Vance Walstra
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 Heading to the Train Station The beginning of the 40-day bicycle outreach tour, started with a sunny sky, riding my fully loaded bike along the Willamette river through Portland to board a train towards Seattle where it would all begin. While the sun was nice, I knew the likely-hood of feeling its warmth on my face would be a rare occurrence over the next few weeks... So, it was embraced. |  Presenting at UW-Tacoma |  Presenting at UW-Tacoma |  Making PB&J for the Tacoma Food Bank. |  Olympia Waterfront in Olympia on the way to Totten Inlet. |  Totten Inlet from the Mandau's backyard |  Mt. Ranier Mt. Ranier viewed while leaving Tacoma on the way to Olympia. |  Waterfront at Olympia |  Waterfront at Olympia |  Totten Inlet from the Mandau's backyard |  Mt. Ranier, view leaving Tacoma in route to Olympia |  Omprakash outreach table at Reed College Commons |  Presentation Room at Reed College |  Presentation Room at Reed College |  Reed College: One of the many beautiful buildings on campus One of the many beautiful buildings on campus |  The Cleu necklace - working to achieve At-onement
|  PSU- applied anthro. class where presentation was held |  Occupy Portland Portland, OR www.occupypdx.org |  Occupy Portland Daddy, what was freedom like? |  Occupy Portland Hungry Humans |  Breakin' free at Occupy Portland This is the guy who just busted with his head and jumped out of cop car window, with handcuffs on! |  Occupy Portland Line for free meals. |  Occupy Portland... a voice Here are some live thoughts on the Occupation. This man had just moved to Portland from Boise, ID a month ago. He has been with the occupation since he found out about it, almost a week ago. He sheds some light on the event. Meanwhile, you can hear the guy who busted out of the police car ramble in the background. |  Heading to Lamda Alpha meeting from SW hills |  Lamda Alpha meeting Meeting with the Lamda Alpha Anthropological Honors Society to listen, learn, and talk about Omprakash (and offering ideas on ways to utilize the network for undergrad and graduate studies, or in between programs) |  Hawthorne Bridge Hawthorne Bridge, taken from east side of Willamette River while heading south out of Portland. |  OMSI submarine on the WIllamette River. photo taken from Oregon Museum of Science and Industry over looking the WIllamette. |  Farm and Mt. Hood Farm in the Willamette Valley with Mt. Hood in the distance |  Artifact? I took a break along the side of the road, after leaving Silverton and heading towards Salem. I found this beat up rock that looked like it have been run-over by a plow on numerous occasions. However, upon futher inspection it appeared to be a fragment of a piece of ground stone. *ground stone is a stone that has been subjected to grinding of any number of its surface. Usually this is a result of food (seed or nut) processing. This particular piece could have been a hand stone or a piece to a larger milling slap. See the following photo for a better glimse of the satin-smooth surface. |  Ground Stone - possible artifact Another photo of the ground stone, utilizing the sun to show the smooth sheen in the interior of the surface. There is also pecking (small indentions made by smashing) along the rounded edge. |  State Capitol Building - Salem, Oregon |  Gold statue atop State Capitol building in Salem, Oregon |  Farm and Mt. Hood Farm with Mt. Hood in the background. |  Artifact? On my way out of Silverton, towards Salem, I stopped on the side of the road by a large agricultural field to take a break. Looking down in the dirt, I found this rock which looked as if it had been pretty beat up by years of plowing. Upon further examination I notices its potential to be ground stone. Ground stone is an artifact, of stone, that has been subjected to intentional grinding. This is typicially a result of food production, and more specifically the grinding of seeds, grains or nuts. See the next photo to get a better view of the satin-smooth sheen. |  Ground Stone - possible artifact Utilizing the sunshine to show the satin-smooth sheen on the interior surface of the rock. This could have been a broken hand stone used for grinding -or- a fragment of a larger milling slab. However, there is some pecking (indentions made by hammering or smashing) along the rounded edges, which suggests