There was an article that posted to the Sampradaya Sun earlier this past week admonishing devotees for siding with the Republican party in America. I couldn’t agree more with that.

How some devotees support ideas like intelligent design is mind-boggling. We clearly do not believe the same thing that Christians do when it comes to creation. The only similarity is that they are both God-centered. The Christian believe is that the world was created in six literal days and that the earth has only been around for 8,000ish years, barely longer than our Kali-yuga. Yet some devotees side with them due to the dangerous philosophy of “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.”

However, the article in question is a thinly veiled defense of Barack Obama. Previously, a devotee published an article ripping apart Obama for his unvaisnava qualities. Rightly so, I suspect, since Obama isn’t a vaisnava.

But this most recent article, while claiming the left wing (democrats, etc) to be “bad,” actually defends Obama. He references Obama stating that Christ’s Sermon on the Mount should guide American policy.

Now, I’m a rather large fan of the Sermon on the Mount. You know, “blessed are the peacemakers, meek, etc.” And while it’s definitely a good idea to use these principles to manage your life, there is certainly no way in hell that America (or any other government, for that matter) would use them to guide policy. And if you believe that, you are being duped in some pretty nasty ways.

I’m very sick of devotees following the Republican party. But I’m equally sick of devotees following the Democrats (possibly more sick, to be honest).

In Aprilish, a devotee blogger even compared Obama to Brahma. Yeah, Lord Brahma. There were other postings gushing about how super awesome Obama was and how Krishna is blessing us with him. Someone certainly drank the Kool-Aide on this one.

He was the same devotee who gave the Obama “Hope” poster vaisnava tilaka, marking Obama as a devotee of Lord Caitanya. It is hard for me to think of something more lame than that. I’ve tried, not possible.

So will someone please tell me why so many devotees find it necessary to affiliate themselves as members of some political party? Aren’t we supposed to be above that? And fine, if you want to be a democrat or a republican and vote for “the lesser of two evils,” go for it. But why in all that is holy do you try to co-opt them and “make” them part of Krishna consciousness? Seriously, cut it out.

We are devotees. We are above this. Governments in Kali-yuga are corrupt through and through. However, the Bush administration was no more corrupt than Clinton or Grant (back in the 1870’s) or George Washington’s for that matter.

The government is made up of cheaters. The followers of either party are the cheated. We are devotees, followers of Lord Caitanya. We are not the cheaters, nor are we the cheated. We have a higher purpose.

Even our Srila Prabhupada has said, “This democracy is a demon-crazy. It has no value. It is simply waste of time and effort and no feeling, demon-crazy.” He said this many times in reference to American democracy. So why should we support it?

And so, dear vaisnavas, how about we stop wasting time supporting this demon-crazy government, or any government, and start focusing on spirituality, ok? Srila Prabhupada has given us everything we philosophically need. Why would we want to support some politician whose views cannot possibly be our own? Why settle for the “lesser of two evils” when we have Krishna consciousness? Through this we can help society, spiritually and materially, much more than lofty and soon-to-be-broken campaign promises.

Revatinandana: The symbol of the Democrat party in America is the ass.
Prabhupada: Oh, yes. Because they are asses.
- Room Conversation — December 13, 1970, Indore

I’ve been trying to think of a way to sum this whole thing up, some way to put it all so quaintly and nicely. Maybe something philosophical – my own Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, or some crap like that.

But the only thing I can think is “it’s over.”

And that can be taken in a few ways. Neither way is so cut and dry. While there’s the “thank god it’s over” mental faction, there’s also the “I’m sorry to see that it’s over” bits. And neither make a whole lot of sense.

By the time I rode through Columbus into Wheeling, I was tired. I was physically and mentally exhausted. Being at the farm certainly rejuvenated me a bit, but the ride back to Pennsylvania and the bad luck on the day after through me back into full exhaustion mode.

I feel bad, since I’ve been back I’ve not seen too many people and have been really crappy at keeping in contact (on the road, I was regulated and very good at it). I don’t know if that’s part of the exhaustion or just part of not being really all that regulated. Maybe a bit of both.

So what are my future plans?

