THE GREEN RIDERS

Climate Ride on an electric Bike

2011-10-31T13:31:00.000-07:00

On October 2nd, Catherine, my brother Michael and myself headed out of Fortuna, Ca on our electric bikes for a 5 day ride to San Francisco. The ride sponsors support the ride and non-profits of our choice by getting us to raise donations from our personal networks www.climateride.org. There were about 125 riders on the adventure and the three of us were the only ones with electric power assisted bicycles. It felt great to get out on the road again even though I was worried about my aging rear tire and my weakening battery packs.
The first day out was wonderful. We gently pedaled through the awesome columns of giant redwood trees on the Avenue of the Giants. The rest of the riders were curious and courteous towards us and our electric rigs. That night we settled in for our first nights rest and then the rains began. Around midnight it started to pour and it didn't stop until about 7 pm the following evening. Unable to wait out the weather, we all rode through worse weather than anything my sister and I had encountered on our 2 month cross country trip. About halfway through the day and near the bottom of a very large hill, my batteries started to fail. If I pulled too many watts out of them, they shut off and I had to restart the system. Fortunately, I could watch my real time drain on the batteries and was able to get over the hill in my lowest gear pedaling as hard as I could. After lunch, the batteries failed and I was in the rain with a 80+ pound bike and almost no muscle energy left. The support vehicle was able to pick up my batteries so I lost about 25 pounds but I was still too tired to do much climbing. About 5 miles before the end of the day, my rear tire went flat. So everything that I feared happened, and I still survived. After finally succeeding in patching my inner tube in very wet weather, I rolled into Fort Bragg on the California coast and that evening I gave a short presentation on electric bicycles and our cross country adventure. My experiences of the day dampened my enthusiasm for electric bikes but I did manage some humor and I was able to convey a few of the advantages of electric assist bicycles.
The ride went on with bad weather harassing us most of the rest of the trip. I do remember the last day, the sun came out for a while as Catherine and I powered our way up and out of canyon that took us over the ridge into Sausalito from Stinson Beach. It was a short day, only 40 miles, so we used lots of battery power to pass most of the riders ahead of us. There were riders who were stronger than us even though they had no electric assist. They had very light bikes and very strong lungs and legs. I was glad to see that pure pedal power in strong hands can top an electric powered system ridden by a couple of aging siblings.
The trip was a personal test of will for many of the riders and a very strong bonding experience for most of us. Someone mentioned that it was like a forced military march (I wouldn't know) but we did not have the option of bailing out.

Still sunny! Brother Michael on his electrified "Big Dummy" cargo bike.

The three sibs enjoying a dry dinner.

Morning of the Century Ride - Fort Bragg to the Russian River

The group is very active still and informal rides are organized almost every weekend. Last week we went to a Keystone Pipeline demonstration http://www.tarsandsaction.org/ in San Francisco and ran into 2 other climate riders. We are a big family, bonded by hardship, laughter, a love of bicycles and the planet.

3 more steps on the journey to Electric Powered Transportation

2011-04-05T21:27:00.000-07:00

1) It was a cold and dreary Sunday when I rode over to Erik's house on my bike that we planned to light up with LED's. Erik's father, Roger got very involved as we set up in the garage and went through the long process (six hours) of installing LED's, a rear "bumper" for attaching some of the lights, the DC to DC converter (takes the 36 volts out of the battery and turns it into 12 volts to power the lights). Erik was amazing. Not only for his stamina but for the string of ideas he had for solving the challenges that we encountered. Erik's mother and Erik's sister also joined us in the garage and contributed good cheer and a nice plastic soap dish that houses the DC to DC converter. As you can see by the photos, the results are amazing. These are really bright lights that are even visible when direct sunlight is shining on them. Not only to I feel safer riding around but I am turning heads and starting conversations about electric bicycles that are started by admiration for my lighting. Quite a successful project. By the way, with all the lights running, I am using about 11 to 12 watts of power. Considering that the average power draw of the motor is probably around 300 watts, I'd say the demand on the battery created by the lights is pretty insignificant. And I never have to worry about batteries for my lights!

Figuring things out

The finished product

2) The tandem build -
After finally getting all of the pieces together, I set up a time to put the tandem together. A lot of the work was purely mechanical so I was able to get some of the students to work together with me and Jonathan Ando as we build up the bike. When we got it ready to roll, it ran okay for about 10 minutes and then died. In addition, the gears weren't working well so there was a lot of skipping going on. The students were very engaged and the ten minutes of riding that we did get were lots of fun. After school was out, Jonathan and I figured out that we had another controller on the bike that we built in Boulder on our trip. We switched out the controller and the bike worked great. We had a number of theories about what was up but the bottom line is that the controller that came with the wheel didn't work. As with electronic components, if they die, they tend to die pretty much right away. Once they prove that they work, they seem to work for a long time. Golden Motors is very good about backing their products so I don't think I will have any problem replacing the bad controller.
Later, I put a different deraileur on the rear wheel and it works a lot better. With a little adjustment, I think this bike will be up and running in a jiffy. Taxi anyone??

Coming together -

Notice the Green battery pack from our cross country adventure

Jonathan Ando and Julio

The maiden voyage

Cruisin'

3) The arrival of the electric motorcycle.
Back in early December, I ordered an electric motorcycle from Zelectric Vehicles http://www.zelectricvehicle.com/. Slated to arrive at a friends house in the flats after 3, the motorcycle arrived around 8. The throttle wires had been pulled out during shipping and it was fairly dark by the time I had the bike off the truck so I had to go back the next day to try to get the bike working. After a couple of days of messing around and with the owner of the company providing limited support from China, I was able to get the bike running and oh, what a blast!!
(The bike is assembled in America and the owner was visiting China on business with his component suppliers.) I am currently trying to get the DMV to understand that the motorcycle doesn't need EPA certification since it is an electric bike and has no emissions. I had a very challenging conversation with the DMV person who was not interested in "out of the box" challenges. I did manage to get a temporary permit and I have to get the motorcycle certified by the California Highway Patrol before heading back to the land of the DMV.

Tandems, a climate change denier and LED's

2011-03-02T11:23:00.000-08:00

As I continue to engage the High School students with electric bikes, the idea of an electric tandem has become increasingly attractive. So I started cruising around Craigslist looking for the perfect tandem. I wrote a note to the people selling tandems and here it is:

Hi,

I am interested in your tandem and would like to ask you to consider possibly donating the bike after reading the following:

Last year I rode an electric bike across country with my sister to demonstrate the viability of electric bicycles and to feature "sustainable solutions". www.thegreenriders.org.

It was a complete blast!!

Now I am leveraging that experience into an effort to bring electric bicycles into the local high school. There are a number of reasons for this.

1) Getting students out of cars. The parking lot at the school is mayhem as you can probably imagine.

2) Teach "at risk" students about both bicycle mechanics and electric drive systems. (I plan to convert the bicycle to electric.)

3) A tandem offers the opportunity to create a very 'cool' vehicle. From what students keep saying, a tandem would be completely awesome since they could then give rides. After dropping their passenger off, the driver would not have a huge heavy bike to haul home since the motor would help.

I am volunteering my time at Woodside High School because I firmly believe that fossil fuel free vehicles need to play a much bigger role in meeting our transportation needs. A tandem offers passenger accommodation, which is a huge benefit.

Since Woodside High is a State institution, your donation would be tax deductible and I would be able to get you a letter for tax purposes that would let you deduct the replacement cost of your bike.

If this is interesting to you, please let me know.

Here's a link to the Green Academy at Woodside High School. I am working with the students and staff in this program. http://www.woodsidehs.org/?id=317#2428

Cheers, Oliver Bock 650 851 7883

I thought it was a good letter. The first two people I sent it out to ignored me but the third one sent me a real winner. Here it is:

This is not something I would be interested in. I think green stuff is generally a screw job. I also have no interest in helping "at risk" students. They get enough help already. If you want to really help them teach them how devastating liberalism is. I also love my fossil fuel vehicle. Good (sic) help America!!!!!!

Even though I didn't get the bike, I'm sure getting a lot of mileage out of this response. I shared it with the students and now I'm sharing it here. And this response is from someone nearby! No, California is not only populated with liberal, Volvo driving, Latte drinking environmentalists.

Needless to say, I still don't have a tandem.

A nice cargo bike I saw in Portland. There's a strong pedal only purist attitude that I found in Portland even though some of the most dedicated electric bike people live and work in Portland. This bike is human powered and the carrier is designed for the owner's Great Dane!

On a more friendly note, I visited my 11 year old lighting engineer who is very excited about the lights we got and how he's going to wire them up so that they will convert the 36 volts of power from the battery to the 12 Volts that they use. Erik carefully described the electronic devices he will build to do the conversion as well as include a flashing feature. We're planning an install day once he gets the electronics built.

Storage unit finished . . . enough - Time for E-Bikes

2011-02-09T19:53:00.000-08:00

View of storage shed from the parking lot. Tin will become the 'canvas' for a mural.

Storage shed from the 'business' side.

The last view of the storage area before it gets filled up.

On Tuesday, I spent a few hours finishing up the major building on the storage shed for donated bikes.
During the process, many of the students got involved. Probably the most fun and surprising help came from a couple of the female students who took ownership of getting the corrugated tin walls wired to the cyclone fence. They insisted that it was their project so I saved the work for them when they had time to help. They did a great job and the wall looks great.
We are looking at the wall as a palette for a mural. Another student is a graffiti artist and he is going to bring some design ideas for painting the tin wall. It's a 8 foot high by almost 30 foot space that will hopefully get painted in a colorful way that promotes the activities of the Green Academy. Those activities include the garden, the chickens, the bicycle restoration project and other "green" activities. It will be fun to watch the mural take shape.
As I've been working at the school, I'm slowly getting to know some of the students and learning about their lives. There are a number of the students who are "high-risk". They are not very committed to academics, they have had negative encounters with authorities and I can see that if they don't find a productive outlet for some of their energy, there is a real possibility of bad outcomes. On the other hand, some of these same students are fascinated by bicycles. I see real potential for positive outcomes driven by engagement with bicycles. Hopefully, the electric bicycles will add another level of attraction for some of these students and get them involved in building better lives for themselves and bicycles that will get more people out of cars.
Next week, I will start with electric bikes. I haven't quite figured out how to get the program going since there are significant financial hurdles to building e-bikes. I've been toying with a few ideas but I think I will see where the interest is first and then figure out how to fund the building of e-bikes. One model is to pre-sell electric bikes based on allowing the use of one of my existing bikes. Another model is to cover the cost of building a bike or two and loaning them out as rewards for students who are helpful. Getting students to raise enough money to buy a conversion kit for their own bike is another model. We'll see what unfolds.

As an aside, brother Michael is committed to building electric cargo bikes for people who need to haul more than just their bodies around. His skill as a woodworker helped him build a beautiful trailer for one of his bikes that is going to a restaurant over in Oakland. Before he delivers it, he is testing the trailer by moving his entire household to a new house about 3 miles away. Lots of trips but he has been having a great time making the move.

Back to School

2011-01-30T20:20:00.000-08:00

High Tech structure. The fence supports the high side "posts" and header while repurposed cement parking lot bumpers support the lower posts and header. School parking lot is in the background.

(Notice the 18 foot header, on the ground next to the posts, fabricated out of 2 - 10' 2X6's and 2 - 8' 2X6's. I stagger the seams and use 1/2" plywood scraps in between the two 2X6's. Lots of glue and lots of nails make for a very strong, straight beam. From a sustainability point of view, using smaller lumber to build larger lumber requires the use of smaller trees and is therefore more sustainable. Manufactured beams, called 'Glulams' are stronger than the equivalent solid lumber beam.)

