Dispatches from the road – Singer, songwriter, Ross Voorhees

Dispatches from the road by Bill Poindexter

Profiles from Polebridge, Montana:

Ross Voorhees and The Art of busking and podcast link

In one sense we’re all buskers, that is, we all have our wares to pedal. We have services we provide, and we get paid for those services- some times, sometimes not, a fair wage.

For some of us, our work is art versus empty motion with no purpose; Just as a painter who paints on a canvas, the writers write their stories on paper, the farmer plants seeds, the musician plays their instrument, and creates music. So in a very broad sense, we were all buskers, who are artists.

But then there are some of us more commonly known as gypsies, vagabonds, dirtbags, street performers, wayfarers, who hit the roads, or seas, and sell their special talents to a lucky few who are open minded enough to the universe to appreciate what these busker entertainers provide. 

I’ve been fortunate enough to know a few buskers in my life time and now up in Polebridge, Montana, I met a busker by the name of Ross. I interviewed Ross two days ago at a restaurant, Home Ranch Bottoms, just outside of the Hamlet of Polebridge Montana, in an outside storage shed with a metal roof while it was raining lightly as we sat on to plastic covered kitchen chairs from the 70s chatting over a dusty old steel, perhaps iron, work bench sipping pints of cold smoke scotch ale as a story began to unfold of the life of Ross and his experience busking, particularly in Paris, France. I have the full interview on audio, the attached podcast. 

Back in 2011. Actually, the dates really don’t matter that much my friend Ross found himself in France, at 22. First he spent 6 months sleeping on a couch and busking full time and then later in Paris. He was living in a small studio apartment working a ““ real job doing some translating. And basically he would work all day, and then head out to various parts of Paris Find a little place to set up his amplifier and his guitar and start busking for francs/euros in Paris France. Ross told me that you can make quite a good living doing it. But there were some things you had to be careful of, for instance the police would occasionally come by and harass him, and other police would leave him alone, and some police would threaten to take away his equipment and his guitar. And then there were the other buskers who would sometimes harass him and other times befriend him. He learned that if he set up an a location that other more aggressive buskers wanted they would set up their amplifiers next to him and play their music louder. Ultimately driving him off to go find another place to busk. Ross also told me that sometimes it was more fun to partner with another performer -he found a fellow performer who was a violinist, and they played together well. Ross would work all day, head out and perform at night till late in the evening, drinking red wine eating French food and then perhaps find or restaurant or a bar at the end of the evening to finish his day and have conversations contemplating the existence of life. He also shares some pretty good lessons about busking life- for example-like to take breaks every hour or so to let an audience move on so a new audience could come, and if you stop playing after 45 minutes to an hour, people would tend to tip more, versus just standing there and playing for three hours at a time. There’s more and his story is extraordinary…enjoy!

Advice from Ross

Busking Lessons:

You can try to hog the pitch but sometimes, sharing just works out better for everyone.

Most art will flop without Context. Good art needs no context. 

If you want to get good at something you have to do it a lot. Everyday.

https://anchor.fm/william-poindexter/episodes/Dispatches-from-the-road--profiles-from-Polebridge--MT-Ross-Voorhees-singer-songwriter-Busker-e27j11r

The life of illusion

Dispatches from the Road by Bill Poindexter

Carry a life of illusion - unedited 

Ripe berries, skinny squirrels, groundcover, angry August, lost cooks, the philosopher, camping in the dirt, becoming wild, rant from a novice bartender.

