “ca-caw! ca-caw!” to his friends at about 3:15 am.)
It’s nice to live in luxury from time to time… especially when the price is comparable to many of these bottom-of-the-barrel places elsewhere. (I will never understand the vagaries of hotel pricing.)
Tomorrow, though, I’m excited to meet up with my new hosts, Nathan and Paula and their young daughter. I first met Nate probably 15 years ago or so, when we both attended a 5-day group bicycle tour on the big island of Hawai’i. When I visited Minneapolis—his hometown—a few years later, he gave me the most comprehensive local-tour-guide experience I have ever had the fortune to receive.
Since then, he met and married Paula, moved to Seattle, moved back to Minneapolis, and had their daughter. They are a vegan family, and all so cool, and I’m excited to see them! I’ll also be visiting with a few other friends, old and new, while I’m in the area. I’m looking forward to it all!
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Shortly after I published last night’s post, my hotel lost much of its power. It kind of seemed like a brownout, with only some outlets/lights working some of the time, or lights kind of fluttering and dimming. My laptop stopped charging, and soon lost power completely and shut down. I didn’t immediately make the mental connection to the outlets, so I thought the charger had suddenly failed and was ruined. I struggled not to freak out about the logistical and financial implications of that.
This hotel had already been challenging. When I checked in yesterday evening, they had given me an upstairs room, despite my request for a ground-floor one since those are much easier to get in and out of with my rig. The front desk clerk said that was because they were completely booked.
But when I began lugging my things upstairs—and down a long corridor—and opened the door, I found that the beds were all rumpled. The room had not been cleaned and prepared for me.
Oof.
Not surprisingly, it flustered the clerk when I told him that, and I could see that he was already in the middle of handling an ugly domestic-violence situation, involving a homeless mother and daughter and the mother’s violent boyfriend who was being asked to leave.
Oof.
I waited while he handled that situation. Then he gave me someone else’s (ground-floor) room.
I said, “Oh… wow, is that the only option? That’s going to be terrible for them. I can go out to dinner for an hour or two, if I can leave my things in the original room while someone cleans it.”
He shook his head.
“There’s no one here to clean it. I’m the only one here tonight. This is the only option. And yeah, those people who booked your new room are going to be… very upset.” I could see the dread on his face about having to call them to inform them of this.
Oof.
But I took the room, and decided that things unfold the way they do, and that perhaps in some way, not getting their room could be a blessing for those folks.
And I think it was, because we ended up being mostly without power for about 18 hours. My food in the fridge warmed up. The light was dim for brushing my teeth. In the morning, I desperately needed to take a shower to wash my greasy hair and scalp, but there was no hot water, and the light was dim in the bathroom. I gritted my teeth and took the cold shower, with the door open to let some daylight in, in case we lost all power while I was in there. With hair as thick as mine, washing it takes some time. And I hate being cold.
Meanwhile, I think something was wrong with the fridge: overnight it began leaking water all over the floor. Fortunately, nothing of mine got wet, and I saw the puddle before I stepped in it.
But… wow, really? This was all a bit of a comedown after the past week of over-the-top amazingness.
It turned out the problem was caused by an original electrical cable (from the hotel’s 1970s construction) literally having eroded into uselessness underground. So the utility company had to send out a truck and crew with a backhoe to dig up the earth and replace the cable.
Power was restored this afternoon.
By that time, I had taken my leave to explore the nearby woods, while continuing to contemplate the nature of life, and my journey forward. It was a nice natural area, tucked away off the busy nearby beltline (although I have never encountered so many mosquitos in my life).
Meanwhile, though, I was making some cool phone connections with friends near and far, one of whom I am now planning to see in Minneapolis later this week! I love how all the magical connections keep falling into place.
In the evening, I did meet up with Penelope again—and a few of her friends—for dinner at a quirky local restaurant called The Weary Traveler Freehouse.
Tomorrow, I begin my journey to Minneapolis, which includes a 26-mile bike ride from the hotel to the Amtrak station in Columbus, Wisconsin, and then the Empire Builder train to St. Paul!
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Wow. I’m still integrating everything from the past week. To that end, it was helpful to stay by myself in a hotel last night (although unfortunately it wasn’t restful at all, with people making noise in the hallway from around 4:00 pm when Kenneth dropped me off until well after 3 am; oof!!)
I’m now in a calmer hotel for tonight and tomorrow. This one is a bit north of town, so that should make it easier to bike the 26 miles north to Columbus (Wisconsin) the day after tomorrow, to catch the train to Minneapolis.
That place last night, though, was nicely situated near the University of Wisconsin Arboretum. I was in the mood for tree magic (always!) and during my time there I got even more than I bargained for.
The bike ride over was beautiful, much of it on one of Madison’s many dedicated bike trails.
When I arrived, I rode the winding road through the arboretum and enjoyed the leafy shade and views of trees on either side. At one point, I pulled over and took a short hike. It was incredible. I saw wild turkeys, just hanging out! Also beautiful trees, beautiful fungi, and beautiful light and shade patterns.
