Welcome to Miami, Bienblabludo a Miami

I recently took an Amtrak train from Ohio up to New York to see James.  I'm in the process of trying to figure out where I want to live so I wanted to head down to Miami to see if I'd like it.  James wanted to go too so I headed up to see his hometown first.  The little shit was at work when I got in at 8 AM so I walked two miles to a mall near the train station.  Normally that's no big deal but it was about 15 degrees out with really strong winds and snow.  Plus the sidewalks were covered in ice and I'd only brought Miami clothes.  Actually, I kind of liked it.  I wrapped a t-shirt around my face, lowered my shoulders, and pushed through.  I then spent the entire day at the mall until he could pick me up.  If you've never pulled a 9 to 5 as a non-worker at the mall before, you should try it.  It's not that bad.

On the face of it, Miami doesn't seem like a "self propel" town and I guess it's probably not.  It's kind of the embodiment of excessive consumption.  When an Acura is the "shit car", you know you're in a whole different kind of town.  It's a city about looks, no doubt about it.  The people are beautiful, the cars are beautiful, the houses are beautiful.  As James said in reference to some gaudy waterfront mansion, "That's just opulance," and that about sums it up.  But that doesn't mean it doesn't have substance.  I'm not exactly sure where that substance is, but it's there somewhere. 

We took a couple days to walk and bike around the city.  We stayed in Little Havana and walked all over the place.  It's like a Latin food and coffee heaven.  We biked through South Beach and walked around Key Biscaine, which is excess followed by more excess.  Listen, I'm not saying I don't want the same amount of money that people have there but I would definately do different things with it.  The idea of a massive house and expensive cars doesn't appeal to me.  In fact, I think I'd be stressed about the insurance payments and constantly worried about wrecking it.  Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know what you're thinking.  If you're rich enough to drive around in a Ferrari, you can afford the insurance.  Doesn't matter.  I'd still be stressed out of my mind about it. 

Truth be told, my dream home is much closer to a little shack or, better yet, what I can carry on my back.  And if I could buy any vehicle at the moment, it would be a kayak.  That sounds a lot more fun than a car.  The funny thing is, I think it's just as hard to de-aquire as it is to aquire.  I'm sure it's incredibly hard to get a Ferrari but, in a lot of ways, I think it's just as hard to get rid of the MP3 player.  I'm close but still not there (my cousin gave me an old one he wasn't using anymore).  I really like to be able to listen to Pearl Jam where I want, when I want.  And you know, you hear these reports about what happens to the workers who make ipods and ipads and iphones and all those other electronic gadgets, and I can't help but think that I'd rather live in a world that didn't have those things than one where workers' hands are burned off over time from acid.

But I digress.  Miami is a cool city and I could definately see myself living there.  It has a lot to offer.  So, yeah, I think I'll keep looking for jobs there. 

Kind of hard to see how you could mistake that for a woman.

Biking Miami Beach

Birds of a feather are flocking outside

Getting in a little beach walk.

-Mick-

The truth of the matter is...

On our first road hike in Costa Rica from Colonia Puntarenas to Canas Mick and I arrived late into a town we were unfamiliar with, and the combination of thirst, hunger, the onset of night, and the uncertainty of where to spend the night had our morale depleting fast.  At this point our feet were reaching the end of their journey, and our bags seemingly weighed twice as much as when we started.  In situations like this, you prioritize and begin to address the most pressing issue and that was thirst.  So, we went to a little convenient store to get something to drink and tried to get a little information about the area from the woman working behind the counter.  Next was hunger. We then found the center of town and stumbled into a touristy dinner.  I can't recall perfectly what we ate but I'm sure it included some assortment of rice, beans, cabbage, and some variety of pork.  No matter how beaten up you are, a meal like that can restore your energy quicker than the fast fist-pumping boxing coach in Mike Tyson's Punch-Out.

Now that we took care of the most pressing issues at hand we were able to focus on the next set of priorities, where to spend the night.  We had our hammocks with us and had tentatively planned to set up camp just outside of town.  Mick, however, at some point thought that to be a bad idea due to the traffic, the fact that we were in a more urban area, and he just didn't want to.  Faced with this new stipulation we went back and forth trying to figure out what to do.  Then, what seemed to me like act of desperation, Mick suggested we go back and talk to the woman from the convenient store.  Going off of a hunch he had gotten from this woman's good vibe or "positive X-factor" he thought, if we were to ask her about where the safest place is in town to camp out, that maybe out of concern for our well-being, she would direct us to someone she knew who could let us set up our hammocks on their property.  Crazy huh?  Even though everything about what he just suggested goes against standard practice, it made perfect sense to me.  I also perceived that woman's positive X-factor, but could not make anything of that feeling until Mick proposed this hail mary play.  Quickly agreeing that that was what we were going to do, and acting as if we could already reminisce about the success of the plan we settled back into finishing up our meal and resting our feet.

