I am deeply grateful to all of you who supported me on my charity bicycle ride, as well as adventures all over the world. The memories that were created from this journey have shaped me, and will last forever. I am thankful for every second spent. And these times are no different. It is unfortunate that I cannot keep this site running any longer, but do not see a need to pay annually for something that I no longer engage in.

There is a pdf option at the bottom of every post, just in case there is a favorite that you want to hold on too. I’ve downloaded a copy of every post with photos. Thus the memories will be stored both electronically in my digital library, and inside the hearts and minds of all those fortunate enough to share in the experience. Including myself.

In case you haven’t seen, I’m blogging on my personal blog, Jameson of the Geo.

So for the very last time from myself, Jameson, and this website, Meandering Match, I truly hope you have a wonderful, wonderful day.

With Love,

Jameson

Jameson of the Geo

Geared up for solo bike trip!

Head on over and check out my latest post. And all of my articles from this point forward.

Peace, love, and chicken grease!

Jameson

First, you need a really big pot, and some smaller pots.

The stove and canning apparatus

You can find a recipe in a canning cookbook. Here is basically how it goes. Chop selected goods. In this case it is jalapenos into jalapeno rings. Fill the bottom of the jars with some garlic and various spices.

Jalapeno Rings, garlic, and spices just waiting to be canned!

Make the broth. Fill cheese cloth with other spices and let boil in some sort of vinegar broth mixture.

Filling cheese cloth with spices for the broth

Scoop the boiled broth into the jar about to be canned.

Scooping the mixture into the can

Then you place the jars into the giant pot. This is the boiling method to canning.

Ball Jars full of goodness inside the boiling pot.

Let them sit about 10 minutes and remove from water. You need a special tool for this one.

Freshly sealed out of the boiling pot.

Then you let it sit and wait for the “pluck” sound to inform you that your can has officially sealed the deal!

Hey if you’re going after canning some of your favorite veggies, you might as well do some jamming too, right? A similar process to make both blackberry and pepper jam.

First, pick more wild blackberries than you thought humanly possible.

Thats a whole lotta wild blackberries

Then put more sugar in the pot then you thought was humanly possible.

So….much….sugar

Mix in the berries, peppers, or whatever you feel like jamming with some more liquid as defined by the recipe, let it boil, and then can it.

Pepper Jam mixture

Serious Scooping!

Some more boiling, we are using the boiling method…remember! And next thing you know, you have some homemade jam!!! Use your special tool to remove the can from the water and place in the finished pile.

Pure Joy!

After a long days hard work, you built a mountain of jams and cans to enjoy throughtout the winter. All you have to do is wait 4-6 weeks to start enjoying your hard work.

Success. Hooray and thank you Can Master!

Here are some pretty cool photos from the day. Enjoy!

Thank you, and have a wonderful day!

I received a phone call for a job I had applied for on a Wednesday, interviewed on Thursday, and was offered a position on Friday. Ok whoah! Time to do work. So the following Wednesday I was all packed up and ready to go. I didn’t have a place to live, or any prospects at all. I just figured I would get up to Arcata, California and let the universe figure it out. And figure it out it did!!!

My bike can kick it. All packed up and all!

I filled my two rear panniers with gear. Camping equipment, biking gear, running stuff, all the gear I would need. I filled my big backpacking pack with clothes. Electronics and important stuff went in my small green pack. That’s it. I’m ready to go.

Hey look it’s the train. Alright Amtrak!!

I jumped on the train for the first part of my journey. I spent my last night in California with my idol, my hero, the man who taught me all my core values….my Grandpa Dallas Henkle. He dropped me off at 7 am and sent me off with a hug and a smile.

Lookin good on the train

The train was enjoyable. I could move around. Get some coffee. There was wifi and I wrote my last post Travel By Bicycle. I thoroughly enjoyed this leg of the journey.

At Martinez in the east Bay I said farewell to the train. And walked down the platform to get loaded onto the bus. Walking in style with all my bags I grabbed an Amtrak employee for a small photo shoot.

I love to travel.

Ready to go anywhere I suppose

Then it was time for the bus.

