Our show in Portland was great fun. datri bean played with us again and we ate some good food to heal our sick heads. tonight we did our best to sing through our hoarse voices in Eugene. abby's sister, Genevieve sang Harvest Moon with us and danced with some lovely girls in the front row.
So the bike tour has come to an end. Thanks to everyone for coming to the shows, helping us with directions, and feeding us. Let's all keep riding our bikes!...and don't forget to eat your vegetables.
do to the following ailments we will not be riding out of portland tomorrow. abby: lots of zits from 3 months of sugar and sun screen, diaper rash sore ass, severely strained right knee, sore left knee from overcompensating for right knee, ganglian cyst in left wrist, tenderness on top of left foot, extremely sore throat, stuffed up nose, clogged up sinuses, and the rest of the boring head cold symtoms. amanda: cuts on ankle from new shoes, bruises under the sit bones, messed up knee, chest cold symptoms: cough, sore throat, lots o' phlemgh, itchy crotch from constant use of the bike shorts. a drawing follows to detail the ailments. if abby's knee feels better we will try to ride out the next day.
we had a group ride out of Seattle en route to Portland. We rode 103 miles to Centralia. along the way we picked wild blackberries. the air was crisp and the forrests were spooky, autumny, and beautiful.
last night we went to Thai Food. Boo had the HOTTEST dish of the whole tour, just how she likes it. One rider, Giovanni, rode all the way to Portland with us. today's ride was 104 miles. it was REALLY tough for us. Abby caught Amanda's cold and both our knees were hurting. On the bright side, the weather was nice and we got to see the World's Biggest Egg and logs on a boat trip to who knows where.
Tomorrow morning on the 10th of September we will meet for our ride at 8:15 am on the corner Broad and Denny. We will ride swiftly out of town en route to Portland. Bring your sunscreen, water, pump, spare tires, and lots of snacks.
While in NY, we've been dining out and seeing lots of shows. here's abby with our friends Nerissa and Brad and cupcakes. Brad's music is awesome! click here to listen. Our friend Rick took us to see Les Paul perform at an old jazz club near Times Square. Les was quite humorous and he and the band were great. during the set they had some guest performers up and after the last guest, they asked if there was anyone they missed. Rick yelled out that we sing Les's song "Smoke Rings" and Les asked if we were any good. They let us on stage and we got to perform with Les. it was quite a thrill. afterwards, he brought us backstage and we got to hear stories about old LA and how he came to write "Smoke Rings" right after that we went straight to the Rodeo Bar to see one of our favorite bands "The Moonlighters" play for the first time. they do lots of 20's tunes and sing amazing intricate harmonies. we ran into Chris Thile from Nickel Creek and got to see him play a show. he's such an incredible and energetic performer.
lots of beauty to be found at the union square farmer's market even a political circus
tomorrow we're off to Seattle to get back on our bikes.
WE MADE IT! We're in NY. it was our longest riding day ever!
the day after our show in Philadelphia we peddled for over 9 hours to NY. it was a 100 mile ride, 60 miles of which were in the rain. but we wanted so bad to get to NY for dinner...and we did.
the next day we played our show at the Spiegeltent. the theme was Cops and Robbers. since then, we've been hanging with our friendsand doing a food tour of NYC. yesterday, we ate at 7 restaurants!
the paparazzi finally caught up with us outside of Cones. and of course Klum was there too, stealing the limelight.
we've got a week of rest before we gotta get our butts back to the west coast and on our bikes. Seattle here we come.
Having Kaveh and Tuba out for these shows has been awesome. we've been doing a lot of cover songs by the pirate band "R".
After the Jammin Java show we rode to Annapolis for a nice 50 mile ride.
