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I’d like to thank Lara for pointing out that I’m no longer in the “cute 20’s”, but I’m now in the “sexy 30’s.” Sweet! I’ve got a great birthday story for you…

So a couple months back, during the Clif Bar Tour, we ate at one of the buffets in Vegas, and I found a new love in the dessert display. KEY LIME CHEESECAKE! So ever since then, I had said that all I wanted for my 30th birthday was a key lime cheesecake. So there we were, rolling over, around, and through the mountain side of the pacific coast highway 1, with nary a bake shop to be found. 4 days deep into this mountain side ride, I never expected to see a cake of any sort, let alone a key lime cheesecake! But Jesse and I stopped at a little sea-side cafe and had a beautiful, bountiful lunch, with a free gargantuan sized hunk of chocolate fudge cake, and all 3 employees sang happy birthday to me! It was so great! (With half the cake saved to be eaten with almond butter on the next days ride!)

The rest of the crew were all just riding at their own pace, as we were, so we didn’t see much of anyone until we met up that night at the camp site in San Simeon. After the fire was blazing hot, Arielle had the idea to pass a candle around, and everyone could take a few moments to share what they were thankful for. Health and good weather were at the top of everyone’s lists. I was also grateful for the time that day to think about each and every one of my friends and family that I could be sharing my birthday with, so even though you all weren’t there with me physically, you were there with me mentally and spiritually. Suddenly Kipchoge disappears and reappears from the darkness with a flat heavy box with a candle sticking out of it. Everyone starts to sing “happy birthday!” and I look in the box to what appears to be a some kind of cake! Of course I’m in complete denial that it could possibly be KEY LIME CHEESECAKE and I just look around at everyone dumb founded. I ask “what is that!?!?” and they say “one guess! one guess!” I take the box in my hands, and its so heavy I almost think its an ice cream cake, but that would be even more absurd than the cheesecake. But they would only give me one guess, and I was right! It really was a full-on fantastically flavorful absolutely delectable KEY LIME CHEESECAKE!

The crew had tried phone call after phone call after phone call to any town in the vicinity between Big Sur and Cambria to try to order this cheesecake, and nothing would work! They had finally given up, resorted just to get a cup of coffee at a little cafe in Ragged Point, and get back on the road. When, by the graces of the birthday gods, there in the cafe, was a slice of cheesecake! They asked about it, and the guy “just happened to have a whole key lime cheesecake in the freezer.” Perfect to strap to the back of a bike for a few hours. Whoa. Unbelievable. So yeah, we ate the cheesecake and roasted marshmallows and drank hot chocolate that night around the fire after riding about 30 miles down the coast. Another epic day during the Pleasant Revolution…

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…on the road from San Francisco…

First, there was Millbrae. Then, Page Mill Road. Next, Struggle Mountain, but wait. There’s more.

Let’s start at Millbrae, a road as steep as Lombard in San Fran, but not as crooked, and ALOT longer. Over a mile anyway. I could barely get up enough motion to stand on the pedals to climb the damn thing. Then we road for 15-20 miles or so along an awesome bike trail following the reservoir the whole way into Stanford University. A total of about 30 miles that day (Sunday). We camped at the Synergy Co-Op and played a show for the residents. Everyone was so welcoming, they cooked a huge dinner for all of us AND them (there’s about 30 house mates), and let us raid their bulk bins for breakfast in the morning without even looking at us funny. So we got on the road right on time — translation: 4 hours late, as per usual — and tackled Page Mill Road and Stuggle Mountain, a semi-professional bike route through the Santa Cruz mountains.

Spandex-clad, 5-pound-bike-weighing, been-training-for-years cyclists were passing our 120-pound-xtra-long-bike-having-motley-crew calling us “hazards!” and shouting “passing on your left!” And of course there was people like the woman in the gold Cadillac DRIVING DOWN the mountain, who stopped in the middle of the road to let us know we were all CRAZY! Page Mill is somewhere over 8 miles, no shoulder, with switch-back after switch-back. Now, when I was coming up the hill on the dirt road out of the Yuba River canyon, it was extremely difficult for me. The most difficult physical thing I’ve even done. But I never had a doubt that I would make it to the top. But I’ll have to admit, Page Mill Road gave me serious doubts. I was the last one out of 16 people, and thanks to walkie-talkie communications, I knew that the front of the group was not only past the top - wherever the hell that was - but they were down the road a good 6 miles ahead of me. Lara and Joey were pretty close in front of me, to my fortune, because low-and-behold: flat tire!!! No spare, no pump, nothing!, since my xtracycle bags got rummaged through in San Fran when it was locked up outside a friend’s house. So Lara and Joey came to my rescue! We got that mutha fixed, and we were back on the road, now in total darkness, (with bike lights, don’t worry), when we suddenly road up to a place that Joey had been to a Halloween party at. We stopped, and Mark took us in and made us tea and showed us around while we caught our breath. By now, Jesse and Jeff were worried about us, and they road back to help us!! I was beating myself up pretty bad for being the “runt of the litter,” the last in line, and Jesse just hugged me for the next 10 minutes until I calmed down. So the five of us had a pow-wow, deciding whether to camp at this community of houses that Joan Baez used to live at! (and who gave it the name “Stuggle Mountain”) or to catch up to the rest of the group. Well, at this point, I wasn’t dead yet, so I’d keep trying until I was. And we were off! We made it the remaining 2 miles or so to the top, then took the 7 mile decent into the state park where everyone was camping. There was a toasty fire, and Kipchoge made us hot cheesy pasta that was we all ate with our titanium sporks. Heaven that meal was, I’ll tell you what. That day was a triumph over any other day so far. Until the next morning, that is.

