So, I left off with my arrival to the community. The week to follow was electric, I was fueled by all the new folks I was meeting, the first weekend was the Federation of Intentional Communities conference. Everyone there was fresh and excited about their visions of living in community, I kept that going after all the conference-goers dipersed when I stayed at the commune living in Aurora, the building where the visitors stay. The six people I joined were pretty starry eyed like myself about the notion of living in community even despite the "not utopia yet" assurances. Twin Oaks was amazing, look it up, do a visitor period, and we'll live there together in about a year.
On monday there was a women's gathering dispersing and I got a ride with a woman, Karen, going back to her home in Pittsburgh. I went there to try to catch my grandfather there. He was visiting and I wanted him to show me the significant spots and tell me some stories about raining my mom and her siblings. I'd never been to Pittsburgh. But I missed him, he wanted to go home early and I didn't want to tell him I was going to be there and get his hopes up until I knew I could get a ride. Well, sometimes you just don't going to know whether you're going to a place until the day it happens. So Karen let me stay in her house for three nights (or as long as I wanted) and her daughters took me around. It was fun, then I met up with my aunt's sister, Dianne, who lives alone. I stayed two very quiet days with her and finished my last post. Thought I was going to make it to a homebrewing festival about an hour north of Pittsburgh, but nope. I was ready to jump into something dynamic and unpredictable so I had Dianne take me down to the opening night of the "New and obscure games festival" I brought my things and had her leave me there. The even had been getting buzz on Couchsurfing.org, so I was fairly certain I could find someone who would invite me to their couch after a night of zombies VS humans and other games.
I was right, I stayed with a guy named Skory who was helping to put the games event together, and imagine the chances that his roommate is Ben Salatin, nephew of the famed Joel Salatin of Polyface farm. So I got to drink water from their well that Ben imports in OJ jugs, and I got to eat some meat from there too, it was definitely good, tasting like the grass-fed beef I've had in Arkansas. After reveling in a weekend of games I pushed of to Philly.
I stayed in one place only while in Philadelphia, Dana and Michael's house, Michael is my oldest cousin and they have four kids 4 to 8 years old. I just stayed at their house for about a week without leaving at all, completely blissed out just cooking (some chicken of the woods mushroom I found in their backyard) or making paper airplanes and playing with the kids. I considered my restlessness after just a day and a half at Dianne's in contrast with the way day after day I was satisfied to go to bed planning to indulge in the same idleness starting in the morning.
I decided to leave there because I was too comfortable, my intention is to put myself out of my comfort zone... I wanted to go to another eco-village like Twin Oaks, there are a few nearish to Philly, but I would have had to just crash one and ask if they'd let me stay (similar to what happened at Twin Oaks, but without an event to attend) I reasoned that I ought to be turing around anyway, making my way back towards Austin by that time, and that I may as well go to Acorn. Acorn is a commune that diverged from Twin Oaks in the nineties. They are about seven miles apart and I hadn't seen it yet. Well, I emailed Wizard from TO and he agreed to pick me up at the Amtrak station. Once I got there I ended up rationalizing that there was so much I didn't know yet about Twin Oaks I would be justified in staying. So I did.
Many happy swims in the pond, dinner preps for 80, saunas and batches of bread later I said good bye, see you in a year I bet to that whole crew and I made my way to Raleigh where I spent the night in the airport for a morning flight back home to Austin. I got home last Thursday and I've been reveling in the homeness of it all, mostly in an attempt to distract myself from the pretty wild truth that I will leave this place for a year on Friday morning.
Ask for details folks! I'm thrilled to have a total of 15 followers, that is pretty sweet, I mean I haven't even left for Italy yet. By the way, lest you be confused, my departure for Italy is actually October 7, but until then I'm going back to Hendrix, then to Tennessee for a storytelling festival where I'll meet my parents and brother and sister-in-law and nephew, nieces etc. I'll go to NYC after that and wait until my big departure.
My last word here is a big old challenge to all the next Walker folks. I challenge any of you guys to stay abroad for as long as I do on the funds they give. I am going to stick it to the chumps at the Watson and shoot for a year-long travel. I'm kicking it off with my one-way ticket, NYC -> Turin. How much? $474. Watch out fellows.
