Who Knew Couch Surfing Was So Cool?

I officially joined Couch Surfing (www.couchsurfing.org). I'm not sure how much we'll be relying on the hospitality of strangers on the bike trip, but I figured it couldn't hurt to start looking. Come to find out, Couch Surfing is much more than a simple forum for finding a couch to sleep on or for offering up an extra couch to a weary traveler...

It's like a mixture of Meetup.com, Facebook, Craigslist and Hostelworld. You have a profile and friends, and there are groups, subgroups and message boards. So far I've joined the Pioneer Valley group as well as the Austin group, and two of its sub groups : BIKE AUSTIN! and Austin Music Exchange. I was surprised to see that many of the posts to the community boards were really recent, and all had replies. People would say things like, "As you all know I'm moving to Panama," or "Thank you to everyone for the support over the past months." They all had so much love for each other, but had probably all met through Couch Surfing.

From the post below not only did I learn that I have summer "bike-in movies" to look forward to when I move to Austin, but I also clicked on this link, www.atxbs.com which takes you to the site for Austin Texas Bike Stuff. I quickly joined and now have a whole new resource for bike events, advocacy and advice at my fingertips, all Austin-related.

Random Couch Surfing Post:
Meet at the Lamar Pedestrian Bridge tomorrow night to bike to Givens Park, play some games, and then to a "secret" location to have the first summer bike-in movie! Detailed flyer at this link; http://www.atxbs.com/ anyone want to go? Melissa

Sleepy Toes

Question:
How come my right big toe always falls asleep and then goes numb when I ride my bike? How do I keep it from doing that?

Time Stamp and a Tag Sale

Home from work, I collapse onto my bed, let my head hit the pillow and stare, like a dead fish at the map of California on my wall. Unmoving, I think not of how excited I am to soon be free of nearly all of my possessions, riding along the beach with a tent and a sleeping bag, an ipod and Lyon. No, I'm thinking about how comfortable my face feels as it sinks into my familiar pillow, and how heavy my body feels atop our queen-sized mattress, the smell of summer air coming in through the window mixing with the scent of fresh sheets. I'm wondering who will buy this mattress from me and who will buy the incredibly heavy couch in our living room. I'm thinking about the dreaded tag sale we're having on Sunday.

This trip isn't just about going on an extremely long bike ride, it's also a time stamp that we'll use to remember our transition from Lyon's home to mine. We are leaving Massachusetts and moving to Texas, which most of you know, but its something I haven't written here yet. But I've been in this valley for 7 years and last night when Rabiha left, we acknowledged that it would be the last time she'd come over and make tea at my house and cook dinner and sit on the porch to chat, watching Northampton go by, catching each other up.

Today on my way home from work I dropped Vanessa off and, as she got out of the car, balancing in her arms a vase of flowers I'd gotten her because it was her final week with CC-CS, we voiced that it was our last carpool trip together. We decreed, that it had been a "great" carpool, each laughing to ourselves about the many complications and frustrations that only a carpool of 5 friends and co-workers can create. In the end, though, we'll remember Morning Edition on NPR, making on-the-fly grocery runs on the way home, gossiping about work before getting there, taking a picture of the same field that the carpool goes by each day for 8 months to see how it changes from ice and snow to dirt to sprouts to beans and back to dirt...

And when Kelly came over on Tuesday to watch the Celtics Vs. Lakers game (we'll just pretend that game didn't happen) she covered her eyes at the sight of boxes and piles of books that we'd been sorting through. "Noooo! You're not moving! What are these boxes doing here! Get them out of here!" I wish that I could wish that I would find a Kelly in Austin...but I know its not worth it since there isn't one. She's only here.

I haven't ridden my bike further than a few blocks in the past two weeks. We don't have any new bike gear, and Lyon's weekends are filling up so quickly with gigs that I wonder how we will squeeze in a practice overnight trip before it's time to go. But we will make it happen. Whether we are a little more or a little less prepared isn't the point. Right now I'm saying goodbye, not to people yet, just to my bed and my chair, our kitchen table, that blue hutch, the oriental rug...