Yesterday's ride was a different story! it was the second hardest ride, second only to the ride in Craig Colorado. Abby invented the route and the topography was insane. Up and down CONSTANTLY. it was only 60 miles, but it felt like 120. it didn't help that we went through a town that smelled like human shit. we were riding through a porto john for over 10 miles. abby finally went to church on sunday, for the first time on this tour...to use their bathroom.
after the ride, Amanda was feeling collapsable, so she had a Clif Bar "Recovery" drink. It is great for after a really hard ride when you don't feel like you can eat, but you need calories. It really helped. then we all went and ate a yummy reviving dinner, followed by Woody Allen's new comedy SCOOP. it was just what we needed.
we're in Philadelphia and playing at World Cafe tonight. Red Heart the Ticker will be opening tonight. they've been playing the last 2 shows with us and they're great.
Yesterday along the trail we ran into some runners who recognized us from a Nickel Creek show. Jared and Jerett ended up treating us to lunch at a fabulous restaurant called Blue Moon. we ate heartily for lunch and even went back again for dinner.
we finally got to go swimming in the Patomic River. it was gorg! here's abby riding out of historic Harper's Ferry.
yesterday we rode 70 miles and today 68. we arrived all the way to Washington DC and we've now ridden over 4,000 miles. by the way, if you are interested in donating to one of the two non-profits we're raising money for, please check out Adventure Cycling and Pedals for Progress on our "Help Out" page.
when we arrived in DC, we got directions from two secret service agents on bikes to the Lincoln Memorial.
tonight we ate an incredible meal at Sunflower restaurant. it was macro and delish! Tuba and Kaveh flew in tonight. so glad to have them aboard! show tomorrow night in Vienna.
Almost to NY and it's time to say a big thanks to our sponsors for helping us out on our tour:
NEW BELGIUM BREWERY their brewery is wind-powered, their festival Tour de Fat is solar powered, and one of their beers is organic.
ADVENTURE CYCLING their maps are invaluable to our tour! use their maps to get across the country and you won't get lost.
CLIF BAR abby's favorite Nectar bar flavor is Cranberry Apricot Almond. She also really likes their chocolate one. it makes a great vegan brownie. amanda's favorite Nectar is Lemon Vanilla Cashew. The best Luna Bar is hands down Lemon Zest and Amanda likes Carrot Cake Clif Bars too.
GO MACRO Abby and Amanda are unanimous in our love for the Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip and the Granola Delight bars. They are macrobiotic and grain sweetened.
TERRY PRECICSION CYCLING abby's favorite Terry bike shorts are the Low Riders and amanda likes the Long Short Shorts. They are a good length for preventing sunburns and are really comfy.
DESERT WOMAN amanda's favorite lip balm is calendula. it smells like chocolate and orange and we both use the Rehab Creme on our sore legs.
SURLY our Cross Check bikes are Surly. New Belgium, Adventure Cycling and Surly all helped us get set up on our new bikes. They are light weight, great for long travels with the drop handle bars and have treated us well on our journey.
Yesterday's ride along the Allegheny trail out of Pittsburgh was one of our favorite rides of the tour. we highly recommend it for a family vacation. it was a smooth gravel flat path that rode along the river all day long through Tarzan forrests. There were plentiful waterfalls and wildlife as we rode 107 miles to our lovely Rockwood Trailhead B&B. We were so excited to go swimming when we got there, so we walked to the river, bikini clad and all to find that we were situated right next to a sewage treatment plant and they recommended against swimmming.
Today we started off on the Alleghany again and it was spectacular. then we went on the C&O trail for most of the day. we expected similar terrain to yesterday's glory, but no such luck. it was an Indiana Jones/Willy Wonka/Goonies/Blair Witch sort of day. we walked our bikes through a 3100 foot unlit tunnel holding onto the handrails to not fall into the a canal far below. we should have been on mountain bikes for all of the crazy uneven rocks and gravel. we saw all sorts of animals like giant fish, tons of deer, a stork-like bird, wild turkeys, and amanda ran over her a possum. she was freaked and upset, but the poor thing managed to walk away after trying to recover from the impact. we were busted for riding on part of the trail that was unfinished. we almost ran out of water as it turned to evening and arrived 106 miles later hungry and tired to a town with very few food options.
both days were long and yesterday's ride broke amanda's previous record for longest pedaling time. she rode 8 hours and 43 minutes yesterday. Our first 2 back to back centuries since Utah.
when we stopped today for lunch, we came to a toy shop that sold something that caught our eye. "HOLY FOLK" dolls "for play and pray". you can buy Noah, Moses, Mary and Jesus. Their knees bend and their hands are magnetized together so they can pray. we almost bought some, but restrained ourselves.