It’s July 27, 7:30 AM the sun is about to cross the pine trees. Fingertips have been cold in the 40s seems like the nights are getting colder. I’m sure this is temporary as it’s still July but it seems to be a precursor to the changing of seasons coming in the next couple of months . Berries are abundant right now raspberries and huckleberries. Every day on my commute, I’ll stop on the side of the road and eat huckleberries. There’s huckleberry patches behind my cabin all over the place here they are delicious. I’m finding myself eating better most of the time. Flannery, who owns the home ranch bottoms next to my cabin is a talented baker. She has turnovers and pies and cookies, and brownies all sorts of sweet delectables, and I find myself treating myself at the end of every hard workday with one of her creations, the last couple nights, I have a Huckleberry turnover. And if you know me, you know that this time of the summer season, I would usually be up on Martha’s Vineyard island off Cape Cod and would be experimenting with blueberry pie. And would say that huckleberry turnovers is a fantastic alternative, so it satiates my berry lust this time of year as I sit here waiting for the sun to get higher or actually the Earth spin so the sun is on my body. I’ve been watching the squirrels run around my area and it seems to me that some of them are pretty skinny so I do hope that they start doing what the animals need to do here at this time of year, which is eat more, there’s plenty of berries  behind my cabin. I actually don’t go back there and eat them to leave them for the squirrels and other wildlife that I live by. And as I look out upon the ground cover, I’ve noticed and it might just be because the last two weeks were really hot and now it’s cooler again is that some of the groundcover Certain to change color and I’m assuming that that is a pretty cursor to fall as well. And I love the change of the seasons. And Kansas City where I live it normally wouldn’t happen until late September but here I’m assuming it will start happening in August and September. It was a cold night last night in the 40s and I love that I love to burrow in my sleeping bag And I just get warm and toasty. Some of the other local seasonal workers have talk to me about angry August where I understand it is where the seasonal workers are basically becoming tired burnt out a little bit. It’s usually a hot and dusty time of year as well up here And people just get grumpier and gray and short with people tired of asking the same questions tired of answering the same questions seem to me like it happened for me last week when I almost quit the Saloon because the manager and I were not communicating well, finally I told her look. If I can’t communicate with you, then we’re not gonna work together. Luckily, I had two days off. Relaxed a little bit got my bicycle fixed and I feel better. I talked to Aimee and Kansas City and she sent me a comment saying that I just have few more weeks and you can make a lot of money for the fall and she’s right. So I’m gonna push it out, if the saloon doesn’t work out the home ranch bottoms is losing some people because they’re going back home back to school for the season so there might be a opportunity to work there the rest of the season. Although I do have to say that I am missing my cats very much And it’s a long bike ride back to Kansas City so I’m hoping that I get done with the season by early September so I can be back home by early October. And then the plan to spend at least three months home, and then head to Mexico for a month or so. I’ve met people up here live in Baja in the winter who offered me places to stay. So we will see…the sun is finally breaking through. The trees feels good to have an on my body now my coffee is always good. I like drinking this Folgers instant coffee. I’ve been drinking that stuff since I was in a military school when I was 14 -off and on. I prefer a really nice coffee with a French press but up here it’s just boiled water and instant coffee and I’m happy. 

Last week we lost two cooks at the saloon one was might be he had been here from the start, he’s kind of an odd sort, not sure what his story was but he mostly kept to himself hadn’t been around camp much because he had been out car camping various places buddy help me understand how kitchens work very early on and I like them very much. He was also kind enough when I first got here to give me some bug spray and let me use his bicycle pump. Which he ended up leaving with me because from what I understand he got reprimanded for not showing up a couple of times, and got written up in an in true fashion of him, he just took off, cleaned out his cabin and left. Then we also lost the other mic. I called him the philosopher, he ended up getting an offer from home ranch bottoms that he just couldn’t turn down. Plus, he didn’t like some of the other cooks at the saloon. He made comments to me yesterday that the place was dirty and he called one of the head cooks, a woman named Katie the C word Which I can understand because she’s very headstrong and I’m not a fan of hers either. I call her the instigator because she’s always stirring up trouble. But at the same time you have to look at everybody’s strength and I think that people have to be themselves here too. And as always, there’s two sides to every story. Period but I call Mike the philosopher, because when he first came up here, he was reading Jack Kerouac‘s the Dharma bums, and we had some good conversations about Kerouac another philosophers, one night while looking for the northern lights and having a beer after her shift at the saloon couple of weeks ago. Can’t remember if I wrote about it or not. I think I did. And right now he’s reading a brave New World by Huxley, and we had good comments about reading 1984 and then the parallels of Covid, and all that other nonsense that happened. And that brings me to, some of my other conversations with folks around here which I’m not gonna go in a major detail, but that Russian guy told you about with his girlfriend who are the the Forager’s from Oregon who I wrote about last week. As it turns out we had another conversation and he and I are on completely opposites of what happened in the last three years in the world and we have major disagreements. It was somewhat of a heated conversation. but I like the fact that we can have a civilized conversation just two people sitting down with complete differences and opinions and still manage to shake hands at the end of the conversation. Seems to me like the world’s lost that. I found that out when as a yoga instructor I had people who attacked me for being and out of the same opinion about the so-called vaccines. But that’s another story and probably aggravated some of you by them bringing it up. And as in every other part of the world, there’s always a split community in here in the area where I live now. I haven’t been camping in the dirt. Which concerns me a little bit but I’ve been enjoying my cabin so much and by the time I get done with my shifts are usually just want to chill out and go for a short bike ride or have a beer a conversation or a cuppa coffee with somebody I usually start my shift at 10 o’clock in the morning. I usually eat some breakfast before and don’t eat until after my shift, which is usually around four or five. then I usually come home and do some laundry in the sink or the shower. And then either go for a walk or a bike ride or maybe go ahead and listen some live music or just sit on the porch of the home ranch bottoms, and do some writing or reading. Or have a good conversation with somebody. I made it to town the other day got my bicycle wheels fixed as I mentioned before so that was good. Also was able to do some banking errands and I ended up buying a shirt that I’m not sure about. and I had some good conversations with my friend Alex, who gave me a ride there. I think I’m becoming wild. Wild in the standpoint that I’m embracing my wilderness experience up here there’s enough people around to keep my attention and there’s enough wild around to keep my attention for that. If you know me, you know you know that I’m a loner that loves people. By the end of my shift I’ve talk to tens or hundreds of people so I’m usually done talking for the day unless there’s somebody interesting enough to have a spirited conversation with. but just looking out over nature‘s boundary bound to fall glory here is enough to just contemplate your existence. I haven’t shaved or cut my hair for over two months now, so I definitely have a little bit of a mountain man look hairs growing out of my ears my eyebrows are long and bushy in my beards, well it’s becoming long and gray but I feel stronger than I did when I first came up here. Healthier breathing in better air drinking better water. I’m not eating better food necessarily but I’m eating with my body needs to know more. Still drinking cold smoke scotch ale on a regular basis. But I’ve never been one to overindulge with alcohol, so not drinking that much. And it’s usually with my food. Somebody wanted me to make them a drink yesterday at the bar on my shift he wanted me to make him a Manhattan. I laughed wanted to say “where do you think you are the Ritz? And he understood and said I’ll just take a double bourbon and I said that’s a better choice anyway. But I am becoming a connoisseur of alcohol more knowledgeable. I’m not a fan of all the mixology bullshit, I’m more of a realistic pourer of spirits… It’s kind of like if you order a steak and it’s a really good cut of meat but you order it over cooked and you put A1 steak sauce on it? If you’re going to drink, whiskey, then drink whiskey, neat, or on the rocks… don’t add a bunch of crap to it to dilute the taste. Somethings just don’t make sense. 