Bicycle shed in the foreground where tools and parts are stored. There's also a workbench inside for rainy days. The corrugated tin on the fence will be painted as a mural announcing the garden and bicycle project. Behind the fence and up the hill is the garden and chickens. I would love to be a high school student here!!

I spent every afternoon last week at the High School working on the storage structure for donated bikes and parts. It has been a lot of fun getting to know the students and giving them jobs that help get the project done. We should be finished by the end of next week and then I can start focusing on building an electric bicycle or two. ( I still haven't figured out the permission needed to post photos of the students. It gets complicated when the school is involved.)

Electric Riders Project (ERP) accelerates and detours

2011-01-25T20:39:00.000-08:00

Suddenly, my involvement with Woodside's Green Academy and the Electric Bicycle Project is in full swing. But not as I had envisioned.
Last Thursday I attended a meeting with some of the interested parties. One gentleman is excited about creating a Bike Swap once a month on campus. This would attract bikers interested in a flea market focused on bicycles. The booth fees would go to the Green Academy's bicycle club.
Another gentleman is a retired teacher and loves to build very nice bikes. He wants to teach bike mechanics.
A former Woodside student is helping design the bike club by working with the students until he goes back to college in Sonoma next week.
A couple of students showed up because they are interested in bicycles and want to participate.

One of the shortcomings of the infrastructure is that there is no storage for donated bikes. The poor beasts have been sitting out in the nasty weather getting less and less attractive. I volunteered to build a storage unit and now I find that my interest in electric bikes has me building a shed! (It brings me back to my happy days of theater set building on my college campuses. University of Oregon, UC Santa Cruz and Dominican College in San Rafael.)

So yesterday, I rode my bike to Home Depot and loaded up the materials needed for the shed. Mac, the college student, helped me and as we finished, Josh Rubin showed up with the school van and a couple of students to drive the materials back to Woodside. He left a little bit before I did and I got to campus with about 2 minutes of his arrival time. They had only unloaded 1 board when I arrived! Point being that the electric bike, for relatively short trips in town is just as fast as driving. (But not as good at hauling a ton of building materials.) I was very happy to be able to demonstrate the speed and efficiency of electric bike travel.

What the heck? Denver, CO - June 2010

I apologize for not posting pictures. I am working out issues around permission for the students pictures to be posted on this blog. It shouldn't be a problem but I do need to respect their privacy.

Woodside High School Electric Rider Project (ERP) - Day 1

2011-01-16T10:55:00.000-08:00

The cold snap ended the first day I rode down to Woodside High to start working with the students. Unfortunately, the roads were still wet and my bike got very messy. On the bright side, I was able to test the water resistance of my electrical system. I also added an inexpensive (about $30.00) gauge that tells me how much electricity I'm using real time and keeps track of the amp hours that I use over the distance of my trip. The $120 Cycle Analyst that we had on our cross country bikes gives a lot more information but it is more information than I understand and too expensive for the population that I am trying to get onto electric bikes.
I arrived on campus and saw a group of students hovering around the bicycle shed. Only one female student was there and she was labeling and organizing tools. The "guys" were more random and were delighted with my offer to try out my bike. Even though they couldn't reach the pedals since my frame is so big, they got a great thrill getting pulled around by the front wheel hub motor. It's not difficult getting them to appreciate the fun factor. (The woman student didn't want to ride the bike. She doesn't like bicycles after she had an accident as a child that split her chin open. She likes to work with her hands and that's why she's involved with the bicycle club.)

After a while, we all headed to teacher Marin Aldrich's classroom. Different groups of students were working on different components related to making the bicycle club work. The idea is to build bikes out of old bikes and sell them. So students were talking about everything from getting old bikes donated, to soliciting bike shop support for parts, to researching Craigslist as a marketing tool, etc.
I spoke for about ten minutes about my vision for adding electric bikes to the program. What I remember about my words was that I kept switching back and forth between talking about the micro details of putting together electric bicycles and the big picture of global sustainability. The point being that repurposing existing bikes with or without motors is a very good way to reduce our carbon intensive impact on the planet.
Minimal new materials. (Maybe new tires, brake pads and seats.)
If the bicycle replaces a car trip, the impact becomes measurable.
Taking advantage of resources in the community fosters local engagement which is vital to building healthier communities.
Learning to build a bike encourages self sufficiency which is an important part of growing up as well as a necessity in the carbon constrained world that awaits our children.

I finished off my visit with a conversation with one of the students about building storage for donated bikes and an outdoor work bench attached to the shed. Vital and simple projects that need to be done soon.

The following day, I met my sister Catherine at Oracle headquarters which was about a 25 mile round trip bike ride. With my new gauge, I observed that I used less than 7 amp hours to cover the distance. When I compared that to a car that gets about 25 miles per gallon, my electricity cost was under 10 cents whereas the cost of gas for the trip would have been over $3.00. Another fun feature was that I got to my destination in the same or slightly less time than it would have taken in a car. I rode during rush hours and by using back roads and riding alongside cars at intersections, I was able to keep a good average speed that got me to Oracle quite fast.
The bad news was that on the way home, Catherine was cut off by a car driver who turned right in front of her. She crashed into the car, fell off her bike and the driver didn't even stop.
It's dangerous out there so be careful!!!

Electric vehicles are here and there's a lot in the pipeline.

2010-12-18T21:29:00.000-08:00

On Thursday I attended a conference at Stanford University hosted by the University, The German American Business Council and BMW.
The conversation was not about when or if electric cars are coming. The conversation was about what is coming, and who the leaders will be (BMW, of course, is planning on a leadership role.)
The other part of the conversation was about charging stations and how the grid will provide power.
Overall, an amazing shift in the conversation from merely a year ago.
Many of the challenges are technological, legislative and behavioral. All of them are able to be solved but I had to mention that there are other great electric vehicles out there (electric bicycles) that can help get people off of their addiction to fossil fuels, reduce congestion, increase health and save a lot of cash!
I also met a former BMW executive who is now teaching at Stanford and expressed interest in my helping with an electric bicycle course that he will be teaching in the Spring.
Could be a lot of fun!!!

I got to drive the electric Mini Cooper. That was a lot of fun. What a rocket!!

Woodside High School Electric Rider Project (ERP)

2010-12-14T09:11:00.000-08:00

Deciding how to best leverage the Green Riders' cross country adventure has been an exercise in patience.
Planning for the trip and being on the road involved lots of quick decisions that didn't require much collaboration.
Getting this new project going has been the opposite. I am working within a school system which is amazingly flexible and open but still moves at a much slower pace than I am used to.
Yesterday, I met with two of the teachers who are part of the Green Academy. The Green Academy is a school within a school on the Woodside High campus and its focus is sustainability and technical skill building for students who are motivated but not inspired by the more traditional academic offerings in high school.
I have been talking with Josh Rubin and Marin Aldrich since the beginning of the school year and yesterday they presented a plan that integrates some of their goals (bicycle recycling project) with my goal of introducing electric bicycles into the high school community.

Sunday Cruise with Liza (Note front wheel hub motor on my recumbent- Sweet and simple)

Below is an outline for moving forward that Marin Aldrich put together after yesterday's meeting. It exceeds my expectations . . . by a lot! I am completely thrilled with how much work has already been done by these two remarkable teachers and I can't wait to get going.

ELECTRIC RIDERS PROJECT OUTLINE:

Goals: - to refurbish and resell/donate used bikes
- to market, build, and sell electric bikes
- to involve students at every level of this project possible

Steps:
1. All interested students will have their schedule moved (switch with Ann's class) so that they are in Josh's 7th period class. This will allow us to work with that team of students on A-days from 1:35-3:10.
2. Those not directly involved in the bike component of this project will work to accomplish other support activities for the bike repair team: building a shed to protect bikes, working on marketing and sales strategies for both electric and refurbished bikes, capacity-building and networking in the community to find old bikes and sell refurbished ones.
3. We will start in January with some of the initial work: training the students on basic bike repair (Marin and Oliver), pulling in former students as repair trainers (Mac, Ricky, Sean), building the shed (Josh and a team of students).

And yes, that is the same Sean who was part of our cross country team!

So my first job is to get fingerprinted so that I can volunteer with the students.

Another Presentation - Redwood City Nov. 17

2010-11-13T08:18:00.000-08:00

Just in case you may be in the area, I have another presentation set up for Wednesday the 17th in Redwood City. The focus of the talk will be half about the trip and the other half about how electric bikes can fit into the palette of choices people can look at for transportation in this area. Selling sustainability as a motivator for behavior change is not easy. Many people understand and agree that sustainable behavior is important but when it comes around to changing behavior (getting out of the car and onto an electric bike), sustainability does not have enough immediate appeal to get people to change their behavior. So my talk will emphasis the fun and convenience of electric bikes. Since being home, I am using my electric bike to run errands and to visit people within a 15 mile radius and I find that I have fun, get exercise and spend maybe an extra 10 or 15 minutes traveling on the longer trips. Not having to deal with parking, long traffic lines waiting for lights to change and 2,000 pounds of car to navigate is a delight!

Event Details

Series
Redwood City Verde Talks - A Green Education & Mixer Series
Date
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Time
6:30-8 PM
Location
Redwood City City Hall, 1017 Middlefield Rd, Redwood City, CA 94063

Format
6:30-7PM: Mixer

7-8PM: Intro, Talk (30 mins), Q&A (20 mins), Close
Hope to see you there,

Oliver

Front hub motor on sister Catherine's Cannondale Recumbent

Slide Show presentation about the Green Riders

2010-09-06T19:14:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted for a while and this is just a short note to tell those of you who live near Woodside, that I will be presenting slides and the adventures that we had crossing the country on our electric bikes. We will be gathering at the Woodside Village Church in Woodside. The evening begins at 6:30 with a half hour of looking at three different electric bicycles including the one I rode across the country. Also there will be a bike I just built up from a $10.00 find at a garage sale as well as an "off the shelf" cruiser bike model that I just got for my daughter's 16 year old birthday present. She loves it!!
I hope some of you can make the event.

Woodside Village Church- Guild Hall
Monday Sept. 13 6:30 - 9:00
Call 650 851 7883 if you have any questions

Oliver

Congresswoman Anna Eshoo meets with The Green Riders

2010-06-25T18:11:00.000-07:00

We "lobby" Anna Eshoo for sustainable solutions

We had planned to leave Bethesda early this morning (the 23rd) but we managed to get an appointment with our Congresswoman Anna Eshoo at 11. Catherine was tired of the heat and the ride into DC and Albin's bicycle was broken. I wasn't too excited about going into the city again but Liza insisted and so we went.

The Cannon building is next to the Capitol and it is where the members of the House of Representatives have their offices. It is one of many grand old buildings and the air conditioning works just fine. We found our way down the marble halls to Congresswoman Eshoo's office where we were greeted warmly by her staff. There was a switchboard where two or three "staffers" answered phone calls from people like me and you who call their Congress people.

Within a couple of minutes, we were ushered into Anna Eshoo's office where Anna greeted us warmly and to my surprise was aware of our journey and had looked at our blog and website. She was like a proud parent who was so thrilled with what we had accomplished. She asked interesting questions, listened to the answers, complimented us on our achievements and admired our healthy appearance.

We talked about her work and her frustration with the pace of the legislative process. She was especially frustrated with the Senate's unwillingness to pass the energy bill that the House sent to them a year ago. I complimented her on her willingness to 'fight the good fight' and she said: "Someone has to do it!"

I'm so glad she is our representative and both Liza and I feel that we have a friend in Congress who will support us as we continue fighting for a sustainable future.

I'm grateful to Liza for pushing me into going down to DC for the 4th time and visiting with Anna Eshoo.

It was the highlight of our DC experience.

Now we are on the road heading west. As I write this, we just passed a mileage marker that announced 82 miles to Kansas City.

Westward Ho!!

Saying goodbye to Chessa before she heads off to work

The thrill of the road - Part 1

The thrill continues unabated!

The Green Riders officially arrive in Washington DC

2010-06-23T06:24:00.000-07:00

On our way into DC to meet with friends and cousins, the Surley blew out another controller.
A parting shot.
I disconnected the plug from the motor to the controller so that there would be less resistance when pedaling and we continued on our way. Albin hung on to the back of my bike and I "towed" him when it was safe.
We arrived on the Capital steps about the same time that our friend Antonia and her two friends arrived. We staged an arrival scene and Liza and Albin sang their song.
I was getting worried because my sister-in-law Stephanie and her three boys were an hour late when they finally called. Traffic and parking had slowed them down. (Cars are so great!!)
We all had lunch in the Native American Museum which has a fantastic cafe with ethnic food from Indians of the Americas. Liza and I had buffalo. Catherine and Albin had rabbit and there were many other exotic choices.
We split up after lunch with Liza and myself going to the Air and Space museum with Stephanie and the triplets while Catherine and Albin "hung out" with Antonia in the Native American Museum.
The heat and humidity were incredible so we stayed in the museums until after 5 before riding and towing ourselves back up to Bethesda where we enjoyed our last evening with Chessa in her very comfortable home.
So now the journey ends.
Liza and I will go into town tomorrow for a brief meeting with our Congresswoman Anna Eshoo before hitting the long road home.
I'm tired, proud of our accomplishments, concerned about what I'll do next since my identity as a Green Rider is behind me and looking forward to seeing my family, friends and dog.
I just wish the next five or 6 days of driving were already behind us.
We do plan to post a few more blogs and there is a chance that I will put this adventure together into some coherent format but time will tell if I can muster enough enthusiasm for reprocessing this adventure.

Greeting friends on the Capital steps

Great to see Antonia

The official arrival

One last electric bicycle grin

The triplets ready for air-conditioned IMAX fun

Touristing in DC

2010-06-23T04:49:00.000-07:00

Even though electric bikes are not allowed on the trail into town, we headed into town illegally. Being on bikes has got to be the best way to see "the mall". We were able to cruise the entire length of the mall from the Lincoln Memorial to the Capital Building.
We even went to Union Station for lunch before going to the Natural History Museum where we enjoyed much needed air conditioning and an IMAX movie.
I felt bad for the tourists battling the heat, dealing with long hot walks between monuments and museums and the discomfort of dealing with crowds of people. On bikes, we found a perfect space between sitting in traffic in a car and the miles of hot hiking around "the mall".

We made it - Lincoln Memorial

Washington Monument

Vietnam Memorial

The White House

Very sad - No Obama

The Capital

Liza being a good Green Rider

Brunswick to Washington DC!!!

2010-06-22T15:53:00.000-07:00

After a horrible night of a high pitched barking dog, hot muggy air and lots of very hungry mosquitos, Catherine, Liza and Albin headed down the last 50 miles of the C&O while I drove into Bethesda where I found Chessa and Randy Lutter's house, got Chessa to agree to ride up the trail to meet the rest of the gang and rode about 10 miles or so up the C&O trail before we all met and cruised back down to Chessa's house where we relaxed and enjoyed air conditioning and showers.
After dinner, we rode 6 miles into Georgetown where we met with a reporter who had responded to an email that Liza had sent out. Janet Donovan was very sweet and seemed like the consummate DC type.
(Whatever that is!) We did a short interview with her and then found a Ben and Jerry's store for our daily ice cream. We were quite the tourist attraction in town and talked to lots of folks who couldn't believe that we had done what we had done. (We can't believe it either!)
We made it home just as it got dark and went to bed exhausted after our bad night and long day.

Heading out for the last days ride

Two Green Riders fans

Great Falls of the Potomac

End of the line - almost

Lock 6 - I couldn't resist

Cooper's Rock to Brunswick

2010-06-21T15:01:00.000-07:00

Last night, our campground neighbors rolled in just as we were eating. They were a couple of "working guys" who looked like they had spent the day on the job. After an awkward moment or two when they confessed their trepidation about being camped next to some "eco-groovies", we got into a very interesting conversation. They are building a coal fired power plant in the area and are very aware of the green movements dislike of the stuff. As we talked, we were able to dissolve some of our prejudices and by the end of the conversation, we were talking about large scale solar, how coal plants can't get financing, how important coal is for jobs and how the politics around energy production is shifting away from unquestioning support of dirty fossil fuels and beginning to favor renewables as the financial system loses interest in fossil fuels and is also beginning to favor renewables.

It was a conversation I would never have imagined had I just seen the two "working guys" on the street.

Our ride today started with a huge downhill run off of Cooper's Rock and then we got into some beautiful riding into Pennsylvania and then into Maryland. Catherine started the day and rode for a couple of hours before giving her bike to Albin. He was pretty sad to have missed some fine riding but within a half an hour he was very happy as the riding got even better. Big rollers with downhills so steep that he got to go over 50 mph!

At lunch time, we rolled into Frostburg where we jumped on the old railroad line trail that took us to Cumberland. For some reason we got lucky again and had 15 miles of downhill on a perfectly even grade with a tailwind. We basically sat on our bikes and watched the scenery go by.
I got my taste of coal when I was passed by the coal powered steam engine, that runs tourists around, just before it went into a tunnel. I rode into the tunnel, thinking I could hold my breath and get through but the tunnel was plugged up with coal smoke and I couldn't see a thing. I had to move at a crawl getting through the tunnel and came out coughing and sputtering from the irritation caused by the coal smoke.
Very disgusting.

In Cumberland, we made the decision to portage down the C&O trail and arrive in DC a day early so that we could be tourists for a day. Finding a campsite was a huge ordeal but we finally found a pretty spot along the Potomac where we were able to swim and enjoy a great firefly show.

3 states in one day!

A big day for mileage milestones as well

So happy

Liza wanted to ride 100 miles today but only got 78

Coal demon

On the Potomac

Balancing tent poles - Zen and the art of setting up a tent

Our last dinner before DC

Morgantown to Coopers Rocks via Auto Repair

2010-06-21T06:04:00.000-07:00

Catherine's first blog!!

Our last visit with a “sustainability hero” was really a grand finale. After our night at the ice rink in Morgantown we went to see Paul Brown, a professor from WVU who has retrofitted his house to make it almost self sufficient with water and electricity. He drives an electric car which he charges with the solar electricity from his roof. The same solar panels that cover the entire southern roof supply 95% of his electricity needs. Water catchment from the roof supply water that is treated to make it potable. It is stored in two large insulated tanks in the basement, one for cold and one for hot water. The catchment tanks were built in the basement out of the Styrofoam blocks designed to be used for building foundations. A great solution to figuring out how to get a pre built tank into an existing basement. The hot water is heated by solar energy as well. He showed us around the house and the basement explaining simply and clearly how everything worked so even I understood. What impressed me most was that his strong commitment to saving the planet guides all his life choices. He even has the courage to be running for the state legislature to work for green legislation. We talked about the radical changes needed if the earth is to survive and the fact that the oil that is still spewing into the Gulf may have already 'tipped’ us over the edge. Not a happy thought.

I’m not under the illusion that our riding electric bikes across the country is going to help with these huge problems so I was delighted meet Paul who has the commitment to fight for meaningful changes in the government if he gets elected.

We contributed to his campaign.

The rest of the day turned into a lot of driving since the van was not running well and the only Sprinter dealer was in Clarksburg, about an hour away. It turned out to be a burst hose and the repair was free because the van is still under warrantee.

We started biking across Highway 50 heading east, but we met some people who said that it is very dangerous, and we did not want to repeat yesterday's horrible experience. So we loaded up and headed back towards Morgantown.

We also met the people that are biking across country on normal bikes in six days, and one of their support people offered us ice cream!

Finally, we made it to a campground near Coopers Rock and, after settling in, went for a bike ride down to the awesome climbing and views that they have there! It was really a fun way to end an otherwise frustrating afternoon.

Our kind of political slogan

Famous Green Riders in Morgantown

Paul Brown's very cool house

Checking out the Zenn electric car

Cooper's Rocks

Spider Man

NEW VIDEOS!!!

2010-06-20T18:59:00.000-07:00

Check out our latest videos!! There is the music video teaser and the video from an event in Ohio.

Into Morgantown -

2010-06-20T13:12:00.000-07:00

After morning farming chores, we hopped on our bikes and headed towards Morgantown. The first few miles were wonderful and then we hit Highway 7.

What a disaster!

Narrow, fast, windy road with lots of huge trucks going way too fast. Catherine drove while the three of us "white-knuckled" our way into Morgantown. Liza and Albin will add their comments to this blog about the harrowing ride.

We spent the afternoon with the media. Reporters from both the local paper and the local TV outlet joined us at NIck's "office" where we talked and rode around for a couple of hours.

Link to TV spot - http://wboy.com/story.cfm?func=viewstory&storyid=81617

Nick's 'office' is called "Positive Spin" and he has done an amazing job organizing bicycle parts that he gets from various sources. He builds bikes and lets people who are interested come in and work at one of the three bicycle stations that he has set up. The level of organization and the attention to detail really impressed me. For people interested in setting up a bicycle recycling program, it would be very worthwhile to check out Nick's project http://www.positivespin.org/home2/.

Afterwards, we enjoyed our almost daily ice cream before going to the library for our evening event where we presented our story to the Morgantown "green team".

After dinner, we headed up to the ice skating arena where the Morgantown Parks and Recreation Department allowed us to sleep in the arena. It's the biggest room I have ever slept in!!

Liza -

"The stupid coal truck drivers who tried to kill me made me hate coal even more! I almost died! After riding the '7' I felt I had narrowly escaped death, because I had!"

Albin-

"Other than the people driving like maniacs, the ride would have been fun. Drivers don't know how to act around bicycle riders. We should throw them on a bicycle for a day and see how they like it!"

Catherine -

"I was glad I was driving but even I was scared when there were ten coal trucks stacked up behind me."

TV reporter taking a test spin. Check out the shoes!

Talk about organization !!

One of three identical work stations

Morgantown Graffiti

Green Riders down by the river

Our "bedroom"

Wolf Run Campground, Ohio to a small farm 26 miles west of Morgantown WV-

2010-06-18T18:50:00.000-07:00

Albin and Liza took the first driving shift so that Catherine and I could get a chance to ride together again. We headed out after an active weather night on very fine windy county roads. Unfortunately, we took a wrong turn and added about 15 miles to our day - whoops.

After a while, Catherine went back to her position behind the wheel and I took the two "kids" further on down the road . . . and what a road it was. Probably some of the finest road along our route. Steep, windy, great pavement, wonderful views of rolling hills and almost no traffic. The road ended at the Ohio RIver where we met Catherine who had prepared a fine lunch. We sat along the river at a locks and watched coal barges full of the nasty stuff floating down the river towards their toxic, combustive fate.

On the technical side, it turned out that when Albin and I regreased the motors on the recumbents, we used the wrong kind of grease. (We used the grease we had which is a high pressure grease.) I talked to the folks at Eco Speed who built the drive system we are using and was informed that we need to use a non high pressure grease. So the plan for the afternoon included tearing the motors part again, cleaning and regreasing the gears and putting in the right kind of grease.

Albin wanted more riding so while Catherine, Liza and I bought grease and ate ice cream in New Martinsville, WV, Albin headed up the road towards the farm where our Morgantown host Nick Hein had invited us to the small farm that he is caretaking for some friends.

We picked up Albin and drove into the farm where we were greeted by lots of dogs, cats, ducks, chickens, goats and a sweet cow named Lucy.

