Last week Amanda and I drove to the Oregon Coast and stayed in Yachats, Oregon. Sitting on the beach that night I asked Amanda to marry me. She said Yes! So now we are embarking on our engagement honeymoon. In about an hour we will leave on a three week roadtrip. The van is all packed and ready to go and we are washing out our last batch of tie dye right now. We are excited and happy as can be.
Next week my wonderful girlfriend Amanda will arrive in Oregon to visit me for the summer. The week of July 10th we are going to take off on a road trip in my van. We are planning to heading to Glacier National Park in Montana, then cruise along Highway 2 until we arrive in Grand Forks, North Dakota. Pete will be there along with lots of my other friends for the “Pi Kappa Phi Fix the House Weekend.”
After a weekend of partying and a bit of painting or something we are going to head to Detroit Lakes, Minnesota for the 10,000 Lakes Music Festival where Amanda and I are going to have a Tie Dye booth in the campground. After four days of selling and trying to become thousandaires we are planning on heading to Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming of course seeing Mt Rushmore and the Devils Tower along the way. While visiting Yellowstone my brother Lars and his girlfriend Kristen are going to join us midweek for some camping then we are all going to head to Billings, Montana for the motorcycle hill climb that Lars is going to compete in. After that we are going to convoy back home with Lars, ending three weeks on the road.
But those are just the plans. And plans can always change……
Well Amanda came to Europe and joined my travels. We stayed in Amsterdam a few days then headed to Brussels, Belgium for a night then spent the week in Paris, France. After that we went to Koln, Germany then to Krefield, Germany where my ancestors on my mom’s side of the family came from back in 1680. Then back to Amsterdam for a day of relaxing before we had to part ways and each head home.
Yeah, this is not too descriptive, I know. But I kind of got sick of Europe towards the end of my trip. I guess I was thinking “Is this it?” Sure it was great being there and I had fun, but it makes me realize that Northern Europe is not a magical land of fun. It’s just like anywhere. Fun can be had wherever I am because I am me. But really it’s just like America. A bunch of big smelly dirty cities with a bunch of scumbags and immigrants all over.
I’ll take a cabin in the Oregon woods anyday.
Viva la Revolution!
On Wednesday, April 26th I headed off to Europe. I flew into Amsterdam and arrived the next afternoon. I stayed at a popular party hostel downtown and had a pretty good time for a few days, but soon was ready to start traveling towards Sweden. So I caught the train to Copenhagen, Denmark and stayed there for a day. I visited the hippy neighborhood of Christiana and was there just in time to take part in a Peace Parade for May Day.
On Tuesday, May 2nd I took the train to Stockholm, Sweden. I visited my friend Anders (who I traveled with in Australia) for a few hours then took the night train north to visit Peteä, Sweden. Petiä is the town where my great-grandparents lived 100 years ago. So after a train ride and a bus trip I was there. It looked kind of like Oregon, lots of nice trees and hills and nice scenery.
There are some Swedish relatives who visited Portland when I was 12 years old who live in Petiä. So I gave them a call and they gave me the grand tour and fed me lots of Swedish food until I was full. I got to eat pault, reindeer and moose. They showed me all of the old buildings of Petiä and a house that my great grandmother Ida grew up.
I was there for a day and then took the night train back to Stockholm. I arrived on Friday afternoon and spent the day sightseeing from the water, on a boat tour. Then I met up with Anders again and we have been partying it up this weekend and having lots of fun.
Tonight I am leaving for about 20 hours of train riding to take me back to Amsterdam so that I can pick up Amanda when she arrives on Thursday.
So Friday night I was driving my van up to the liquor store a few blocks from my home to get some supplies for my brother Lars’ 21st birthday. I have my headlights on. I have my seatbelt on. I’m cruising along Washington Street heading east. It’s a one way road with four lanes. Traffic heading west is separated by a block of restaurants and businesses in between. I had a green light so I was ticking along at 35 MPH. So I’m there driving, I just passed 100th, going to turn left onto 102nd.
CAR!!!! HEAD ON!!!!! There was this small green car right in front of me. It turned out of the Hooters parking lot and turned right when it should have turned left. Even if it had turned left it would have been bad. But it turned right. Directly into me.
