bent's blog | The Lost Bus

Gardening in February

Submitted by bent on Sun, 2012-02-12 16:08

Southern California sure has been treating us well. Gosh I'm happy to be a migratory creature—a snowbird, if you will. I'm a wanderer driven by the subtle nudges of a cold night or a southbound goose. Don't get me wrong, I love a good cold snow-filled winter. Often I find myself dreaming of being on cross country skis in Michigan, or back on a dogsled in Montana. More often though, I find myself appreciating the fact that it's February and sunny and I'm comfortable outdoors in shorts. The other day I was working in a garden—watering plants and digging holes and just getting dirty outside; then I realized it was February and I couldn't wipe the smile off my face.

The Dream Center

Submitted by bent on Mon, 2012-02-06 13:56

The Los Angeles Dream Center has been our home since Thursday. This place is absolutely awesome. My experiences during our short visit here have been incredible. I really don’t like the thought of leaving this place.

The Dream Center is a volunteer driven organization dedicated to serving people in L.A. It is essentially a very active church that never sleeps—seemingly never even takes a break. The number of projects, ministries, events, and programs here is immense… you’d really have to check out there website to get a sense of what all goes on here.

http://www.dreamcenter.org/about-us/

L.A. Livin'

Submitted by bent on Thu, 2012-02-02 15:34

Our last night in the Chino area we got to enjoy another meal with friends from the day before, along with new friends—John, Anne, and Steph. It was a great night of good food and conversation. Tuesday morning, after a stop at the hay lot to say goodbyes, we got the bus back on the open road. Well, the road wasn’t really open, more clogged and congested, but back on the road nonetheless. Thank you, Ontario/Chino people; it was a very memorable visit. The hardest part about this journey has been saying goodbye to a place right when you get to know it. You all made it hard to leave!

Ontario/Chino

Submitted by bent on Mon, 2012-01-30 17:32

Been back to bus life for over a week already—living in southern California, and loving life. Our home has been at the B&G Hay Lot. Everyday we get the pleasure of hanging out with Linda, Johnny, and Hockey—our friends who have put up with looking at our bus on a daily basis for the last six weeks. Now, we continue to hang around and they at least pretend not to be sick of our presence. The weather has been amazing here—sunny and delightfully warm all the time. We live in an area that seems to be the only undeveloped land in southern California. All around us are shopping malls and traffic jams, but our home overlooks pastures and farmland—the San Gabriel Mountains are always there on the horizon to put a smile on my face.

on the road again...

Submitted by bent on Tue, 2012-01-24 22:58

on the road!
back to the unknown.
that crazy lifestyle that I love.
good to be home(less)!

Turn the Page

Submitted by bent on Sun, 2012-01-22 15:24

Ahh, home sweet home.

San Francisco!

Submitted by bent on Wed, 2011-11-30 20:46

San Francisco, I'm impressed… it's very nice to meet you. This is an amazing city and our time spent here has been really great. Maybe it's just the fact that I am growing more accustom to life in big cities—I really like Austin, Seattle, and Portland—but this place is proving to be my favorite, by far. Coming from the small towns of northern California and the Oregon coast, our introduction to San Francisco was a bit intense. We slowly funneled into the city amongst a swarm of other vehicles over the bay bridge. Riding on the roof of the bus into the heart of the city on that Friday evening was a pretty memorable experience.

Big Trees, Good Friends, and an Ocean

Submitted by bent on Tue, 2011-11-15 10:32

Northern California has been amazing. Our time has been spent enjoying the redwoods, the Pacific Ocean, and good friends—new and old. The redwood groves around here are unreal… it's hard to drive by without stopping for a look around. I've been in redwoods before but never appreciated them the way I do now. We spent time hiking under the ancient giants in Jedediah Smith and Prairie Creek Redwoods State Parks. The combination of the redwood trees and the ocean here make for some impressive scenery… this place is beautiful. When we arrived in Eureka, the sun was shining, I was wearing a t-shirt, and palm trees dotted the landscape. Now that right there was a good feeling.

Going to California

Submitted by bent on Mon, 2011-11-07 17:22

If it wasn't for the cold weather pushing us south and our flight out of L.A. looming in the near future, I don't think we would have left that place so soon. This past week of life has been a good one. We spent our time working near Grants Pass at an organization called Wildlife Images. It is a wildlife rehabilitation and education center. They take in injured wildlife to rehabilitate and release them—they house the animals that wouldn't have a fighting chance in the wild and give them the best possible life in captivity. Some of their permanent residents include Clark the cougar, Kodi the Grizzly, Nikoli the Lynx, Tundra the wolf, and Nubs the badger… among so many other critters. We spent a week there and enjoyed getting to know the place and the people pretty well.

Langlois, OR

Submitted by bent on Sat, 2011-10-29 13:37

Time flies when you're having fun. For the last week we have been living in Langlois, OR at our friends Andy and Joanna's place. They live and work at a Bed and Breakfast here on Floras Lake and have been kind enough to host us for a week. Andy is a pro kiteboarder—he works at a kiting and windsurfing school and has been taking the time to give us lessons. Every time we have a spare hour or two or three, we head down to the lake and learn more about the sport. Floras Lake is a shallow freshwater lake just 100 yards inland from the Pacific. It makes for the perfect kiteboarding conditions and we have had wonderfully windy weather this week. We started on the beach with trainer kites and have slowly worked our way up to practicing with a board in the water.