We regreased the gears on both the motors and they are running very quietly now. Just as we finished, Nick arrived and we spend an very enjoyable evening milking goats and getting to know NIck and a young friend, Zack, he brought out to help with the farm chores.

Another great day on the road!

Southeast Ohio - Very nice!

Strange signs and a leak

We love these signs!

Taggin'

King coal and ice cream

Our welcoming committee at the farm

Bonding over an udder

Liza milking Lucy

Springfield Illinois - Columbus, Ohio

2010-06-17T04:57:00.000-07:00

Our last day with Michael on the road was as delightful as the first two. Again we had a tailwind and "knocked out" the final 38 miles in no time.

We arrived at Michael's friends house Steve and EIleen around noon, spend a relaxing afternoon together before heading off to our bike shop event at 5.

Bicycle One is a family owned shop and the owner has been in the business for over 35 years. They also carry a very extensive selection of recumbents so we tried some other molds during our visit. Steve, Eileen and Michael all joined us so we brought our own crowd. There wash's a lot of people who showed up but the bikes did get used a lot by store employees/sons and we had a good time telling stories and listening to tales of life in Columbus.

We were lucky enough to meet Denny Oswald who probably knows as much about recumbents as anybody. IT was great talking to him and he really enjoyed seeing our rigs. He thought we were trying to sell them so he was giving us ideas about how to make them more marketable. When I explained that we are doing this for our education and for the education of people we meet, Denny quickly understood and agreed that selling products is a whole different activity that isn't the only way to bring new ideas into the world. When I told him I wasn't interested in running a business, he got it immediately.

After the event we went back to Steve and Eileen's and enjoyed the comforts of air conditioning, a real sit down meal and even some World Cup soccer!

It is sad to be leaving Michael behind but I think he really had a lot of fun for the short time that he was able to join us for.

Steve and Eileen were wonderful hosts and we really enjoyed the comfort and hospitality that they showed us.

Steve Brock and Michael deciding where to get a beer

The Green Riders and the Bicycle One folks

Recumbent master Denny Oswald checks it out

And then checks it out some more

Steve's wife Eileen with 'The Grin'

Richmond, Indiana to Buck Creek Park, Springfield, Ohio

2010-06-14T11:22:00.000-07:00

Since I got to ride today, it is worthy to note that the “kids” brought tailwinds with them from California. And oh, how I do appreciate it.

Michael Closson is a completely delightful guest rider. He’s flexible, loves engaging people who are interested and is very helpful with the activities of daily living involved with this trip. We are trying to convince him to stay along but he can’t. But we keep trying.

It is so great for Catherine and I to have our children with us. They are silly, energetic and we all get along with each other wonderfully. I’m getting sad that the trip is almost over.

A day in the drivers seat - Albin

After a long night of thunder, rain and wind it was my turn to be the driver of our support vehicle and trailer. I was accompanied by my Mom (Catherine) since her bike motor was no longer functioning.

Even if the driving is not as glamorous or fun as the biking is it still fills an important role of the trip. Along the way we stopped on several occasions to check in with the riders to see if everything was working correctly, to fill up water, make lunch, dry off all the tents and sleeping bags that got soaked from the rain, and of course to take naps.

After a 68 mile day we arrived at a campground outside of Springfield, Ohio where we had an amazing dinner including more of the vegetables that were given to us from the urban farm in Indianapolis. It was delicious and the beets were some of the best I have ever eaten. Before dinner Oliver and I picked apart the broken motor and noticed that the bearings were filled up with dirt, gravel and sand from the road. Nothing looked broken so we decided to clean everything out really well, smearing some Wise Solutions Bio Grease on it and putting it back together to see if that might fix it. Two hours later it was back in one piece and we all watched with anticipation as mom rode off on a trial run. It worked perfectly! After returning she even said that is runs better now than when she first got the bike. Yippee!!

Hoot protects us

Somewhere in Indiana - wind turbines Yeahhhh!!

Drying out our gear in lovely Springfield, Ohio

Hard at work fixing beets and bicycles

The regreased cog wheel ready to be reinstalled

Praying for success - Down on our knees

Success - A greasy handed hug

Ahhh, happiness!!

3 posts in one - including Liza's first post

2010-06-13T05:29:00.000-07:00

Champaign to Indianapolis -
We left Matt and his family and headed east with a friend of Matt's named Andy (we can't remember his last name, but we have his picture). Andy led us along quiet county roads with stops at 2 parks along our route. It was wonderful riding. In Danville, we lost track of Rolf and ended up having a bit of a spat. We continued on to Crawfordsville for a big 91 miles and the loss of another hour due to a time zone change. When we found Rolf, he announced that he wanted to leave us! The last we saw of him, he was heading west in a taxi.
Catherine and I drove the remaining 40 miles into Indianapolis and settled into the IndyHostel where our Indianapolis hostess, April had made arrangements for our lodging. It was quite a tumultuous day, to say the least, and the rest of our trip has changed again.

Our escort, Andy who led us fearlessly from Champaign to Danville, Il

Indianapolis-
We spent the morning gathering our wits and cleaning our bicycles. The IndyHostel is a warm, friendly place that we would happily return to. We were both very excited about Liza and Albin's arrival later in the evening as well as the arrival of Michael Closson from Acterra who was arriving at 4 in the afternoon.
April arrived around noon on her bicycle and we rode to a small local produce restaurant with a renowned Chef known for his pulled pork sandwiches. . . ooh were they good. We found out later that the chef had worked a lot with my wife Deirdre's cousin Larry Forgione! Small world.
After lunch we rode down the Monan trail, a dedicated bike trail on an old railway line that is well used by bikers, hikers, etc. Our destination was an urban farm started by an incredibly energetic and dedicated Ethiopian woman Aster Bekele. She brings second generation Ethiopian children to the farm and gets them reaquainted with their agricultural roots. We were led on a tour by a 5 year old who enjoyed all the attention.
As we were leaving, a huge thunderstorm broke and we ended up getting back to the hostel completely soaked. It was really fun.
Michael and his friend Steve Brock were at the hostel when we got back so we dried off and had a nice visit with Steve before he had to head back to Columbus, Ohio. (Our next destination.)
The evenings plans included the arrival of Liza and Albin as well as a Pot Luck dinner at a place called Earth House. Catherine, Michael and I rode the 6 miles to Earth House in time to get a short tour and description of the place.
About 2 years ago, Earth House was a church with a diminishing congregation that couldn't afford to keep the lights on. They somehow invited a community in that remodeled the building so that it now includes a coffee shop, a venue for shows (including Sunday services), a basement kitchen and dining hall and other facilities for the use of the community. Our event was in the basement and lots of people showed up with wonderful food that we gobbled down with gusto. After eating, the guests were invited to share their activities and organizations with the group before Catherine and I presented our project. There were lots of questions and comments from a very engaged crowd and when things broke up, an incredibly sweet couple (the Henderson's) offered to give us fresh produce from their urban farm.
We met them on our way home in the last light of the day and they toured us around a few of their plots of land. It was a fabulous way to end a day dedicated to local sustainable agriculture in Indianapolis.
Both urban agriculture and centers like Earth House are much easier to realize in areas where real estate prices are reasonable. We commented more than once on how difficult it is to create urban farms and community centers in our home towns in California because of the cost of the land we live on.
April said we are good role models for becoming elderly and even though I know she was talking about my elderly sister, I was still honored. Our visit with April was a great example of how this trip is working out. As we planned our visit to Indianapolis, I asked April what she was interested in around sustainability and she shared her passion for local foods, urban farming and the communities that are built. So she created an event that featured all of those things and we were delighted to be able to share her world and see a sector of sustainable behavior alive and growing in Indianapolis.

Our Indianapolis Hostess, April

Along the Monan Trail

Aster Bekele in her urban garden

Our tour guide

It does rain in Indianapolis

Talking bikes at Earth House

Swimming through the humidity to Richmond- Liza Bock

We woke up to pouring rain today in the basement of the Indy Hostel. We got off to a late start, as it was tough getting out of Indianapolis through the Gay Pride Parade. Once we got started, though, conditions were perfect. We rode along highway 40 which was basically flat and very straight. We also had a tail wind, which is always a plus! The only issue was the humidity, which makes it nearly impossible to wear clothes, and drinking can be done by opening our mouths at high speeds. After thirty to forty miles, we stopped for lunch at a lovely park in Lewisville. It was really hot, and after we rinsed our dishes, we had to rinse each other. Then I took a nap in the van during the 25 miles to Richmond while Catherine, Oliver, and Albin biked there. There were some problems finding each other, but we managed and found a great campsite with a pool! Our perfect day was interrupted by Catherine's motor breaking and her bike, as well as her mascot Hoot, are now depressed as we wait for a new motor.

Albin tries out the wheels

Liza seems to like her ride as well

Grease bite

Feeling really buff

Fairfield to Champaign

2010-06-11T06:43:00.000-07:00

Stuart rode with us out of town for a few miles before heading off to work. We will miss his "can do" positive energy that makes him incredibly effective at getting things done.
We had a fantastic day of riding. No wind, few cars and good roads. It doesn't get much better than that!
Since we squeezed our riding schedule to add a day in Champaign, we portaged to Lincoln, Illinois for the night and found a fun campsite where the campground owner's treated us to jokes and hospitality.
Big rains were forecast for the night and following day so Rolf set his tent up on high ground to keep from floating away.

The forecast proved wrong, at least for where we were. It barely rained during the night and in the morning we hopped on our bikes for the ride into Champaign. We got some rain along the way and had headwinds.
My birthday present from the gods.
Our host in Champaign is an amazing person. Matthew Childress has a day job working at the University with computers. His true passion is sustainability and he has turned his passion into amazing actions that include inviting folks like us into his home where we displaced his two daughters out of their bedroom and into the parent's bed which then displaced Matthew onto the couch!

Matthew also reached way out of his and his wife's financial comfort zone and bought a Twike which is a side by side electric powered, all weather bicycle that he commutes to work in and attracts a lot of attention with. What is truly impressive about Matthew is his determination to keep pushing for increased sustainability practices in Champaign. He is non stop with ideas actions and he kept us going at a breathless pace throughout our visit.

After arriving, we dried off and Catherine, Tina (Matthew's wife) and Matthew prepared a dinner and baked a carrot cake for my birthday. It was very sweet.

After a good nights rest, we hit the ground running with a morning visit to the new School of Business building that received a LEED rating of Platinum (That's the highest standard achievable for a green building.) We got a tour led by George Freeman who was one of the architects on the project and a very proud one at that. Aside from being very green, the building is gorgeous! The atrium area is enormous and at the same time very inviting. After the tour, we had a coffee and enjoyed the spacious public area before heading off to our next attraction.

The Gable house was the 2nd place winner in the 2009 Solar Competition where all the building that were selected, went to Washington DC and were set up on the mall. After the competition, the buildings went home and the Gable House is now set up on campus. The press was there when we arrived as well as a whole crew of people who Matthew had arranged for us to meet. We plugged our batteries into the solar panels that cover the whole south side of the roof and took on a solar charge.

I just love doing that!!
In true Matthew fashion, during our visit to the Gable house, Matthew started a conversation with Kate Brown (the woman working with the Gamble House) about getting a solar charging station set up for electric vehicle drivers. It would be the first and hopefully it will happen.

After a nice lunch, we loaded up our solar powered batteries and rode out to a test field where a grass called Miscanthus is being grown. It is a fast growing low maintenance perennial that has interesting potential as a biofuel. We spoke with Tim Miese who is a wealth of information and enthusiasm.

In the evening, we went back to campus where Matthew had organized an event with his EV club at a venue right across the street from Lincoln Hall. The Hall is going through a major renovation and the architect Ron Harrison, also a bicycle commuter shared stories about the renovation taking place. It was a very successful event and we went back to Matt's house tired and happy.