I don't remember any hesitance on our part while going back to that store and nonchalantly inquiring about where the best place would be to rest our tired bodies.  What happened next was either a miracle or just something we both dreamed.  This woman with, what I can only describe as, her genuinely welcoming eyes was taken back by our question.  Not for the fact that we looked like dirty, hairy, foreign hobos, but because she was concerned for our well being.  It strained her good-hearted conscience to think that we would sleep out in the middle of nowhere.  Then, as if she overheard Mick and I talking at the restaurant, she got on the phone to call someone she knew who could put us up for the night.  "The call went unanswered," she told us, but before we could even react she dissolved her hesitance and got back on the phone.   This time, and too relieved to hear anything but the important details, she was giving us the directions of where we could spend the night in a covered wood storage garage.  After thanking her many times Mick and I were off to our awaited resting place.

The walk there gave us a chance to digest the finer details of what just happened.  We asked ourselves, "did that woman just offer us a place on her property?" And wait! Did she say her 8 year old daughter, who is home alone, would meet us and show us where to go!  In case I haven't painted this picture clearly enough for you, Mick and I were unmistakably the spitting image of two people you shouldn't trust your home-alone-8-year-old daughter with. Nevertheless, that nice woman, who we never saw again, noticed something else about us, just as we did about her, that told her otherwise.    We set up our hammocks, slept like babies,  and Mick found a kitten that used him as a source of heat through the night.  When we awoke it was too early to express our gratitude in person so we left a note and we were off.

Self Propel is a factor of self reliance, but this does not mean you extract yourself from your surroundings and disconnect because you have in some way relinquished yourself of all need.  In fact it is the exact opposite.  Self reliance requires a sort of heightened and acute dependency of others and your surroundings.  What does this mean?  Take out your ear buds, stop talking on the phone, put away your e-reader, and be aware of your surroundings.  Curiously enough, we've developed the notion that minute control over insignificant things like the above mentioned makes us feel self reliant, when in fact they make us more dependent.  Our minds have become numb, our interactions with others have diminished.  If you don't believe me, then when was the last time you traveled a considerable distance in silence?  Or, have you ever found yourself looking blankly at your phone or watch in order to give yourself an excuse to not have to look at the person walking by you?  This Self Propel mission seamlessly required our minds to pick up where our bodies left off. The truth of the matter is, if you can make the mental rebound from physical exhaustion you reach a point of cerebral clarity and clairvoyance. Who knows what would have happened if we had been distracted by our favorite song, someone on the phone, our guide book, or by our own self involvement. Maybe we would have been distracted from less conventional opportunities presenting themselves.  Maybe we wouldn't have read a little deeper into the eyes of that woman, maybe we wouldn't have doubled back to talk with her.  Maybe we would  have settled and slept in a nice hostel or even worse a hotel.  No, those are not forbidden places but, when Self Propelling they symbolize effortless comforts, and result in a much less overall satisfying experience.   I can't recall more than a handful of memorable experiences I had at hostels and hotels, but  this is an experience I will share with my grandchildren.

- James

As we all know, Christmas is about buying shit

This Christmas, I decided to make a Christmas gift rather than being.  Ostensibly, I did it to save money.  I thought I could make a picture frame that meant more than the ones in the store and that cost me much less.  Below is what I came up with.  It was much cheaper to make but it did take me about 10 hours to make it (so I guess it technically cost me about $140 figuring I would have made it for minimum wage).  It's made out of coffee and potato chip bags and is basically using the same technique I used to make purses in Costa Rica.  It was the first time I've made a picture frame so it's, admittedly, a prototype but I think it came out pretty well.  And more importantly, I think it means a lot more to be able to say, "I made this for you.", rather than, "I bought this for you." 

-Mick-

Wayne National Forest Reunion

After Peace Corps, James went his way to New York and I was visiting family in Ohio, where I'm from and we got to missing the road.  Since Ohio and New York aren't TOO far, we planned a little hike and James hopped in his car to head down to Athens, Ohio.  We only had one day to hike since he had to get back for work but he, Luquillo, and I got in a nice day of hiking and a cold night of camping before he headed off.  We did an incredibly short section of the North Country Trail before getting lost and hiking back to an old coal mining town and exploring around there.  James almost got Deliveranced at a little restaurant for asking  why all restaurants in Ohio serve pickles and what was on a "pizza burger" (their response of "Anything you want.  Ketchup, mustard, onions tomatoes, lettuce," didn't really clear up anything). 

James trying to get his hiking legs about him.

Ever since he arrived in the USA, he insists on wearing this ridiculous sleeveless tee.

No fanny pack.

Son, this is beef jerky, the greatest food you'll ever eat.