It’s the BUS

8 hours later on that behemoth of a monster that transported myself and about 20 others in a northerly direction, I arrived in Humboldt County. My new stomping grounds.

I get off the bus, and cannot get in touch with the friend of a friend who was supposed to hook me up with her farm so I could pitch my tent for the night. What to do right?!?!? I jumped on the social network warmshowers which is a hospitality website for long distance cycle tourists. I get in touch with a kind man named Tim who lives nearby in Blue Lake, about 10 miles away from the bust stop. HMMMMMM…..

Put the big pack on the bike packs and you’re ready to bike anywhere..

I place my oversized backpacking pack on top of all the gear on the rear of my bicycle and took a very interesting bike ride to get to Tim’s house. Needless to say this is not the correct geometry for packing your belongings and going on a ride, but hey, when in Humboldt right??

Now to explain how the universe took care of me. It happened like this.

The next day I scoped a cheap room off the back of a house in a nearby town McKinleyville. I biked there and it was a complete dive of a college house with 7 students living there. I’ve been in college before, I don’t plan on living like that ever again. Stopping here and seeing the low end was great for perspective.

I then headed to a local bike shop that Tim had said was good in Arcata. I asked if they knew of any housing options and they did not, but sent me to the Co-Op kiosk where people post classifieds.

At the kiosk, there was an ad for a room with a number. The room was more then I wanted to spend, but at this point I knew I wanted to live in Blue Lake, and having seen the alternative already this morning, I was ready for something nice. So I biked back out to Blue Lake and scoped the most beautiful 1 bedroom apartment ever. I asked where do I sign and she told me to come back the next day check in hand with first months rent and security deposit and it was mine.

There’s my house! It’s upstairs.

Another look of my temporary residence

The building is a bed and breakfast that used to be the original hotel in Blue Lake. The owners are now turning it into apartments. Blue Lake is a small town about 10 miles from the coast and has maybe 500 people. Yes, that’s right. I now live in a small mountain community complete with one restaurant, one laundromat, and one brewery. Awesome.

Blue Lake is down in the valley

Here is a tour of my new home.

My kitchennette and awesome rug

Dining room / yoga room / puzzle room / cool food storage locker

My bedroom is plain

But I do have a picture of my favorite person next to my bed

The bathroom is pretty swanky

And that’s it. I’m very satisfied and feel extremely fortunate to have found such a great place to live in a matter of just a few days. From what everyone in the area has been telling me, housing in Humboldt is really hard to find and sometimes people go months without landing anything. Whooh!

Here I am in Humboldt, while Laurel is busy working with low income families to provide them education about access to healthy foods at the Farmers Market. She also works on a cultural heritage project promoting a 200+ mile bicycle trail in the area. You can read about her move in A Move to the Midwest.

Guess what people. I’ve got an address now!!! And my walls are plain. If you feel the urge, here is the way to send me some wall candy.

Jameson Henkle

PO Box 913

Blue Lake, Ca 95525

Thank you all and have a wonderful day.

For me, it means to travel by bike. After living on a bicycle for the last 8 months, it has become an integral part of my life. More then that even, it is an extension of this medium I consider the human body. I love bikes. And I love riding them.

So without a car, and needing to use alternative transportation to get to the Bay Area from the Central Valley, the choice was easy. Travel by bicycle.

The Gravy Train packed and ready to roll!

I left mid-afternoon on a Friday. I set off from my mother’s house in Atwater, Ca planning to take two days for the 120 mile trip over one mountain pass. This should be easy, right? Wrong!

Jameson choosing an alternative mode of transportation.

I started weaving west roads and north roads. They were all backcountry 2 lane roads through the ever abundant Central Valley. This is where the bulk of the countries food is grown. The Central Valley has 4 of the 5 largest agricultural producing counties in the country.

The Central Valley is wide open….and flat.

Those of you who have spoken with me recently know just how much I love (spoken loathe) the wind. And where it’s flat, it can be windy. Now I was zigzagging west and north all the while the wind was barreling from a northwesterly direction. 45 deg wind every where I go. Yuck!

A young orchard.