At one point I was inspired to take a selfie with the sunlight beaming behind me; the image perfectly encapsulated how I’m feeling at this point in my journey. I see myself moving forward from this energy, through the rest of my life.
When I did emerge from the shade and head up north to my new hotel, I saw more beautiful sunny scenery, and some peaches, and someone enjoying a Little Free Library in real time! And then another adorable one later. (As I said, they are dotted all over Madison.)
Tomorrow, I hope to meet up with some special friends, on my last full day here in Wisconsin. I also have a Zoom planned with friends on Vancouver Island. And, I noticed there is a “woods” on the map near the hotel here, so if I get the chance, I will also visit there!
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My time here in Madison so far has been profoundly powerful. Spiritually transformative. This time will launch me into the next chapter of my journey—the “loop” of which will come full circle in Portland in less than a month—and forward into the rest of my life.
I’ve barely seen the city. (I’m sure it’s lovely. I’ll visit again sometime.)
Mostly, I’ve spent the past six days at Kenneth’s sanctuary, surrounded by art, trees, bountiful garden space, wonderful home-cooked meals, and nourishing, healing, and inspiring connection.
I also got out one day, to meet in person a magical woman (dare I say a goddess?) named Penelope, whom I’ve known for a couple of years, but only on Facebook. It was wonderful to connect in person. She and I are planning to see each other again before I leave town for Minneapolis on the 23rd.
It’s hard to put into words how wonderful and meaningful this time has been, so I won’t attempt to do so.
But I’m so glad to have spent this time with Kenneth, and I look forward to sharing my future adventures with him, and hearing about his as well. (He’s dreaming up an epic bike—and maybe also train!—journey around the US also.)
All I can say is, magic is real, and I am deeply inspired to step into living more and more from it as I move forward. Thank you all for following my journey. I’m excited to share with you whatever wonder may unfold in the coming months.
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Do you have your own dream or project, and would like some support or collaborative brainstorming about it? Use the green “contact” button above to schedule a free one-hour phone or video call with me!
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Sorry I’ve been missing for a couple days. I’ve been having such a lovely time here in Madison, Wisconsin with my wonderful host, Kenneth, in his artist’s sanctuary home and garden! I’ll be here a few more days, and posts might be a bit sparse, because it’s so delightful to just sit and relax in the garden rather than pack in lots of activity and sightseeing.
But I do want to check in and give an update:
I departed Chicago two days ago, on a bus since there is no train to Madison. Before I caught the bus, I pedaled from the hotel about 40 minutes to the famed vegan bakery Pie, Pie My Darling, after my friend Gill had raved about their wares.
But I was stymied! When I arrived at the address, I discovered that the storefront had closed; the business is only open for special orders now, by appointment. What a bummer! But HappyCow had told me there were a few other vegan bakeries nearby, so I decided to try the Upton’s Naturals Factory Store, where they sell their packaged vegan products, but also fresh-baked treats such as doughnuts.
I bought a sausage roll, and was delighted to find that it was a very near facsimile of the meat sausage rolls my sister and I ate as children in a classic bakery in Courtenay, British Columbia, on Vancouver Island, where our grandparents lived.
I also got a chocolate item that looked like a whoopie pie, but turned out to be hands-down the messiest dessert I have ever consumed. Luckily, I carry napkins with me, and also they had a restroom on site.
The bus ride was uneventful, but with beautiful green fields outside the window all along the way.
Kenneth met me at the park-and-ride lot where the bus dropped me off, and biked me the four miles back to his place. Upon arrival, I took in the amazing beauty of his yard and the artist’s studio he had built from the ground up for himself. It doubles as a guesthouse, so these are my blissful quarters while I am here.
Yesterday, he gave me a short bike tour of downtown Madison—mostly the isthmus between the two large lakes, where the state capitol, University of Wisconsin campus, and many popular shops and eateries are situated. It was a lovely downtown, and I look forward to returning to sample some restaurants.
We ended our tour by stopping at the co-op, where I spotted yet another Little Free Library. I actually saw them dotting our entire route; Rick Brooks lived in Madison for many years before moving to Princeton.
It feels lovely to have a restful sanctuary in a wonderful city, with a wonderful host (a friend of a friend of my former Portland almost-next-door neighbor in my condo complex! David, if you’re reading this, thanks again for the connection.) I’m looking forward to the next few days.
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Do you have your own dream or project, and would like some support or collaborative brainstorming about it? Use the green “contact” button above to schedule a free one-hour phone or video call with me!
Want to be notified of future blog posts? Use the green “sign up” button to subscribe!
Want to support my vision financially? I am in the process of manifesting $50,000 in lieu of a “salary” for the year of this journey. You can make a one-time or monthly contribution, or even become a Fairy Godfunder! (Heartfelt thanks to all my patrons and supporters!)
I’m back in Chicago for one more night—staying in a hotel for the ease and solitude of it—but I spent the morning in Princeton, and experienced even more of that town’s magic.
After breakfast this morning, Sarah took me to the farmers market in town. She knew several people there, and introduced me to a couple of them, while having brief chats with a few others. One such woman I noticed—but their conversation was too brief for an introduction—was wearing a distinctive T-shirt with an image of a caterpillar in the shape of a question mark, with a cocoon as the dot on the bottom. I was intrigued.