Happy Birthday to me

Solving the world's problems American style

Twike model extraordinaire

Twiking down the road

The atrium at the LEED Platinum business school - Matt gets down!

Living roof and the top of the atrium

Solar charge at the Gable House

The Governor deepens his understanding of Green Building and

wrote about it in the Gable House guest book

Architect and bike enthusiast Ron Harrison - The Grin

Even Holly the reporter tried the bike

A prototype 3 wheeled electric vehicle - The Sugar Ride

Tim Miese talks Miscanthus grass

This is what Miscanthus grass looks like

Matt in computer heaven

Matt and his family saying goodbye

Reflections on Fairfield -

2010-06-08T13:14:00.000-07:00

We spent an amazing weekend with Stuart and his family in the fascinating town of Fairfield. My head is still spinning with all of the conversations we had, the people we met and the places we visited. Rather than go through and sequentially describe the weekend, I will instead try to synthesize what we learned into wise and witty comments.

First off, Stuart is an amazing communicator. He talks a lot and manages to make conversations both interesting and challenging. His explanations of everything from the community in Fairfield, to the stock market to the renewable energy technologies we discussed were factual, reasonable and intriguing. Stuart has recently started teaching at the Maharashi University and I envy his students!

(An interesting aside. The Maharashi University of Management is not about training managers. The management referred to is self-management. The practice of increasing self awareness and managing ones self in relation to personal/spiritual behavior and engagement in community.)

Speaking of community, there is a huge amount of emphasis on creating both physical and emotional venues where people feel they belong. In the town of Fairfield, there are a lot of people who seem to know each other very well. There are a number of very active coffee shops and cafe's where people gather just to be out with whoever happens to show up. We went out a couple of times and it was thoroughly delightful to engage with lots of curious people and to watch people really enjoying each other in a very relaxed and open way. The social scene seems like a wonderful blend of small town relaxed charm combined with a sophisticated urban aura. Needless to say, we were all intrigued and delighted with our experiences.

On Sunday afternoon, we went out to the Sustainable Living Coalition where a group of students were taking the Coalition's course. The students live on site, off the grid, eat local foods and learn about many of the aspects of sustainable living. We participated in a bicycle conversion project that involved putting an electric hub motor on Fairfield's Sustainability Coordinator's bicycle. Scott Timm lives on the opposite side of town from where he works and often has to go to meetings that involve short trips that can get real sweaty in this humid climate. Scott also has a knee injury that he is recovering from and doesn't want to stress his knee with too much exercise. He is the perfect candidate for an electric bicycle and he was just thrilled with the results. We used a low cost conversion kit that runs under $500.00 including the lead acid battery. Mark Stimson is one of the local experts on electrics and also a lot of fun to hang out with.

For a small town like Fairfield the kit is perfect. Short trips and no big hills.

The students who participated in the conversion workshop also rode our bikes around and we saw lots of the 'electric bicycle grin' happening. And again, the list of uses for adding electrics to bicycle was lengthened by the ideas that the students had for how they could incorporate an electric bicycle into their lives. Since they are already focused on sustainability, it was great fun to see how quickly they understood the benefits of electric bicycles compared to cars for the short trips that so many people take every day.

There was one woman who rides and electric bike and she described how she had become a prisoner to her life by limiting her willingness to go out on her regular bike (She has no car). Since getting her electric bike, she never hesitates to go out since she knows that getting there and back will be relatively easy. A true convert!

I am still trying to identify and describe the Fairfield experience in a way that is easy to communicate. Part of the attraction is the sense of community that is very pervasive as well as the many intriguing people that we met. Also, the access to high quality, locally grown food and the awareness in the town about the need for increasing sustainable solutions is very attractive. Much of our experience was due to Stuart's long standing relationships in the community and his talent for attracting interesting people. He reminded both Catherine and I of some of the favorite people in our lives.

Another example of a sustainable idea, that is largely driven by Stuart, is a rather complex and elegant scheme that increases volunteerism and keeps money in the community. Stuart is working on setting up a program where volunteers will get credit applied to their credit cards from their local bank. The credits will not be cash but will be an alternative currency that will be honored by local businesses who will take the credits by offering discounts on products and services with the full retail value being paid by volunteer hour credits. So, for instance, a pizza might cost %70 of its retail price with the 30% remainder being paid by the credits the customer earned by working as a volunteer for Hospice. (Stuart explained that there is already a software program "Bling" that can handle the transaction I just described by simply having a bar code type sticker on the customer's cellphone!)

In addition, only local banks will offer the service so eventually, the use of Visa and the like will be reduced. This will add to the creation of sustainable communities by keeping the cash in town. Very clever idea and very much the way Stuart's brain works.

On Sunday night, when we got back from our conversion event at the Sustainable Living Coalition, here was a Welcome Party next door for new students at the Maharishi University. We went over to check it out and got to enjoy a group of young students taking turns performing music. It was great fun and reminded both Catherine and I of the type of activity common at Camp Unalayee gatherings that have enhanced the value of building community in our lives.

Very good stuff, this weekend. Rates right up there with our time on the Navajo Nation with Derrick Terry and the folks from The Grand Canyon Trust.

Wind powered Greenhouse blown out by a recent storm

Part of the greenhouse producing all organic produce

The master organic farmer

Catherine and Stuart's wife Elin

Stuart and Elin's daughter Amanda with a crawdad

Sun setting over the Sustainable Living Coalition

Stuart saying goodbye after escorting us out of town

Getting ready to cross the muddy Mississippi

Amish Farmers at the Farmer's Market

One of Fairfield's cafe's

Riding on Fairfield's 17 mile trail

Scott Timm's bike ready for the conversion

Mark Stimpson ready for conversion action

Oliver salvaging the front tire for use on the motorized front wheel

Bloomfield to Fairfield

2010-06-05T20:05:00.000-07:00

We woke early to grey and threatening skies with weather reports predicting rain. Before 7, we were on wet roads with occasional rain showers but we did manage to dodge most of the bigger raindrops.

Our map pointed out the Gothic House painted by Grant Wood. It was a 15 mile detour so I wasn't too excited about seeing the house until the road we were supposed to take turned out to be closed. The Gods were guiding us again!

We took great photos at the house and pushed on arriving in Fairfield about 11:30 where our host, Stuart Valentine invited us for lunch on the town square. In preparation for our evenings activities, we chased around getting prepared and trying to relax a bit by taking a wonderful swim in the pond at the bottom of Stuart's property.

The Fairfield Art Walk is a monthly event that takes place on the Fairfield square. We arrived in time to participate in the largest one of the year and the theme was 'All Things Italian'. The only thing Italian about us is the shade of our overexposed to the sun skin.

The square was hopping. All the shops were open. Food, art and entertainment opportunities were set up all over the square and there was a sustainability theme as well. We were very busy talking and talking about the bikes, our trip our reasons for doing what we are doing and dealing with folks who wanted to ride the bikes. Rolf was very busy talking to people as well and I think the conversations he had improved both his English skills and his knowledge about the electric bikes.

Fairfield is a very interesting town. Over 35 years ago the Maharishi movement bought an old campus and moved its headquarters here. Since then there has been a slow but steady blending of the "meditators" with the local farming community. Obviously, there are huge differences between the two cultures but over the years acceptance has grown. It was very easy to see at the Art Walk who the Maharishi folks are and who the other folks are. The town has more recently begun to attract people who like the culture here because of the diversity and the commitment to sustainability that is part of the Maharishi culture. Our host, Stuart is a mediator but not a blind follower of the Maharishi culture. His insights and observations about the community make for great stories and we really enjoy hearing about the integration that is happening as Iowa looks for ways to reinvigorate its economy via green jobs like wind turbine manufacturing.

Gettin' down the road

The Green American Gothic

Bonnie's "Swing Bike"

Swinging on the swing bike

Stuart on the Swing Bike

Catherine and I doing a radio interview at the local solar powered radio station

Feeling like real celebrities at KRUU public radio

Some of our fan base

Talking electrics with Mark Stimson, Fairfield's electric vehicle guru

Hamburg to Lineville -

2010-06-03T14:21:00.000-07:00

One angry Turtle sitting in the middle of the road

The night didn't disappoint as far as the predicted weather went. It did disappoint as far as sleeping went. I chose to sleep in the van and the rain, thunder and town noises kept me awake most of the night.

None of us slept well and the wet misty morning made it easy for us to decide to do a portage. In addition, my mileage estimates for crossing Iowa were wildly optimistic so to keep ourselves happy we drove to Mt. Ayr. On the way I called Stuart in Fairfield and we discussed our upcoming weekend. He reminded me that he's involved in a new wind turbine company in Mt. Ayr that we should visit. He gave me the phone # of the CEO, Charlie Sharp and he set us up with an appointment at their facility.

Heartland is the name of the wind company and they are currently in the latter stages of developing a 100KW wind turbine (100 KW is enough to power about 25 homes). Since they are still in development, they couldn't let us see their facility so we met in a conference room and spoke with Larry Preston who is an engineer involved with many different aspects of the project. They currently have 15 employees and once they get into production, they are looking to hire about 100 people. For a small town like Mt Ayr, the success of Heartland would be a real boon.

According to Larry, the size turbine that they are building fills a niche that is currently not being serviced. Small manufacturers, farmers, schools and universities are all potential customers for the Heartland system.

Larry could not give us any specifics but what we did learn is that their turbine is designed for 20 mph winds, their tower will be about 150 ft tall and that the power produced will easily tie into existing grid infrastructure which eliminates the need for huge infrastructure expenses that the large utility scale projects usually have to cover.

The other business that Heartland is involved in is recommissioning older wind turbines, many of which are coming out of the wind farms in Tehachapi. (We should have brought one with us!) They basically replace all the moving parts and then resell the turbines to people and projects that can't afford to go with the new. The turbines that they are recommissioning are in the 65 KW range but since they are old technology, they don't work nearly as efficiently as the new designs being sold today. But at least they are offsetting some fossil fuel based power!

After leaving Heartland, we went into town to take care of some internet stuff before hitting the road. On the way in, we pulled right in front of an enormous big rig hauling a huge turbine blade. The blade reminded me of a whale. It was awesome!

The library was closed so we made our way into City Hall and found internet access in the Assessor's office. They were very kind and interested in what we were doing and we enjoyed sharing our stories with them and learning a bit more about the Mt. Ayr area.

Finally, we hit the road and got in about 50 miles of some of the nicest scenery and roads we've seen yet. The county roads are fabulous here and the drivers are quite courteous and used to slow vehicles since we are in Amish country and there are signs all over warning drivers to watch for horse drawn vehicles. (We stopped at two roadside stands and bought strawberries from Amish families. I pigged out and we still have some left for breakfast.)

We are parked at a lovely campsite by a lake and looking forward to a night full of critter noises.

Rolf conducting business in Sweden on an Iowa highway

Catherine at Heartland's Manufacturing site in Mt. Ayr, Iowa

Larry Preston and I in front of a really sweet quilt

Amish country

Taking my b ike out for a little evening swamping

Touchin' up the green - That's olive oil

One scary turtle

Planning the next day's route- Check out those chiseled thighs

White Cloud to Hamburg Iowa - June 1

2010-06-02T11:02:00.000-07:00

After an early start and farewell to the Kansas Bocks, we rode the two miles into Nebraska where we immediately picked up a tailwind!! What a difference. We got to Rock Port in less than 3 hours (over 50 miles) and spent almost 3 hours with Eric Chamberlain, the local man who got the Rock Port owned utility to agree to install 4 large wind turbines that feed directly into the local grid.

We wanted to video Eric but he said that he has a face for radio and didn't want to be filmed. Rolf took lots of pictures so that and our memories and the notes that Catherine took will have to describe what we learned today.

