Into the desert

We left Reno this morning. Rode up and up geiger road to pass 6700 feet. The wind playfully pushed Amanda up the hill a bit. Then on the descent, the wind playfully almost pushed us all off our bikes. Abby was getting blown around like a tumbleweed. It was scary. Don't mess with the wind. It's a powerful thing. Ian went over 40 miles an hour on one of the descents. Abby said it was the first time she wanted the downhill to end.

Amanda saw some of the most entertaining road kill today: as she came upon a mass of furry hair wondering what unlucky animal it was, she identified it as a synthetic hair scrunchie. Soon after that, she saw an abandoned stuffed animal rabbit on the side of the road.

We came upon Virginia City, a cute little historic mining town with a "suicide table" and "bucket of blood."
It rained on us a bit and Amanda had a song in her head "The water's getting rough, it's more than i can handle....on dry land once more" by the band "Hello Stranger" and "Somewhere over the Rainbow" - great song. We got to try out our rain gear.

Then we rode another 50 miles along highway 50 with shoulder rumble strips and Abby almost got sucked into the traffic when a big truck passed her and the draft was super strong. Those rumble strips are no fun! we Passed resevoir that reminded Amanda of the "Swamp of Sadness" from Neverending Story.

Finally close to Fallon, we hit smooth pavement and passed a llama store, a rock shop, and a sign reminding us that "Jesus is Lord." Had the worst meal of the trip at a Mexican/Italian restaurant. So sad to eat shitty food.

Another song in Amanda's head was "The Heart is the only Nation" by her mom Ruth Barrett.
Got her thinking about war and ideals and nations. With all the detention centers and news of torture, she wondered what freedoms are we fighting for if we don't preserve those freedoms in the way we fight? Trying to fight terrorism with terror and torture breeds more terrorism. She started thinking about political prisoners here and abroad and how lucky she is to have freedom of movement out on the open road on her bicycle.

We rode 87 miles today. Tomorrow, it's going to be an even longer day.

Not sure when we'll be able to update next. We'll post when we get to Salt Lake if not sooner.

Reno

photos by ian walker at magic underground


This was the funnest and most eventful trip to Reno yet. Beautiful river, good food, circus circus.
We woke up this morning, had some breakfast, and rode our bikes to a radio show. just a few blocks away a sniper shot a judge in the court house and police were swarming the scene...helicopters too - LA style. Haven't heard word on the judge's condition or if they caught the sniper. But it certainly was an eventful afternoon. All this took place right across the street from our show at "Magic Underground' What a great place! We say some great close-up magic, borrowed some awesome costumes and props, and played for an enthusiastic crowd of all ages.

here's a video of us at Magic Underground

we even ran into Colin after the show - abby's friend from Redding who took amanda on her first mountain bike ride many years ago.

abby with amanda's gift of a mini skeleton at lunch today

we got in Danni's hand-made puff paint ditty shirts. they're so cool.


more ian walker pics

We're in Nevada!

we've made it to Reno. here's our account getting here for the last few days:

on friday abby awoke to the cottage alarm clock blasting Bon Jovi's "dead or alive". now we truly understand now the meaning of the words "i'm a cowboy on the steel horse i ride". first off, we played a show in the middle of the sticks outside Nevada city with mosquitos, bike enthusiasts and a crazy dancing boy named josh. kim and others made us home cooked food and it was hands down the best food we've had so far this tour: an amazing quiche with bell peppers and onions, polenta with eggplant, zuchinni, and tomato sauce, and kim's pizza: perfectly cooked eggplant, carmelized onion, goat cheese (from her own goat), and an amazing tart-like whole wheat crust - Amanda says it's the best tart of her life.

next day we got up and rode to wild plum camp zone. we rode the 49 along the yuba river and talked to two nice bike guys both named greg that gave us directions to Reno. thanks for the help guys! if you're ever in Downieville visit thier shops for a downhill mt. bike adventure.



here is a video from our long trip downhill along the Yuba Pass



Amanda spent the morning doing some math. she figured out that 20 miles out of 70 miles was somewhere between 1/3 and 1/4 of her trip. She also took a stab at solving the world's problems. She thinks she might have something:

1. give to others randomly and indiscriminately
2. be good company to yourself and others
3. feed yourself well with good quality food
4. ride or walk more often

the gang spent all day dodging butterflies on the road, two days before we were dodging caterpillars. Ian was in awe of the Yuba river and told Amanda that's what he came on the trip for. Amanda told him she thought he came along for the free Clif bars. Boo rode from Downieville to the camp site. 15 miles for Boo! later that night we heated up a can of amy's split pea soup over the campfire and made cheese, avocado on whole wheat bread open faced sandwiches. we rode 60 miles amongst beautiful pine trees and red dirt and went to sleep while Greg played Simon and Garfunkel tunes on the guitar.


abby documenting the trip

next day abby woke up and had the morning to herself so she cooked oatmeal with raisins and rice milk for ian and amanda. we rode 13 miles up Yuba pass 6,700 feet elevation. then greg and boo video taped our 7 mile descent into sierraville where we stopped for lunch at a mexican restaraunt. we ate whole pinto beans, side of guacamole, and corn tortillas and 2 baskets of corn chips. then we headed out to the sierraville hot springs curtosey of the gals from xtra-cycle who hooked it up for us.

what a great soak. 108 degree pools, warm pools, and cool pools. we finally got some sun on our naked asses. so long to our bike shorts tan. we rode a total of 60 miles to Chilcoot where we camped last night and Greg rode 6 or 7 miles with us.
way to go Greg! some really beautiful country up by Frenchman lake, high desert like regions. just incredibly beautiful.

passed this road on the way

today we rode an easy 35 miles to Reno. Amanda's record speed was recorded at 37.8 mph.



abby and the cutest animals.

had a great lunch at Pneumatic cafe (where we plan to go for lunch tomorrow), and caught up on laundry and blogging.

we'll be in the nevada desert for 9-10 days starting tuesday, so it's unlikely we'll be able to update again till Salt Lake City. may the wind be at our backs and the temperatures below 90. drive and ride safely everyone.




amanda is back to modeling again

Two Weeks in

today we rode from sacramento to nevada city. it was 75 miles with quite a few hills. temperatures were warm and we were sweating like slimy pigs that rolled around in sun screen and dirt. top speed was recorded by amanda at 36.7mph abby felt tired and rode slower than usual and ian rode fast and furious. all abby could talk about the whole way was how she wanted a popsicle. amanda wanted a smoothie and told the others so. right as we rolled into town we saw a juice shack with a mister out front like some crazy mirage. abby ordered an apple lemon ginger blended with ice. amanda got lemon, lime, and apple icee. all organic and all great. we all got brain freezes and sat in the sun. later on after we had chilled at our cabin we walked to the organic veggie/health restaraunt and got grub galore. abby ordered thai salad with tempeh, a side of brown rice, and a cup of black bean chilli. amanda ordered thai salad with tempeh and a vegan nut and seed loaf with steamed veggies. we also had some of ians fries, avocado melt, a bite of salmon, and a bite of boo's pesto pasta. then we got soy cream cherry and butter pecan to go and ate it on our front porch while we talked about pirate booty.

songs stuck in amanda's head was MQ musik's "cat food" (www.mqmusik.com). and also the song 16 miles (to the tune of 16 tons): you go 16 miles and what do you get? you go another 15 before you can rest. hey abby don't you hurry cause i'm too slow, i need some grub at the company store.

amanda saw 2 dead skunks that smelled bad and a highly decomposed deer that gave her an idea for an art project, 5 snakes, 2 or 3 birds, and a grey squirrel and some other rodents.

here we are at our cottage.

Davis to Sacramento-election day

today we had the shortest travel day of the tour. we rode from davis to sacramento and recruited pixl for the trip along the yolo county bike path. it was a nice ride and Boo rode the whole way with us on her new bike. her ass is hurting so she will need a new seat soon. one with some serious Cush. abby's sister Genny joined us for the ride from our hotel to dinner in Sac. at Thai Basil on J street. we had excellent yellow curry with broccoli and mushrooms, spicy thai salad with grilled tofu, tasty brown and green rice, veggie summer rolls wrapped in rice paper, and black rice with coconut ice cream, fried bananas with vanilla ice cream, and purple taro root ice cream to match amanda's hair. we cruised around sacramento neighborhoods for a while and then headed back to the hotel to get some rest. we got hungry after the ride home and ate 4 luna bars and a go macro bars at the hotel. abby ate too much dark chocolate. we'll be leaving in the morning towards nevada city for a show on thursday. we may not have internet access tomorrow because we'll be in a remote area of nevada but we'll try to post if we can.

some cross country riders we came across on the road.



abby and genny at dinner


amanda and dessert

our time in Davis

Hooray. we just played a show in one of the bike-friendliest places on earth - Davis, CA. thanks to everyone at Delta of Venus, 122 B Street for letting us play, and for fixing us some great food. ian said his plum chicken was the best meal of the tour. and amanda and abby devoured thier hot and sour tempeh and ginger tofu with greens, plantains and rice. we played outside on the patio for a lovely group of people for an hour or so and had a great time. what a peaceful way to spend our evening. we don't even want to leave, but we've got a lot of ground to cover. thanks to the guys at wheelworks for fixing our bikes up for the trip over the Sierra Nevadas.