Sarah picked up a few items at the market, and we returned to the house. I met her two sisters, who were arriving in town to attend an annual family event.
Shortly afterward, Rick gave me a ride back into town on his way to a memorial service. It was about an hour early for me to arrive at the train station, so I asked him instead to drop me off at Spoons, a beloved local restaurant that Happycow.net had told me had good vegan options. (In fact, it was the only vegan-friendly restaurant listed for Princeton on Happycow.) Sadly, Rick had told me the other day that the restaurant will be closing at the end of the year. I was glad to be able to experience it for lunch today.
I stood outside the door of the café for a few minutes, pondering how best to handle my rig: lock up the bike? Fold it and take it inside? What about the trailer? Maybe I could just leave it outside while I ordered, then sit at an outdoor table? The weather was pleasant…
As I stood pondering, I noticed that woman in the caterpillar shirt approaching on the sidewalk. As she was about to pass, I felt moved to say, “Hey, I saw you at the farmers market!” She smiled and we introduced ourselves. Her name was Ellen, and we got to talking about my journey. I told her I had been staying with Rick and Sarah Brooks, and I was now about to have my final meal in Princeton. She suggested that we eat together!
It worked out great, because the delicious yellow curry bowl was substantial enough to feed us both, and she was kind enough to treat me to it.
We sat down and talked animatedly for nearly the whole hour, and as she talked about her passion and mission to make Princeton the national capital of pollinator habitat, it dawned on me that this was the friend Rick had mentioned the other day as he toured me around town! He had said he had a friend who had built a number of pollinator gardens around town, and had collaborated with him on some of his projects.
How cool to serendipitously meet her like this! (She even shared a photo with me of her pollinator-friendly house and front yard; take a look.)
As we dined, a couple pulled up to the café on their bikes, and seated themselves at the adjoining outdoor table. Overhearing our conversation, they politely interrupted to ask Ellen about her work, because they own and operate a nearby 65-acre nature camp, Glenhagen Farm Retreat, for disadvantaged urban youth. They had been wanting the camp’s property to be as eco-friendly as possible, including adding native plants to maximize pollinator habitat.
Wow.
It was nearly time for me to depart, so after exchanging contact information, I demonstrated the foldability of my rig for them all. We said goodbye as I pedaled off to the train station.
Ellen is the kind of person—like Rick, and like the camp couple, Nancy and Andy—whom I love to connect with on my journey. I love it when I meet inspiring people who are passionate about their projects to make the world a better place. I like to spread the word about them whenever possible, so here are some links to Ellen’s work, and Glenhagen Farm Retreat; please take a look!
I smiled all the way to the station. And when I arrived, whom should I spot on the platform but Rick! As you may recall, he has an office right in the train station. We chatted for a few minutes before the train arrived, and I snapped a final photo of him shortly before the train pulled in. (He also took a photo of me, as I prepared to board with my bike, saying he’d like to submit it to the Amtrak magazine. How cool would that be?)
Thus, my time in the magical land of Princeton, Illinois had drawn to a perfect close. If you ever find yourself in the area and in need some inspiration, definitely stop by Princeton and have a chat with Rick, Sarah, Ellen, Nancy and Andy, or probably just about anyone else you might meet; they are all pretty interesting!
The train pulled into Chicago’s Union Station right on time, about two hours later.
I biked down to check into my hotel in Chinatown, crossing a cool industrial-scenic bridge on the way.
After a couple hours of unwinding, I headed out on foot to meet up with my Chicago friends Patricia and Dan for dinner at Veggie House. I had hoped to see them while I was in town, but it was tricky, because during my two earlier stints in Chicago a week or two ago, they were enjoying a wonderful vacation throughout Scandinavia. I loved seeing their Facebook pictures of late-night light in the sky and lots of natural and urban beauty in multiple countries. I was glad that this timing worked out to meet up.
We had a great conversation and shared some wonderful vegan Chinese food. (The eggplant dish will also be my breakfast tomorrow!)
After dinner, we spotted a unique human-powered ride! I needed to memorialize it on camera.
It’s so much fun to connect with friends old and new as I travel. Tomorrow, I will board a bus to Madison (my first time, and I’m so excited to finally visit this fabled wonderland of a city!) and meet another great friend whom I’ve not yet met in person, and who will be hosting me in his backyard art studio. During my time in Madison, I also hope to meet another dear Facebook-only-so-far friend. (I’m thinking/trusting it will work out!)
The Midwestern portion of my journey has been wonderful so far. I’m looking forward to continuing it tomorrow!
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Do you have your own dream or project, and would like some support or collaborative brainstorming about it? Use the green “contact” button above to schedule a free one-hour phone or video call with me!
Want to be notified of future blog posts? Use the green “sign up” button to subscribe!
Want to support my vision financially? I am in the process of manifesting $50,000 in lieu of a “salary” for the year of this journey. You can make a one-time or monthly contribution, or even become a Fairy Godfunder! (Heartfelt thanks to all my patrons and supporters!)
