We spent two days off staying with Jess and Brent and their awesome Corgi puppy, Zelda, in Marina del Rey.

We stayed in my good friend Chris’ room while she was still up at Sara’s in Ventura. We had two massages in two days at a Thai place we stopped in on the way back from breakfast. I ended up with a therapist, Mark, who had been a bike racer when he lived in Thailand! He had also lived in Indiana and done the little 500. So he knew exactly where I would hurt. What a wonderful coincidence to have met him!

I also got a chance to go out to the Acrogreens near the Santa Monica pier on Sunday, where acrobats and acroyogis gather to play. I did a few hand to hands with Ernie, a stuntman who I have met there before. I also saw Jonathan, who owns TSNY, the trapeze school I work at, and met his wife, who is a champion acrobat. TSNY has a location right there on the Santa Monica pier, but I thought Jonathan was from New York, so I was surprised to see him.

Mostly at the Acrogreens, I chatted with Jon, a retired rocket scientist who is often there with his friend Larry. He is also a cyclist, so we had lots to talk about! Also, I taught him some basic acro. He he had been coming to the greens for so long, he thought he should get around to trying some eventually.

On Monday, I had lunch with my friend Nick. It was very fun because I met him in Chicago, and he mentioned he would be in LA visiting the neon benders he works with for his art pieces. He does the neon on the man at Burning Man, and it’s time to work on that for this year’s event. Originally, we thought we would just miss each other, but we ended up being there at the same time!

Later in the day, Sadie and moved over to our friend Charlie’s apartment. Charlie had been on Odyssey with Sadie and Ben, but it had been years since either of us had seen him. We were excited to hear that his girlfriend of a year or so had gotten him to eat vegetables, finally. He now thinks they are delicious, and says he feels much better now that he is eating so much more healthy food. He always used to wake up feeling like he got hit by a truck, but now, at 40, feels great in the mornings! (Ben Melnick, I hope you are listening!)

Sadie and Charlie

Also, Charlie works for Elektra bikes, and he outfitted us with new bells. We went out for a delicious Italian dinner, joined by his roommate Susie, who needed to be kept awake after a long weekend in Vegas with friends. She had great stories about a five week camping trip she took with a friend after they got out of college. I apparently horrified everyone by describing how a ten year relationship can quietly fall apart if you’re not paying attention.

Tuesday morning we were well rested, and actually left the house by 8:30, which was a record for us. We even left the overpriced but scrumptious smoothie place a few blocks away where we ate breakfast by about 10.

I don’t have too much to say about the long 80 miles that followed. About 40 of it was on bike paths.

I kept up with Sadie much more closely than any other day. I was making a concerted effort so I wouldn’t get left behind at stoplights, so I probably pushed harder than usual, but it still felt good. Much of the day was quite flat. It just took forever, between stopping at lights with the city riding, and winding around beach bike paths. Luckily, the paths weren’t too crowded for the most part. We still had to watch closely for small children wandering across and got stuck regularly behind groups of slow cyclists out cruising.

We rode for a while down the LA river, which is little more than a viaduct. It is definitely looking better and greener than the last time Ben and I rode down it for an organized ride. Much of the area around it still contributes to a view of LA as a dystopic wasteland, though. In one section, there was a tent city of homeless people clustered around an underpass, next to wall of graffiti. A lone man in black with scraggly hair strode away in the rubble, wearing thigh holsters that looked like they held long knives. I wish I had a picture of that!

Just past that strip along the river is a tidy suburban neighborhood. There are not many entrances to the riverside bike path, probably to reduce the transient traffic through the neighborhoods. We missed the first entrance, so we had to navigate past the homes for another mile or so before we could get on the path. We came upon this unsettling street:

We spent an hour or so in a cozy coffee shop in Torrance, which we found off our route because we’re getting good at recognizing the street patterns of downtown areas. The rest of the day saw only brief stops for water and power bars, and more riding. We were meeting Sadie’s friend Sue at Sue’s mother’s home in Capistrano Beach, which is right after Dana Point.

This meant we were retracing much of the route of the first day of the Odyssey ride, which ended in in Dana Point. Sadie hadn’t been able to finish that day of riding, so she was extra determined to have a strong finish today. Of course, this time, she’s been on the road for six weeks already, so it was no problem at all. Sue even met us in Dana Point and made a video of us arriving!

We left our bikes at Sue’s mom’s, took pictures on the beach,

and drove up several steep hills to Sue’s house. Sue is a photographer who travelled with the rodeo circuit and lived in the Marshall Islands, among other interesting things, so her house is like a treasure cave. You never know what you will find! She made us steak and baked potatoes for dinner, and I fell asleep before I even finished eating.

Seen on the way out. Tee hee.

There were friends everywhere I turned. There were acroyogis I had met all over in my travels.

Whitney from Phoenix

There were reminders of the past and invitations to the future. There were some of the biggest, most dramatic fires I have ever seen.

That’s the man burning in there.

Each day was more amazing than the last. The weather was tremendous and the connections were magical. I did a high hand to hand for the first time ever,

This is Mara doing one.

took a plane ride with my friend Jeff from Reno,

Jeff and his plane

The city from Jeff’s plane

saw several sunrises, and danced into the void of the open playa.

I walked into Farmopolis just as my friend Kristin had the bartender pull a tarot card from her deck. She turned around, saw me, and said the card must be for me. “Ten is complete,” she said. “This is a nine. You’re almost done. This woman (pictured on the card) is swimming with the flow of the river. She only looks back a little.”

I rode on pirate ships,

submarines, and magic carpets, and I talked to wonderful strangers. One man I met in the ice line gave me a pendant from his Trojan Horse camp.

It was one of the most impressive pieces of art on the playa, and it was the first thing everyone I met asked me about as I wore the necklace around for the rest of the week.

My friend Greg held relationship transition workshops inspired by the dissolution ceremony Ben and I had created last year at the temple. Outside of the workshops, between people I knew and people I met for the first time, I came across to at least six couples who were navigating the end of relationships and told them my story. I hope it helped them.

My expectations were particularly challenged at the temple burn. What has in the past been a silent, contemplative event, was nosier and rowdier, with more conflict and confusion. With the largest crowd ever and so many first-timers, it could hardly be helped, but I didn’t like it. My friend Windy helped me stay tethered to the present and experience as it happened, rather than as I wished it to be. It was rewarding to come out the other side of frustration, and the night continued to be more and more fantastical, with a huge, otherworldly aerial production and the vast spaces of the open desert. In the end, we only returned to camp when I could no longer ignore a painful blister on my toe, but that was as it should be as well.

When one door closes, another door opens. Sometimes when it opens, too.

After a massive organizing, packing and repacking effort, for which I am forever indebted to Toymaker, Mankx and Becca, I left San Diego to drive back to Chicago. I may be there yet, but the Trapeze School scheduled me to work. With a too-brief stop in LA to visit Kate, I made it back in three days.

We lost Monday. At home right now, it’s 4:00 yesterday. We’re in the future, and it’s good, says one of my travelling companions.

On Sunday, July 4, I woke up anxious, which only got worse after Rebecca brought over chai to see me off. I drove in to Ocean Beach as a friend was just leaving, scoring the best parking spot ever right at the acrogreens. I had so much excess energy, I thought I might even go surfing. Of course I didn’t. After biking between Fiesta Island and OB, and flying at Ocean Beach (making progress on high hand to hands!), Jack drove me up to the Solana Beach train station, where I joined three other teachers heading to LAX en route to Shenzhen, China. I left him with vague instructions to keep the cat and the chickens alive until Kate and Monetta make it home from the Black Rock Desert, fiddled with my luggage, and started my journey.

Trains are a pretty relaxing way to travel anyway, but stress of the last few days became pretty irrelevant as we all agreed the teaching was great and all, but mostly we were excited about going to China. I tried not to think too much about the impending 14 hour plane flight.

We flew out of LAX about 2am, hoping to sleep most of the way. It was reasonably comfortable for having to stay in a seat for that long. I slept a lot, and also read a new book, an ethnographic study of the relationship between Burning Man and spirituality. Reading it while in what I feel I could now argue is another common form of liminoid space, the in-between world of airports and airplanes, felt appropriate.

As my first post, I mostly want to get something up. I hope to be more interesting in the future.