Begging the question…

Is life an illusion?

Dispatches from the road

 Dispatches from the road by Bill Poindexter

Northern lights, meteor showers, polar vortex, bicycling with mountain lions and grizzly bear transcending space and time…

Northern lights and friends:

You may not know this about this area, but we can see the northern lights. When I first came up here two months ago, I only thought the northern lights could be seen in the winter time, but I was wrong. Some experts explained to me that the phenomenon can happen anytime of the year it’s all based on the amount of darkness in the sky and solar storms and obviously -weather . So camping from my mountain the other night with a good view of the north I saw a little flicker in the sky -now some people call it a polar vortex and I’m not really sure what that means although I think that we are in some kind of vortex here. I’ve talked about it before I think, the vortex of energy, dealing with phenomenon, like gravity, the moon, the sun, weather patterns, and just some kind of universal universal energy that is emitted from everything from bugs to trees to humans as well from just about everything. So what was interesting on that night is There was also a meteor shower and you were able to see least a couple hundred an hour of those shooting stars, it just seem like they were falling from the sky out of the blanket of our Milky Way galaxy. And I noticed various lights in the woods that surrounded me. Also, at first, I thought they were lightning bugs but it’s too cold and well there’s just no lightning bugs here so I’m not sure what they are or what they were …fairies? pixies? Ghost? But I will tell you this -about 2 o’clock in the morning I decided to go for a bike ride I know I know not very smart and grizzly bear and mountain lion country but I was all wound up and truth be told I did have to have 3 cups of coffee in my belly and excess energy I needed to expend. So I decided to go ahead and get on my bike and head down the forest service roads I was on I was in the backcountry on gated roads, so there were no cars or possibility of cars plus it being 2o’clock in the morning and me being in the very remote, national forest miles away from any paved roads I figured I just be OK not even having my light on as I could see the northern lights off to the north flickering and getting brighter out of my peripheral vision and I could see the meteor showers and I could still see little lights in the woods and occasionally from the lights of the Milky Way gallery plus I could see eyes in the woods as well And I knew that was my friend the mountain lion -they were curious of who this human was on a two wheeled vehicle riding in the forest at 2 o’clock in the morning disturbing their nocturnal adventures. Well, I kept going -and as I rode up and down, I started to feel my body lift a little bit as though it were becoming weightless. I can’t explain it -I just had to go with all my senses, and I close my eyes and I just Rode, and when I opened up my eyes, it felt like I was floating, but I was still on the ground because I could feel the bumps in the road. And I rode on and on and oh my gosh it was so beautiful… And then I felt a presence, and I could hear the thumping beside me on my right side And I looked over and it was a young mountain lion running beside me and I had no fear and it had no fear with me. She just looked up at me, 

said “hey”

And then looked forward as we moved together and then I heard something on my left side and I looked down and it was a young grizzly bear running a full gallop…