I called Eric from the Rock Port City Park and he cam out and we talked for a while about Rock Port's history as a town that not only has its own utility but also has its own phone company. Rather unique for a small town of 1500!

The Rock Port utility company is part of a pool of communities that buy energy from providers when the wind isn't blowing. They also still have their own fossil fuel based energy generation facility that they use when the grid goes down and they can't get power from either their wind turbines or other outside sources. We visited the plant and it was just wonderful to see the huge diesel/natural gas fired turbines sitting idle! We also got to see the penciled in numbers that showed how many KW of power are sent out to the grid above and beyond what the Town of RockPort uses. Over the average of a year, Rock Port produces more wind energy than they use.

Eric is employed by "Wind Capital Group". They install utility scale wind projects throughout Northern and Central Missouri. The four turbines that directly feed into the Rock Port utility were installed at the same time that Eric's company was installing a 50 MW system that we got to see when we left Rock Port later in the afternoon. As with many utility scale projects, the money comes from investors and in the case of Rock Port, the investor is John Deere.

After leaving the Municipal Light Plant, Catherine and I followed Rolf and Eric out to the field where the four 1.2 MW turbines that power Rock Port are located. I was surprised by the small size of the transmission line needed to transport the power from the turbines to the local grid. We discussed public acceptance of wind turbines and their electromagnetic impacts which Eric considers negligible. Especially since the towers are never placed closer than 1,000 feet from homes.

Eric also talked about the green jobs created by the wind industry in the area and they are significant partly since they are all new jobs in a new industry.

When we talked about how much attention the 4 turbines in Rock Port attract, Eric pointed out that this project makes it easy for people to understand wind as an energy source. Since electricity is invisible it's hard for people to understand the relationship between a spinning turbine or a coal fired plant and the lights working in their homes. The Rock Port wind project directly provides power to the town and it is measured. This makes it easy to understand and exciting for both wind power advocates and the residents of Rock Port who can look at those four turbines and say, "That's where our power comes from."

Powerful stuff!

After leaving Rock Port, we headed to Hamburg,Iowa to break our previous record of 3 states in one day. We left Kansas for Nebraska, crossed the Arkansas River into Missouri on one of the worst bridges any of us have ever seen and then finished the day in the southwest corner of Iowa where the lady at City Hall warned us about a storm rolling in and suggested that we get a room at the only motel in town. So here we sit, waiting for the storm in a rather funky motel after a very interesting and high mileage (80 miles) day.

The Kansas Bocks having breakfast

1 of 4

#2 Nebraska

I can't believe we made it!!

Rock Port's wind man, Eric Chamberlain

Eric's Truck

The Press catches the Green Riders in action

Catherine does an interview

3 of the Rock Port 4

Talking wind

Brother Peter joins us from Eudora to White Cloud

2010-06-02T10:06:00.000-07:00

After a late start, we had a great day riding through some beautiful countryside. We still had our Kansas headwind but it was pretty mild. Just before we arrived in White Cloud, the bike Peter was on ran out of battery power so I loaned him one of my batteries to get him into White Cloud.

We set up camp along the shore of the Arkansas River and Peter's wife and family showed up shortly after we pulled in. Peter found and old acquaintance named Wolf River Bob who grew up in White Cloud and is a bit of a local legend. He toured us around a bit and we invited him for dinner at our campsite where he continued to tell tales of his life.

Dinner along the Missouri River

This is our last night in Kansas and we're hoping for tailwinds tomorrow since we will hopefully be beyond the apparent headwind curse we encountered during our time in Kansas.

Peter's ready to go

Catherine rollin' it

Setting up the Kansas Bock's tent

Wolf River Bob explainin' it

Two new videos from the road - Missions and Haircuts!

2010-05-31T11:10:00.000-07:00

Two new videos today

Describing the Mission of the Trip
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7WxT9SH2F0

Getting a much needed haircut!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auJ1Dtr6cIc

Enjoy!

"Day off" in Eudora

2010-05-31T04:46:00.000-07:00

With only one event at Sunflower Bike Shop in Lawrence planned, I figured we had a pretty relaxing day ahead of us. We spent the morning organizing the van, finishing up work on the bike we built in Boulder and doing internet catch up. Peter and I rode electric bikes into Lawrence (about 12 miles) and on the way rode through the nursing home halls where Peter is the medical director. It gave some of the folks there a real kick to see us riding through the building with our electric bicycle grins shining.
It was hot and muggy in Lawrence so we only stayed for a couple of hours before heading back home. We talked to lots of people who were quite interested in what we are doing and the people at the bike shop were as kind and gracious as they had been on Saturday.
After visiting a couple of Peter's friends on the way home, we at the giant chicken (6 pounds) that we had picked up at Gasper Farm the day before. It was delicious and fed the 8 of us easily.
After a thunderstorm moved over the area, Peter and his son Nick went for a ride on the electric bikes. Nick really liked helping out with the bikes and also really likes the power and speed of the electrics. (No surprise there from a 13 year old boy!)
About an hour and a half after they left, we got a phone call that the Big Dummy had died. Rolf and I loaded up the trailer and went out on a rescue mission. Sure enough, the controller had died and after talking with brother Michael on the phone, we went about replacing the controller with one of the spares we had brought. It turns out that the controllers we are using are all being recalled since they tend to burn themselves out when attached to a hub motor. The regeneration properties of the hub motor are not adequately dealt with by the controller, so instead of taking the power generated by the free wheeling hub motor and shunting it off or sending it back to the batteries, the generated power cooks the controller. That's my understanding of the problem. The manufacturer wants the controllers back but since we're using them, they will have to wait and we will have to hope that we don't fry our second to last controller.
So much for a relaxing day. We didn't finish with the switch out until after 11 at which time Rolf was starting to walk up the walls he was so spaced out with jet lag and fatigue.

Talking with our mother via Skype

Alexandra on the Big Dummy

Nick wishing his legs were longer

Sunflower Bike Shop in Lawrence

Chatting up the electric bikes

Peter and Catherine enjoy a quiet moment on "our" street corner

Peter and Nick head out on an evening rider just after a storm

A new Green Rider?

Lawrence Farmer's Market and Gasper Farm

2010-05-30T18:21:00.000-07:00

It was hard to get moving this morning so we didn't get to the Farmer's Market until about 10:30. Catherine and I rode the 12 miles into town while Rolf drove the van in. We chatted up a bunch of folks and scored some free food including a fabulous berry pie.
We then went to check out the Sunflower Bike Shop and found out that my chain and rear cassette needed to be changed. I'm not sure why it all wore out and the mechanic was also not sure why I needed a new chain and cassette so soon. (Only 2000 miles.) The people at Sunflower Bike Shop were very interested in our project and happy that they could support our efforts.
While my bike was being worked on, we cruised around Lawrence, had Buffalo burgers for lunch and found some great local ice cream at Sylas & Maddy's.
After picking up my bike, Catherine and I rode out to Gasper Farm where we spend about two hours talking with Pete and Sally Gasper about their lives, their animals and the challenges they face trying to raise happy healthy animals for meat. The Gasper's have chickens, dairy cows and lots of pigs. They really love their pigs and enjoy sharing their passion for the eco-system they create. The pigs graze down the grass and "weeds", root up the ground and add fertilizer. The resulting healthy grasses in turn, support very healthy animals.
The Gasper's are moving their operations to an area south of here where the real estate is much more affordable and where there are no building regulations so they can build the kind of house they want. They plan to build a post and timber framed building with straw and mud infill. Rather than straw bale, straw is mixed with mud and compacted into forms that create the infill walls. Sounds very cool.
The Gasper's have a weekly drop off where their customers come and pick up the meat that they have purchased. They also have 4 boys under the age of six so they are very busy.

After returning from Gasper's, we found that Peter had already started working on the electric bike we built in Boulder last week. He build a rather massive torque arm and after a number of attempts, we got the bike working very well and we feel like it's ready for the rest of the trip.
This has been a great stop for fixing all of the problems we've developed as well as some that we've only imagined.

So, here's our latest numbers
May 27- 64 miles Headwind 10 to 15 mph
Catherine - 21.25 amps used - 3.0 miles per amp
Oliver - 16.23 amps used - 3.9 miles per amp

May 28 - 76 miles - Slight headwinds Hot
Catherine - 20.27 amps used - 3.7 miles per amp
Oliver - 16.6 amps used - 4.5 miles per amp

Lots of creativity here

Getting ready to head out to the Farmer's Market

Chatting up the Green Riders

More chatting

Working in the office . . .

. . . while Catherine naps

One hot Swedish mechanic

The boys and the bike

Putting on the green

Nick testing the unit

Peter Gasper - The meat farmer

Holton to Eudora

2010-05-30T16:20:00.000-07:00

The ride to Eudora where our brother Peter and his family live was pretty uneventful. Mild winds, very warm temperatures and not too much traffic. I kind of miscalculated on the mileage and we ended up with a longer day than I had expected. We ended up pushing pretty hard when Sean told us we still had 33 miles to go after already doing about 60. Fortunately, he had looked at travel time not mileage so we ended up arriving in Eudora quite a bit earlier that we had anticipated.
When we got to Peter's house, his wife Andi invited us to jump in their little pool with all of our clothes on. So we did. Sean also cooled off before Catherine bandaged his leg for the last time and drove him to Peter's office where we hung out for a while before Peter drove him to the airport and picked up Rolf from Sweden.
It is nice being out of the weather for a change after our long and challenging ride across eastern Colorado and Kansas.

Alexandra and the beasts

A stickered fan - Nick

Pirate Captain Green Rider

Rolf from Sweden gets familiar with the natives

Serious Rasta dude Jonathan

Tuttle Lake to Holton - May 27

2010-05-30T08:07:00.000-07:00

After a wet dewy night, we sat around drinking coffee and pulling tics off of me. I had about 20 and Catherine had a few. Sean had enough itching and anxiety about the tics for all three of us.

Again headwinds greeted us as we hit the road but they weren't too strong, mostly under 15 mph. About 10 miles out, I saw a sign advertising eggs for sale so we stopped and got to chatting with Connie who retired about 7 years ago and became a foster parent with her husband. She has quite a farm with lots of animals and lots of projects to keep her foster kids busy. She likes hard to place kids so she ends up with lots of teenage boys and seems able to manage them very well. She's always got a project or two going and keeping up with the animals is a lot of work. She's proud of her work, likes what she's doing and was very interested in our ride. Her eggs were 75 cents a dozen!

About an hour later we stopped in Wheaton which is a typical small Kansas town. No services and about 100 people living there. As we were resting, a guy drove up in his SUV and asked us where we were from. Turns out, he's the Mayor of Wheaton and he was very interested in our ride as well. He even took us home with him so that his wife could meet us. Very sweet.

About an hour later, during lunch, Sean told us he wanted to go home from Kansas City. We're not happy about it but it was part of our agreement that he could leave from Kansas City since Catherine's friend Rolf is arriving tomorrow to drive with us to Washington.

When we arrived in Holton, we planned to look for a motel to be nice to Sean. Instead we found a great campground, took Sean out to dinner and hung out in the library doing internet catch-up. The lake campsite was beautiful, especially when the full moon rose over the lake and the fireflies entertained us.