the likeliness of this to be a handstone if it is indeed an artifact. |  State Capitol Building - Salem, Oregon |  Gold statue atop State Capitol building in Salem, Oregon |  Little bike, Big building I have already included another picture of the Capitol building, but I like this one showing the emphamis bike that is carrying the load for this journey |  Lunch break on the tracks This is where I ate my lunch. This set of tracks was running along the east side of the Willamette River, so I could see the water moving north through the trees as I enjoyed my break. |  Willamette River Crossing the Willametter River near the small town of Independence, Oregon, roughly 20 miles north of Albany. |  Pumpkin patch makes a colorful landscape Colorful landscape, going through the agricultural fields on the way to Albany/Corvallis |  My house and my car Settling in after a long day of riding. |  Table on the Quad at OSU in Corvallis |  Presentation classroom at OSU Someone here asked me for my autograph... I dont know. |  Midnight ride to 711 in Dan's (my host) Pedi Cab Dan had 3 different Pedi Cabs!! |  Dan showing me his chickens in the back yard I like Dan's unique haircut... it reminded me of the Hari Krishnas.. |  Me, Adele and Carlo just meeting After just meeting at Elle's house. |  The bluegrass band at Sam Bond's Garage Carlo and Adele were impressed with the music and were not very exposed to bluegrass.. They seemed really engaged.. |  Carlo before the presentation at UofO in Eugene Carlo being silly and preparing the video equipment before the presentation. |  Free loader Bike inside "Betsy" the ole van, as we ran around town doing errands and shopping for the next few days worth of groceries. |  Betsy Another shot of the free loader... lazy cyclist getn a ride around town! Ha! | 
that is a big mushroom... that's my helmet beside it! |  Sunset Bay
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|  free food We met this couple walking down the road.. they offered us some free edible mushrooms. They jumped in the van and we brought them home. Turns out they just started an organization in Ghana and they are going back soon to build wells. Carlo used the mushrooms in another rissoto! |  Mr. Carlo Ricci we had to wake up before sunrise to get a couple shots. This just taken after the sun broke the horizon. |  northern California coastline
|  new friends and another westfalia The two vans have been traveling together for the last 3 nights |  TRaVeLinG arT shoW! This guy was just squatting on the side of 101 going up near prarie creek. I pulled over and he took me into the forest on a trail where he was LITERALLY having an art show. He had a 50 fit path through the woods with art on the ground, hanging from trees and bushes. He said he had been riding since he was 16. He had one dreadlock, only half of his mustache and was the most unique characted I met on the road so far. He was sharp and very intelligent. |  A Redwood road block I snuck under a baracade that said road closed, hoping that it was for "cars only". I was the only one on the road and I soon found out why. I actually took the things off my bike and carried it over the trees! It was awesome! Then I had the next 10 miles of DOWN HILL, two lanes, with no one else on the road. This was the most beautiful ride of the tour so far. |  The film crew One big happy family. |  caravan now I have two orange VW vans beeping their horns as they pass by me several times everyday |  A walk in the Redwoods takin with my Canon |  A walk in the Redwoods taken with my canon |  A walk in the Redwoods macro on mushrooms, taken by my canon |  A walk in the Redwoods This is one of my favorites. I focused on the water drop dangling from the clover. Taken with my Canon. |  Adele Adele taking a photo inside of a dead redwood |  A walk in the Redwoods Rusten up in the trees |  The packed house at Stanford You can see how busy the fair was and also catch a glimse of Lacey and Carlo in action, telling what Omprakash is all about! |  Sunrise this morning from Chatom Regional Park I camped out last night and being very tired, I was asleep by 7:30pm. Naturally, I woke up before sunrise and what a blessing! Look at this! | 
|  Save Fuel with Wonderbags! Volunteer Maxime Groualle with Alimentar Enseniando shared this story with me and I wanted to share it with everyone! These things are awesome! |