“Hey” he said and nodding with a wink from kind brown eyes 

and we weren’t going that fast -maybe 10 miles an hour, and I could hear the heavy breathing of the grizzly bear -And the smoothness gait and breathing of the mountain lion as we moved together on the forest service road heading towards the northern lights… Well now at this point, you might be thinking that I was inebriated? And you would be wrong. I was fully conscious and fully aware of what was happening and by the way this is a true story this actually happened last night. So I rode and rode my companions to the right of me, and to the left of me, there was no objective in mind. It was just a ride in the woods that night under the lights of the Milky Way galaxy and the flickers of the northern lights. We moved together  for what seem like hours and then finally -I want to say probably around 4 o’clock I could see the first light of the sun rising in the east and northern lights fading down like somebody turning off a gas flame and then there were no more meteor showers that I could see and the Milky Way started to turn off as well -as the glow from the east, got brighter, and all the sudden I realized I didn’t hear my companions anymore. They were no longer there, perhaps they got tired and I made my way back to my camp and got in my little sleeping bag laid down on my little patch dirt went to sleep. I didn’t sleep very long. I got up with the sun shining on my body warming me up as it was a cold night, wondering if it was real or a dream, and as I rode home on my bicycle, I rode the same roads that I rode I in the middle of the night in the pitch darkness, and sure enough I saw my bicycle tracks and not too far from my camp, and there were mountain lion tracks to the right of it, and to the left of it grizzly tracks…

Authors note: 

Thanks for reading this a little short story, I’ll let you decide if it’s fiction or not. If you like my writing, let me know there’s a lot more coming. I’m feeling my days are numbered here. 

So if you’d like to support this journalistic endeavor and my travels let me know. I’m on Venmo. You should be able to see some of my Venmo information and past post but it’s Bill Poindexter and there’s a picture of me with a beard And the last four digits of my phone number 1213.

Peace and love from the road Bill Poindexter

Authors

What people are saying about the last post:

Deb

“Love the description of your sleep shack. The photo of it and the one of your bike against the post with your writing tablet in the foreground are my favorites.  The cast of characters grows…. I feel like I know them or maybe knew them, specters of my younger years in N Idaho. That part of the country is rugged and rough by design; its terrain has shaped its people. 

I always think of you as a westerner. I know you’re from KC and have even talked about being a city kid, but your outlook on life, to me, has always been as a westerner, and that’s a compliment. Tough and a salt of the earth kinda person, one who can be depended on, hard worker no matter the job, and love in your heart for many things big and small.  To me, a westerner has embraced the big wide open and it shows in his expansive personality and attitude toward life. I am happy to see you really being able to spend some time here, rather than cruise through, and chronicle it with your introspective writing. 

Thank you for sharing this with me 🙏 “

Tripping the light fantastic

 Dispatches from the Road by Bill Poindexter

Tripping the light fantastic… 

I’m sending it from my cabin 7:42 AM July 20, I was awoken by my good neighbor, Mr. squirrel, who I think is still aggravated that I am here -but I can’t help it and we all need to learn to live together, I am fascinated by the fact that the squirrels here live in burrows in the ground kind of like prairie dogs, because where I live in Kansas City Missouri, they live in nest in the trees are in the tree trunks. Just a naturalistic observation. Things have shifted up here , things are better in many ways, and I’m happy about that. The light from the sun is threading its way through the pine trees in front of me, feeling the warmth of the sun on my head. My face feels good. I just boiled up a pot of coffee on my jet, boil stove and actually, I’m holding the whole stove in my hand because my fingers are cold. It was a cold night last night and the night before… In my cozy cabin, which I haven’t talked enough about, so I’m gonna talk about where I live while I’m here because I am grateful for having a place to stay while I am alone in the wilderness. The cabin itself isn’t very big I would say it’s probably, maybe 10 feet wide maybe 12 and may be 20 feet long something like that if that is made out of a plywood and then it’s surrounded on the top by metal and around the lower section by metal and the floor is basically plywood that actually needs to be pulled up and replaced just because it’s getting old. There is a little insulation in the cracks but there’s still many places where there’s a little holes so lots of air can get in which I like actually and then I have a window over by my bed that backs up to the Flathead in National Forest, which is only yards away from the cabin and basically I consider that my backyard. Then on the front there’s a little pallet that is my basically my little Front Porch. There’s about a 3 foot overhang and two poles that hold up the overhang in the front of the cabin and then I have a little table in front of my chair and I have a nice view of Woods a little bit of the home bottom ranch, which is about 50 yards in front of me that’s the bar and restaurant that are our neighbors and where I listen to live music most of the time and then I have a view of one of the mountain peaks in glacier national Park, which I have no idea what the name of the mountain is -but it’s really beautiful. There’s basically 9 of us that live here right now.

And possibly a couple more coming. There’s basically a community kitchen outside on the far side of the property that’s not very well-maintained and the refrigerator sometimes works sometimes it doesn’t so I stop storing food in there and there’s no running water, but there is place to store stuff dry goods. Then there is a Kind of a community living room area that has a place to charge our phones or chargers and there is a TV in a couch and a table in there that the younger people sometimes watch DVDs. And then behind that there’s an outdoor shower, which is absolutely marvelous and it’s really beautiful, there’s nothing better than taking an outdoor shower and in my opinion I did a lot when I was up on Martha’s Vineyard the island of Martha’s Vineyard off Cape Cod and after a hard day here it’s just best to get naked and stand in that outdoor shower and just feel the air. My best thing is to do early in the morning -Meditate do yoga and then before it gets warmed up the air go take a shower and then after the shower, you just stand there and steam comes off your body because it’s so cold out still feels so good. The people who live here with me are -as you enter into the camp compound ; Alex, who lives in his RV he is one of the lead bartenders and a really nice guy from Columbia Falls, he’s also a big foraging aficionado in his-days off -right now huckleberry picking he and I get along really well. He’s about 35 really nice young man he’s the one who you might’ve saw pictures of doing a tarot card reading with me or for me. and I will be interviewing Alex in the next couple weeks, so stay tuned. And then the next one is a white Wall tent and that’s Torey. Torey a very nurturing mother type in a very matter-of-fact person. She’s a very strong woman and she reminds me what I’m supposed to do and what I’m not supposed to do as a bartender. In a good way. So we get along well. Then there’s my cabin and then Mike V next-door, I don’t remember Mike’s last name but he’s one of the prep cooks in a really nice guy. He hasn’t been here for a while because he’s been camping car camping at various places around Polebridge and the next-door to him is Ruben who’s a young man who are has a lot of skills and is getting ready to go back to school in a couple weeks. Definitely underutilized basically a dishwasher who would be better off being a bar back but for some reason the owner of the saloon won’t let them be a bar back. I was told by someone else he has Asperger’s I haven’t really seen signs of that but maybe? So he’s been working at the other bar doing a little bar backing on the side, which is good form. And then across from him is Seth who is one of the cooks and he just turned 21 and he actually is a really good cook when I took a few days to work in the kitchen as a prep cook I worked with him and he had a lot he and I got along really well. Across from Seth is one of the new cooks, Mike Jones he’s from Massachusetts a nice guy, describe to me by local is a little rough around the edges… He smokes he drinks he smokes weed a lot it’s already becoming an issue so I feel like his days are probably numbered… he’s genuinely a nice guy, and a hell of a good cook. And then the next one is Katie and Katie is the main cook right now and she has a dog German Shepherd named Kush who I like very much Katie and I are congenial but to me she’s a bit of an instigator and complains a lot and doesn’t like the way how many things are done here… So if you get on her bad side watch out. And I think I’m on her bad side. Then there’s Sam who is the maintenance guy he’s a 20 year old really good guy can’t say enough good things about him he has a dog name, Ollie. and that’s our camp. That’s where I live for the summer. 

Hanging out with locals, co workers, new friends: When I first got up here I met everybody and hung out with a few people and I’ve been invited to some places but I decided not to go. I like to keep to myself and if you know this, you know this about me if you know me, I like to keep to myself especially on my days off only because my days are spent working and having to be “on“ and being very social so I’m talking to hundreds of people a day and by the time I get done with my shift I just wanna go for a ride or relax have a beer or a cup of coffee or something to eat. Ha… 

Here comes a beautiful deer coming through my camp and I can hear the deer calling calling something up and it’s running off now. 

So because I’m working so hard I haven’t been camping as much as I wanted to or doing bikepacking I’m still having issues with the bicycle I brought -in the beginning the front crank arm that holds the pedal fell off four times and I managed to get it secured but I’m not super confident about it and then just the other day I was washing my bike here at my cabin and there’s so much dust here I clean the wheels really well and noticed that where the spokes go into the rim on about 12 of the spokes, there’s multiple cracks 28 in total and there’s a bit of a wobble in the wheel right now that I can feel while I ride. And I’m in contact with the manufacturer of surly bikes to get this bike, the bridge club hopefully replaced or the wheels replaced. As money is tight as I’m trying to save money for the winter and the bike itself I bought last fall but I’ve only been using it for five months after I left Trader Joe’s is when I started to ride the bike in March and that was only like commuting, and I’ve only been using it up here for commuting on good roads, and only a couple small bikepacking trips, not more than a day each and I haven’t been abusing it at all and for it to be in this type of condition with multiple cracks in my rims and it’s it’s actually the surly bridge club like I said and it is if you go to their website it’s supposed to be the ultimate bikepacking bike and I can tell you right now it’s not from all the issues I’ve had so I need to write an article about it. So hopefully the company will come through and I can get two new wheels and feel safe again on the bike. And it’s a huge pain in the butt because not owning a car you are relying on the bicycle for transportation or walking up here. There’s just one road to Polebridge and it’s a fairly busy road and I don’t want to be walking it at night even with lights. I’d much rather be on the bike so that’s a little bit frustrating sorry I needed to vent.

I feel like I’m 100% efficient at the job and I do a really good job. Lanny, a customer at the saloon today told me I made the best margarita from scratch she’s ever had… And as I was walking up to her later on, she said I was lovely and how nice it is to get sincere compliments like that, she was there with her friend/partner George… and they were very kind.If you were to go to reviews of the northern lights saloon like on yelp… You would see my name mentioned a lot. I have people now coming back because I’ve been here long enough asking for me . So from that aspect, this is something I really like to do I mean I could even see my living in a place like this full-time. 

So back to my cabin, I like the cabin it has a bed, a chair, a table, a dresser, a place where I can lean my bike and place where I can hang my gear. It’s very simple. I have to sweep it out every day because of all the dirt and dust but I like that too. I get up in the middle of the night sometimes to Pee in the woods as I hydrate quite a bit. And sometimes I’ll just set my chair out in the middle of the gravel road in front of my cabin and sit outside and do a little bit of writing or thinking, and stare up at the stars and watch the satellites go by in the falling stars in the vastness of the Milky Way galaxy over my head. And at night it’s there is a stillness here it’s completely quiet. There might be the hum of a generator from the restaurant behind us occasionally at night if they have it on. otherwise, it’s completely silent. Occasionally you can hear an animal walking through the thickets behind in the woods, but it could also be just the wind in the trees. There’s only been one grizzly spotted in camp although I suspect there’s been more walking through as well as a mountain lion. I have no fear of nature up here as nature is one with me, and I am one with nature… I feel very Zen like here. And I don’t feel the need to camp every night. I like my little cabin, and I like the comfort of it. I’m thinking of stringing up the Hammock that Kaytee from Colorado sent me… Kaytee has been a long time follower of my writing. I met her in 2020 right at the beginning of Covid when I was on a 21 bike tour of Colorado. I met her in Nederland Colorado at a coffee shop and just decided to stay in touch at that time. Katie was single and had a couple of dogs and now she’s married with a child. She’s a nurse and a very good soul. She’s been very kind to me. She sent me a tent that she wasn’t using, which is my main tent now and she was kind enough to send me the hammock. I think that would be fun to have as my main bed. So I’m gonna do that this week. I’ve never slept in ahammock before so it will be an interesting experience. I always have fantasies of living on a ship, sail boat and sleeping in a hammock so that’s what will be in my imagination. One of the nicest things about where I live is that I can head into the woods quickly just walk behind my cabin and I’m in the wilderness after about 50 yards truly in the wilderness. I can also wire walk or bike down a back road and then I’m on pavement for just a few yards, and then there is a section of words that goes up to Cyclone lake it’s a road that’s not used by public because there’s a gate on it to choose for the forest service people in case of a forest fire or trail maintenance. But I can walk or bike up there last time I was up on it. There was only one tire track. And it’s really beautiful or I can go down the road away from Polebridge and there are multiple camp spots down there and access to the north fork river as well. And then Polebridge itself it’s only just over 4 miles away and then the park itself is only 5 1/2 miles away by road. I can also head straight up the N. Fork Rd. towards Canada and there’s multiple places I can go places like red Meadow Lake, which is extraordinarily beautiful and I can still go on that road and head right into whitefish Montana for resupply. Or instead of turning on that road, I can just head up N. Fork Rd. to route 114 which is trail Creek Road And take a left turn and that takes me up over a Kooteney pass and down into Eureka Montana, which is very close to the border. And I’ve done that ride multiple times in the past when I was on the great divide mountain bike route. And then there’s so many places between here and there that I can camp and explore and want to explore just got to get my bike fixed or a new bike. And then of course there is glacier national Park that I can go into. The Rangers know me, so they just let me go right in now and I can go to Bowman lake Kintla lake, quArtz or Logging… or just head down the inside N. Fork Rd., which is on the east side of the north fork river and take that all the way down to Fish Creek in the West Glacier. It’s an extraordinary ride because about 10 miles of it is closed off two cars so you’re basically inside Glacier National Park in a very remote area and I’ve never seen anybody hike it but I’ve seen a few cyclist on it but it’s just a handful on a nice day. 

Well, miss hummingbird just came up to say hello they do that when I’m out here, they just fly right in front of me and look at me and then fly off.

Lastly, I feel very in touch with nature my new friends are squirrels and the birds and the hummingbird -the deer. Even the mosquitoes and the flies I’m OK with. I like our neighbors, Dan, and Flannery, who own the home bottom ranch, which is the restaurant in front of us and their little white dog name UKI. Who sometimes follows me to my cabin when I walk home from getting food over there. I’ve decided not to cook, so I’m still eating restaurant food and stuff that I can forage in. Yesterday, my friend, Colin , who is a bartender in whitefish who I met early on, was kind enough to do a grocery run for me as he was heading up this way… So I got some staples for here basically cheese, (bikepacking food) summer sausage, some toiletry items and the most important, staple lol Folgers instant coffee… It’s just easier since as I said before we don’t really have a functional kitchen here. And we try to keep food out of our cabins so it doesn’t attract bears or other critters. I did come home one night and opened up my door and there was a either a rat or a big mouse scampering in my cabin, but that only happened once could even have been a young squirrel. It was moving too fast for me to tell.

Right now I’m reading Rachel Carson, silent spring again. If you haven’t read it, you should basically it’s a book about cause and effect that if you put down pesticides or insecticides- what can happen to humans, to plant life, to nature, to water it’s a really eye-opening book written in 1962 by Rachel Carson, and it really explains why people get sick and why animals get sick. What happens when water is polluted to fish just the whole web of life… and really focuses on how bug spray/DDT and other bug sprays can really affect our web of life on this earth… But that will be another article in the future.

And lastly, I was in on bottoms ranch last night having a beer and reading the book and I saw a couple getting out of a car and the ranch was getting ready to close up and they were just coming in for a drink, and it was a young couple young I say probably around 40, the man was tall, lean, had a chiseled face with a sandy brown hair beard. The woman blue-eyed may be green blonde, both had vibrant skin, very beautiful people wearing natural clothing, like maybe a cotton/linen with earth tones, and they said they’ve been on the road with some other people from. I think Oregon on a foraging expedition… And they were taking a week on their own. They were outdoor wilderness type instructors. And they were just taking a little vacation. And we talked the man and I primarily talked and he comes from Russia and but I’ve been in United States over 30 years so couldn’t even tell the accent but there was a little bit of an accent and if you know me you know that I’m a fan of Russian people because I’ve known a lot of Russian people who have had it hard over in Russia and came over to the United States. Primarily Russian Jews, who were refugees. And we spoke a little Russian as I speak Russian and had good conversations and they wanted to know about me and they shared about them and. And I told him my style of writing that is really based on Russian authors from the late 1800s and 1900s in terms of being very authentic in my writing, and not hiding anything and writing about truth. We also had conversations about the war… And but also clarification conversations that 99.9% of people don’t want war and 99.9% of the people in the world are good they just want food shelter, clothing education, a decent job and good health … And I’m very adamant about that war itself is a sickness, and it’s usually manipulated by greed governments and media and hate and has no place in my life.

…so we had conversations about Tolstoy and some other authors. And then as we were settling our bill at the restaurant my new Russian friend, and I didn’t get his name in but I did give him my contact information so hopefully he’ll send me their contact information. 

But he got a shot of vodka, which was very appropriate and asked me if I wanted to share it with him-so I drank half of it. And he took the cup and drank the other half. and I said and I wished him “good health” in Russian

And I walked back to my cabin with a grateful feeling of being alive and being in this location.

I want life to be full of light, hope, love, compassion, goodness with a realistic knowledge of good and bad, and I want to be able to get up and feel the warmth of the sun or the light from the stars as I trip the light fantastic in this new life in this new town, called Polebridge.

If you’ve been a long time reader of my writing, and want to continue to sport my journalistic endeavor I’m grateful, let me know in the comments that you’re reading it. I am going to start doing some interviews starting next Wednesday. The first interview would be with Ross, who I’ve written about before he’s a local singer songwriter Works as a Ranger in the park and used to be a street musician in Paris and I’m going to do a either a video or a possible podcast also but I may just write and take pictures as well. So look forward to that on next Thursday. There are a few posts that I’ve written that I haven’t submitted yet but I will at some point in the future. I hope you all are enjoying a wonderful summer. Thank you for reading my writing/my words. Peace and love from the road Bill Poindexter.

More “what people are saying about this blog”

Jake:

“Wonderful updates, Bill!  I’m glad you’re reading Descartes! I’ve been hung up a lot on the “I am” part of “cogito, ergo sum” myself lately.  I think I’m still agnostic, lol

Glad you found fun work, and that you’re safe and sound.  Miss you at market, tho! 

