The Union of the Fearless

After a few days of hard riding and still another 55 miles to be done by nightfall, Eco and I decided to hitch hike.
HITCH HIKE.
I have one experience hitch hiking and it wasn't a good one. A friend and I hitch hiked up the Hana coast on Maui and were picked up by a hippy crack head who drove the canyons like she was on Disney World's Space Mountain. When I made it to my destination alive I promised myself I would never do it again.
I heard Eco mention hitch hiking numerous times through out the trip and thought to myself, "Hell no. I am not a hitch hiker." All it took was four days of hard riding and rushing to play gigs for that notion to fly out the door.
Of course it didn't take long for two chicks to get a ride, even in Connecticut. However, our new friend Chip could only give us a ride eight miles down the road to the next town which was Colchester. Oddly enough a good friend of mine, Tim was heading South on I-95 which was only fifteen minutes away from where we were dropped off. Tim is a professional sailor and was on his way to New York to deliver gear for the next race. I knew he was somewhere in the north east and texted to ask where.
He was there in twenty minutes and gave us a ride straight to our fancy hotel room at the Holiday Inn (ROCKSTAR) in New London. He and I headed to Chili's for Margaritas and I was officially SO STOKED that I hitch hiked. I now had the rest of the day to chill out before our gig at Connecticut College at 10 PM.
That night at the gig we had our first official melt down as a group. Brock told everyone he was leaving to go back to Melbourne the next day because he wasn't inspired by the music. Everyone else was tired from that day's ride (apparently it was a lot of uphill) and Kipchoge informed everyone that we had only a day and a half to make it to Providence which was about sixty miles. Everyone was pretty disheartened because it was already 1 AM and we hadn't even gotten back to the hotel room yet. I told him that I just wanted the opportunity to get enough sleep so that I would be able to ride hard the next day. We made a plan to leave the next morning at 11.
I went back to the hotel room and went straight to bed. The next morning everyone fell apart. Brock decided to stay with the band but wanted to ride the entire day by himself. Kipchoge was the only other person that wanted to ride. The rest of us decided to take the train which was $30 and would get us to Providence in fifty minutes. That sounded like a dream come true to me. We decided to use our new found time wisely and eat a HUGE breakfast. We all sat down together except for Brock who went to a table across the restaurant and sat by himself.
I ordered a cup of coffee AND a bloody mary, some eggs florentine AND blueberry pancakes to share with the table. After Brock's breakfast alone he decided that he had enough alone time and was now ready to re-integrate into the group and ride the train with us. We all rode to the train station and got our tickets. We had the bright idea of rolling our bikes up to the tracks and hoping they would just allow us to get on the train with them. After waiting for the train for over an hour our hopes were slashed as we watched the train pull out to Providence without us. It was a smaller train that had no room for the bikes. We refunded our tickets and headed to the ferry to see if there were any to Providence.
There weren't.
We were starting to get desperate. I called the only rental car service in New London and they didn't allow one way rentals. I called Uhaul and they had no trucks left. We literally tried everything. By this time Eco was set on hitch hiking. I really didn't want to try my luck at it a second time in two days. I searched for any possible solution. It was the first time in my life that I had ever been stranded with no one to call to come save me. I ran through my list of contacts across the nation and couldn't think of a single person I knew in the area.
Hitch hiking, again. I was not happy about this. I didn't feel nearly as confident about it this time which made me feel even worse. But it was my only option. We biked up to the on ramp for I-95 and decided to go in two groups. Sammy and Cara would go to together and Eco, Brock and I would be the other group. Sammy and Cara decided to hitch in what Eco said was "a really bad spot." The three of us continued on up the road a bit to try and find a "better spot." Ten minutes later I saw a black pick up pull over and Eco and Brock told me I should hop in with them. At this point I was so desperate to get to Providence that I didn't care how it happened or with who. I pictured myself beating some hick's ass if he tried anything. I got to the pick up and he barely had enough room for a third bike and biker but we managed to squeeze it in. To my heart's dismay he could only take us across the border to Rhode Island, which meant we'd have to hitch hike AGAIN. He was a really sweet guy and I was thankful to have such great luck with this hitch hiking crap. He dropped us off at a Mcdonald's and once again our thumbs were back in action. Not ten minutes went by before another truck pulled over. He asked where we were going. I told him Providence and we were willing to pay him. He told us he'd take us all the way there. I was so relieved. I don't think my heart could've handled being stranded one more time that day.
I got into the back of his pick up and saw a bible. Never in my life had I been so happy to see a bible. It turned out he was the pastor of his church and lived six miles down the road from where he had picked us up. He had just come from Providence and was now going all the way back there to drop us off. We were thanking our lucky stars for sending such great people our way.
Not only were we lucky to find rides but also to find great people to stay with. When we were dropped off to our new location in Providence we thought it would be some one who knew someone in the band. This wasn't the case. They responded to a craig's list add that one of our crew posted. They opened their doors to complete strangers.
I now live in this wide open universe of TRUST. There is this entire culture of people, a union of the fearless. It's like the Lord of the Rings where the hobbits travel from town to town and camp or stay in some stranger's house. This is my life now.
Our new Providence home was a three story, three unit house that was run as a collective and had anarchy posters all over it. There was nothing archaic about the way the house was run EXCEPT for the litter box which just happened to be in the room I was staying in. The cat that lived in that room had problems getting the shit IN the box, so there were turds on the floor.
It smelled.
Bad.
Very bad.
I had a hard time sleeping in there. It got even harder when I woke up the next morning to find itchy bumps on my groin and legs. I thought I was a victim of a flea infestation. That night I laid awake the entire night scratching my groin and holding a shirt over my nose to block out the smell. All I could think about was how much I hated cats and could not understand why anyone would want an animal that not only cares NOTHING about you but also pisses and shits INSIDE your house. Then it takes it little pissy shitty paws and spreads the fecal particles all over your furniture.
As thankful as I was for our new friends, I was just as thankful to be heading to Barrington the next day. We had a short ride of sixteen miles on a beautiful bike path. When we got to the prep school we'd be playing at the next morning they offered to feed us dinner in their school cafeteria.
I thought to myself "Great, microwave cardboard pizza. Yum."
Low and behold, they had their own chef who prepared a thanksgiving style feast for us! It was some of the most amazing food I'd had on the entire tour. Mashed potatoes with the red skins still on, vegetarian cranberry stuffing, turkey, gravy, TOFU! It was amazing.
Not only was the food great but the next morning I played my favorite show yet. I saved my new electronic song, Tunnel Vision for last. Everyone in the audience started clapping to the beat and a few of them even gave me a standing ovation.
After the show I went into the cafeteria for another fabulous feast. As I was eating my veggie burger with Sammy and Eco a few kids strolled over and asked for our autographs. Within minutes their was a crowd of kids on us like flies on shit. Raving fans were waving paper napkins at us. Ok, so maybe it was only like ten or fifteen kids. But still! I felt like I had made it!