We wake up, have a great circle stretch, everyone’s just happy as a clam that we made it over the mountain, only to find out that our route forward has a small kink: there’s no more bridge!!! We’d be damned if we were all going to do the 7 mile climb back up the way we came. So we loaded our bikes, road the mile to the ravine, unloaded our bikes, carried them across the river on tree trunks and planks of wood, then hiked back for our stuff, then reloaded, and finally got on the road. Our destination: Green Oak Creek Ranch.

Arielle and Joey (from Shake Your Peace!) have lived and worked at this organic farm for a few seasons now, and it was such a great thing for them to be returning to their home, and the rest of us being welcomed in like we family! This place was one of the most magnificent nooks we’re even going to see in California. Right off of Highway 1, with the beach as their front yard, and the mountains as their back yard. We followed a dirt road up a bit of a hill into the trees, and suddenly we found ourselves in the middle of a gigantic meadow, completely surrounded by trees, some a hundred feet tall, with planted plots of land surrounding a grassy circle in the middle, complete with tee pee. There was a straw-bail kitchen to one side, a composting toilet to the other, a yert at the bottom, a yert to the side, next to the farm house, and an upper yert at the base of the mountain in back. There was an incredible herb garden, and a winter vegetable garden that we harvested the next morning and have been eating from for days now. And then there was Hunter.

Now, this was Tuesday night, and heard that we would be able to participate in a group dinner. We had no idea that this young man, Hunter, who was serving us each individually, preparing our plates for us, memorizing each of our names and chatting with us while he worked, had been preparing this meal for 5 DAYS! It was a round of Armenian, Turkish, and Hungarian delicacies, including dolmas, hummus, rice, lentil soup, an eggplant dish who’s name translates to “the Priest fainted” and more. It was the kindest, most intentionally positive gift that any of us had seen in way too long. We love you Hunter! So needless to say, leaving Green Oak Creek Ranch the next morning was emotionally and spiritually trying for us all.

So we find ourselves in Santa Cruz, playing a show at the bike church after hanging out at the farmer’s market. The show ended about 11:00, and we had no where to stay! Many people had said they could take a few of us here and there, but its an uphill ride, or it was miles back the way we came, until Joshua came to our rescue saying that we could all cram into his back yard, and he only lived a block away! Turns out it was a garden paradise, Santa Cruz style. We went to sleep in all the nooks and crannies around the yard, and woke up to a hell of a surprise, including raccoons and chickens eating our food, a black dog, a white cat, a yellow walking over us in bed saying hello. I woke up to a huge plump ripe tomato in my face, then rolled over to see a deep blue sky through the grandest fig tree! Of course, there was the night before, after the show…

A group of us, after setting up our sleeping gear at Joshua’s, headed back down the block to The Poet and the Patriot, an Irish pub. Enoch (one of the newest dummers, who rode out from North San Juan with us, but quit by San Fran ) met back up with us and was buying the drinks, so we had a few, then bar-hopped to the Red Room. It was the most hysterical walk I’ve ever been on! (We didn’t want to take the loaded bikes with us). So I suddenly realize that the eight of us are walking down the street, in a group, as if we were on our bikes! Right down the middle of the road, two by two, letting the cars drive around us, calling out directions to each other “left turn!” “straight ahead!” Too funny. So we all got smashed on the rounds of Patron shots that Enoch kept buying, then stumbled back to Joshua’s compound and passed out. So now you know. We drink, we smoke, we wear street clothes to bike in, we are not your average bicycle athletes!!! But It was great to finally hang out with each other in a way that wasn’t just strenuous physical achievement.

The next day, I’d guess it to be Thursday, we did an easy 15-mile ride out from Santa Cruz to Aptos, where Enoch had rented a house on the beach for the week. He was still recovering from riding with us that first week! So we crashed there with him, cooked a bunch of food in the bad ass kitchen, and headed out with high spirits to Monterey Bay. That night we were at the peace rally being held at the Presidio, an army base. This is a 3-day event, put on by the Peace and Justice Center. The people were awesome! Young and old, rich and poor. Everyone is camping out there on the grass. We powered our set with the bikes, as well as the lights for them. They loved it! Otherwise they would have to use a gas generator, and we just couldn’t have that! It was a fun show, followed by a cruiser ride with the new Soul System, powered by Kipchoge’s bike through one of the P/A speakers. Spencer and Deb Lindsay, who interviewed the Ninjas on the radio before the rally, invited us to camp at their house. And they had a fire-heated hot tub! YEAH! So now we’ve got 4 days to make it the 300+ miles to San Luis Obispo for a show on Tuesday. Wish us luck and good weather! It’s off to Eslan, Big Sur, and to SLO…

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After reading this, click on the photos at right–> I’ve uploaded a bunch from the last week!