Despite the wind it was a beautiful sunny day. I was way out off the beaten path and got to see a lot of cool things like new orchards, old orchards, canals, bridges, trees, plants, irrigation ditches, 2 lane roads….Yeah you’re pickin up on it. It’s all farm country out here.

An old bridge from the old west.

Then I hit a section from Newman to Patterson for 15 miles head on northwest into the wind. It was one of those, “Why do I do this, why am I alive, why, oh why oh why oh why!!!!!!!!!!” kind of moments. After Patterson though, I entered the mountains.

Approaching the coast range. Exciting!

The sun is setting as I enter the hills.

It was a 16 mile trek from the base of the mountains to Frank Raines State Park where I would call home for the night. With the wind blocked from the surrounding mountains, the sun setting over rolling hills kissed with gold, and an easy 1-3% grade, I was in super cycle heaven!!

Graffiti Rock

I stopped at the campground just as it was to dark to cycle. I’d had my lights on for about 15 minutes as dusk steadily became night. I was the only person in the campground. A little scary being out by yourself in the middle of wilderness completely alone. But also very amazing.

As I entered the mountains, I turned off my cell phone, and didn’t turn it back on until the middle of the next day. I wasn’t cut off, I was tuned in. Tuned in to my surroundings, my bicycle, myself. Peace and serenity are hard to come by. Being alone, not lonely, but alone is such a rare occasion. I feel this can bring a dynamic and perspective into a persons life that is necessary for self discovery and ultimately to be a better person. So yeah, I said it…Go out into the woods by yourself, turn off your phone, and just be.

My home for the night

So after an awesome night of sleep only to  be disturbed by racoons scavenging in nearby garbage cans, it was time to tackle the pass.

Super awesome bike pic!

This is where things got really tough. Ok so immediately upon jumping back in the saddle I tackled a 2 mile 10% heart pumper up to The Junction. This is the intersection of 3 roads and the only store in this coastal range. I had a breakfast veggie sammy on a croissant and enjoyed talking with Bill for an hour while enjoying coffee and checking out all the bikers from both worlds. (motorcycle and bicycle)

Share the road please.

They told me it would be hard. I said I had no idea what they were talking about. And then it came…

This ride is beautiful!

The next 10 miles were  a beautiful steady 5-8% grade with some ups and downs, known in the cycling world as rollers. It was a great cycle, one to write home about. Then Mt. Hamilton happens.

Mount Hamilton is kicking my bootay!

Mt. Ham sits at 4,200 feet and overlooks the Santa Clara Valley. I left Atwater at 100 ft. Figure that one out. So for 9 miles of 10-14% grade I slogged up to the summit. Standing up putting everything I have into every stroke of the pedal, I pushed it until I had to stop and let my heart that is  beating out of my chest calm down. I had to turn my head sideways when pools of sweat would collect above my eyeballs, I had to muster everything I had to get up that hill.

And then super stylee road bikers with there 8 pound carbon frame bicycles are passing me. Not very fast though. Mind you my steel frame and fork and rack loaded up touring bicycle rings in at about 50 pounds. You may think I’m crazy, they sure did, I might have to agree.

The Lick Observatory

A symbol of success as I see the Lick Observatory. And I know that I’ve made it to the top. It is quite literally all downhill from here. 27 miles of it to my friend Amy’s house in San Jose.

Off in the distance, San Jose.

The first 10 miles were so windy my hands hurt from hitting the brakes on each turn. The next 10 miles were super sketch due to road construction. A little thing Laurel and I dubbed downhill robbery. When you’ve worked so hard, and you don’t get the reward of a smokin downhill, it’s robbery I tell you!

This is what i call….downhill robbery.

But then, and close your eyes and picture it in your head. The road turned into perfect smooth tarmac. The turns were gentle. The grade enough to zip you right along. I had the best 7 mile descent into the valley floor imaginable. All the hard ups, the hard winds, the scary racoons, everything was so utterly worth it.

I am reminded why I travel by bicycle. It’s not because it’s easy, heck no it’s the hardest way to travel I think. But because of amazing places and amazing picture perfect pieces of cycling that present themselves when you least expect it.

Have a wonderful day.

Jameson

Big one

On each long table, plates upon plates of diced tomatoes are ready to be sampled.  Each person makes their way down each table rating the tomatoes from tastiest to the least tasty.

