Virginia continuations.

I am up in the East Coast area. I was to visit with a friend up here and stay with him up in the Jersey area. Here is a letter from him that i received back before i left from Houston.

Sept 5, 1:22pm

hey adam

your last message caused me to look a little closer at your facebook profile. that is when i came across your blog. i must say, i am not surprised but am extremely saddened.

my heart is broken reading your entries. and i and my family are praying for you. we are praying that you would repent and turn back to the Lord and His Word. the road that you are on, this "freedom", leads to death and you have sat under enough teaching to know what that means. "there is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death." proverbs 14. 12. you are on the broad way that leads to the wide gate of destruction (matthew 7. 13). you have stopped believing His Word and doing His Word and, thus, have bit deeply in and are gnawing upon the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life (first john 2. 15-17, james 1. 22), elevating your opinions and vain philosophies above and in place of His Word (colossians 2. 8, ephesians 5. 6, romans 1. 21). you are, my friend, apostate (first timothy 4. 1).

needless to say, it is not right that you come here in the state that you have chosen to be in. i have a wife and children to protect. you can come if and only if you are of a broken and contrite heart, ready to discuss (according and submitted to the Word) your willing rebellion and disobedience to Him and His Word. again, do not come here unless you are willing to remember, repent, return to Him, and do the first works. then and only then can we have fellowship of the same kind...Jesus Christ.

you have turned yourself over and so do i-for the destruction of your flesh. first corinthians 5. 5. you are believing a lie. no matter what you tell yourself, all you are going to find is death and separation from the TRUTH. your newfound "freedom" is bondage (galatians 4. 9, galatians 5. 1).

i love you adam and pray that you would let the Lord open your eyes to what you have done and are doing.

So there u have it. This is totally understandable to me. In fact, it seems biblical, no? Obviously there is reason to write such a letter using the bible as the sole motivator. I actually thought more people would be speaking like this. i'm very happy that is not the case. Only one other friend isn't keeping contact with me once a short email went out mentioning my struggle. I'll give this person the benefit of the doubt that they are busy. most people would at least reply in some way. but everyone is different. actually, I heard from this one while writing this blog. very interesting. =)
i showed this email to because i think it's sick how this person thinks. "i have a wife and children to protect". what the heck? as if all of a sudden now that i might not hold the same religious beliefs i once held, that i have now become a pervert, rapist that people need to protect their wife and kids from me. i don't know. i know the question comes up often about morality if ur not a bible believer. where do u get ur morality? as if there is no other people outside of the christian faith who do good and love justice. i think it is a very valid question. but i do see this sense that there is no other good people in this world outside this particular faith. no bueno.

I left knoxville TN and found some mountains to mountain bike in about an hour and a half eastward. Panther Creek State Park.  I've never mountain biked in the mountain. how ironic. so i thought to myself maybe i'll just ride some trails and head out. before doing so, i took a ride around the park.. i saw this view.

i got this feeling of "i can't leave this, i must stay and spend more time here. it's my density... i mean destiny". so i went and found a place to set up camp and took off on a bike ride. ufda. there is nothing like actually mountain biking on actual mountains. though i must say, these were still foothills.. but still. they are mountains compared to the texas trails that i'm used to. i didn't download those pics from my other camera.. but i almost died a few times.. they were intense. the downhills were so amazing that other bikers had this contraption on their head so they could mount their little digital camera in it and record the incredible down hill bumpiness and spectaculizational (it's in the dictionary) speed! oh my. no wipe outs. thank goodness. or good fortune.


anyhow after my 2 trails on my bike that i did, i noticed i might possibly have time to get back to that view (previous pics) and get a good sunset pic. ufda! GO GO GO!! i loaded my bike and hauled butt back to that area. it was about 2 miles away i'm guessing.

 No bueno. the sun setting that i really wanted was around the corner. I mean this was a nice view but i wanted a clear sun set. So I started running down this trail, called Ridgecrest so i could get the view i wanted. This trail was an intense .7 mile down hill rocky log jumpin' trail. i was hauling butt cuz that sun goes down quick. it's like i was bouncing down it holding my camera. i was soooo scared i was going to trip and fall.

i stopped to take a pic on my way just in case i didn't make it.

A pic while running. heh.

I know this is cheesy but i like sunsets. Alas. I made it to the shore!!! I enjoyed sitting here for a good 20 minutes or so soakin' in some good ole gloriousness that creation afforded me.

I had just missed the sun.. but this is what i got. no complaints. i have more pics.. but am limiting ur pleasure to a select few.  so i left when it was getting REALLY DARK. i wasn't scared. well. no. of course not. no! i wasn't scared! no way. I don't get scared. ha! it was dark going thru these woods. i couldn't see the trail....but i did see this foot. "oh no" i thought to myself. i'm going to get eaten by a huge human that got lost on this trail back hundreds of years ago who now lives off of other lost humans by eating them and their fingers. just kidding. don't worry. i made the foot. just trying to add a little drama to my story.

k. so then i went hiking in the morning...and read a book that my knoxville friend thought i might like. The Alchemist by Paulo Cohelo. i never thought i'd like fiction. But i'm diggin this book.

good times. Ernie here was given to me by Ethan, Christy's son from North Carolina. He won it in one of those games where the claw goes down and grabs stuff. he actually won 2 prizes at once. and gave me this one!

After my trail hike and reading, it was time to get back to camp and shower and hit the road jack. After leaving here i made my way to "the tri-cities" which consist of Bristol, johnson city, and one more.. i forgot.. but i stayed at Bristol which is a twin city, Bristol, TN and Brisol, VA. They are separated by a road.. so depending on where u are, i kept bouncing between states. yay.

