I am in East Atlanta as I write, just about to head out towards Roanoke, Alabama, which is midway to Montgomery. I will be entering the central time zone, and really moving into the Deep South. Some friends of friends are waiting for me in Montgomery.
It has been a pleasant stay here in Atlanta, spending lots of time with my sister, her fiance Andrew, Andrew's brother Jon, friends in Jon's community (Terra, Chris and Lori), Ashley and Amanda, Jay, Warren, Molly and others at the Sopo Bike Coop.
Arriving Tuesday night, after getting slightly lost and 88 miles on the day, I spent the first few days with Sarah and Andrew.
We went to Piedmont Park, saw the man with pet pig, played soccer, and cooked good meals at Sarah and Andrew's place near the Park. I visited the Carter Center where Sarah works, went to the Mediterranean Grill with Andrew, and played some more soccer at a park with some Mexicans.
Midway through my stay, friends Leah and Tim came into town to debut Leah's documentary Seeing Red about the moral divide in the US. See link to the left.
I moved over to Jon's place in East Atlanta. Jon lives in a new community built and designed to be walkable with green building construction. Good stuff. There I visited the Sopo (South of Ponce) Bike Coop to tune up my bike and see how they run their coop so I could relay feedback to the Mount Rainier Bike Coop I helped start in my hometown. Met some great folks there including Warren, who had biked from Atlanta to Irving, California. I ate dinner with Warren, and he told me about a biker who was going from California to Louisiana on a BMX! He had a frame pack strapped to the front of the bike, and some waterbottles strapped to a board on the back of the bike. Nothing on his back, and he was doing it--amazing. Shows me how much I am roughing it with my Koga Miyata World Traveller and Ortlieb panniers.
On the way to Atlanta, I met a Muslim car mechanic who signed the petition and had lots to say about our country and God, etc. He told me people in other countries often know more about the United States than Americans themselves. When the US was formed, countries began studying the US because it was such a hopeful new model. Now, they clearly see, that things are not going as they originally were set out. Recently, he said, money is making all the decisions, and Americans are asleep. The solution: wake Americans up to what is going on, and have them participate in the operation of the country. He said only five or six individuals were making all the decisions for his county of three to four hundred thousand people. The others just don't participate.
He spoke about God and religion. "You are on this Earth for two reasons," he told me. "One, to serve the Lord Almighty, your Creator. The Lord is the Infinite, the Absolute of Love, Knowledge, Power, Everything. Muslims bow to the Lord and touch their forehead to the ground because humans are less than the specks of dirt compared to the Lord. The second reason you are here on Earth," he said, "is to love, serve, and care for all of God's creation. Everything around you--people, animals, the plants, water, land, sky--this is your duty. This and other things we know," he said, "and we know about global warming, and we care about it...I'll sign your petition." I said, "This is part of the waking up of people to participate you are talking about." And of course he agreed.
Now for some photos.


Devin Myers of University of Georgia and I. Devin biked from Seattle to San Francisco, and he does time-lapse photography. He saw me biking around the UGA campus, enthusiasticly asked about my trip, and offered to put me up for a couple nights.

Devin's dorm room in Rutherford, part of the Franklin Residential Community (FRC). Thank you to Devin, his roommate Danny, all those I met in his dorm, and FRC.

Me at Jon's place in Atlanta. Jon is the brother of my sister's fiance. Big Thanks to Jon, my sister Sarah, her fiance Andrew Katz, and those I spent time with in Atlanta, including Ashley and Amanda, Terra, Chris and Joli.

Ike, Jon's basset hound.

Georgia countryside, on the way to Atanta.

People waiting outside for the Athens Public Library to open up at 2pm on a Sunday.