25531 - November update

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Dag,
   Iris (Media, 25531 miles)

25270 - The Bird

The first Thanksgiving meal was celebrated in 1621 when the Pilgrims from the Plymouth Colony thanked god for the first harvest in the New World. Having taught by to Wampanoag tribe how to fish, plant, harvest and hunt the meal was shared with 90 Native Americans. If the later had only known what smallpox was, they should have run away quick and the National day of Mourning held on the same day by Native Americans wouldn’t be needed.

The first president George Washington, more concerned with the independent United States then with the Natives, proclaimed in 1789 to celebrate the first National Thanksgiving Day and President Roosevelt made it a secular federal holiday in 1941, creating the most traditional biggest holiday in the USA.

My best friends M and D, who introduced me to my first wedding shower, my first American bachelorette party, my first American/Jewish Wedding, my first political rally (yes, 3 years ago I have skeptical waved to Obama), my first Halloween party and my first professional American Football game, invite me for my first traditional Thanksgiving.

The day starts off with the preparation of the Bird. The recipe is handed down from Grandma, to Ds mother, to D.

With the Bird in the oven we watch the annually Macy's Thanksgiving Parade in New York. Large balloons, tv personalities on floats and Broadway musical scenes come by.

The table is set, we are dress up, all is ready.

Time for the family to roll in.

And then finally the Bird is facing its last ordeal, being carved by the man in the house and being eaten by the family.

Dinner is served. Traditional Thanksgiving food: Turkey, stuffing, green beans, cranberry sauce, pumpkin casserole, sweet potato pie with pecan and apple pie. Well thats traditional in this family, tofurkey and ham are on the rise in California.

But nothing wrong with traditional turkey with the whole family. Four generations ranging from Opa (95) and Omi (89) until the youngest addition to the family L (3 months).

And what do you do in the evening? You watch American football and lay down on the couch. Growing up with soccer, I don't recollect which team is playing and what the result was...hmmm, that might be because I went to bed....too much food and too much football.

Don't think the next day things are over and back to normal. This is America and people go shopping in the middle of the night for the traditional Black Friday sales. Now Thanksgiving is over, Christmas shopping are the new focus. And on Monday the newest tradition takes off: Cyber Monday, internet Christmas shopping.

Not so much for us though, we keep it real traditional. D makes soup from the turkey carcass.

And we hang outside in the cold.

It indeeds getting cold here, time to go south. But not before doing an old Thanksgiving tradition, saying thanks: M, D and Z, thanks for being my friends. Love you.

Dag,
   Iris (Red Hook, 25270 miles)

24307 - I am a California girl :-(

If you talk in the East about mountains, you talk about the Appalachian Mountains. To experience the whole range you have to walk the Appalachian Trail, 3505 km in 5-7 months from Georgia to Main. Jeh right, not for me. With mM in my foot steps, a friend from the Bay Area with no backcountry experience, 5 days in the rugged White Mountains, notorious for its weather, is more than enough.

When I roll out of the Oto in the morning, mM confronts me with his very unpleasant night in the tent. It was pretty cold indeed and I need first some coffee to deal with this problem. Our route will follow the rim of the Franconia Branch Tributary and will be mostly above 1000 meter with mount Lafayette of 1600 meter as the high point, meaning the temperature will drop about 7-10C compare to last night. On the other hand the weather forecast looks amazing which is very uncommon for this time in the year and it would be stupid not to take advantage of this window. If it really gets to cold, we can always bail down to the road or lower elevations, no reason to panic now.

We start on a flat wide trail and mM is happy that the hike will be easy. Not having any clue what is ahead I warn him: "Enjoy as long as it last!" Quickly the trail starts to climb and for the next couple hours we hike up to Mount Flume, the first peak of the Franconia Ridge. We follow the ridge to Mount Liberty and drop down to the campground for the necessary water straight out of a spring. Not a bad first day but mM is more than toasted, happy however with the clouds to make for a warmer night.

When we wake up wind and fog are in the air and with only 11 km ahead of us we take our time to break up camp. When we finally hit the trail the going goes very slow, too slow and I take over the tent to make some better timing. Back on the ridge the fog encloses us, but we are protected by the trees from the wind which is howling over our heads. The trail follows the ridge and hits all the peaks along, Little Haystack mountain, Mount Lincoln and Mount Lafayette.

The peaks themselves are very exposed and would have an amazing view, was it not for the fog...The wind is Patagonia insane and we barely can walk. Fog is pushed over the ridge with incredible speed and wind catches my overloaded backpack. I stop to regain my balance and make 3 steps. Whooww, I can just hold myself upright on the side of the trail. I wait until the wind dies out and make 3 more steps...whowwww. Its pretty cool and scary at the same time and our speed drops. After struggling for ever with the wind, we finally find the cover of the trees again. I am not so sure anymore about "just 11 km" today.

