Wow, guys. I've spent several hours at this point copying and pasting my links from Steemit all in a master document. I didn't actually know this until I embarked on this journey, but Steemit will only go back 8 months on the website(not sure if this is true for everyone, but I personally have a cut off possibly because I've posted so much). So you've got to go through other means like steemd if you post a ridiculous amount like we do and want the oldest stuff. But I've got it, a list of everything so I'll have a better time linking back to older posts in the future.
So this post is the start of many posts as we near our year anniversary on Steemit all with the intent on sharing our story with our new followers. I realize that many of my new followers have any concept of what we went through (and we still haven't shared it all) so I think it's worth sharing. I also wanted a master list so I could really wrap my head around what all I've shared, so I can share what I haven't yet! Eventually, I'll share the whole list....but be aware it's a mammoth that's currently a 33 page word document of LINKS.
So to all of our new followers, here's how we started on Steemit, sharing our real life **on the run adventures. **
Our first post didn't even have photo and was titled simply "The Border Crossing". We wrote this originally soon after arriving in Acapulco when we first attempted to blog our story. When it became clear that there wasn't at that time an easy way to do this and make money at it (which we needed to survive, we had nothing), we focused on other things. But we had it sitting around and when we decided to join Steemit we shared this post, getting many of our long time followers hooked on our story. But it's been so long since I've shared any of this and Steemit isn't easy to navigate as far as long term history is involved. I realize some of you probably wanna hear this story, but you don't wanna go through what I had to to find it; **I **didn't even want to!
This post explains a lot of why we were so willing to head for the border instead of face our charges in the United States. As we saw it our best case scenario was heading for the border and as far as I can tell, it was all worth it. We made the right decision.
We’re that pot farming,anarchist couple on the run from the united states of america facing over 20 years each for a plant. We decided to start this story from what in a lot of ways is the climax or deciding factor of our current tale but for us it is the beginning of the rest of our lives. Months of labor and thought went into preparing for the journey to the border and our
lives after.
The Border Crossing
I later shared this post linked below, explaining our charges that we're facing. Everything we're facing is marijuana related, but these are also the charges that meth producers get. By substituting the chemicals used for meth with weed and butane (literally, those two together is a felony where we're from), you turn a peaceful medical cannabis consumer into a high level narcotics producer. We were called a flight risk, requested no bail and considering the fact that we didn't hurt anyone, we decided not to stick around to see what exactly they had in store for us.
In reality, we were in possession of some items in our car that the government has deemed illegal, either by themselves or in combination with each other. While we recognized we were traveling with illegal materials, we didn't quite realize we were driving around a car full of felonies.
Why We're On The Run: The Rundown On Our Charges
Before all of this happened, we were living free in Detroit and honestly things were going well. We had catch phrases like Detroit provides, because it seemed that every time we expressed a need, it'd come about. Out of weed and money? Here's a job, paid in weed and money. Out of food? Dumpster full of fresh food, enough for the whole neighborhood to enjoy in a feast.
It marked the beginning of a lot of different things for me, in many ways my descent into living in true anarchy.
A friend told me once "You will find work if you even try to look" and he was right. I never had difficulty finding any sort of work to pay my way in Detroit. My panhandling I did when I lived there was for experimental purposes more than anything, at that point.
How to Live Free In Detroit Michigan
It's the sort of place where you can move in, take over a house and turn it into your own thing without shit from anyone so long as you're being productive even in the slightest. Many people lived in that community off the efforts of others, but the people we gravitated to were essentially the other capitalists and the people that made that place awesome. Of all the places in the United States that I ACHE for, that I wish I could return to is Detroit and that's over the place I grew up by a long shot. So much freedom in a beautiful familiar climate. I like my winters.
It was a huge 4 bedroom brick behemoth of a house, with an addition on the back that gave the one bedroom a sweet balcony upstairs off the back. The best part about it? Free. Owned by a corporation that no longer existed, we were intending on buying it once it came up in the tax auction.
The Dirty D
However, reality struck when we were in jail for several weeks, unable to afford ridiculously high bond fees for our victim-less crimes. We had much of our belongings in our house in Detroit, which was only recently reclaimed from the hood. We were able to leave for short times to go get our things in storage back home, just a few days at most between working and moving things.
Our house looked like many in the neighborhood, only the difference was the personal items, pictures, papers clothes and such strewn about were our items, not some unnamed stranger's. I will say its a crazy experience adventuring through abandoned houses in the hood and picking through what's left, the remains of the people who once lived there. It's even crazier when you walk through your own house, and see your things strewn about haphazardly in the same way, without care.
The Return to the Dirty D
Beyond that, people start to notice you're gone and houses have being abandoned full of cool stuff by white people for a long time, and that's not a joke. So it got emptied and we came out to nothing. Considering we had so little left, it wasn't hard leaving. Stuff was always an excuse before, as we both had spent years accumulating stuff that was all pretty useful for our lives.
