Post-Yellowstone and Four Hours and Two Cups later

I uploaded pictures.

I have also uploaded a singular video.

Do what you will. 

I'm out of Yellowstone now. I took a very long detour through the northeast entrance (My destination is Northwest) to take the Beartooth Highway as it was highly recommended by a stranger. 200+ miles later I had driven the most ineffably beautiful stretch of road I have ever driven. Pictures exist up yonder. I can't even explain it. Pictures barely help the majesty of it. I do have videos but they are incoherent due to the wonder's effect on my feeble mind. 

So then I got a victory pizza (sans fungi) and drove all the way to where I was supposed to be after having left Yellowstone's north entrance - Bozeman, Montana. There is the highest concentration of beautiful women here that I've ever seen. It could just be that I've only seen buffalo recently (no offence Bison bison) but it must be statistically significant and warrants further study in the name of science and mankind. 

I get to stock up on more vittles, map out the next shower and overnight stays (there are so many up here though) and start heading to Flathead Lake, then Jasper Ice Fields, then back down to Glacier to meet my kin. I have good time so that's quite nice. I'm going to go make sure it is spent well. It is an unruly toddler and sometimes gets itself into situations where it dwindles and dies without my own efforts. 

I finished one song I'd been writing (trying) for 6+ months. And it is the funniest song I've ever written while still being completely musical and enjoyable and non-caustic and consistent. Learned a mental trick that might help in future blocks. In the process I completely wrote a second immediately afterwards. Within Yellowstone I also wrote three more complete songs. I just need to practice them like a furious musical beast and I'll have seven completely diverse representative songs of my own to speak for that I am actually proud of, since leaving. Do you even know how critical of myself I am?

That's a trick question you have no fucking idea and you would upset me if you even tried to answer that. This is success. My brain can breathe again and it hasn't taken breaths this deep since ever. I've never been this completely happy, for so many reasons. The summary being how much of myself I own control and direct directly contributes to how creative I am (Duh?) and happy I am (being both a product and ingredient to creativity). A Positive Cycle. 

I'm going to tell you something I tell myself in the event it helps you, as much as it helped me: You (I am) are dumb. Stop trying to influence/control/explain away the vista and let your humbled mind and decisions find your place within it naturally. This lets you a) actually enjoy what you see without feeling any pressure to influence it or direct it (a fear of the unknown?) b) makes you so much more enjoyable to be around, and c) shows you things you could never have imagined yourself (for me - this is aka inspiration). What do you want more: To surround yourself entirely with things you can control and understand, or be permeated by a world that is completely inundated with a beauty that you could not have imagined/crafted yourself? Depends what you want - beauty or stagnation, restraint. Responsibility to lead everything you have taken to attempt control. The need to be right and need to be most correct stops you from experiencing beauty and freedom. This need punches holes in the scenery and makes you believe you know how to patch it up better.

But we don't. Let it be and be with it humbly, you are small and dumb and It is Good because therefore, life is always new. You can learn more. Let it come to you and enjoy it as it does, for you didn't force it to. Carry on, sweet chariots.

Owl Toast and Bear Jam

Supalumphagus. I splurged and bought an hour - wait, two - of wifi and a cup of coffee at the Canyon Lounge. I need to show you some videos. But because this is only a third medal in a race grade of Wifi I won't be able to upload any pictures at the moment without cannibalizing. Unless I purchase the rights to more internet. Net neutrality is already lost here.

Please see as follows:

Somebody is Missing Their Dog

Grebe Lake (Note: Internet is by the hour here; this video took 66 minutes to upload. Accepting donations)

This Hill Became Occupied

I do not particularly like lakes but they appear to produce good videos when shot in their proximity. Such is life. Maybe you have a good experience with a lake in your life too. Please tell me when I return.

While I'm waiting for the day to warm up and the food I just obliterated (You said all you can eat, dudes, you can't stop me now) to settle down I will tell you what I saw today. Right here. In Yellowstone. In the next sentence. I saw: as I woke up early and drove to my next campsite to establish a place to sleep before I climb that mountain on my radar (Mt. Washburn): A mother and cub grizzly breakfasting on a carcass, two grey wolves watching this from a distance, and then further from the mess multiple coyotes yapping about it like those awful children at the last campsite. I have no good pictures because I saw all this through a strangers scope. And then I saw five bison, and then seven pelicans. Yup. Doing bison and pelican things, you bet. Good call.

This was within one and a half hours of waking. I do like Jiellosthone. Yesterday I spent all day at Mary Bay making music and enjoying both lake waves and waves of rain and sunshine. Today I will climb a mountain. Tomorrow I will wake up and see what I feel like because we write our own lives.