Only Mount Garfield is ahead of us before we will find the cover of the Garfield Lean-to. The trail goes up and down, rain starts pouring down, the trail converts into a river, the temperature drops and we leave the daylight behind us. With only 1 working headlamp and no spare our speed drops even more and we struggle through the night. My spirit drops to a low point and mM knows what is expected from him now. Keep a positive attitude and focus on the Lean-to ahead of us. We struggle on. My brain keeps raising around, what if this headlamp breaks, what if we won't find the Lean-to or a flat spot for the tent, what if we fall, what if...Water is soaking now trough my shoes, through my jacket, through my gloves and I have to keep moving to stay warm. This is totally pushing it for me, lets not even talk about how mM thinks of hiking now.

Finally after 2 hours of misery we detect the Lean-to in the woods. And what even more, 4 guys who welcome us with some home brewed liquor. When I unpack my backpack I find my underwear and socks floating at the bottom in 2 cm of water and my down jacket is soaking wet. I strip down to my wet long underwear and crawl in my sleeping bag, the only thing I packed in a plastic bag. So much for a California girl who is not used to rain anymore. What happened to the Dutch girl living with rain almost everyday. With all the bears sleeping (we hope) I cook from within my bag and start warming up a little. Thats feels at least Dutch again. Cook in the tent and eat dinner in your sleeping bag.

My eye falls on a -40C big big sleeping bag. mM you are on your own, because who ever the guy is, he is going to be my cuddle body for the night. With another stranger on the other side, I have a warm long night of sleep.

With everything soaked we take a day off, to dry things by wearing them. I spend most of the day in my sleeping bag cooking, tea, coffee, soup and popcorn. mM is full over energy and dries the toilet paper, gets water and keeps flipping our clothes. Thanks.

After another good warm night of sleep we continue the trail and up and down it goes again. The weather has cleared up and the temperatures are dropping again.

The fog has condensed on the trees around us and its quite and beautiful. It feels that the landscape is waiting for the snow to come. We don't see or hear a single animal, not even a bird the whole day. Snow can be falling on these mountains year around. With no snow in the forecast our worry is more that the rocky trail will be iced over. But the trail stays dry and clean of ice and its becomes an easy day.

The trail climbs up again and drops down through the forest. Even with good weather hiking in the East is not really my thing. All the views are kept hiding behind thick forest and trees are just not really my thing, they can be so boring.

After another night in a Lean-to we finally get on our last day our rewards. The view from the top of Mount Bond, now we are talking. We can see the whole Franconia ridge in front of us and all the peaks we have concurred. With winds of over 100 km/hr on Mount Washington, the high peak nearby, there is no time to sit around and look on this peak either. We make pictures stabilize ourselves and hang in the wind for the last ridge to the downhill back to the Oto.

With a drive through the Catskills and a climbing day in the Gunks, city boy mM finally gives in. Screw that camping, we stay in hotels from now on. I can't blame him, because the White mountains, jeh that was a little bit more epic then I had in mind.

Dag,
   Iris (Lincoln, 24307 miles)

23961 - Hieperdepiep

It all started March 2004, about 50 miles from here in Lake Peekskill, NY in a little cabin in the woods, our settled life in the USA.

After a year we moved to the Bay Area, CA and I continued the big struggle for a working permit. In the meantime I started climbing, I made new friends and learned about the American life. And finally finally I got a cool job and a Green Card and life was good. All this was suppose to end today, November 10, 2009, the day we would start biking across the USA for a year to see what we had missed between NY and CA. Instead I lost a love, lost a job, and I left alone March 1, 2009 on this big adventure.

It feels that all I have experienced, every single minute I have loved on this trip, has been extra. The real trip only starts today! All these great people I met, all these new friends I made, are extra. But every single one of them made this trip incredible.

Some of them I met again, some of them stayed with me for a while, some where just picked up along the road for the ride, but in the end they all left, except for one. The one who protects me against the outside world, faithfully always waits for me, brings me where ever I want to go, carries what ever I need: the Oto!

My little brother O bought him for me as my knowledge about cars and my interest in them is non existing. Most of my friends will confirm this, I do practically not know anything about cars. I am totally confused that I have to be careful with the car of M (Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution) and not with the car of J (Toyota Corolla). As far as it concerns me, they are both white. What I do know about the Oto is thats its a "he" (of course), and that he is named (thats what you do on a road trip) as a reminder of the good life I had.

Together we did the West Coast all the way up to Alaska, and we crossed the country from the Pacific to the Atlantic along the northern border.

Together we spend many nights in the parking lot of the Wal*Mart (its allowed to camp there), hide away places along the road, or on real free campsites. Together we got our first official warning for illegal camping on the beach in Cape Cod.

Together we looked for a good spot to make some coffee or food from the back of him, along the road.

Together we can handle this trip. I hope he is going to stay with me for another year, because the trip only starts today, November 10, 2009. The East coast, the South and so many unknown experiences are still ahead of us. And why today...because today: Hieperdepiep Hoera!!!