Driving in the van is uncomfortable and exhausting. the whole band was tired from our shlep to the city and the pace of van touring. it's really made us appreciate what we've been doing for the last two and a half months. we'll be back to bikes tomorrow. today we are on the road again, van style to Pittsburgh. our show in cleveland was packed. it was like a narnia dream. at the beachland ballroom, our green room opened into a downstairs thrift store where we bought much of our outfits for the evening.
here's abby back stage at the ark the night before
The day after our Grand Rapids show we awoke at Fountain Hill B&B to a beautiful breakfast. It's a gorgeous 1800's house we haven't seen the likes of since Mary Poppins. We rode 65 miles to Charlotte, Michigan. Upon finding no vegetarian options there, we decided to drive back to Grand Rapids to go to Marie Catrib's for lunch. Amanda ordered 3 entrees and almost made herself sick. The food was delicious and after our meal we went to the great halloween supplies store called Over The River. Spent alot of money there. Drove back full and satisfied to Charlotte. The next morning we rode to Ann Arbor and were chased by dogs so many times that Amanda felt like jumping ship. We arrived to Ann Arbor and rode straight to www.happycow.net's recommended restaurant "Seva." we ate there 4 times in 2 days. it was so yummy. Did some radio and a Borders instore and had a really fun show at the Ark. What a great venue. We're doing something strange for this tour, we're DRIVING to Cleveland right now for our show tonight. We'll be driving today and tomorrow to make it to our East Coast dates on schedule. Then it's back to bike land.
So, the women's festival was lots of fun. we were there for a short 36 hours. the best part was that we got to visit amanda's mom and step mom who were there. we lovingly renamed Boo "Straight Boo" because she was one of the few hetero gals in the place. falcon and ruth taught her amazon archery and she was a natural! Three bulls eyes in a row! and remember Elva from the B&B in Anton Colorado? Well, it's a small world, cuz we met her neice at the festival - pictured here. we got to hang with the band "Betty", Vicky Randle, and lots of other cool musicians. on our 60 mile ride from the festival, we were chased by dogs and saw this sign. today we rode 34 miles into Grand Rapids to play our gig. We ate at one of the best restaurants in the world called marie catrib's. locally grown deliciousness. we topped off our incredible meal with some jaw-dropping, face stuffing peanut butter pie.
we also happened upon the coolest Halloween store, but it was closed. sad day. in 5 minutes, we'll be onstage at Billy's to play a show. tomorrow it's off toward Ann Arbor.
A Barber Shop Quartet, saw playing, ballroom dance contest, tales of Orgon energy - these were all parts of our show tonight in Milwaukee. We played to a great crowd and the promoter - Tag the Great - got us lots of tasty vittles. Abby discovered the little known truth that Strawberries and Goat Cheese are a wonderful combination. John is on his way back to LA tomorrow and we'll see him again in Seattle. Tonight we're on our way to the Michigan Women's Music Festival. We're gonna ditch our boys and go camping in the forest for a couple days.
We rode 50 miles into Madison and were greeted by some folks on art bikes at the Capitol building. Thanks to everyone who gave us maps and routes for Wisconsin. We had a fun show in Madison. The promoter Tag had the best craft services for us.
Here's Abby before the show.
The Scarring Party opened for us. They were great.
Today Amanda sat on a cow and we had one of our biggest group rides out of town. Mei Mei was our youngest rider yet.
We took a gravel trail for 70 miles of the trip. Danni and Vicky joined us for the ride and Vicky rode all 90 miles to Milwaukee with us and here are her cool shoes! here are abby's sore legs after the ride.