For now, I’m living in Central Pennsylvania for the rest of the summer. While here, I plan on riding a lot, seeing some movies, visiting some friends, visiting New Vrndavana, selling some stuff (car, some books, some shelves) and basically getting ready to move to Seattle.

I had planned on a trip to New England. That is officially uncertain. I just don’t know if I have the money. I’m trying to not let the exhaustion be a factor, but it is. Though money is a bigger issue.

Well, I guess that’s about it. I made it. Thanks to everyone who read along. I’m sorry that I don’t have much more to say. I’ll be resuming my regular blog shortly.

The only thing left is for Harley and Annabelle to sing us on out…

On my first day back, I had a party to go to. Unlike most parties that happen in the evening, this one started at 9am. So, vowing to attend and not wanting to do so in a car, I hopped on the Vespa and attempted to ride the 30 or so miles to Montour Preserve.

After about two blocks, I hear this rumbling coming from my rear tire. Turns out that it’s my rear tire. Go figure.

I rode it back and checked it out. It was mostly out of air.

The soapy water trick worked and even blew a large bubble, just for fun!

A flat, eh? I remembered the night before, only a few hours after arriving home, something felt uneasy in the rear wheel. I assumed it was just in my head. But no. I must of gotten a tack in my tire at the Chinese Restaurant.

I was able to ride over 11,000 miles in 12 weeks without having any real problems. But the moment I get home, I catch a flat.

Luckily, or so I thought, I had a tire plug kit under my seat. I had never even used it. It was purchased for the trip, “just in case.” I was more than a little amused that the day after I get back… or really, the night I got back, I got a flat.

I wheeled it into the garage and plugged it, following the directions.

And in about five minutes, the tire was plugged, reinflated and ready to roll!

Now, what I should have done was tested it for leaks. Why I didn’t, I’m not sure. I just figured that I plugged it the right way. That was dumb of me.

But no matter. I headed out of town on PA 304 and then took County Line Road for about a mile until the balance began to switch. The ride, to pitch. And suddenly the tire started to unhitch. And just then the bitch, to satisfy an itch, left be stranded by the roadside thumbing for a hitch.¹

Yep. The tire went flat and the plug was gone. Since the tire was now off the bead, there was no way to replug it and inflate it with the little bike pump I always carry.

Now, if I could digress into explaining how this wouldn’t happen if I had just stayed with vintage. When I rode the vintage Vespas, I always carried a tire patch kit. But since the tires were tubed and had split rims AND were easy to take off, I could remove the tire, split the rim, throw on a new tube (I always carried extras) and ride away.

This was not the case.

I had to call for a tow. For a flat. This was lame. Even if I could somehow carry a spare, changing it is such an amazingly huge and clumsy ordeal that it would be nearly impossible (or completely impossible in my case – as I’d find out later).

The tow company said that they would be there in a couple of hours. And with time to kill, I checked out the cemetery that was my host on this lovely summer day.

Many of the graves were of children. In fact, there was an entire family buried there. They had three kids, none of them lived past the age of three.

Only one Civil War soldier was buried here. He died in 1861 in Washington DC, but I couldn’t read how or why because the stone was so deteriorated.

Though the cemetery was well carried for, I did a little maintenance myself, putting a vase upright here, weeding a bit there, righting a headstone or two. What else was I going to do to keep busy?

Well, finally the tow truck arrived and we loaded up the scooter. I’ve never seen how they did this before now and I was pretty impressed. He strapped the front wheel to this little cart thing and the cart to a winch and it pulled the scooter up the flat bed.

I was only five miles from home. I could practically see the house from here. This was frustrating.

I was more than a little amused at how the night I finished an 11,000 mile cross-country ride, taking horrible dirt roads, parking in hundreds of parking lots, even being swept off the road into a ditch during a Missouri rain storm. I never needed a tow. I never caught a flat. The ride, more or less, was 11,000 uneventful miles. And then literally 20 miles after returning home, unpacking my gear, I pick up a nail or a tack in the parking lot of the Chinese restaurant. Over night the tire went flat, I tried to fix it the same way I would have tried to fix it on the road and now it was off the rim and on the back of a roll back tow truck.

None of this made a whole lot of sense. It was like I was supposed to break down. I was overdue, but something held it off until the day after my trip, when I was a mere five miles from home. Yes, thank you. I should be thankful. Sort of hard to be, of course. But at least I know I should be.