Dag,
Iris (Red Hook, 23961 miles)

23961 - New York, New York

Its just impossible not having a good time in New York. Especially when I am meeting my friend M, with a hotel in Midtown, and his sister A, with a To-Do list. And there we go for a weekend New York.

Guggenheim museum for the Kandinsky exhibition.

The High Line near the Greenwich district.

Views over the Hudson and modern architect.

The famous New York Moma museum.

And of course you have to walk walk walk in New York. Times Square, Empire State Building and the Flatiron Building.

Ground Zero, Wall street and Statue of Liberty.

I love love love New York, and thanks for having me around.

Dag,
   Iris (New York, 23961 miles)

23510 - Boston, cradle of liberty

Christopher Columbus started this New World thing in 1492 by discovering several Caribbean islands, quickly followed by Juan Ponce de Leon, who landed on mainland and called it Florida in 1513. Spanish settlers followed to occupy the South West and the French established themselves along the Great Lakes.

It took the British until 1607 to establish Jamestown, Virginia and the English Mary Chilton took even longer. In seeking religious freedom her parents first moved to the Netherlands with the other Pilgrims before they boarded the Mayflower heading for the area now know as New England. When Mary jumped ashore she became the first woman settler of the Plymouth Colony, Massachusetts in 1620.

This opened the doors for the Puritan John Winthrop who arrived in 1630 to create a pure community of Christians and created his “City on the Hill”, Boston. The society educated in Oxford or Cambridge soon founded Harvard College in 1636, consistent with the prevailing Puritan philosophy and continued building on the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

More British settlers crossed the Atlantics and by 1733 twenty English colonies were established along the East coast of the New World. Thirteen of them: Province of New Hampshire, Province of Massachusetts Bay, Colony of Rhode Island, Connecticut Colony, Province of New York, Province of New Jersey, Province of Pennsylvania, Delaware Colony, Province of Maryland, Colony and Dominion of Virginia, Province of North Carolina, Province of South Caroline and Province of Georgia became known as the Thirteen Colonies.

In an attempt to exert control over the Thirteen Colonies, the British Parliament enforced the Townshend Acts, a law to keep judges and governors under the British Government and to be able to tax the colonies for the purpose of raising revenue. With the slogan “No taxation without representation” (the lack of direct representation of the colonists in the British Parliament, an illegal denial of the rights of the Englishmen, making laws and tax applying only to the colonies unconstitutional) the Boston colonists started protesting which escalated into the Boston Massacre in 1770 where 5 civilians were killed.

Another result of the Townshend acts was a heavy tax on tea accompanied with laws beneficial for the British. Tea got taxed, tea got less taxed to compete with the Dutch smuggled tea, the British East India Company was not allowed to export tea to the colonies directly, the East India Company was allowed and could create a monopoly, all leading to more uproar. When the vessel, the Dartmouth, arrived in 1773 full of tax-tea in the Boston Harbor, Samuel Adams called for a mass meeting, which thousands of people attended. And when you start messing with the Englishman and his tea things get quickly out of control. Instead of paying the tax, a group of 30 men left the meeting and boarded the vessel and dumped the cargo into the water, the Boston Tea Party.

The colonial Militia grew stronger and each colony formed its own Provincial Congress and rejected the Parliament. In 1774 a delegate from each colony gathered in the First Continental Congress to coordinate a protest, the boycott of all British goods. That was enough for the British to send out an order to disarm the rebels in Concord and capture the rebellion leaders, Samuel Adams and John Hancock in Lexington in 1775.

The rebellions were however well informed about the upcoming events and send out William Dawes and Paul Revere to warn the leaders and colonial militias in nearby towns that the Kings troops were coming. The next day the first bullets were fired in the Battles of Lexington and Concord, marking the start of the American Revolutionary War, between the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Thirteen Colonies.

Being more in numbers the Militia could overthrow the British troops in the Concord battle. The battle spread but the colonist kept fighting back and gathered in the Second Continental Congress in 1776. This time adopting a Declaration of Independence, rejecting the British Monarchy and creating a Continental Army under the command of George Washington.

The war ended with the signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1783 after the British admit their defeat and the independence of the United States was a fact. A United States Constitution was drawn, the first Senate and the House of Representatives were installed and George Washington took office as the first President in 1789.

A civil war, 2 world wars, a cold war, a misleading war against terror, 220 years, millions of immigrants and 44 Presidents later, I walk the Freedom trail together with my friend C in Boston. A trail marked by a red line, through the heart of Boston, along all the historical sides.

The next day we meet L and his cousin P in the subway on the way to the science museum, one of the last immigrants. With knowledge about Optics, Electronics, Brain Neurons and the Higgs boson now in hand, we stroll the whole day through the museum together.

My wonderful weekend in Boston ends with chanting of the Hare Krishna mantra all around me in a small temple where L brings us in the evening. I admit, Eastern cities are way cooler then the big cities in the west (except San Francisco of course), probably because of the more European feel to them. And Boston, Boston is definitely one of them.

Dag,
   Iris (Boston, 23510 miles)