I should shave my face now. Peace.

Ground Control to Ranger Tom

I cant upload any videos or picture on the gerbil wheel wifi but I'm quite alive and now abiding in Yellowstone, as of Friday. I'll be here for another 7 days and then head north for motherland Canada. Yes. So much to do. So Yellow. So Stone. So far I've seen otters, bison, pronghorns, bats, ravens, eagles, osprey, a brown bear, and lots of things on two legs wearing clothes that nobody has been able to give me a straight answer about. Probably a Montana/Wyoming cult secret. Many cool bugs.

That's cool.

This is the coolest thing I've ever done.

The Grand Tetons (French for The Grand Tits) were ineffable, though Tits does give you the general shape of the peaks. For such a small space (relative to Yellowstone) there was so much to do and see, people to meet, information to sponge. I forget how many days I spent there. No wait, four and a half. I climbed to 9,600 feet and played at the open mic night at the Hootananny to warm folks and reception. Jackson Hole was great though someone needs to slap their barbecue up a bit, it lacks and I truly mean that Bubba's. You need to put love into that pork. And then kill it and put it on a bun.

But if you ever go to Jackson Hole GO TO THE BIRD. Its a restaurant, best burgers of my life. Locals pointed me to a free campsite atop the elk refuge's hills overlooking the Tetons, I also slept in the Great Tit's own land and was legitimately moved by the incredible beauty that is an entire ecosystem, breathing and exhaling, tearing the sky up abruptly. Silent and magnanimous. Pictures help considerably more, but still can't even capture the feeling. You can't help but relax into the place. Divine primal natural experience. I saw a bear there. It was eating berries and was entirely unremarkable. I took a picture of the berries it was eating however the bear is not visible so perhaps I am lying, though I am not. Melanie and Marion were an awesome turn of events and I'm fortunate to have met you. Thank you for the bread. Go destroy San Francisco.

Now in Yellowstone, I have since spent an entire day walking Old Faithful and Friends. It is getting lazy and only generally predictable. Perhaps a modernized, fitting re-christening would be "Maybe Sprays Then." The sheer number of thermal sites here (mud pots, geysers, springs, etc) is large. Most concentrated location in the world. So many pictures. I can't wait to upload them, only pictures can do those hot tamales justice. I can easily fill up another 7 days with what I have yet to have seen. SO WE KEEP MOVING. (Not my video, seriously, I can't upload anything)

You are probably immune to this but you get from life what you put out into it. Your thought patterns and expectations color and form what you perceive as having received. This is not hippie magic. This is the nature of human consciousness. Enjoy yourselves because until you do nobody else can.
Mmmm, our challenges. They are held like fire but can quench thirst like water.

The music never stopped. Far from it. Get in the box.

Come In Dump Gull; Expect Radio Silence

I'm in Idaho Falls, one of the last civilized outlets before I hit Grand Teton National Park and Yellowstone, etc, moving north. Gonna spend a day here finalizing and preparing and then i'll head out early tomorrow morning. I am expecting there to be very limited internet and cell phone access while I'm in the heart of the parks so I'm not sure when i'll be able to post/update/upload the next videos and whatnot.

Speaking of which enjoy my latest video, where I say things about bears. I explore alternative spoken language methods and break the hearts of a few chipmunks. There is also a haughty stream.
If you click on the following word enantiodromia you may or may not find a new album of pictures as well.

What would exist if everything you think about yourself is proven wrong? What remains in the space between thoughts, when they do not take place? What is there by default?
What you actually are.
Stop.

And You resume.

I'm going to be gone for awhile, resuming. I'll update this when I am able to, but in the interim. I will be doing one of the many things I came to do. No worries, I will return and I will be satisfied.

Peace. Really.
Back to you.

Cinnemon Tost Cranch

Song of The Journey- Not mine. But have some electronic passion. Speaking of electronic passion, have a Bonobo - Days to Come.

I'm in Denver. I'm going to spend a day and a night here (because I booked a ghost tour at the Stanley Hotel can I get a Boo Baby) and get a feel for the city and then keep moving. Craters of the Lake, Grand Tetons, Yellowstone, Mammoth Hot Springs, Flathead Lake, Glacier National Park. Going to aim to see them all, but realistically I won't and will opt to spend some more time in a few and none in others. I'm certainly still aiming to do the Deluxe Ice Walk in Canada.. check that out. 