I interviewed Sean and will be sending the footage to Steve who is continuing to do a great job creating fun and interesting clips about our adventures and what we are learning. IF you haven't seen the video of me getting a haircut, check it out. I thought it was really funny! http://www.youtube.com/user/TheGreenRidersVideos

Connie and her wheels

Sean in the Superman Phone booth at the Mayor of Wheaton's house

Probably the only time Catherine has been ahead of me

Beloit to Tuttle Creek Lake

2010-05-27T14:16:00.000-07:00

We went to sleep last night under clear skies and a gentle breeze.
Well, things changed.
Sometime during the middle of the night a huge thunderstorm got underway with major wind and rain. Fortunately, Sean had put up the fly on the tent as a last minute thought. Unfortunately, he set up the tent under the eve of the shelter we were using so he got a lot of water. I got up in the middle of the storm to gather loose possessions that were getting scattered by the wind. The storm went on for a long while so none of us slept very well.
We didn't get a very early start and we faced more headwinds. Not terribly strong ones but we still had to work pretty hard to cover our daily mileage.
We finally saw the Kansas winds being put to use by a set of large wind turbines to the north of the highway. We stopped at a natural gas pumping station to ask about the turbines and found out that there is a ground level jet stream current right through where the turbines are. That's what we were told. It was true that after we left the wind farm behind us, the wind did die down, but that still doesn't prove that a ground level jet stream current is what's powering the turbines we saw. (I'm not even sure that there is such a thing as a ground level jet stream current?)
We stopped for lunch in Clay Center at yet another City Park and a very friendly older woman drove up to see what we were about. She was not a native of Kansas and wasn't very excited about living in Clay Center but her husband had ended up buying the family farm and they were retired there. It turns out she lived in California for quite a number of years and her daughter is the principal at Sequoia High School which is in the same district as my daughter's school and right across the street from where Sean lives.
We finally got to a campground at Tuttle Creek Lake and settled in for the evening. Catherine and I took a long walk just as night was falling and on the way back, we saw fireflies. I was thrilled. I had never seen them before and they are very cool.
Sean's leg has been hurting him quite a bit so we tended to it and made him elevate it which helped a lot. I think he may have figured out that he's not quite as invulnerable as he thought he was.
But he's still superman to us!

Kansas using its wind

Perfect position for getting Sean's leg above his heart

The good doctor making sure the patient remains compliant

Sunset during our eventing walk

Classic Kansas

Phillipsburg to Beloit - (Not Wisconsin)

2010-05-27T13:47:00.000-07:00

Kansas corn

We woke to no wind! We thought we had been transported to another planet.

Gratefully, we got on our bikes and headed out hoping that the weather would hold. We dodged some raindrops but for the most part, the riding was perfect. A slight headwind, beautiful scenery, very little traffic and happy bicycles.

Arriving in Beloit, Sean found another City Park along a beautiful river where we are camping for free. This seems to be a very hospitable offering that the towns around here provide and we just love it.

Overall, today was a fabulous riding day. We did 86 miles had over an hour lunch break, saw the largest ball of string in the world and still got to our destination by about 4 feeling really good. We also found a nursery run by Roberta and Charles Bock. No relation, but it was fun meeting them and sharing name stories.

A comment about Kansas that I feel needs to be made has to do with grass and mowing. Now, maybe we will find this true throughout the rest of the country but we are distinctly aware of the need to mow here. Everyone mows. The parks are mowed, the roadsides are mowed, wherever there is grass, it is getting mowed. Mowing seems to be the favorite outdoor activity for many people. especially when they have the 'sit-upon' mowers. We observe great skill as mower drivers sweep quickly and cleanly around poles without missing a blade of grass or touching the pole. One unpleasant thought I had while riding down the road and seeing way too many plastic soda bottles filled with a vile looking yellow liquid, is that when the mowers are doing roadside shoulders, they must shred the bottles whose contents undoubtedly meet the air with very unpleasant results. (These roadside bottles are not only seen on Kansas roadsides, they are everywhere. Combining the bottles with mowers is, so far, unique to Kansas.)

Great birdwatching country

We had to check this out

The Bock's, left and right

Now that's some ball of string- Cawker City

Some doctoring in Beloit City Park

Cottonwood snow

Our pad for the night in Beloit City Park - Free camping!

Norton to Philipsburg - Update from Crestone

2010-05-27T13:32:00.000-07:00

After a long night of strong winds buffeting the van and brutal flapping of the tent, we woke to a "blow out " day. The winds were screaming at about 30 mph and coming directly from the direction we were headed. There were also tornado watches and concern about severe thunderstorms. It didn't take much discussion to decide not to ride.

We drove into Norton which was only about 5 or 6 miles down the road and spend about 3 hours hanging out in the library listening to the wind somehow whistling through the building. I did a lot of blogging and posting to make up for the days since we left Denver.

On the way back to the car, we passed by a rather neglected bur very large brick church. Catherine was poking her head in the windows and when we passed the house next door, a woman on the porch said: "Do you want to buy it?" Turns out she bought it a few years earlier and was storing a bunch of stuff in it but wanted to unload it. She said it has 90 stained glass windows, beautiful tin work on the ceiling, lots of very nice woodwork and lots and lots of bricks. She is asking 35 K for the whole thing so if any of you feel the need for a church in your life, this might be the answer. I was tempted to "junk it out for parts" but I just don't feel that energetic anymore.

After leaving Norton, we drove to Phillipsburg which was about a 30 mile drive. The van was getting pushed all over the road by the wind and I was driving very slowly. In town we parked in the middle of the street in front of the dollar store and ate our lunch. Probably one of the most romantic lunch spots yet!

I then went to the Chamber of Commerce to inquire about places to camp and discovered a City Park that allows camping. For $10.00 we got a shower, bathroom, electricity and water. We also got wireless internet thanks to a neighbor, I assume. We walked into town and visited some of the local attractions, including a woman who told Catherine to put some meat on her bones or she would blow away. We went and promptly bought a pint of Ice Cream and ate it!

The sky put on a good show for us. Thunder, lightening and great colors as the sun disappeared behind the unseen horizon.

A very pretty Norton home

The 35K Church I was tempted to buy

Nice Picnic table

Some Kansas History

Playtime

The owner of the amazing house we visited in Crestone a week or so ago was not home at the time that we visited. Our friend Ward must have talked to him about our visit and he sent me an email that I am including below. He describes some interesting details about the house so if you are interested in this, read on:

Paul Kloppenburg's house in Crestone

Hi there , the two wheelers and still bipedal homo sapiens .

I wanted to high lite some building details , and their 'performance' as it stands with the real balancing act in applying the Four Principles of Direct Passive Solar Heating in such a manner that there is neither to much nor to litlle present with any of these four factors. Four : Glass , Insulation , Mass , Convection , i.e vents at top and bot. of interior walls.

The big Ochre colored house was originally conceived off as an hybrid house btwn. 2 building components. one Adobe = Mass , and other the 'back-bone- of the house a very light pumice crete = air / insul. --poured only on North side of house ,and acts as 'vertical-structural' strenght in case there is an earth quake, especially the second storey would be prone to collapse, despite all the good bond beams in this house.

yes the interior is following the fairly classic South West design, I stuck to all natural plasters, and colors, I had a lady crew doing all this hard and fine work--interesting note here is the little money I spent on raw materials, meaning did not buy any bagged stuff ,..( incl. all the tape and plastic, and clean up) it was only 5 % of total bill of this interior plastering ,... were as the rest went to labor , is local white labor as contrasted to Hispanic doing similar work, and good work for halve the costs. It is true the knowledge and know how in doing things 'natural' is scant , so I was happy to get the job done with locals.

the Ochre house doesn't have enough glass ,[ at least on main floor level] hence not enough daily heat gain,as there are an aweful lot of Adobe walls ( more then enough Mass ) ,..to be warmed very day .

as the house is well insulated a good sized wood stove will do the job being comfortable,and also in the basement, the entire foot print of the house is below also a basement . there i have a large stainless steel tank, was from milk fac. , now will be a solar hot water tank.......helping heating the house with an active solar hot water system. under the Grey green slate , in a 3 " slab is Pex tubing, and under the 'real 1-1/2 ' thick hard wood floors i will install tube and fins to make the floors feel warmer, and be able to dist. heat.

the up stairs bedroom is like my Studio Apt. temperatures , very nice, and quite a bit warmer , a quicker pick up>> u know we live by the elements here, the sun comes from be hind the imposing mnt. ridge. it's around zero degree outside,--we need a quick boost of heat <<< ,.... as compared to the main floor of the house.

The Studio / Apt. dwelling is an load bearing 24 inch wide straw bale envelop. except for the 2 large doors on the front, and glass wall on south. there are 2 interior Adobe walls , and thick reg. grey stucco ( painted later) on the interior straw, == is all Mass.----- heat will sink in and then release it in night times --also in general it stabilizes the temps.

This dwelling has proven to be extremely low cost of heating, and being to live with the least over all -energy-use-footprint .

Sorry for my some what writings lengthy , as I don't know in which direction your interest lay ...I thought to share this much at least .......

you may have questions ?????? have a safe an a great road , and suitable climes.etc !!!!! Paul c Kloppenburg , 16 continuous winters in the Baca, and 38 yrs. in this country.

ps: exterior of Ochre house is 3 coats of Sherwin Williams elastomeric paint , with my ochre color I wanted.This was painted on top of typical 2 coat grey stucco cement on 'wire', looks like chicken netting. The stucco wire was pinned down on the 4 inch thick Polyicenene rigged foam boards, nailed directly onto adobe wall. R.30

roof has 2 sheets , 2x30=R.60

there are four kinds of hardwood floors : main large room and two side bedrms. in Maple, the kitchen area ,White Oak, the hall way , and bath room ,Hickory . All T&J 1-1/2 inch thick by 5-1/4 wide. Up stairs bed rm. 3/4 " Cherry on plywood.

the Leaf on front of house is inspired after the Bodhi leaf , sal-tree

St. Francis - Norton - May 22

2010-05-24T10:07:00.000-07:00

Prime Kansas Prairie

After a horrible night of barking dogs, constant driving around by the neighbors, a almost skunk intruder and more wind, we hit the road with me feeling rather weak.

The winds started the day from the north and moved around rather quickly to the east. So not only was I feeling weak but we were battling headwinds all day. After 72 miles, we stopped but Sean wanted to ride so I gave him my bike and Catherine and I drove another 30 miles to Norton where we found a nice campground alongside a reservoir. The winds were dying down and we were feeling pretty good when we saw Sean ride in. As he got within about 100 feet of our site, he hit a pile of loose gravel and went down. There was plenty of gore and Catherine did her best to clean up the wounds. Sean was a real trooper and didn't cry at all!! Fortunately for my bicycle, SEan took most of the impact of the fall and my bike survived with only a couple of new scratches.

As the evening fell, a thunderstorm moved in along with huge winds that lasted all night. We did't get much rain but we did get a pretty good show of lightening and thunder.

So here are the promised statistics.

May 21 - 43 miles (Late Start)

Oliver - 4.5 miles per amp

Catherine - 3.08 miles per amp

Cross winds at 2 to 3 o'clock

Terrain - Rolling hills with some steep short climbs.

May 22 - 66 miles

Oliver - 5.67 miles per amp

Catherine - 3.23 miles per amp

Strong cross winds. Occasional tail winds due to road direction heading north. Terrain -HIlly with smaller hills than yesterday

May 23 - 72 miles (Oliver started the day tired)

Oliver - 3.75 miles per amp

Catherine - 3.26 miles per amp

Winds light the first hour becoming strong headwinds throughout the middle of the day and dropping off later. (After we stopped riding)

Terrain - Rolling hills some steep climbs.

So for you folks who like data, here it is. As you can see, rider variability is the key. Not just strength but how tired the rider is.

Prairie Schooner

Thinking of trading in my ride

Bottom section of a wind tower - Notice the access door

Dedicated turbine hauler - Good to see!

Sean's gory leg

Last Chance to St Francis, KS - May 22

2010-05-24T09:50:00.000-07:00

Dawn in Last Chance

One month on the road and it's still windy!

We got up at 5 to get some hours in before the winds picked up. Unfortunately, the winds never really died down but the early morning was beautiful.

We stopped in all the little towns along our route to find most of them pretty much like Last Chance - abandoned.