We had a wonderful visit to Chicago. We ate more food at a host of restaurants in the area. SuperBurger was not one of them.
Our show at the Old Town School of Folk Music was a blast. the audience was great and the venue and sound were also great. photos by Courtney Ivo
We were blessed to have a surprise visit from The Ditty Bops Marching band headed by the incredible Danni Parpan. Here we are with John and the band: Vik, Hannah, Alex, Joe, Chani, and Danni.
The day after the show we left for Wisconsin. It rained on us for the first 70 miles of our 98 mile ride to Janesville. The rain kept it cool though. After watching 3 episodes of Curb Your Enthusiasm, we went to sleep. On our way to Madison tomorrow for our show!
The rain finally died down to a light drizzle yesterday and we left our hotel around 11 am. We were on a crazy route, with turns every .3 miles. we arrived in chicago 7 hours later after navigating through neighborhoods for 60 miles. we arrived at our friend paul's house and have been dining well since our arrival. tonight takes the cake! we were treated to an incredible dinner at Bistro Campagne, a delicious organic french restaurant. by far the best restaurant of the tour! chef michael altenberg fed us: fine bread and butter (amanda had 2 loaves herself), tuna with pesto and farmer's braised greens, macaroni and cheese, salad, peach tarte with vanilla ice cream. tomorrow is our show at the old town school of folk music and our friend and fellow musician John Lambdin flew out to play his fiddle and lap steel with us for a few days. rick whitmore is back on the scene and will be attending tomorrow nights show.
The rain finally died down to a light drizzle yesterday and we left our hotel around 11 am. We were on a crazy route, with turns every .3 miles. we arrived in chicago 7 hours later after navigating through neighborhoods for 60 miles. we arrived at our friend paul's house and have been dining well since our arrival. tonight takes the cake! we were treated to an incredible dinner at Bistro Campagne, a delicious organic french restaurant. by far the best restaurant of the tour! chef michael altenberg fed us: fine bread and butter (amanda had 2 loaves herself), tuna with pesto and farmer's braised greens, macaroni and cheese, salad, peach tarte with vanilla ice cream. tomorrow is our show at the old town school of folk music and our friend and fellow musician John Lambdin flew out to play his fiddle and lap steel with us for a few days. rick whitmore is back on the scene and will be attending tomorrow nights show.
yesterday was an epic ride. we decided since it would likely rain on the 3rd, and since we had a killer tail wind pushing us along at 22 miles an hour, we would try to ride further than we'd planned. we did 95 miles in 95 degree weather with a lot of humidity to make us extra soaked. abby had 4 ice burritos and saw 4 cemetarys en route to joliet. our route 66 path is very confusing and many times we try to follow frontage roads along the 55 to cut out unneccesary detours in the cornfields where the roads are literally melting to our tires. unfortunatley this often backfires when the frontage roads unexpectedly end such as they did yesterday. we had to toss our bikes over two fences and scaled the rusty barbed wire two times. right after which we were passed by an unsuspecting highway patrolman who would likely have ticketed us for running across the 55 (unmotorized transit prohibited). to save even more time we hopped on the 53 to take a direct path from braidwood to jolilet and this ended us being a really sketchy road with no shoulder and lots of huge dump trucks (one of which nearly fishtailed into us). after riding 15 miles on this we decided it was too hot and unsafe to ride further, and finally called it quits at 1 o clock in the shade of a flashing construction sign arrow.
now it is 9:30am, we're sitting in our hotel room debating wether or not to ride in the rain that starts and stops every 30 minutes. it was thunder and lightning when we woke up at 5:00am and that died down around 6:30. we suppose we'll wait out the storm until we get kicked out at checkout time or until we see the sun peek out from behind the clouds.