Boo bought a road bike from Kens bike and ski today to ride with us. we think we'll be meeting for the ride out of town tomorrow around 12:00pm at the Delta of Venus in Davis to go to Sacramento. Come ride with us. We can work up a sweat in the heat of the day.

other highlights: we got to climb on the crazy playground dome where we met 8 years ago.


this morning we went to the horse barn where abby once worked. amanda got shocked by the electric fence surrounding the pens. abby saw a Burberry pony that was her favorite.



we met a great guy at the barber shop on G street, jeff, who told us about the Delta of Venus and that's how we ended up playing there. he rides a tall bamboo bicycle made by a bike artist in San Diego.


We ate some popsicles and soy cream from the Davis Food Co-Op and we stocked up on non perishable goods for our trip in the mountains.

Going East

We headed out of SF to Davis California today. It was a breezy 65 mile ride...the easiest yet. we all enjoyed ourselves and the weather was warm. The rolling hills and blue sky were so pretty and the staring cows were cool. we pigged out at breakfast, so no snacking along the ride today.

breakfast: vanilla ice cream, cherry blintz crepe, pumpkin pankakes, salmon egg scramble with toast and potatoes, carrot juice and 3 monster muffins and such cookies.

ian's maximum speed now holds the record at 37 miles an hour. abby came in second at 35 miles an hour.

yesterday, we played a show in SF to a large crowd. there were some rowdy ones in the group, but there were also alot of friends in the audience...some even in pirate costumes.

We had two openers last night. Our friend Shawn Bannon showed some short films and Amanda and her best friend Michael's sketch comedy show "Pretty Things"was screened too. here's a clip that stars michael, amanda, abby, our violin player john lambdin, and our pal joey in a sketch called the "Jam Session"


earlier in the day we did a fun ride with the SF bike coalition.



a nice 14 miles through the city. Boo joined us for the ride, which was alot of fun.
AND Ian said he had a surprise for us. Amanda asked if it was food. Ian said it was better than food. Amanda asked what could be better than food and it was... Our dear friend LANA surprised us and came up to SF to ride with us for the day.




We also hung with our friend and webman Rick Whitmore and Amanda's childhood friend Sarah.


here is a video of our San Francisco ride.

from SF to Davis

just arrived in Davis. this is where we met each other. what a glorious bike friendly place. we love it when a town has bike lanes and bike images in the stop lights. thanks to Olivia's mom Stacey for hooking us up with the snacks after our 67 mile ride today. Ian's max speed was 37 miles and amanda actually came in second at 36.3 and abby was third at over 35 miles.

here are some pirates from last night's show.

Food Glorious Food

Today was a wonderful rest day. Total bicycle miles - 0.

We ate in Berkeley and San Francisco with friends. We ate at 5 restaurants
Cheese Board - 2 pieces of pizza each
Chaya - fried eggplant stuffed with corn and potatoes, brown rice, tempura, seaweed salad, daikon salad
Cheese Board cheese shop - half cheese roll and bites of the shattock street blues roll
Massie's - macaroon and chocolate tart
a hippy place in berkeley with veggie food - choc chip ginger cookie
cupcake shop -mini mudpie cupcake and 2 banana cream pie pieces and a choc oatmeal cookie
Pauline's Pizza - Large Pizza half with artichokes, goat cheese, lemon zest and the other half with black olives + mushrooms
Rainbow Grocery - numerous "monster muffins and such" cookies (amanda's favorite)

we also went back to the hippy place twice, the cupcake shop twice, the hippy veggie place twice and used the bathroom at Saul's Deli twice.

we stepped in and out of Cafe Gratitude too.

It was a great food day.
these were our hosts for the day in Berkeley Zach and Emunah.

emunah our friend looked through clothing discards for something to wear.



this was a sign from a cute bike store in SF







collaborative drawings of abby, amanda and our friend sarah at dinner on the placemat



sarah and amanda with our favorite cookies "monster muffins and such"



here's a video from our ride with the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition