It's Sunday again. Journal time. Presently I'm in Fairfax CA, and there's a drum circle happening that just started around the corner, but I have tea and an obligation to myself to at least get started on this update. I have a lot to say.

I finally made it across last Tuesday, December fourth. It was a good night. I'd burned some sage prior to crossing and I wore my pink Bills hat, which seems to be pretty good at crossing borders. I told the dude in the booth that I was there to Make an informal entry, so he got me to pull over. I went in, and I think they might have recognized me from the past few attempts. I dealt with Officer Paderes or something like that. We were all eyes, and had a pretty good rapport. We kept the conversation light, yet there was a snag when I told him that I still had five of the shirts. He took the matter to a superior who made a bit of a concession by allowing me to bring the shirts in as samples. The hitch was that the shirts had to be rendered worthless, by cutting a swatch out of the side. We completed the paperwork, I paid Five dollars and I was all set. Many looked, but not one Official came close to entering Hemphry. It's the hat, it's gotta be the Hat!

There! Did you see that? That last sentence is a perfect example of how I've been programmed by Babylon. The line: It's the Shoes, It's gotta be the Shoes, is well known by many. It was uttered by Spike Lee in Reference to Michael Jordan in one of Nike's ad campaigns in the early nineties. That's good advertising. Sloganeering, pop culture brainwashing. Implanting corporate adgenda into our social fabric. Anyways, It still frustrates me when something I absorbed leaks back out of my consciousness, through my mouth or fingers into present reality. Just one of those things I guess.

The Drum Circle was love.

I arrived in Seattle around Seven. I found my way to University Ave, which was a good scene. There were several vegetarian and vegan restaurants on the stretch and I ended up at a Thai food joint. The food was incredible and I met some really nice people. I met a brother there from Bermuda who works at a children's theatre, and was really dialled in to the source. In fact that's all I've really met. good, down to Earth people who really oppose the War, Bush, Bombs and Jails. There's a good number of activating citizens organizing under the folds of the locked-down United States. The Organic movement thrives here, in certain pockets, and all around California's Bay Area, CBC's (Cannabis Buyers Clubs) are sprouting up and supplying many people with herbs for medicinal use. People who suffer from back pain, Migraines, Aids, Arthritis, MS, and many other conditions are eligible for the card. It varies from county to county, but some medicinal users and care givers can carry up to three pounds and can grow up to ninety-nine plants that are in different stages of growth. According to Municipal and State Law, it's no big deal. With the Feds though, there's big conflict. The world knows how brutal America can be, inside and out.

In Seattle, I went to the rainbow room and saw a band called pi. A live drum and base type of gig. Pretty happening. I got a groove on and was able to connect with some locals. At the end of the night, I spent a bit of time talking one dude out of joining the Navy. I showed him examples of how the military is used to gain control of a region in order for trans-national corporations to conduct business there. I pointed out that our North American market is mature, meaning there's not a lot of growth in our economy. But there's some virtually untapped markets that just need a bit of civilizing, and they'll be great. And that's where the military comes in, because some cultures don't want to become civilized, so they'd rather put up a fight for their way of life on their land. In Mexico, big agribusiness corporations buy land from the government, then kick off the indigenous people who've lived there for thousands of years and are now trespassing. These poor homeless natives now need to work to pay the rent that Monsanto charges. Fortunately there's a big chemical farm right where they used to live. Now they can get jobs and feel good about themselves. until the crop-duster comes and dumps chemicals all over. Oh well, an other day, an other dollar..(literally)

I slept that night between Seattle and smelly Tachoma. What a good view I had from this ritzy neighbourhood on the Coast. In the middle of the night came a rap-tap-tapping on the Van. I awoke, startled, to find a police officer outside. I unzipped the canvass (derived from the root word cannabis) of the pop top, expecting a pain in the ass of trying to find an other spot. He told me that someone had called in, citing a suspicious character. He told me that it was legal to park where I was at. "I'm not asking you to move" was what he said. Surprised, I said "Oh" and drifted dreamily back into space. It wasn't until later on in the day that I even remembered that happening.

This was a big day! A dude I'd met in Seattle told me about the new glass museum that just opened in Tachoma. I could see no good reason to drive past it, so I planned to spend a bit of time there checking it out. On my way into town, a dude spotted me, followed me to a big store where I went to poo. He easily convinced me to cruise around with him for a little while. That ride did me for the whole day. Shortly after leaving his company, I became inspired to snap many photos of the approach into Tachoma. One series of Photos I took from a hill, above Hemphry. Further down the road I saw a factory that was creating a pyramid of sawdust. I was curious, and thought it'd make a few good photos. I went over and asked a few prying questions like, "What did they make?" It turns out that this particular place takes sawdust from nearby lumber mills and turns it into fire-logs. Ok, not too bad, but wait, there's a police-car at the van. Oh boy. I go running over to there, deciding I'd rather hear what he wants, rather than to pretend not to see him. When I got there, He told me that someone had reported a suspicious character up on that hill. Yep! That was me! He ran my identification, which by the grace of god creates no cause for his alarm, and I was on my way, after he gave me directions of course.