A couple days ago we rode to Springfield and played a show. It was a hot 60 mile ride. Today we rode from Springfield to Bloomington after a much needed rest yesterday at the Hilton of Springfield. Today's ride was 75 miles. . Illinois seems to be thusfar the only truly flat state we've ridden through. Hazzah to that! Click To Enlarge Rumble Strips
sometimes good days and bad days happen in the same day. yesterday we left from the dollhouse b and b in rhineland,mo. amanda ate mini muffins till she couldn't eat any more then we left for our 65 mile ride to saint charles. shortly after our departure, we realized the Katy trail we were on had massive spider webs strewn across the path with giant spiders in the middle of each one. amanda got oogled out so we hopped on the road that ran alongside the trail. after about two and a half miles on the road these two crazed dogs started running after us full speed ahead. abby yelled at them and told them to go home but it wasn't really working so she flipped back down the opposite direction as fast as possible. amanda decided to get off her bike and walk, trying to appease the dogs but it didn't really work. they kept after her and she got bit on the calf. fortunately it didn't break the skin so we didn't have to worry about some weird dog disease. so we rode back to the katy trail and after about 15 minutes amanda crashed through one of the webs and got a giant spider on her which freaked her out but at least it didn't bite her. This was a hard day for Amanda. She was surrounded by spiders, attacked by dogs, swimming in a humid hell, AND she was on her period! we rode the rest of the way to saint charles as 65 miles became 70 and a nice shady trail turned into a blazing hot humidity bath.
after the ride we had just enough time to go to a costume shop and take a shower. then we cruised over to our gig at the police station turned art space, Mad Art Gallery. what a cool place. they even have the cell blocks in tact. amanda had abby locked away for good while gangster greg was cornered by sheriff boo the show was a blast. there was a fun opening group called maid rite whose music was a jamboree sensation. we had a guest saw player named Lindy and some wonderful karaoke performers. after the show there were fire eaters ouside on the patio with cool art bikes made to look like frogs, ducks, and camels. unfortunately we didn't get back to the hotel until 1am.
today we left way too late for comfort. a 98 degree day plus a hell of a lot of moisture in the air. we had three guest riders, roger, adam, and phil. roger led us across the bridge to illinois and the start of our route 66 to chicago. adam and phil rode with us all the way to litchfieild.
on the way phil got two flats. some really nice people let us come into their house and cool off in the AC while he fixed his flats in the shade. they offered us ice cold drinks and didn't seem to mind that we were dirty and wet. after the flats got fixed we were out in the heat of the day. abby thought she wasn't gonna make it all the way till we pulled into a gas station somewhere and poured ice water over her head. then amanda came up with a brilliant new invention called the ice burrito which saved our butts for the rest of the ride! it kept us cool and rejuvenated for the last hour. we were so rejuved that we laughed about her invention for 45 minutes. abby almost fell off her bike laughing. everyone will want one of these hot new items. here is a preview
we missed our friend Jesca Hoop today and riding through the corn, we kept singing her songs.
go to www.jescahoop.com to hear the music for yourself. abby did the drawing on the homepage.
people keep telling us "you're halfway there" but the fact is we'll be in nyc in less than 35 days. so we're actually about 2/3 of the way there. we kind of can't believe it.
the columbia show was a whirlwind. we rode in, we ate some grub at Main Squeeze, went Thrift Shopping and posed with mannequins, we played, we slept. the humidity outside was probably the thickest we've felt on the tour so far. we were soaking wet in our sun dresses. the crowd was full of dancing kids which kept us entertained the whole time.
this was a pretty part of the trail with a tunnel
today we road 75 miles on the katy trail with a great group of people. we had 8 riders come out with us.
cole, lee and pete road the enitre way from columbia to rhineland! the longest ride yet for these bmx pros. turned touring cyclists for the day. and they road with single speeds and fixed gears. way to go guys. lee even got chomped by a wasp of hornet.
details: animal sightings on the trail as follows, one or two snakes, two turtles, an indigo bunting, a small rabbit, a deer, multiple squirrels, an unidentifiable mammal of medium size, and butterflies galore. zero road kill.
abby's food log today: redwood hills goat yogurt with berries, peaches, bannans, salt and pepper cashews, fig newtons, 2 string cheeses and flax seed crackers, 2 clif shot blocks, 1 go macro granola bar, apple, grilled cheese sandwich, brown rice with braggs amino acids and flax oil, steamed broccoli, salad with almonds, cherry tomatoes from our host Amanda's garden, cucmber from garden, and some chocolate chip cookies. it's almost 10 and she's still kind of hungry. amanda hasn't stopped eating yet so she can't accurately account for her food 'till she stops eating blueberry and poppyseed mini muffins.
