Mississippi River

I camped at a small state park along the "Mighty River"

It was.... dark and no fun.

Tom, 42, a photographer who takes pictures of small insects, showed me some pics of 'flying scorpions'.

Tom Sawyer in Mighty River

Distance: 27 miles
weather: partly cloudy.

I’m right next to the Mississippi River!! And I’ll sleep over here! This feels great. I set up the tent next in the wood. I brought 1 gallon water,
The weather is nice, I checked forecast and it will be sunny the whole week.
I always dreamed of camping here, ever since I read “Adventure of Tom Sawyer” 150 years have passed by since Mark Twain wrote the wonderful story. But the nature couldn’t have been changed much. Trees after trees, far away from the towns. Noone can find me.

I used to hate sleeping in a sleeping bag. Bad memories from the time I spent in the US Army.

"On the road again"

On the Road again.

But, when are we actually 'off the road'?

On a bicycle, in a car, walking, talking, eating- no matter what,
we are on the road constantly.

Arkansas

long, silent roads,

Trees,

filthy gas stations

local newspapers

...Things I saw in Arkansas.

my memory of 911

911.
I was sitting on a bus, chatting to my girlfriend. I heard it from the radio the bus driver turned on. It must have been about 8 o’clock in the evening of 11th of November. I thought it was a new type of radio drama. Then I thought it was some sort of gimmick that someone did after the “Invasion from Mars” in the 30’s.
I found out what really happened when I got a phone from dad. He asked me if I was watching the news. I said no. He said I should come home immediately. He said “Something incredible happened”
By the time I got home the other building was crashed by the suicide plane.

Next morning, everyone was talking about 911. I felt sorry for the Americans who died on that day. I was scared. If I’m selected for the KATUSA program, do I have to go somewhere to fight against the terrorists?

I was scared, what happens if USA attacks North Korea. Will North Korea attack USA or attack South Korea?



I was confused, just like anybody else at that time.

Old Man and the Sea

I sat at McDonald's.
I had a menu "number 4".

I'm thinking, I should make "the old man and the sea" into a musical. It's going to be a romantic & action and r-rated musical.

I forgot why I started.
what a sad story.

Flat Tire and a broken vending machine

(55 miles, sunny, 59F, difficult)

“Lexus” started shaking hard when I rode it downhill 30 miles an hour. I sighed. I got a flat tire. In a small road, I took out some of the tools. Bike patch, bond, sapo. Tears fell from my eyes while I fixed the problem.

A flat tire cannot be even compared to a vending machine that swallowed your coins. It’s that desperate.

Maybe

Maybe, i shouldn't have started this.
If I stayed home, I might have thought everything was OK and just adjusted myself to my miserable life.

I have pedaled 1200miles since i started from LA.

It was a horrible day.

Rodeo in Ft.Worth

We watched Rodeo in Ft. Worth which is located about 30 miles from Dallas.
The arena was half full (or half empty). I thought rodeo is a sport where a cowboy gets on a bull and falls on ground eventually.
But there were many events other than that. Riding horses, catching a small cow with a rope, small children running to catch a calf.

It wasn’t exciting at all, but it was fun to watch Americans.

(this game seemed pretty dangerous to me, but the parents don't care about it in Texas)

(A Cowboy!!)

Hooter's in Dallas

Distance: -
Sunny

Dallas is big. The first thing we did was having lunch at the Hooter’s. Brad looked very happy. I don’t like a restaurant like this. They advertise that they have waitresses who are blond and have big boobs.

I went to the website of the hooter’s.

“The element of female sex appeal is prevalent in the restaurants, and the company believes the Hooters Girl is as socially acceptable as a Dallas Cowboy cheerleader, Sports Illustrated swimsuit model, or a Radio City Rockette. The Hooters system employs over 25,000 people - over 15,000 of which are Hooters Girls. The "nearly world famous" Hooters Girls are the cornerstone of the Hooters concept, and as part of their job, these all-American cheerleaders make promotional and charitable appearances in their respective communities. Hooters hires women who best fit the image of a Hooters Girl to work in this capacity. The chain hires both males and females to work in management and host, staff, service bar, and kitchen positions. The Hooters Girl uniform consists of orange shorts and a white tank top, short-sleeve or long-sleeve T-shirt. Pantyhose and bras are required.

Claims that Hooters exploits attractive women are as ridiculous as saying the NFL exploits men who are big and fast. Hooters Girls have the same right to use their natural female sex appeal to earn a living as do super models Cindy Crawford and Naomi Campbell. To Hooters, the women's rights movement is important because it guarantees women have the right to choose their own careers, be it a Supreme Court Justice or Hooters Girl.“

I’m just not used to watching such girls in public. I think I need to dine at hooter’s dozen more times until I feel really comfortable.

Grand Canyon

It's hard to fly when you have no wings.

Driving to Dallas

Distance: 500miles
weather: Sunny
Temperature: 87 F
difficulty: annoying

We argued. My cousin Case got mad when we arrived Santa Fe.
“What is this? Is this supposed to a tourist attraction?”
“You know, I don’t know much about Santa Fe, but the name seems to be very familiar.”
“Yeah, That’s because there’s a brand name of some can coffee shit. There’s nothing! We are in the downtown and there are no clubs, no chicks, no organic food store, no bestbuy, no WalMart!”
“But they have everything people need; post office, grocery shops…”
“What’s the next biggest city?”
“Dallas”
“OK, Let’s go there then.”
“It’s like…1000 miles away from here”
“I don’t care. I’m from Canada. Let’s go”

It’s been 5 hours driving. We are not there yet. We are having late dinner at McDonald’s.

Navajo Nation

We couldn’t find any bike shop in Windrock. Instead, I went to the Navajo Nation’s Office. I didn’t know that WIndrock is the capital of the Navajo Nation. I didn’t even know that there’s a place called “Navajo Nation”. I walked in and there I met Laura, who is the representative of the tourism department and also a published author of two books on tales on Navajo Indians for children,
I introduced myself as a journalist from South Korea. We talked for 30 minutes about current problems of Navajo Indians.
“The biggest problem is the health problem” “too many Indians suffer from diabetes nowadays.”
The second biggest problem is young kids listening to the wrong type music”
“What is ‘wrong type of music’?”
“You know, rap music, Hiphop. Young Navajo Indians like to dress up as blacks. They are losing our precius culture”

I took pictures with her. While Brad took photos, I felt that she was watching my t-shirt. There were holes in my shirt.
“You know, Laura, this is going to be on a feature section. To give the reader some sense of “West”, I had to dress up as a vagabond.”

I thank Laura for believing some of the crap I told her.

(another Navajo Native American in Windrock)

My Cousin Brad

Brad came. He’s my cousin who lives in Vancouver.
He’s been traveling the West of America, but he’s smarter than me; he drove a car.
He looked fine. He’s got tanned skin. He must have spent lots of time on Californian beach.

“What you’re doing it awesome, even though I don’t understand why you’re doing this.”
I told him about this “My Great America” project, pursuing the “True America”. He said ‘Great’ but I could read from his expression on his face that what he really wanted to say was “Whatever”
He’s been in USA for 2 weeks. He spent 400 dollars in Vegas. “I didn’t lose anything” he said, “plus, I had lots of fun!”

I told him to take me to a place where I can repair my bicycle.

I'm sure I can't find it within 100 mile radius.

The Mother Road

On the "Mother Road"