And the state of affairs now is that a plate that goes over the wheel is somehow stuck on and though I’ve tried, I cannot remove it (and thus cannot remove the wheel). I’ve changed tires a few times before. This has never been the case. They’re tough to remove, but not impossible. I’ll tackle it again today.

Here’s a write up, with pictures on how to change a tire on a modern Vespa. This, like many modern car/motorcycle/scooter things, is far more complicated than need be.

This whole ordeal threw off my day by a good four hours. AND I had to take my car everywhere I went. It reminded me again of how much I really dislike driving. The entire time I longed to be on two wheels.

So if I can remove this plate thing (which I am pretty sure I can), I’ll have to take it to Mechanicsburg and get the tire replaced. Thankfully, they’re open on Mondays.

I’m sure I’ll follow up on this before too long.

1. Sorry about this, but I couldn’t resist. [↩]

I didn’t get a lot of sleep last night. Rati, Dwija and I were up till well after 1am. I wish I could have stayed longer.

But this morning, I woke up in a familiar place for the first time in nearly three months (well, if you don’t count the day before… hm). And that was pretty nice.

I packed up my stuff, ate a small breakfast and said goodbye to two amazing people, promising to be back a couple of times before leaving for Seattle.

The plan was to stick to the back roads. First, National Road. I did it for a bit. There was no fanfare crossing into Pennsylvania. I sneaked in the back, I guess. Not even a sign. Nothing, really. I was going to take a picture of my triumphant return, but nope.

No big deal.

Route 40/National Road is usually pretty nice. But today it was busy and as soon as I got into PA, people started to yell at me.

Seriously. I don’t know what it is about this crummy state, but I haven’t really had anyone just yell at me this entire trip. But in PA, several shirtless men in trucks yelled at me. Maybe it was Shirtless Yelling Man Day or something.

I had to take the interstate a couple of times. Not had to, really, but did. But I didn’t linger too awfully long. I even did a little exploration of the town of Brownsville. A few months ago, I passed through it on a Sunday evening. It was dead. So I figured that I should go back and get some better, daytime pictures of it.

Today, I rode through it and it was actually busy. Not the businesses, of course. Those are boarded up. But Main Street was stacked with cars. Oh, and stacked with shirtless guys in trucks yelling at me. This happened twice.

It was also here that I saw one of the paint by numbers that I’ve been looking for. It’s unofficially titled “Touchdown Jesus.” It was in the window of a storefront that may have been turned into a church or something. The sign read: Travels with Jesus. I’m not really sure what it was, but seeing Touchdown Jesus made my day. I wish it were for sale. But nobody seemed to be around.

I rode on.

Around Uniontown, I headed north to US 30. I had around 160 miles under by belt and was beat. The day’s rest at Rati and Dwija’s helped a bunch, but I’m still really spent. I considered taking the interstate, but stuck with the Lincoln Highway.

At an overlook, I met two motorcyclists, one who had ridden up from Fort Worth, Texas. They were brothers, Ray and Warren (I think). Ray was the traveler, visiting Warren and the rest of his family. We chatted for a bit, exchanging road stories.

Oddly enough, that invigorated me and allowed me to push on towards New Berlin.

It didn’t, however, keep me off of I-99. I was going to take US 522 north, but decided to shorten the trip a bit and take the newish I-99. It’s funny how afraid I was of interstates before this trip. And though I didn’t take many during it, the few that I took make the ones we have around here seem easy and carefree.

I took the superslab to near State College and then US 322 to PA 45, roads I’ve taken many time before. It was easy to just zone out.

After about an hour and a half of all that, I rolled into New Berlin, my hometown.

I could go on about how everything seemed so much smaller, but honestly, it all just seems the same. And it seems like I’ve only been gone a few moments. Nothing much, if anything at all, has changed.

That’s not really a bad thing. It’s almost like time stopped for me to make this trip. Sure, it was April when I left and it’s nearly August now, but still, a few months in a small town makes very little difference.

There wasn’t anyone to greet me when I arrived home. Just like there wasn’t anyone to see me off. I’m very ok with that. It seems fitting. I don’t like big to-do’s. I left and came back to very little attention.