MO' MO' MO' how do you like it? how do you like it?
our kansas city show was a blast. fans were great and sooo supportive of our nerdy desire to put on a wizard of oz show. thanks everyone!
jim - the first saw player of the tour did a beautiful rendition of "over the rainbow"
the ride out of kansas city was beautiful thanks to our tour guide Mark who led us in the right direction.
our riders outbound from Kansas City
during the ride, a passing motorist yelled something in a language we couldn't quite understand. it sounded something like, "AYEHSH HOWL"
it was an 80 mile trek into Missouri's "college town" of Warrensburg. we searched for food options and reef flip flops for amanda, found neither and ended up at the grocery store for some pesticide ridden salad greens with radishes and english cucumbers. that wasn't enough so we broke down and voraciously ate a large Quizno's sub sandwich. we were hot and exhausted and fell asleep at 7 o clock.
this morning we rode 75 miles to Boonville. what a great ride it was, except for getting chased by the biggest dog we've ever seen. abby yelled at the house to call off their beast but nobody appeared to be home. the ride went through corn fields and rolling hills and there was virtually no traffic all the way to sedalia where we then hopped on the Katy trail: sorry, no cars allowed!!! amanda plays piano on the katy trail the katy trail is shady and full of LIVE animals such as big fat black snakes, little green snakes, rabbits, squirrels, and red birds, lots of butterflies that kept flying into my face. it was a hot one but we left early and got done by 2 o'clock. then, salad fixin' at the low budget motel...uh oh, still hungry...we saw a Walmart, a mexican restaraunt, and a Subway... amanda tried to claim subway is the best of the shitty sub sandwich shops so we compared our veggie sub today to yesterday's Quizno's. subway failed. they weren't even as good. but that didn't stop amanda from eating three 6" subs. to be fair, abby ate 1 inche of one of them, so we suppose she actually ate 17". abby ate 13" of sub. while we can't really condone eating at chain sub establishments, they did provide us with a sense of being full.
amanda followed the day's eating frenzy by drinking a quart of chocolate silk soymilk and her new favorite luna bar is peanut butter cookie! abby has an on-going dilemma. she can't decide whether her Terry Cycle low rider biker shorts or her Rock and Republic jean cut-offs are her favorite riding gear. abby and amanda do agree that the Clif Organic shot blocks are a must have during hot summer excursions. they've saved our butts on multiple occasions during this heat wave.
tomorrow we ride the Katy trail to columbia which is supposed to be a "college town". if they have brown rice and a dark green vegetable we'll be happy.
2 days ago, we were busy getting a new stage prop ready...our pagoda piano
boo and greg construct the pagoda in our hotel
rick designs the dragon and paints the pagoda
3 little girls at the hotel want to help paint
Forgot to post the quote of the day the other day: after stopping at the gas station outside of Lawrence to get water and grub, Boo bought some hot and spicy cheetos and beef jerky chew. while we were riding away, Boo said, "Oh, Shit! I forgot to put jerky in my mouth!"
The show in Lawrence, KS was great. a group of wonderful people turned up for the early evening outdoor show at the Gaslight. fortunatley the temperature had dropped about 20 degrees since the day before so it felt comfortable and we could all enjoy ourselves. the train that runs through town passed by just in time for a rendition of "moon over the freeway." our friend rick (also our webman and calendar graphic designer) flew out from LA to visit and ride with us. Our friend Ty drove a whopping 10 hours to make an audio recording of the show!