We'll be out of our house by July 15th. Then I move in with Kelly while Lyon goes on tour for 3 weeks with JP Harris and the Tough Choices. When he's back, we'll have a few more weeks to get our bikes and our butts in shape, then August 31st we drive to Texas.

September 9th is Lyon's birthday. September 10th we fly from Austin to Seattle. The tickets are purchased, just need to figure out how to dismantle our bikes enough that the airline will accept them as checked baggage...simple, really.

SB 1070: Arizona's Immigration Bill

This entry begins on my bike, so I'd say it's fair game for the bike blog, even if it's not entirely related to the bike trip. Twice in May, while riding my bike (once to UMass to deposit a check, and another time through downtown Northampton), I came across groups of individuals protesting Arizona's anti-immigration bill, 1070.

The two major concerns with this bill are that it requires legal immigrants to carry their papers with them at all times, and it allows state law enforcement to demand papers from people that have reasonable suspicion to believe might be illegal immigrants. But you can read more about it and do some of your own sorting and interpreting on the World Wide Web.

Both times I came across rallies against the bill, I stopped to watch, to read fliers that were handed to me and to listen to people take the mic and either pour their hearts out in bouts of screaming, defiant rage or to deliver even-tempered, logical reasons why SB 1070 is dangerous for our country. And both times my skin crawled and tingled as I imagined this statute, which has already been signed into state law by governor Jan Brewer, actually going into affect (which it is set to do July 29th).

A NY Times article I read called SB 1070 "the nation's toughest bill on illegal immigration." President Obama has denounced the law, and it is under review by the Justice Department. Several lawsuits, many by civil rights groups, have been filed challenging the bill's constitutionality, and president Calderón has issued a travel warning to Mexicans advising against visiting Arizona where they risk being subject to harassment by law enforcement based on their appearance.

There's a huge movement to boycott Arizona, and it's not the first time Arizona has done something that merited a boycott. In the late 80's the governor at the time refused to recognize Martin Luther King Day as a paid holiday, and as a result, the state lost millions. The boycott, which cut down on concerts, tourism and conventions in Arizona, included the 1993 Super Bowl which the NFL revoked from AZ and awarded to Pasadena, CA. The boycott is back on, and I know that the Austin City Council has decided to end business and travel deals with Arizona in protest of the bill: http://www.statesman.com/news/local/texans-protest-arizona-law-717398.html.

City Councils in Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles have all also promised to boycott Arizona in their own ways. All these cities are stops on our bike trip. Coincidence? Well, yes, but I'm happy to be passing through and spending my money there.

For now, however, Arizona is going forward with implementation of the law in late July (http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2010/06/06/Phoenix-sheriff-vows-to-uphold-SB-1070/UPI-84021275835051/)

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I'll leave you with a flier that was handed to me at the last rally downtown on May 29th:

Immigrant and Worker Rights Coalition
National Day of Action Rally
Northampton City Hall Steps
Saturday, May 29th
12 noon

We are here today to join in solidarity with demonstrators in Phoenix, Arizona (where organizers expect as many as 100,000 people) and other communities around the United States to protest the racist attack on immigrants embodied in Arizona SB 1070.

This Arizona law is quickly becoming known as the "Juan Crow Law" because it legalizes racism and second-class citizenship for Latinos in much the same way Jim Crow segregation laws did in the South to African Americans before the civil rights movement.

GET INVOLVED!

If you want to know what you can do in your city/town to oppose SB1070, you can join us in organizing our Boycotting Arizona Campaigns. Come to a meeting on Tuesday, June 8th at 5pm at Food for Thought bookstore in Amherst (106 North Pleasant Street), or go to http://www.afscwm.org/boycottaz/.

If you want to join the work of the Immigrant and Worker Rights Coalition, you can email us at wmciwr@gmail.com or join us at any of our meetings every third Thursday of the month at 7pm at 241 King Street in the 2nd floor conference room. ALL ARE WELCOME AND ENCOURAGED TO COME!

The Immigrant & Worker Rights Coalition (IWRC) is a group of organizations and community members who advocate, educate, organize, and mobile to protect the human, civil, and constitutional rights of all workers and residents in our communities.