In the post Return to the Dirty D we explain the exact circumstances for why we chose to leave instead of stay and fight the case, which honestly came down to: drug tests and conflict of interest. As anarchists, we couldn't just sit by and wait for the fate that the government wanted to determine for us. We already wanted to leave the country, and this was the perfect opportunity. Mexico or Bust!
Despite our appearances, we aren't just freeloading hippies. Our plan was to have quite a lot of money in the form of bitcoin before leaving the country, to jumpstart our new lives here. Anyone that's worked in the cannabis business in the states knows that there's good money in that and Detroit is no different. There's a thriving weed economy there and we were involved in it during our time there. Here on Steemit, I shared in detail our experiences working for our new friend in Detroit.
My favorite thing that he brought me to trim was the gorilla grape, a variety that is hot pink and smells like rasperries when fresh. It was a pleasure to trim and my reaction to it spurred him to go trim the tops of his other gorilla grape plants, for me to trim. That day I received the first of many nicknames from R, the cholla killa. This was to allude to the fact that I trim those large top buds quickly.
[Trimming Trees in the Dirty D]
We were in contact with a family member of John's from the beginning, who I've referred to as Hippy in this series. She told us there were a lot of high paying cannabis jobs in Oregon.So we got to packing, which was difficult as we were trying to travel light but useful. I shared a post with the things we brought, like: axes, cast iron pans, dead dogs ashes, blankets.
Packing to leave your life as you know it behind is not easy, even having been robbed of most of your possessions. There are always things that you'll try to talk yourself into keeping. What's important is regardless of situation you take the time to really consider the journey ahead and what you're actually going to need for it.
What to Pack When Going On The Run
Something worth stressing here is that we left behind our lives and everyone involved in them when we left. To this day, we cannot return to the United States, or we'll be sent back to face jail time. We're still on the run guys, that hasn't changed. What has changed is our financial situation as we spent our entire time since being here working on all sorts of things to keep this big yellow raft afloat. It hasn't been easy but it has been fruitful.
Of all my decisions I do regret, moving to Mexico and sharing our story isn't one of them. By sharing this stuff, we give away our direct location to anyone who may actually be looking for us. We've done our best to tell our story in a way that sheds light on the situation without pointing fingers. At the end of the day: we just want to continue to live our our lives here south of the border.
But a lot of you are new and have maybe at most seen our interview with Jeff Berwick. Some of you are long time followers as I got to see first hand as I searched for the links to these posts. Steemd shows you every upvote and comment so it was a pretty nostalgic experience to see who's been there since day one! And there are quite a few of you!
So it's done and it's just time to share and time to add. So if you've been wondering why we're on the run, the posts shared in this article are a good place to start.
Everything shared in these posts is true to the best of our memory. Our one regret was not taking more pictures and taking better notes and in many ways has inspired us to share our lives in the way we have on the Steemit blockchain.
Check out some of our other recent posts!
Central Market Adventures: Today's Trip 2
Central Market Adventures: Today's Trip 1
Teal Pendant Pipe Practice Photo Shoot
https://steemit.com/art/@lily-da-vine/teal-pendant-pipe-practice-photo-shoot
Long-time follower, thanking you for this excellent recap.
<3 thanks for the love. More recaps to come :D
Moving, even if not on the run, is a big deal, there are so many things to consider when making decisions as to what is needed and what not. In your case, you did't have much of a choice, 20 years in jail vs. leaving the country, there is no question, any half sane person, would go the same route as you guys did. But still that is indeed an adventure regardless of the circumstances. Crossing the border as you did was taking a lot of chances. I would've thought going off the road, avoiding the border patrol, is less likely to be apprehended by the authorities, than going thru the inspection point, but none the less you succeeded. You are free, that's all that matters.
Not easy to start all over again, but it had to be done.
Very inspiring!!
Hey thanks!
Yeah we recognize it's a huge deal to face because we made a lot of excuses along the years as to why we weren't ready. Our only regret is not going sooner, before our legal situation and financial situation got comepletely fucked up. But that's life sometimes.
Most people, including myself, have this tendency to resist change, we don't want to lose our "stability", or whatever you want to call it, even tough, I don't see anything stable today, it's just an illusion. We hope that the things we are familiar with will continue to be there, but if one thing is sure, that is change.
Thats why I share my story. It's to show what happens when we are afraid of change.
What a story @lily-da-vine TY for sharing on steemit ♨
Beautiful view! @lily-da-vine! Upvoted
What a nice story
Your articles are all good
You're sure a very good writer
Thanks, it's come with practice. Life gave me a crazy story to tell.
amazing just wao
This is just a few links. So much content to be resurfaced, stay tuned!
ok my friend i always wait for you next post my dear friend lily da vine
Thanks for the recap. A brave venture thats turned out a good one.