I don’t know what the car looked like. Who the people were. I didn’t have time to step on the brakes. To look in my mirrors. I didn’t think. My brain was not involved in my actions. I cranked the steering well hard right and swung around the car, missing it by mere centimeters. I was fully into the next lane of traffic, maybe even the one next to that too. Luckily there were no vehicles next to me.
There was no contact. I dodged the car. What the hell just happened??? I pulled over my van into a parking lot that was right there. I jumped out and ran to the street. I saw the car speed past me. It had corrected it’s course but was not going to pull over. So I ran back to my van while screaming a few choice words and giving the car the bird. I tore out of the parking lot and down the street after the car that had almost cost me my life. They were going fast and turned down a side street. I made the turn but they were a few cars ahead of me. There was a light up ahead and by the time I got there the light was red and there were cars in front of me. I saw the small green car drive around the bend ahead of me. And that was the last I saw of it.
I don’t know what I would have done if I had caught up to them. Maybe it’s better they got away. What do you think they thought though? They were low to the ground in their little tiny car. They make the turn out of the parking lot and there is a huge white van racing towards them with Che Guevara staring them down from the hood.
Viva la Revolution!
Well I finally bought an airline ticket to Europe. I leave Oregon on April 26th and fly into Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Amanda is going to join me after she is done with school in May and we will both leave on May 23rd. So stay tuned for tales of excitement and adventure in Europe!
I visited Las Vegas last week. I had mixed ideas going in what to expect. I have heard some family members and friends tell of how much fun they had there and how nice it was and others who thought it was dreadful. I must say I expected it to be pretty dreadful, but not only was it that, it was boring as well. And not just boring, a kind of special stale fake boring that was really just trying to dig its claws into peoples wallets and push them out the door while reminding them what a great experience they had.
Amanda and Erik in Las Vegas, Nevada.
So after one night Amanda and I headed south across Hoover Dam and to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. I had just been there in February with my brother but this time it was a little different. We stayed in the lodge there for two wonderful nights. It was a very nice time to visit because there was fresh snow along the upper walls of the canyons. It was just as cool as it was a month ago. Definitely one of the best places I have ever visited!
I have been making lots of tie dye recently, getting ready to sell-sell-sell this summer and hopefully become a thousandaire.
Peace.
It’s March. I have just been hanging out mostly. Making some tie dye and hemp jewelry. Helping my dad fix up an apartment a little bit. Just being a lazy hippy pretty much. But it is nice. I guess this is what I worked so hard for last fall, right? Yes.
I went to the Grand Canyon a couple weeks ago. I went with my brother in his short bus. It was a great trip. Loads of driving, eating hamburgers and partying in the desert. We went to Nevada for a motorcycle hillclimb that my brother competed in and we figured we were going to be so close to the G.C. in Arizona that we should check it out. It is the coolest thing I have ever seen I think. Awesome views all over the place. I can see for miles and miles and miles and miles……..
I am headed to Las Vegas later this month with beautiful Amanda to attend her friend’s wedding. We are already planning a Grand Canyon trip so we can spend as much time away from Las Vegas as possible during our Las Vegas Vacation.
Peace, Love & Happiness…
(1/30/6)
I started off the New Year with a trip to Buffalo, New York to visit my girlfriend Amanda. I had a great time in New York and especially during our “vacation within a vacation” to Niagara Falls.
I am still conjuring up ideas for a one month trip to Northern Europe. That seems to suit my fancy at this point in planning things. Maybe March or May??
I am going to spend the rest of the winter and the spring making cool things to sell this summer. Hemp jewelry, tie dye bandanas, shirts and random other things, and lots of clay beads and salt & pepper shakers and jars too. Then over the summer travel around and do fun things.
Then in the Fall back to work at the wreath shop. We are all excited about how things went in ’05 and are looking forward to have an even better season this year.
It’s 2006! I’m done with wreath shop until next year. I just returned from a two week vacation visiting my girlfriend Amanda in Buffalo, New York. She taught my how to tie dye. So I am going to start tie dying and sell that along with my hemp jewelry this year. I am thinking of maybe going to Northern Europe later this spring. But who knows? Surely not me.
So things are very well for me now. I’m just relaxing in my home and making cool things.
Peace.