And to make things even more normal, the first thing I did was had bad Chinese food with Sarah. Just like I did the night before I left.

So here I am. Back in Pennsylvania after twelve weeks of scootering around the country.

Thanks a bunch to everyone who helped out along the way, to the folks who gave me directions, to the folks who gave me a place to crash.

And thanks to everyone who read this. I’m not really sure why you’d bother, but I’m glad you did.

I’m planing on making one more post in the next couple of days… so stay tuned.

Here are my pics.

Miles today: 360
Miles total: 11,052

So the grand total is 11, 052. If you add in the miles via that horrible PT Cruiser (1,976 miles), it’s: 13,028. I’ve traveled over 13 thousand miles since I left. That’s pretty fun.

Howdy.

And on this, the next to last day of the trip, I have decided upon the route which I will take back to central Pennsylvania.

Ready?

Ok. I will leave Wheeling via National Road (US 40). I’ll take it east into Pennsylvania, through Brownsville and Uniontown into Maryland. In Maryland, I’ll continue on National Road (US 40) to US 219. I’ve never been on US 219 before. I shall take it north to Berlin.

And then PA 160 will connect me to the Lincoln Highway (US 30) east, which will take me to US 522 north and then PA 35 north. Woo!

Thanks to mom and Calder. Prepare for a bunch of pics (I hope).

Calder, when do you return to the land of the free, home of the brave? WHEN?!

The trip from Decatur to Wheeling went by rather quickly. This is mostly due to interstates. Now, as the entire trip has show, I don’t like interstates. But I do admit they serve a purpose. I didn’t realize that they served such a purpose to a scooter.

Out west, the interstates are extremely fast. Add in a head wind and you’ve got a 50mph death trap surrounded by other death traps moving at around 80mph. But heading east, the wind was behind me. Throw in high gas prices making everyone drive slower (I’m just speculating about that, but I think it’s true – people are driving slower… or I somehow got faster).

Well, I did get a little faster due to the tail wind. I was drafting trucks a lot of the way, as well. A fun little game to play is get about three car lengths behind a semi, so that you’re in his slip stream, but not too close. And when another semi is passing both of you, hit the gas. The scooter will take full advantage of the slip stream. Right when you get about one car length from the semi in front of you, the semi to your left will just be passing. Do a quick lane shift and you’re riding at 80mph behind a huge truck giving you zero wind resistance. It’s pretty fun!

Sure, a little dangerous, but I’m riding a scooter across the country… so… where’s the line?

I rode around Columbus. Not like around the streets, but physically around it. I used to live there and I’m not sure I really like the place. I kept my respectful distance and rode on. From a bit before Columbus to Wheeling, I took the interstates. It was probably 150 miles or so. Maybe a little more (took US 33 to the beltway and that’s rather interstate-like).

I got to Wheeling just as quickly as if I were in a car. Very few cars passed me. Usually, it was the other way around.

After a windy (with turns and bends) West Virginia State Route 88, I found myself on US 250 and then Palace Road on my way to Rati and Dwija’s. Just a little bit after 12 noon. Fast!

I had quite an amazing ride – when you take into account it was all on the interstates and if I don’t think about bypassing half a state worth of the historic National Road.

Thursday, I’ll be here and then Friday I’ll leave, finishing out the trip. Crazy that it’s over. . .

Miles today: 283
Miles total: 10,692

Right now I’m about to head out the door to Wheeling, WV, my last stop on the trip. I’ll be there for but a day. On Friday morning I’ll be heading out to New Berlin, PA.

But how will I get there?

You, dear readers, should pick it.

The choices are (everything starts with US 40)

-US 40/National Road to US 522 North (goes into Maryland )
-US 40/National Road to US 30/Lincoln Highway to US 522 North (basically how I got to Wheeling at the start of my trip)
-US 40/National Road to US 11 through Shippensburg and Carlise.
-US 40/National Road to US 22 to PA 45 (hilly and rural)
-Or some other fun combination.

Anyone? I plan on making a day of it. Interstates are not out of the question to quickly change routes, but I’d rather keep off of them for longer stints.

So check out a map and get back to me. I’ll be leaving Wheeling on Friday morning.