Sometimes Luquillo needs to self propel for both of us.

Now this is familiar territory.

I miss tent hammocks.

Anyways, hiking on a trail was a lot different than the roads we're used to.  You can't let your mind wander as much as on the road.  The cold weather makes your breaks a lot less pleasant and I froze in the tent.  Luquillo didn't help since the traitor decided to curl up with James' feet.

-Mick-

Falling in Love with the Road in Peace Corps

The ocean's never looked so good

A long day of hiking and a cold, shitty beer

Hey yo

Sometimes you're the windshield and sometimes you're, well, the vulture that electrocutes itself on a high tension wire.

Panama you're oh-so-close

Nicaragua to Panama: 14 days

Luquillo looks happy to self propel

The cows don't but, being from the campo, they probably got drunk the night before

Rio Frio

We need to make good time.  Colby has no idea we're coming.

Hiking on a wing and a prayer and a vanilla milk

I call this one "Morning Mist"

Self defense training on the road from Colonia Puntarenas to Canas (pre pepper spray).

Family's woodshed in Tilaran.  We stopped in a store for a beer and then had dinner to decide where to tie up our hammocks.  I told James we should go back to that store because the clerk had friendly eyes and I had a good feeling about her.  She didn't know us at all and we were two crazy, stinking gringos but she directed us to her house and had her young daughter show us where to tie up.  Never happens on a bus.

The volcanos of the Zona Norte

Nothing goes together like walking and religion.  And beer.

Tent hammocking on the beach

Sometimes you just need to climb to the top of the highest hill to see what's out there.

Luquillo's first self propel.  Little guy had no idea what lay ahead.  No surprise here, I ended up carrying him a mile home.

Independence Day

Rio Frio flooded and we went walking through it.

He's his daddy's little mariner.

6 reasons not to throw away "garbage"

Where vanilla milk comes from.

Fruit I grew in my yard.

 

Sometimes your best inventions are....(that's supposed to be a kiosk made out of recycled plastic bottles). 

My 2 liter Coke bottle cilantro planter.

A little hanging planter I made out of a few gourds.

When you don't have a catcher, you use a pallet.  When you don't have a bat, you find a stick.  When you don't have a ball, you crumple up some paper, shove it in a sock, and wrap it in Costa Rican duct tape.

Biking the beach.

More beach tent hammocking.

An earned sunset after a self propel from Liberia to Parque Nacional Santa Rosa (a bus extraction may have been involved as well).

-Mick-

We are Self Propel

The Self-Propel Movement started in the steamy, sweltering flatlands of northern Costa Rica where we served for two years in rural communities as Peace Corps volunteers.  “Self-Propel” arose out of boredom and a twisted sense of adventure and it started as exactly what it sounds like.  It was about getting where you need to go under your own power, be it walking, biking, kayaking, whatever.  For us, that mostly meant walking.  We frequently walked or biked the 16 miles to each other’s’ communities or to the nearby towns to run errands.  We hiked to other volunteer’s sites and to interesting locations around the country.  We quickly found that these hikes opened up a new side of Costa Rica to us.  We met people.  Sometimes it was someone yelling at us for stealing their fruit.  Others it was someone who became a friend.  The slow pace of walking gave us views of animals we wouldn’t even have noticed with our heads plastered to a book and zipping by in a bus.  This culminated for us in a two week hike from the Nicaraguan border into Panama.  An event which was, in many ways, one of the best times of our lives and one that seared a love of walking into our souls.

                Self-Propel has become about so much more than locomotion, though.  The “do-it-yourself” ethic of Self-Propel has seeped into all aspects of our lives.  It’s become about disconnecting from the mindless, endless consumption aspect of modern life.  We don’t need “things” to be happy or satisfied with life.  In fact, I’ve seen a direct correlation in my own life between eliminating things and an increase in life satisfaction.  So Self-Propel is cooking yourself dinner (and that doesn’t mean microwaving a Hungry Man).  It is making your own dog toy or hammock or chair or whatever you’re capable of.  Because, at the end of the day, you can look down and see your own handiwork and feel a sense of pride and accomplishment, regardless of the quality (and it will probably cost you about $20 less than buying it). 

                For us, the logical extension of all these changes in our lives has become an underlying concern for preparedness.  When you start allowing yourself to do things for yourself, you realize how much you’re capable of and you allow yourself to be more open to and prepared for unexpected situations.  If you start sewing your own clothes, growing your own food, making your own compost, building your own furniture, walking to a friend’s house, you gain a sense of control over your life that you never had before.  You’re not as reliant on others and you’re more prepared for the unforeseen situations that life drops on you.  In short, the Self-Propel Movement is about DIY, preparedness, minimalism, and minimizing non-self transportation.  This is our blog.  It’s a celebration of a Self-Propelled life.