Where the hell are we? When the hell are we?

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Hey Team,
So here I sit in the "office" of the intentional community a.k.a. commune, better known as our home for the few days...just outside of Deadwood, OR.  I spent a long time fiddling with that map so you all could see the actual route we're taking.  SHIT.  We decided we would leave the cafe after a mere 3.5 hours of rest and just see how far we could get before the kind lady from the glass shop came by to pick us up.  WELL, we are such ballers and in super awesome shape that we KILLED 21 miles of climbing up a mountain in just over 2 hours and required no ride...putting us over 40 miles for the day.  Our biggest ride as of yet...beat our best by about 10 miles.

SOOO...there we were...exhausted...sweaty and in the middle of NOWHERE.  We were warned that we would encounter some mountain lions or bears or elk along the way, no naturally we got out every means of defense we have and made them REAL handy...like the bear mace in my front panniers side pocket, or my Rambo knife in my handlebar bar...precautions.  The further we got the more is seemed like we were in a South American jungle and the louder those banjos got to playin' (do you get my deliverance reference?) Anyways...we finally made it...take a right into the hippie commune shortly after the pavement ends...GOT IT.

We were greeted by a group of mellow, interestingly dressed mesh of people hanging out by a car near the big farm house.  Some introduced themselves...some didn't bother...they were all waiting to go to a "gathering" I guess, except it was really unclear why they were waiting.  It seemed all parties were accounted for and the vehicle was no less then 3 feet away.  Did they lose the keys? No gas? Directions?  We passed this group after getting settled into our tent in the north field and getting the grand tour (complete with 1 x 12 plank bridge over creek, yeah...200 pound bikes over THAT was fun) and yet still....they remained.

This place is straight out of a Woodstock biopic.  There are actually old buses converted into housed that people live in.  Not to mention the various other structures parading around as "houses".  It's a trip, we got free reign of the fridge and the main house where we could cook a meal, take a shower, use the washer/dryer and the only people that seemed weirded out by all of this were...well...ME AND LANI.  No one even batted an eye that 2 new strangers were whipping up cheesy eggs in the kitchen at 9pm...no cared enough to even ask us who we were, let alone what the hell we were doing raiding the fridge.  Luckily there are other "visitors" and a kind young man named Miles gave us the run down and what we could expect.  After using the WiFi and updating various parties (my mom) on whether or not we were mauled by a cougar we packed it in and headed across the plank bridge to our tent.  Lani was quickly sawing logs, but something about being 20 miles from ANYTHING in a COMMUNE with HIPPIES...just made me feel real weird.  All this open space and fresh air and proximity to nature that can kill me at any moment just put me on edge.  Call me silly, call me corrupted by modernization, call me a pussy, but I grabbed up my computer and back to the "office" I went where I plan to warm myself by the glow of my laptop and probably fall asleep on this couch that numerous unbathed people before me have probably sacked out.

I'm suffocating on all this "out in the wild" bullshit...hopefully tomorrow is better...maybe.

Marge