Rumble Strips Vol 3 issues 9 and The End

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.

-ditty bops

Click to enlarge Rumble Strips

mighty sick and sore

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.

To Portland

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.

Rumble Strips Vol 3 issues 7 & 8

Click on rumble strips to enlarge

Seattle Ride

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.

Music and Grub

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.

4,502.75 miles and we're here.

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.

Rumble Strips Vol 3 issue 6

Click to enlarge Rumble Strip

Philadelphia

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.

Rumble Strips Vol 23issues 3-5

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DC

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.

New Rumble Strips coming soon!

Family Fun turned Action Adventure

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.

Thrift store Narnia

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

Marie Catrib's

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.

MIchigan Fest

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.

Rumble Strips Vol 3 issue 2

Click to enlarge Rumble Strip

Milwaukee

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.

Madison

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.