Fully Psyched

A conglomeration of things

A conglomeration of things

A few more postcard collages

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These are postcard collages that went to my Kickstarter project backers at the forty dollar level. They also got a two-page letter and some zany crap I found while traveling.

Postcard collage of a critical car
Hey Reid — How are you? This postcard is from Redwood National Park, but I bypassed that particular destination on this trip. The last time I was there a drunk guy with no license and no insurance drove into my truck. And then when I got home my girlfriend broke up with me. This time around I saw the redwoods farther south, just off 101 on the “Avenue of the Giants”. This trip has been way better, with the exception of the fact that a pig tore up my legs and sent me to the hospital.
Postcard collage of a strange creature in the redwoods advertising five pro tips
Hi Pat — Here are five pro tips that I try to abide by:

1. ABC — Always be coureous!
2. Be good to dogs.
3. Drive at a safe and reasonable speed.
4. Eat three square meals a day.
5. Shower every morning (still working on this one).

I hope you’re having a good summer, and I hope you like this postcard that Amanda ordered for you!

Postcard collage of eohippus and old country house
Caption on back of postcard: Eohippus measured about 18 inches in length. Its back was curved and its legs and neck were short.

Hello Cheyenne! Isn’t this tiny prehistoric horse just cute as the dickens! This postcard pretty much describes the last few years of my life. I got rid of all my genteel trappings — country house, a horse barn built for non-cute, non-miniature, non-prehistoric horses — and traded it for … I don’t know what. Driving around in a van? Holy shit, it’s terrifying that this actually constitutes an upward trajectory to my life.

Postcard collage of Camaro with top secret answers
Hi Kelly — It’s August 19th, and I’m camped out in Trinity National Forest in Northern California. I found a little stand of big old trees with a clearing underneath, and I’m spending the weekend here. A couple folks have cruised by on four-wheelers, but otherwise I’ve had this place completely to myself. My friend Tom gets married in Portland next week … I don’t know why I just told you that.
Postcard collage of Pervez Musharraf contemplating space rescue in front of bison
Hi Kim! I hope you’re having an excellent summer. Mine has been peaceful and relaxing, with a couple glaring exceptions. In Santa Rosa this last week I met a crazy guy on a broken motorcycle who asked me first how he could end all the pain, and then to beat him up. I suspect the motorcycle was just out of gas, but that he was tweaking too hard to realize that fact. But overall mostly things have been good.

Back on the road

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Back on the road today. Left the Bay Area yesterday after getting the staples removed from my legs. Did a short-ish, four mile hike at Salt Point State Park, where I was half convinced that every noise in the woods heralded the arrival of an angry pig bent on finishing the job. Now I’m sitting in a coffee shop in Fort Bragg, working on letters. The drawing above is a cameraphone shot from a little “Hippies vs. Loggers” comic strip I drew to illustrate the local scene.

Collage correspondence, part 5: First points west

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After leaving Iowa and heading west, I wrote notes to project backers on a few custom postcards that I had made during the last leg of my trip. Here they are:

Postcard collage of happy miner and the phrase "Make Your Own Coolant-Recovery System"
Dear Kimberlie — I didn’t make my own coolant-recovery system, but I did replace my transmission, and when I was done I felt just like the smiling miner on the front of this postcard — except instead of having a pickaxe that advertises underground tours, I have a van that advertises nothing. The Lake Superior shoreline was one of the highlights of my time in the Midwest, although with the fall colors on this postcard it’s rocking a serious New England vibe here. When I visited it felt more like the Pacific Northwest. “Minnesota, you chameleon,” Walt Whitman probably should have said.

 

Postcard collage of singer in front of "UFFDA!" Minnesota license plate with text "legendary vittles"
Dear Emily — Greetings from South Dakota! I know, this postcard is from Minnesota; I was there last month. But the postcard is actually like three years old; I bought it in the Minneapolis airport in 2009. Why am I telling you this? And why have I used so many semicolons here? Sorry. Anyway, the point is that I foresaw a very special future need for Minnesota postcards when I purchased it, or so I choose to tell myself now. I made the collage at a friend’s house in Duluth, where everyone sings and gestures like this all the time.

 

Postcard collage of buffalo, Sleeping Bear Dunes, a danger sign, and a wooden masonry form
Hello Zarah! Greetings from Badlands National Park. I was in Sleeping Bear Dunes about a month ago, and decided that this postcard would look better with a buffalo on it. Mission accomplished! I might have seen some buffalo yesterday, but they were a long way off and I was near the park border, so they might have been cows. I’ll leave it for the courts to decide, and until that happens I’ll compromise by choosing to believe that I saw a herd of beefalo. The badlands are nice. Sleeping Bear Dunes had the edge on lakeshore property, but South Dakota has the edge on prairie.