We saw THE BEST dancing at our Lawrence show!
here is Gus, the 8 year old winner of the "Sister Kate Dance-Off"
Here is Gus's Dance that won him a prized Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Clif Bar and Vol. 1 of Rumble Strips (a combined 5 dollar Value)
Gus talks about going for your goals
on another note, here's amanda's "crazy salad" that she fixed in our hotel room - a swell alternative to gas station food
the day before our show in Lawrence, amanda met Doozie and Brad at the venue. Brad and his family let us use their garage to build a set piece for our Kansas City Show. Thanks, guys!
greg builds a stage prop at Brad's house
here's brad blowing glass
our guest riders Mike, Rick, Boo, Eric, Nick, and Cooper
we rode 42 miles into Kansas City. it was a pretty ride and alot cooler out than the 105 degree heat wave last week.
then we were invited to an organic home-cooked meal at the beautiful home of Mike and Chrissy. It was delicious!
Our wonderful hosts who cooked us the best meal of the tour, Mike and Chrissy
The dessert
Tonight is our Wizard of Oz show in Kansas City. We hope for an extension of this 85 degree bliss for our ride towards Columbia, MO on monday.
so we said that abby had heat stroke back in oberlin, but upon further research we think that it was "heat exhaustion" which can lead to heat stroke. despite our efforts to avoid the heat of the day by getting up at 4 am, we've still been riding in 90-100+ degrees with humidity. and every day since that 106 degree ride back in Oberlin, Abby has continued to exhibit symptoms of heat exhaustion.
we rode 62 miles from smith center to Lucas, Kansas. we'd heard about Lucas's artist community and we got to play an impromptu gig at the hundred year old "Garden of Eden". we also got a tour of the town by Don and Erica of "The World's Largest Collection of the World's Smallest Versions of the World's Largest Things" - a Roadside Attraction that travels around the country with miniature replicas of things like the Largest Doughnut and the Largest Ball of Twine (the one we saw!) It was a very warm evening and we were happy to see so many folks come out to hear us play in the garden. We also met a real Ditty Bop - a Morse Code Decoder from the Navy who told us how to say our names in Code. What a fun surprise. here is some folk art taxidermy in Lucas
we rode 52 miles from Lucas to Salina Getting up pre-dawn to race against the heat, we found ourselves near some farms with some scary barking dogs in the dark. that's become a staple of these parts so far. not our favorite aspect of the trip.
we rode 60 miles from Salina almost to Manhattan, KS Another 4 am morning. 90 degrees even that early. rode under the mooon and stars and had a visit from head wind who slowed us down and kept us cool. we rode along our route to a military base. at the gate, a handsome soldier told us bikes were allowed with photo id. we weren't carrying our id's. amanda showed the soldiers a Ditty Bops sticker, telling them it was sort of like a photo id, we were pictured on it, we had a website, could we please get through, we'd ridden all the way from LA. no dice.
we turned around and tried an alternate route, a frontage road that dead ended at the highway that didn't allow bikes. we had already ridden 60 miles and the heat was climbing so we met up with Euro Van and hitched a ride the rest of the way to Manhattan, Kansas. Upon arrival, Abby got sick again. amanda is not permitting her to ride tomorrow. it's time for recovery mode. it's supposed to be 108 tomorrow.
We're in the Middle of the United States, literally
two days ago we rode from St Francis to Norcatur, KS. the first 70 miles were great fun and we left at 5:30 in the morning so it wasn't hot. however, the last 20 miles of our journey were friggin friggin HOT! supposedly it was 105 degrees. abby got heat stroke, she had the chills. amanda passed the turn off and rode an extra 3 miles. the ride was 92-94 miles depending on if you were on course or lost. they didn't like bikes much at Raye's market in Oberlin
here's a video of amanda's shadow
and her bike
we recouperated in the home of our new friend Bee. she's a pal of our puppeteer Lynn Jeffries. Bee fed us, let us do our laundry, took us to the health food store in a storm, and was such a charming host. she let us stay an extra day to rest and we had a great time.
greg rutledge's picture of the fireflies and bicycles in Norcatur
last night we played a gig at the Cardinal Bar and Grill for some locals on pizza night. we had strawberry rhubarb and apple crum pies and tried out Gooseberry Pie for the first time. it's not for everyone, but Greg thought it was for him.