Dale Chihoulie, a glass maestro, is from Tachoma, and has a huge outdoor display of his work. This stuff is incredible! He has these massive colourfull vessels that must weigh thirty to fifty pounds, standing three, maybe even four feet high! On top of that are all these ornate squiggly, twisting wraps and bits. I can't imagine the spectacle that would take place during the creation of these pieces. I was flabbergasted. The museum itself has an in-house studio that produces all of the gift shop glass. It's a brand new studio and has state of the art equipment, and the blowers get paid to do it. My mouth was watering. There's a bit of a bleacher section for the observers to watch from. It looked like a chill place to work. The guys there looked pretty good to work with, and I ended up hanging out with Gabe, an employee there, who used to work glass down in Sonoma, CA. That's right near where I am now.

I left Tachoma after paying my parking ticket, and headed for Olympia, where The Evergreen State College is located. I sold some boxes of papers for a bad deal for me, just to get the ball rolling, y'know. I left Olympia after dinner and drove straight to Eugene, where I ate a pita at the pita pit. It was painted just like the one in St. Catherines and it made me proud to be a Canadian! The prices were more expensive in American than they are in Canada. Wow.

Eugene is a really cool town. An epicentre of sorts. A lot of the dead family, Keesey and the Merry Pranksters all are sort of settled around the town. One of Keesey's son's runs the local music theatre. Oregon State University is located there, and you can just feel the effect of an active subculture that has come out into the mainstream. Unfortunately because of the demographics of the area, the DEA has a headquarters there, and the police presence is strong. Driving around the first night, I saw many people pulled over. Free Country.

I met a great brother in the local Organic food store and he took me up to the Mason's cemetery for a chat over a bowl. We talked about the Masons, sacred geometry and Mysticism in general. It turned out that I arrived in perfect timing, because two brothers he knew had to head south to Fresno, and really loved the dead. One bummer was that when I went to living Tree to pick up the posters, I went on line and found out that the Other Ones were playing that day (Thursday) and the next, not Friday and Saturday, as I had originally thought. We decided to wake up super early and head south all the way to Oakland. It's about an eight to ten hour drive, so it's doable. Hemphry had other ideas.

Long Story short, we got to the parking lot around nine-thirty. There were no extras at that time and we just accepted the role of being the parking lot crowd. It was actually really nice. I mean it's really the people that make the scene, and a lot of them were outside the show. I joined a drum jam for a while, then ended up playing drum while a brother played his guitar. The circle really had a rainbow vibe to it. In fact later that night, me and another brother decided that that was a rainbow gathering right there in Oakland. Give thanks and Praises!

We slept on the coast, overlooking Muir Beach. Wow El Pacifico, Muchos Magnificenti. The Pacific is magnificent! Robin and Grant and I spent some nice time breathing in clean, clear ocean air before I dropped them off in Mill Valley to hitch hike to Fresno. It was such a blessing to meet them, and to have them help me bring the van to California. At the time the battery was shot, and we had to bump start Hemphry more often than not. Thanks guys, I hope the next bit of your travels have gone well and continue to do so!

I made it to Mill Valley, a town told to me by several people as one to check out. It's only a short hop to San Francisco, and you can tell. At one time it was a great little hippy town full of artists and freaks. Over time, it's reputation as cool and it's proximity to San Francisco has made it a target of the Yuppie invasion. High end everything, SUV, BMW, Mercedes and of course VW's make up a lot of the traffic. I met some of the kids in town, and was embraced by the group I met. After several references to cops and narcs, they concluded that I was chill. It really is crazy here. The level of Police activity and how invasive they are. The Feds have been in the area trying to eradicate LSD. Good luck! I met a dude who's good friend is in Jail for skateboarding. He got skateboarding tickets, didn't pay them, then was caught with tagging pens (graphiti) and is now in the clink with a fifteen thousand dollar bail condition. Essentially for skateboarding! Skateboarding is not a crime.

I split Mill Valley and made it over to Fairfax. The word is that this is where a lot of the hippies who left mill valley came. It's a nice town with the underlying scent of money. It's still really close to S.F. and there's Nature nearby. Mount Tamalpias stands in the near distance. It's a favourite local spot to go hiking and there's also lots of cycling going on here, although it's a very trendy thing to get all geared up in spandex and go for a Saturday afternoon ride. At least they're not hurting anyone else by doing it.

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Race to Save the Primates - every click provides food!
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Johannes Chapman, Pure Hemp Caravaner