Picture yourself at the bottom of a super steep windy mountain road. Stretch the road out to about 15 miles, rip off the asphalt and give it a few seasons of being washed out . Now throw a bike under your ass, and load your xtracycle with, oh say, a bass guitar and P/A speaker, or tons of camera equipment, or an adolescent youth perhaps. And while you’re at it, let’s make it 1:00 in the morning and let the darkness and cold wet air surround you. Never mind the fact that you haven’t been on a bike in years. Don’t pay attention to your heart beating so hard that the inside of your chest feels bruised. Just disregard the other people in your crew passing you up, holding full conversations with each other like they were sitting on a couch at home, while you’re afraid of falling off your bike because your legs are so weak. Let me know when you get to the top, after you catch your breath and get some feeling back in your ass. Welcome to day one of the Pleasant Revolution.

So in actuality, day one was actually combined with day two, because we got to the Yuba River at 4:00 am, slept a couple hours, and climbed out of the river canyon on the other side into Nevada City. So in total, it was about 25 miles, probably 15 of it uphill, and half of that on gravel/dirt. Weeeeeeee!!!! So yes, I got my ass kicked, but we all made it, about 17 of us all together. Some band members played for a bit at the Peaceful Valley Farm Supply, then we all gathered at SunSound Studios in Grass Valley to jam and camp out for that second night.

Mike at SunSound was an amazing host. Everyone let loose that night. At the end, an amazing chanting session emanated from the words “You can’t help nobody ’till you help yourself!…” The studio kitchen was encircled with bodies in percussive states of all sorts, the lights were low, the vocal tones were haunting. There were definitely some spirits gathered from all around to join in on that one. Incredible!!!

We headed out of Grass Valley for Rudolf Steiner College in Fair Oaks, and played and camped in their main hall - amazing acoustics in this place! - and reeled in a fiddle player named Maisie. She’s rockin’ with Shake Your Peace, for as long as they can keep her around. Then to Davis where the gang played at the Delta of Venus. Both days rides were 30-40 miles, but mostly flat and on the most magnificent bike trails in northern Cali. We stayed at the Domes on the UC Davis campus, so fun! Everyone there completely opened up their domes and their homes and their hearts to us. We stayed inside the domes themselves with our dome-roommates, and cooked and ate at the potluck dinners, and sang ridiculous songs around their fire pit, and fixed/frankensteined our bikes at their bike church. Thank you DOMESTERS! We got two good days in there, then we all split up and got ourselves into the city of San Francisco by various ways. Jesse and I are staying with Joel, a once-upon-a-time-ninja drummer (from the Clif Bar tour) so we took the train all the way in to meet up with him.

We’ve got a pedal-powered-pic-o-nic Saturday, a critical mass ride up to the park on the hill, then a human-powered concert to follow. After that, we head out to Palo Alto, Santa Cruz, and on down the coast!! Woot Woot! It’s funny how I thought I would have so much more time and energy to write, and update the sites for the tour, and do all this stuff, but for now, packing up, riding 6-8 hours a day, landing, eating, setting up and playing a show, then camping somewhere leaves no room for anything else. Maybe later on in the game it will get easier… keep you posted on that one!

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Guess what? We’re still here!!! So the bike tour was postponed for 2 weeks, for many reasons. So Jesse and I have hunkered down at Little Horse Ranch (love those Burch’s!) and have been riding, collecting gear, and doing yoga in preperation for our new departure date of November 1st! So the kick-off show you thought you all missed will actually be on Halloween night, Wednesday, up on the ridge. (I’ll post directions at the end for you). You are all invited, and we’d love to see you!

The next day we’ll set out for the Yuba river where we’ll have a campfire concert, then Friday the 2nd, at 2 pm the Ninjas are playing at Peaceful Valley Farm Supply in Grass Valley. The next scheduled show is in Davis at Delta of Venus, Tuesday the 6th. Time TBA. Meanwhile, we’re anxiously awaiting the arrival of goods from our sponsors, and hoping the great weather will hold out! (Anyone who can send some good voodoo to mother nature for us, please do!)

OK, directions to the ridge:

From Oroville:

HWY 162 to Forbestown Road, RIGHT

Through Forbestown, to Challenge Cut-Off Road, RIGHT

Through Brownsville, past Eagles Market, to Frenchtown Road, LEFT

Runs into Marysville Road, LEFT at ‘T’

Over Bulard’s Bar Reservoir, to stop sign at HWY 49, turn RIGHT toward North San Juan

7 miles into town, just past Toki’s and the Brass Rail,

29085, on the left, large white buildings with an Xtracycle on the roof.

The full address is:

29085 CA-49

North San Juan CA 95960

See you there!!!

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