On that note I'm skipping Salt Lake City completely. I've been looking at what the place offers and its a lot of things I care nothing for, so scratching that off my map. Plus the distance from Denver to SLC then to the Tetons is 4 hours longer than Denver to the Tetons. That's a day when it comes down to travel and accommodations. I mean Walmart.

Today I'm going to outline what I'm doing in the next month as best I can, mentally, musically and physically. I mean, attempt to. Didn't expect to hit Colorado Springs in the first place but I spent 3 solid days there and I will be back with good company some day. What a beautiful place.

Yo, its lonely. Not soul-crunching lonely but I would love to be able to spend time enjoying everything I've seen with someone else. Its one thing to have your own memories and be able to look back in your head and say I Did That Myself but something about doing it with someone you share a common denominator with makes it so much more real. I've already met some really, really cool people even just in passing that have made it so. I don't think i'd change anything still, as this is still a good balance between comfort and growth, but I do think about ya'll. I'm glad CRS talked me into this blog so there's a connection. Take care all.

And have a video of me jamming with a song I'm working on. Deericious. The deer was there for about 30 minutes grazing around while I practiced. Animals can see why kids love cinneman tost cranch.

Colorado Springs So Far

Colorado Springs is awesome. I'll leave tomorrow. Manitou Springs (right besides Colo Sprgs) has eight natural springs that have different quantities of minerals and all taste different, each being used to treat a different set of ailments/disease over the past 200 years. They work actually, being rich in anything from lithium to iron to calcium. A cool woman gave me some solid local advise and bought me a drink/sandwich for driving her off the top of Pikes Peak. My car handled that sucker like a champ. Some people were told they couldn't drive further down the mountain for 40 minutes to let their brakes cool off.. the CarV just gets shifted into 4 low-low and goes slowly. I drive a beast.

Then today I locked my keys in my car. Triple A'd them back into my possession for free. Sorry everybody else on the policy, the next lock-in's $50. I also went on the Incline - really just a trainwreck of railroad ties and ridiculous grades up the side of a mountain that people train on/succumb to. Turns out i'm reasonably fit and I only had to take 4 breaks; The consensual suffering on that trail was heavy. Then I spoke with some dude who was on his 8th ascent/descent that day. I'm glad I did it, the trail is closing August 17th or so, indefinitely, for repair. It seriously looks like there was a horrible train derailment and explosion then an immediate ceremony to make it a hiking trail.

Tomorrow I hit a goldmine (literally) and then I'll drive up to Denver. The goldmine goes 1000 feet under the surface and you get to see gold veins in their natural state.

Uploading a few videos because I found an awesome Starbucks with Google Fiber. I will actually catch up to current today. Two from the top of Pike's Peak, including one of my songs as it stands, and one from the Garden of the Gods. Pax.

The View from Pike's Peak

Atlas

Garden of the Gods (1 of 2 - 2 exists but I won't link it, it is only to show the namesake rocks)

Sand

Bienvenido - I'm sitting in an authentic Thai joint just south of Bueno Vista, CO as I write this one. Best Pad Thai I have ever masticated. I told the nice lady as much and then she told me the wifi password. Well played.

Video - Enjoy this short drive with me through Colorado while I wait for the whole set of Sand Dune videos to upload. In this movie we discuss how to make the perfect croissants and what living in the Cretacious period (remember modern indoor plumbing wasn't introduced until 1829) must have been like for pachycephalosauri. Be prepared to hear a lot of wind and half-sentences. Let's talk about those dunes.

Dunes. The Chicken of the Sahara. You can’t really get an idea of their size until you’re on top of them. I spent a day walking on top of the dunes, making music on the side of the stream, then sheltering in my caRV while the sky rolled a slow and punchy rainstorm over our heads for an hour. Sand in the everywhere. I successfully cooked eggs on my camp stove, trial ran the whole bear-storage thing (no problems as they provided bear boxes though my bear sense never tingled) and took those pictures. We had deer stroll through the campsite like they owned the place. Deer. 

I have since hit Colorado Springs and have found I really, really like the town. But only for its natural beauty. But it has all amenities and a place called Larkburger which makes a fine Truffle Burger. I'm going to stay a few days and enjoy/plan. Just not at the Walmart I was at last night because at one point I had a train, leaf blower (at four in the morning) and a car horn going off at the same time. Made me pop in my ear plugs, they did.

I went to Garden of the Gods early this morning and took the pictures you saw in the Dunes album (Here). As you may have guessed, I'm no longer in that Authentic Thai Joint. I'm going to find a proper spot on some rocks and upload one of my own songs next. First I'll upload the Garden's videos. Everything is backlogged, it takes thirty minutes to upload four. It'll get there.

Pax.