No action in this town for me. i did my laundry. That was thrilling. i visited a certain bar. but everyone was older. so i just sat around and drank a beer and watched all the drunk people. this is always enjoyable. especially older folk, some up in the 60s. cute old women on the dance floor!

so not too much action.. but if u keep reading i'll tell u more.

I left and headed across Virginia and i've never seen soo many church steeples in my life. it was amazing. i guess it's that old style of church architecture in the oldest parts of our country. this part of the drive was sweet. the trees would spit in my eye with color bursts. everywhere.

a friend liked this pic.

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The pics don't do it justice. The colors were not all encompassing, but they sure were popping out like no other state i'd seen yet. the weather was getting really warm. 80s and junk.
My next town to pass thru was charlottesville. It looked like a neat town. it was the town that T. Jefferson decided to build the university of Virginia. I'm no scholar, but Jefferson is cool. i stopped to look at the university and take a pic of the Rotunda which he designed himself adding a bit of Greecian design to it.

Alright. so i left this college town. shoulda stayed the night. but i took off towards the mo' bigger Richmond. I arrived there pretty late. I had the hardest time finding some place to mingle. Forgive me for saying this, but there was sooooo many black folk around. i have nothing against black folk at all. i just felt out of place. It's equivalent to me saying there was so many blonde women in the Woodlands back in Texas. The web didn't help me find a place. i kept ending up in places where i felt as though i was in the ghetto. bassing cars with huge rims. eh. i hate damn stereotypes. how to conquer.... dunno. it honestly didn't feel safe for me most of the places i cruised around. so i found a walmart and took a nap for the evening. before i crashed asleep, i checked out the walmart just for kicks. i thought it was humourous in the isle where they sell hair dye and junk and hair products for women, all the models on all the products were black. i thought it was soo cool. they are accommodating to their surroundings. it would be kinda dumb to have a bunch of blonde women  models selling to black women. not wise business.
anyhow. the next morning was SUNDAY!... i love sundays. i thought about visiting a buddhist place, but they mentioned that i can't just show up. u need to get in contact with the leader of a particular group so u can be advised of all the practices and junk. nah.
unitarian universalists it is!! yess!
so i went. and loved it! i always love it! today they were talking about mentors. damn. i wish i had a mentor. i always avoided people that tried in my life. i always feared looking like i didn't know what the hell i was doing. i guess i never trusted anyone to get too close to me. anyhow. it was a good little sermonette. i started getting bummed after hearing this and i think i thought somewhere in my mind. "what a dumb trip. i wouldn't even be on this trip if i had someone who helped me along the way in my life (other than my wonderful mother), a man figurine!" dumb thinking.
so after the meeting i started talking to this guy named wayne. He was an ex-catholic preist of 15 years. Immediately this guy was "that's good. real good," referring to my road trip. he totally encouraged me in our10 minute little chat.
So i noticed on the website of this UU church that they were having a brunch for the 21-35ish year old folks. i really wanted to do that.. but i was kinda wuss-like in my mind. i told myself that if ANYONE would speak to me about it, i'm going. if not, then i'm not gonna go. after the service I waited around for quite a bit. There was this one female there that looked my age, that i was hoping to talk to, but it just wasn't coming to pass..I didn't see anyone else there that looked close to my age.. so i just waited and waited around looking like fool. And just when i was thinking about either leaving or introducing myself to this young woman, she came over to me and we chit chatted. she invited me to the brunch! yes! 2 more folks came over and joined our small chat and our group was up to four. we went to eat at Babes of Carytown (i think=). one more person met us at the brunch. A nifty atheist named Drew. My first atheist friend. =) he is interesting because though he doesn't believe in god, he goes to the UU church cuz they do a lot of social justice type things...and he is a humanist and cares about humans. that's tight.
Anyhow, great people. all of them. the first person i met was named Gretchen. Then Paul and Treisa (maybe). There was a folk festival going on this weekend. Gretchen let me tag a long with her and also offered me a bed in her casa and a shower. bam! people! amazing!

Gretchen and Paul

One of the two dogs de Gretchen!

the sleeping quarters

my morning view

So we met up with paul at the folk festival and hung out. We went back to her house and hung out the rest of the evening. Walked the lovely pups. We ate some leftover steaks she had. yum. She is in the social work field. she is a Psycho Therapist! An amazing job for an amazing person with an amazing heart for humans. good times! she asked me if i liked sunsets or sunrises better. I must say that i'm more aquainted with the sunsets than the sun rises by experience. I rarely see a beautiful sunrise if any. i guess i'm not up that early most of the time. So i was inspired to try and get some sunrises. Below is my first attempt which i tried the following morning.
ufda. but after i left gretchens house i went to a local park known as belle isle. i went to ride my bike. read. and write. I then left towards Newport News, Virginia. on the way there i stopped to see a place known as  colonial Williamsburg which is a living museum. They have super old structures that were either maintained or redone. they have live actors throughout the whole place showing how live was during the earlier colonial times. i got there too late and didn't see any of it. but i did get a pic of this guy playing the hammer dulcimer. really fun to listen to. Then i went to newport news to sleep.

At this point i am headed towards Norfolk VA. My next destination was on the 13th in Philly. A good old friend name Jerome is flying to London to meet up with his wife who is studying to be a veterinarian. No one flies to London without having a lay over somewhere on the east coast. His is the 13th in Philly. i'm going to greet him. His layover is from 7:04pm to 8:50pm.

i shall keep u advised.
adamo.

crossing the bridge to belle isle

how i look on belle isle

i love the tunnels. Somewhere in VA

The sunrise i attempted to catch