 

Collage correspondence, part 4: Minnesota

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From my last campsite in the Upper Peninsula it was only a short drive into Duluth, Minnesota, where I stayed with my friends Aga and Chris for a few days. My timing was perfect — torrential rains soaked northern Minnesota while I was in town, and cleared up as soon as I went camping again. After spending some time along the north shore of Lake Superior, I headed to Lake Itasca, home of the Mississippi River headwaters, then down to Minneapolis to visit friends. I spent a couple more days in Minnesota after that, visiting my grandfather’s grave and camping on my way back to Iowa.

Postcard collage of Russian ship in Duluth, with kayaker in the foreground
Dear Cristian — Thanks for backing my Kickstarter project! I spent a few days in Duluth, Minnesota … My favorite thing to do in Duluth was to watch the ships come in off Lake Superior. They’re absolutely enormous, big, slow, and impressive boats. And they all have impressive, aspirational-sounding names like The Majestic Zenith or Intrepid Pioneer. I think that’s to make up for the fact that the owner companies have boring names like “International Freight Consortium, LLC.”

 

Postcard collage of lift bridge in Duluth
Hi Gunther — Greetings from Minnesota! I spent about four days in Duluth and left this morning. The highlight there was watching a big freight ship pass through the canal and under the bridge shown here. I stayed with my friends Aga and Chris in Duluth — they live in a neat old house that Aga (who is originally from Poland) has fixed up. Tonight I’m camping again … The sun is down and the forest is noisy with the sound of bugs and frogs. Instead of staying in a campground I drove down a logging road until I found a clearing. It’s simple but it works!

 

Postcard collage of man, motorcycle, sidecar, and the word "Soooth"
Hi James — Greetings from mosquito country! I’m camped in a small, recently logged clearing in Minnesota’s north woods. I spent this afternoon working on postcards, and I’m spending this evening fending off a swarm of mosquitos. I’m not sure where they came from all of a sudden, but here they are. Beyond the clearing is a birch and pine forest and some hills, and still farther beyond that is Lake Superior. Maybe the mosquitos were buzzing all day and I just never noticed until I stopped working on collages. It’s one of those days when I’m so wrapped up and absorbed in what I’m doing that I lose track of myself. Here it is nearly 10 pm and I haven’t had a proper meal since breakfast this morning in Duluth. Anyway. Sun is down but the sky is still light. Time to get ready for bed.

 

Postcard collage of old muscle car and Lake Itasca
Megan — Not only is Lake Itasca home to the Mississippi headwaters, it is also home to countless abandoned and submerged muscle cars from the 1960s and ’70s. Nah, just kidding, it’s full of fish, and the surrounding forest is full of ticks. I pulled maybe seven off of Skillet after a run. We did maybe 15k. So that means roughly zero point five ticks per kilometer. Pretty good odds if you like ticks!

 

Postcard collage of Manitoba Time and lake Itasca, with mysterious Canadian clock on rear
Hi Ed! I hope you’ll forgive me for sending a Manitoba-themed postcard — not because there’s anything wrong with Manitoba, but because I didn’t visit Manitoba on this trip. It feels like I’m faking recent experiential knowledge of Manitoba if I don’t make my non-visitation clear. I did once visit Manitoba, but that was like 10,000 10 years ago. Sorry about the typo. I was just reading about Paleoindian cultures, and I had long timeframes on my mind. Anyway. Behind the “Manitoba Time” text is Lake Itasca in Minnesota. It’s a great place. In Manitoba the clocks tell time using cryptic runes like hats, cameras, and polar bears, but in the good old United States fo America (which includes Minnesota) we use ordinary numbers.

 

Postcard collage of bear on tree looking at licorice with text "big loads overnight"
Hello Karrie! How are you? What’s new? Do you like licorice? I forget. I hope so, though, because this is a licorice-themed collage. Thanks for backing my Kickstarter project! Because of the generous support of patrons like you, I’m able to manufacture out-of-this-world stories about all the cartoon bears who live in Minnesota and like to scale trees just to get a better look at the gigantic licorice candy that grows wild in the great northern woods. Last halloween there was a guy dressed like some licorice and a bear ate him. Common rookie mistake. Do not dress like licorice, Snickers bars, or honey when visiting bear country.

 

Postcard collage of bear in lake, with yellow truck and text "adaptation blueprint Minnesota"
Printed caption on back of postcard: “With well over 10,000 lakes, there’s never a problem for anybody to find a place to cool off.”

Dear Mary — I have some problems with the above statement. It’s sort of like saying, “With a $14 trillion GDP, it’s never a problem for any American to find money.” Sometimes the problem is not abundance, but access and opportunity. What if the bear wasn’t born near a lake, or if a highway blocks him from it, or if another, bigger bear is already monopolizing his lake of choice? Now a lot of conservatives won’t like this plan, but I propose a big government program designed to improve summer fun access for all bears. Anyway, Minnesota is great. I have seen one million lakes and zero bears.

 

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