Tomato sampling

Some of the tomatoes had bizarre names like this one:

The Brandymaster

After making our way through the tomatoes, we moved on to the peppers.  The peppers were arranged on the tables in groups ranging from mild to extremely hot.  Unfortunately for some, a few spicy strays managed to make their way into the mild section.

And peppers too

The peppers came in all shapes, sizes, and colors.  I tasted a few from the extremely hot table with the ghost pepper attempting to put a little hair on my chest.  It was the size and the shape of a habenero, but green and with thin crinkly skin instead.  These little peppers had a nice kick too.  Don’t be fooled by their tiny stature and nice color.

Hot babies

Glasses of milk were available in a cooler near by for pepper takers that needed a quick remedy to the spice invading their senses.

Nearby, people were also lining up to taste and rate salsa.  The salsa was being rated for spice and flavor.  Each type was presented with seeds and also without.

Voting for the best

After placing our votes for most of the tomatoes, a few of the peppers, and the salsa, we took a walk around the Bradford grounds checking out all of the pepper and tomato plants.  Although the drought here in Missouri hasn’t been kind to plants, the tomatoes and peppers were still fruiting abundantly.

Upside down or rightside up?

Bradford Research Farm

Tomatoes

Although it was a fun experience to taste and rate the various tomatoes, peppers, and salsas, the end result was a very unhappy, acidic, spicy belly.  No winners yet, but I’ll keep you posted!

Laurel

Missouri River with Jefferson City in the background

The first is the Missouri River Bluffs Association.  MRBA works to connect producers and small business owners in a  specified region along the Missouri River.  Many rural businesses have suffered from the turn in the economy. MRBA is intent on creating a network of producers and consumers, promoting heritage tourism, and enhancing the regional identity of the area.  My role here will be helping to facilitate networking of small business owners and producers and also to execute 5 Farmer’s Market festivals in 2013 that will highlight specialty crops in the Missouri River Bluffs Region.

The second organization I will be serving with is the Columbia Farmer’s Market.  Anyone who knows me knows how much I like Farmer’s Markets.  So as you can imagine, I am excited for the opportunity to learn the inner workings of a market.  The Farmer’s Market here in Columbia is well established but desires to further connect producers and consumers as well as making the Market more available to low-income members of the community.  Currently, a program called Access to Healthy Food doubles the value of EBT (food stamps) for families that are receiving EBT and WIC benefits.  This is a wonderful opportunity for low-income community members to get local, nutritious food into their family’s bellies.  I am charged with working to expand this program, creating sustainable connections between producers and consumers, disseminating information about public transportation to the market, and promoting healthy eating and exercise initiatives for the local community.

I am excited for my year of service here in Columbia and look forward to joining a community that together can work towards fighting hunger in this country.

Thanks for reading! Please contact me with any questions you may have.

Laurel

I hope you like the bicycle photo album.

Have a wonderful day!

Here is a collection of photos I took of many cyclists and their bicycles. Enjoy!

And their you have it! This wasn’t everyone that we met along the way, maybe just 1/4 of all the cyclists we encountered. Just the ones that the time was right for a photo.

Thank you, and have a wonderful day!!

It is a fun hobby. It makes me feel closer to the people I am very distant from, Either geographically or temporally. And every so often, I get an email from an old friend letting me know what they have been doing the last 1, 5, or even 10 years!

So please, if you are interested, leave a comment on this blog post. I can add you from there. Or just add your email address in the box in the right sidebar. Easy!

Here is the link to today’s newsletter. It sums up what I have been doing the last 2 years.

http://us2.campaign-archive1.com/?u=24cbec791c1baae56ef21fe4a&id=f542966cde

On a side note, I still love my bicycle. I overhauled it, took it apart to the bare frame, and rebuilt it better then ever. Here are some fun photos.

The Gravy Train is rebuilt and ready to shred!

I disassembled everything on the bike, and cleaned it thoroughly

Here is my new fly bartape….Stealthy!

Here is The Gravy Train before the X-Country ride. Ready to tour!

Thank you all, and have a wonderful day,

Jameson