Hope to talk more soon, keep the letters from the road coming! I’ll share them with the girls and Jess 😁❤️✌️”

Josh:

“Super cool Bill! It’s crazy to think you’ve gotta carry that bear mace everywhere. You have a way with people man it’s cool to read about all the people. I found myself reading it in your voice at times haha. If I walked in a place and saw you behind the bar I’d know I was in for a good time :) “

From Maddie:

“Hey Bill! Busy couple weeks over here with work. Hosted a bachelorette party with 15 women in Ft. Lauderdale last weekend 😅. Taking our time to relax this weekend. 

I actually had a call with someone, like me, getting out of the military soon and trying to figure out life. Turns out he’s back in his hometown - Whitefish, Montana. At the end of our call, he asked what he could do for me after sharing all my lessons learned and advice. I told him go to Polebridge (can you believe he’s never been!), get a bear claw, and have a beer with our friend Bill Poindexter. 

Glad that you are finding peace in your daily routine and relishing the beauty of summer in Montana. I hope your bike situation gets ironed out and the company sends you replacement parts!”

…till we meet again 

Dispatches… What people are saying

 Dispatches from the road by Bill Poindexter

What people are saying about this blog… The good the bad the ugly. 

Authors note: it’s important to note that what I write is not gonna always going to be popular. And I’m OK with that as long as I’m telling the truth about what I see. I know there’s gonna be times when I make mistakes and maybe even get the story wrong. That just happens . But it’s important to stay true and tell the truth as I see it and we all know I’m fallible. Lord knows I have issues and I’ve made many mistakes in my life. I tend to go back and reread what I write just to make sure I got it right the first time. And there’s been many times. I am tempted to go back and add some fluff to it and make it a little prettier Less raw and correct some of the mistakes -but then I catch myself and and I said to myself.  Being completely authentic in this day and age, it’s hard to find. Most authors, add a lot of fluff to their blogs / media is spun in many different directions, and most the information is false. I feel in my job for the rest of my life is to tell stories about my experiences and tell the truth and be messy. And if anybody doesn’t like that, then they can go Read another person’s blog and get all that fancy fluff feel good stuff. But if you’re like me, you understand that life is hard, it ain’t always pretty, and there is no true balance in life that’s a complete myth…We just try to do the best we can we’re gonna have ups and we’re gonna have downs. We try to stay in the middle of the road as possible or you crash and burn. End of authors note.

What people are saying, about wholeearthguide.blogspot.com. 

From Deb

“I like this poem,Bill. Read it several times and I could see it from the older person’s side as they said it and I could see it from the younger person’s side as they listened…. Thank you for sharing this with me.

My favorite phrases which conjured up many feelings:

*If you share yours 

Do not put conditions on your sharing-

*Don’t admire darkness

*All will make sense with your friends:

Compassion 

Truth 

Integrity “

“Love this. Love the stream of consciousness process and your observations of life in a small western town. Love seeing the photos of the people you’re meeting…. 

And FrenchFryGate. You rebel, you 😆.  That little saga right there is worth a short story. Small

 town personalities, petty feuds with the competition, bluegrass bands and tarot cards and young women dancing… and the unknowing outsider, literally riding into small town life with all its flaws and beauty, already a rebel, not knowing that his choice of french fries would set off the next scandal. Reminiscent of Richard Brautigan.”

From Gary:

“ I've read each post you've made and really enjoyed the intimate connection to what's going on in Polebridge from your perspective! I'll have to plan for another ride up this season to catch up a bit with you.…”

From Todd:

“Please keep them coming, Bill!  Can’t wait to hear more of your stories and the people you meet.  Best of luck bartending!  It seems like your a natural!“

From Monica:

“Bill you inspire me. You live your life so authentically.  Even on the days you feel like coming back to Kansas city... you lean in and feel it. What else can we do in life if we're  halfway conscious?”

From Colin:

“Rock on brother! I keep your page open at work and plan to read every day I work once I get the bar set up. Thanks for the positive words “

From Abbey:

“I absolutely love your blog. It’s relaxes me to read this through your eyes. Thanks for sharing “

From Kelly in Kansas City:

“I am loving all of this.  I feel like so many online blogs pump the positive and make it sound like shangri La.  I am rooting for you and send me your Venmo handle again please!  I’d love to buy you a burger and coffee from KC☀️”

Well, that’s just a few… if you’re interested in supporting my journalistic endeavor please let me know I am on Venmo-I’m always up for a sandwich and a cup of coffee. 

Saving money for my ride back to KC  in September and will be biking the length of Baja Mexico in December/ January in which I’ll be doing dispatches from the road…

peace and love from the road, Bill Poindexter.

Enjoy the photos… They are from the last two weeks-new friends, a bear, the saloon and lots of nature