This morning, we departed at 5:15 am with Boo and a guest rider named Daniel. It was a nice surprise to have a guest rider join us in the very small town of Norcatur! Boo rode 50 miles today, beating her old record of 43 miles! today's ride was 80 miles and we finished before 11:30 am. amanda caught alot of bugs on her arm today. see if you can spot them between the freckles and moles
our awesome hotel in Smith Center
this afternoon we will be at the geographic center of the United States after which we will be visiting the World's Largest Ball of Twine. We have running bets on the diameter of the twine ball. the winner of the bet will get to buzz cut the losing members' hair.
Our last show in Colorado was great fun. We were really excited to get to open for the Indigo Girls and the show was in a giant barn. The audience had some of the most entertaining dancers we have ever seen. We rode a whopping 15 miles to the venue! The next day we bid farewell to Ian who had to get back to Cali. We started our ride just east of Denver International Airport. We learned the hard way that just because G Maps say that a road is paved doesn’t mean it stays paved. We had our first interaction with some backroads dogs who liked to hover near our heels. That got our hearts racing.
We spent a magical evening in Anton Colorado in a lovely little cottage. We sat on the porch with Elva who taught us all about the history of Anton, population of 15. It turned out she was a wonderful quilt-maker and she helped us sew our backdrop. She was a lovely host. We won’t forget our favorite night of the tour watching the pink lightning storm which was a million times better than any fireworks we’ve seen in our lives. Abby felt like a magical being.
This morning, Abby quickly realized that although she may be a magical being, she is also a human. In the first 5 miles of the ride Abby crashed while carelessly trying to retrieve her walkie talkie that had fallen out if its holster. She had no serious injuries, but skinned her knee so bad that it bled for the rest of the ride. DeWald says, “Thanks for loaning me that pink bandana, Amanda. I felt just like Punky Brewster, except with more blood.” here is some of the blood
this is a poor excuse for a road, according to abby's knee IT'S SIRIUS here we are doing a radio phoner interview with Sirius Radio while attending to Abby's hurt knee
Abby had 2 flat tires
The theme song for “Family Matters” was stuck on repeat in Amanda’s head for much of the ride.
strange sighting - cars buried in the side of a hill along our route We rode 83 miles to St. Francis, Kansas and we have already discovered that NO, everything after the Rockies is NOT flat.
today we headed for boulder and on the way we stopped at greg and boo's restaurant of choice..."casa bonita." it is not only a restaurant, in fact it is most famous for its gaudy decor and cliff divers. yes, there are cliffs and a pool of water in the middle of the restaurant. and we saw a fake gorilla and skeletons and caves. we decided to pass on the food and had ice water in marguerita glasses.
it rained all day and ian went on a mega ride of 145 miles...WOW!
we went on a hike near the flat irons and ate at an organic restaurant called Karma Cuisine. We had yam puffs, empanadas, plantain-tempeh cake with kale. earlier today, abby ate the best cookie of her life from the health food store in Frisco. and surprisingly it did not involve chocolate. it was an almond butter, apricot, coconut masterpiece. abby is not a huge fan of dried apricots or coconut, but now she is converted.
last night at swallow hill was our favorite show of the tour so far. what a great audience; polite yet full of energy. thank you for dancing and singing, and for listening to the lyrics and the music. we appreciated performing for you all.
today we drove back up into the rockies to play a show at Tour de Fat in Frisco. it rained all day but that didn't stop the fun. it was our first show on a solar powered stage. highlights were crazy fun bikes, costumed festival goers, and especially the act performed by the Handsome Little Devils which included dancing, expert juggling, and lots of props. <
