We got a bit lost and underestimated our trip. We pulled into the Susquehanna State Park in the dark after riding 88 miles. The park was closed, but not locked, so we stayed for free!
We found a place to stay in Baltimore with a group of MICA students through our friend Barry, so we headed out early in the morning. Unfortunately we could find no water in the closed camp site, so the first leg of the trip was a bit uncomfortable. We got into Baltimore around three and waited outside of the CopyCat building for Rachael, Barry's friend. Rachael let us into her loft space and we met most of her roommates, Kit, Cole, Jeremy, and Madeline. After settling in we met Ariel for dindin at an Ethiopian restaurant nearby. The food was great, and I love eating with my hands! afterwards we visited Malcom at his new metal shop. He was sharing the shop with two friends, Tim and Mario, who had a chimney sweep business. The shop was an autoshop, and the landlord had just retired the business. A fire cabinet and a huge air compressor among other things were left behind. Malcom was installing some outlets in what would be an upstairs office. Pretty exciting! Our next and last day in Baltimore began with a visit to the abandoned suit factory behind the CopyCat building. Rachael and Kit were looking for some fabric that they knew to be stashed somewhere in the factory. The gate was easy to slip through, but the doors and windows had recently been boarded up. Apparently some filming for the show The Wire had been done in the factory, and all entries had since be sealed, but I was able to shimmy up a pipe and hop in a second story window. You can see the busted window in this shot.
Kit, Rachael, and Sam stayed down below, while I tried to find a lower entrance. This didn't work out and I eventually gave up and climbed back.
Sam and I then went off on our own to find fixings for a dinner. When we returned, Rachael and Kit had decided that they really needed to get some more fabric from the suit factory, and had enlisted Cole in the endeavor, who knew the whereabouts of the fabric. We went back to the spot, armed to the teeth with flashlights and other apparatus. Cole and I hopped up to the window and made our way to the fabric room. After kicking a hole in a door panel, we found ourselves in the suit room. It was a very beautiful and eery sight. Rows of sewing machines sat dormant below giant hangers, still holding a few suits. Most of the suits however had been taken of and tried on by previous visitors. I tried the closest coat on the rack near me. It was a big wool houndstooth trenchcoat that fit except for the shoulders, which were too broad. Beyond that room, was a room stacked six feet high with rolls of suit fabric. We grabbed all of the Bill Blass satin that we could, and headed out, I still wearing my ridiculous coat. At night, Sam and I cooked some soop with cannelinni, tomato, kale, and many strange variety of mushrooms that the girls had got from their job at a mushroom stand in the farmer's market, while Kit and Rachael sewed up the fabric we found into a great sheet, to be made into a tent for a Weedsnake dinner they were hosting. The tent was so big, it looked like a luxury parachute!
After dinner I played another show with burning of sage and candles and so forth. Good feelings were had. Meesh Meesh looked on approvingly.
The next day we set out in the rain for Washington D.C. We stopped at the MICA mail room and I sent off my trenchcoat. Someone is getting a present soon!
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