As the day wore on, the winds and the temperatures increased and we really needed ice cream but the town of Joe. s had none. Joes did have a nice thrift store where we talked to the people working there and almost got one of the women to join us on the ride.

Just before 2 we made it to a small cafe in Udalia that served ice cream. We chatted up the folks eating and working there before handing my bike over to Sean who needed a ride while Catherine and I were pretty much done in by the wind.

Right now we are parked at a funky RV Park charging up batteries and the van.

Parlier today we stopped in the town of Anton and did some small shopping in the only grocery store. They sold filtered water and when we asked why, the woman working at the store told us that the nitrate level in the water was too high to pass EPA regulations so the water had to be filtered. So all of the nitrogen based fertilizers that have been dumped on the land over the years have finally poisoned the drinking water. In predictable human fashion, the woman we talked to only saw the inconvenience of having to filter water as the problem. The fact that years of toxic agricultural practices caused the problem doesn't seem to register. What does it take for people to start thinking in terms of systems rather than as merely reactive mammals??

For those of you wanting numbers about energy consumption, stay tuned. We are collecting data that should satisfy your curiosity and as a teaser, there is huge variability resulting from human pedal power.

Trying to Cope

Destroyed grain storage building- Watermelon sized hail?

Betty Shaw who shares the same birthday as our mother - But she's only 83

Betty gets back to work

Almost got ourselves another Green Rider

Garden art in St. Francis

Looks good enough to eat . . . not!

Denver to Last Chance - May 21

2010-05-24T09:15:00.000-07:00

It took us forever to get going this morning following the trauma of a failure with the new electric bicycle. When we attached the front wheel with the motor in the hub, we didn't have everything quite right so after a couple hours of riding, the wheel fell off. Sean was and still is pretty upset about his new baby's health but we expect he'll have a full recovery. Since we don't need the bike until after getting to brother Peter's house next Friday, we have plenty of time to figure out a good way to fix it and then with Peter's help, we'll get Sean's baby healthier than its ever been.

We portaged a few miles out of Denver to avoid traffic and headed east with a gentle breeze, light traffic and gently rolling hills. Within about 1/2 hour, the gentle breeze started picking up and soon we were facing 25 to 30 mph headwinds coming from about 2 o'clock outré of the south east. We struggled along for about 40 miles before deciding to call it a day with the plan of starting early before the winds pick up tomorrow. We are at a junction in the road that used to have a town called Last Chance. We are parked behind an abandoned "Dairy King" restaurant, hoping that the baseball sized hail that is predicted for this area doesn't show up! A couple of high school kids came by to warn us about the hail and parked one of their cars under a tree to protect it from the weather. It's 6:30 now and we hope the threat of the storm is over although the wind continues to batter us about.

Aside from being exhausting, our 4 days in the Denver area were educational and inspiring. Also being able to share and connect with people who we only knew from phone conversations and emails was very rewarding. Seeing Catherine's son Daniel and cousin Jim's family added to the warmth we are feeling about the people we spent time with.

On the educational front, our visit with Jim Fournier and his biochar project was both educational and inspiring. As I've said before, Biochar holds huge promise for cleaning up unwanted biomass, creating a non-toxic soil health product and sequestering CO2.

Building the electric bike the following day was not only very educational but the open hearted generosity of both Dean and Chuck gives me hope for the kind of businesses that will succeed by creating communities of trust through good service and products.

Learning about Boulder's bicycle and city planning from a group of bicycle enthusiasts who love their jobs was great fun and way more information than I can retain. It's all available on the City of Boulder's website that I can't look up now since I'm writing this way far away from internet service.

Last evenings event for Sustainable Colorado was sobering and somewhat depressing. Being reminded of the horrible state of the world by really smart people tends to get me down. They did offer solutions but walking out of the event and into the Denver streets where there was no sign of those threats, made me realize what a huge job lies ahead and how unprepared our civilization is to deal with what's coming.

The generosity that Paul Sheldon of Natural Capitalism Solutions showed us over the phone as we prepared for this trip was surpassed by his open hearted enjoyment of our visit and his eloquent support of our project. He made us sound like real heroes which we don't really feel like but we do love the support we are getting from people we admire and respect like Paul.

Catherine returning with groceries as we head off for Kansas

Heading east towards Kansas

Sean checks out some Last Chance real estate

Our campsite behind an abandoned "Dairy King"

Catherine looking like a serious biker

What Boulder is doing

2010-05-21T08:01:00.000-07:00

The Green Riders and Colorado Governor Ritter!

We actually slept in until about 8 before heading off to Boulder to visit with Chris Hagelin and others who work for the City of Boulder.
We met at the Dushanbe Teahouse which is where we had dinner with Elliot the night before. The teahouse was a gift to the City of Boulder from somewhere in Asia and Boulder sent them an internet cafe. It's a wonderful place with great food.
After lunch we rode around Boulder a bit with two other City employees. We learned about how the many miles of bike trails along the creeks were funded with a combination of flood control money and local money dedicated to improving bike routes. The results are spectacular. The creeks are beautiful, the trails are well used and flood control is accomplished as well. Boulder is rightfully proud of their system of trails that also includes lots of very comfortable bike lanes on surface streets. Their premier bike lane is called the "contra-flow" lane. They took a two way street and made it one-way with bikes having priority in the traffic lane. Then they planted a berm that divides the one way car lane from a dedicated bike lane that goes the other direction. It works great and it gives priority to bicycles over cars. It also crosses the main downtown mall area giving easy access to bicyclists so that they won't be tempted to drive into central Boulder.
After getting video of what I just described (to be posted soon), we rode about 6 miles out of Boulder to the Water Treatment Plant. Most of the ride was along Boulder Creek and it was beautiful. The Water Treatment Plant has a 1 megawatt solar array that is about to be turned on and we also learned about water rights issues, solid waste disposal and methane production for the creation of fuel provide some of the electrical needs of the plant. The plant uses about 750 KW of power a year. The solar will contribute about 250 KW and the methane already does contribute another 250 KW. Apparently, the Water treatment plant is the largest consumer of electricity in the area and they want to get as much as they can without using coal fired electricity which is still the predominant form of electricity generation in the area.
There was so much more information that we got that I can't really remember but overall, Boulder is doing a great job of managing its traffic, supporting the use of bicycles and busses and dealing with their waste water in as positive a way as possible. Our guides for the day were very gracious, curious and supportive of our adventure and seemed to really enjoy their work, largely because they know they are pushing the envelope when it comes to creating more sustainable communities. Chris gets multiple calls every week from other municipalities who want to pick his brain about what Boulder is doing. We hope to help spread the word that lots of what Boulder has already done can be replicated in other towns and cities for the benefit of creating more livable, sustainable communities.
After visiting with cousin Jim, his wife Regina and their son Logan, we headed back through ridiculous rush hour traffic to Denver. We rushed over to an evening event where we got a chance to listen to Governor Ritter talk about the advances that Colorado is making as a serious adopter of renewable energy.
David Orr also spoke and the featured guest was Lester Brown who depressed us a bit about the state of the world and offered hope about humans ability to save civilization. As Lester Brown says: "Saving Civilization is not a spectator sport!" So we ride on tomorrow!!

Chris Hagelin enjoying the Dushanbe Teahouse

Our bicycle escorts - Ready to ride

Chris and Joe at the Water Treatment Plant - See the coal fired plant in the background

Solar array at the Water Treatment Plant- Ready to plug in

Joe - Wishing he could join us

We did it! - Electric bicycle conversion in one afternoon!

2010-05-20T21:43:00.000-07:00

The anticipation was immense. Sean was all a tingle as we headed to Boulder to attempt the amazing feat of building an electric bicycle in a day. We stopped at cousin Jim and his wife Regina's fine home and tried to be relaxed and calm while internally chomping at the bit to get the build underway. After admiring Jim's solar electric and hot water systems and eating a fabulous lunch, we grabbed the bicycle that Jim agreed to contribute to the cause and headed down to Pete's Electric Bike Shop to start the conversion.
Dean and Chuck, the owner's of the shop were busy hanging an electric bike from the ceiling and very generously stopped and helped us get oriented. It turned out that they had already gotten an older steel framed mountain bike off of Craigslist for our conversion. We quickly figured out that using the frame they got would work out better than the one that Jim offered so we got to work.
Between 12 and 4 Sean did most of the mechanical things that needed doing like changing brakes, cables, messing with racks changing tires and wheels and mounting new handlebars. Around 4 some folks who had been invited to join us showed up and amidst the hubub of answering questions, giving rides and checking out a very cool hand build "pusher trailer" built by local enthusiast, Sean, Dean and Chuck hooked up the controller, battery rack and front drive wheel. All did not go smoothly with the controller but fortunately, Dean pulled another out of a box and it worked. Catherine and I had a dinner date so when we left at 6:30, Dean said they had about an hour left and sure enough, Sean showed up about an hour later to join us for dinner.
Dean and Chuck have the best electric bike shop we have seen. They carry a number of different types of ready made bikes and scooters and they love doing conversions. Sharing the shop space with us was a tricycle that they were outfitting with an electric drive system and there were other trikes on the floor that were going to be converted. They have another shop in Minneapolis and they are opening a shop in Aspen in a couple of weeks. Until meeting them, I thought that operating an electric bike shop was an act of charity. Dean and Chuck don't see it that way. They have a model that includes rentals, sales, conversions and excellent service and it looks like it is working. We know that when people try electric bikes, the experience is usually very positive and for people who like to putter with bicycles, adding the electrics adds another layer of challenge which I noticed Sean certainly enjoyed.
Without Dean and Chuck's expertise and extra parts, we would not have been able to complete the conversion in a day. Their record is just over 4 hours for a conversion!

The other exciting thing about this conversion is the cost. We have built a strong, hopefully reliable electric bicycle out of a $140 Craigslist purchase that we added new fenders, tires, tubes, quill stem, handlebars, cables and housings, used front rack from the shop and the electricals. Excluding the $400.00 battery and motor kit, we built the whole bike for $300. The motor kit retails for under $400.00. So for around $1,100, we've got ourselves an awesome electrical bike.

One of the visitors at the Bike Shop yesterday was Tom Weis, an environmentalist and wind power activist who is planning on riding an electric bicycle from Boulder to Washington DC in September. Needless to say, we had a lot to talk about and he is completely delightful. We ended up having dinner with him, Paul Sheldon from Natural Capitalism Solutions and my dear friend Elliot Hoffman who happened to be in Boulder for meetings with Hunter Lovins and her crew.

Starting out on the conversion

Dean helping out

Chuck adding his touch

A "pusher" trailer that hooks onto a bicycle and pushes it down the road

The designer builder showing off his invention

The finished product - Minus fenders and front rack

It really works

Trying out the electric Miles car

Very cool car

Great to see Elliot in Boulder

He joins the Green Riders for as long as it took to put on and take off the T-shirt

Tom Weis talking to Catherine about his upcoming electric bicycle cross country tour.

Denver and Golden BioChar

2010-05-19T14:02:00.000-07:00

Catherine and Daniel spent the morning cruising thrift stores in Denver while Sean and I cruised the bike stores. We both got caught in thunderstorms and while Catherine and Daniel waited out the storm under an underpass, Sean and I got Japanese food for lunch at a very friendly, very tasty small restaurant.

Later in the afternoon, we headed up the 20 mile bike trail to Golden to participate in the BioChar event.

So what is biochar? I think it's one of the best kept secrets in the sustainable solutions portfolio.

Biochar is basically charcoal created out of woody biomass. Wood chips, straw and any other relatively dry biomass is burned in a chamber with controlled air intake so that the biomass only burns down to char, not all the way to ash.

This process accomplishes two very impressive results. First, the char has hugely significant value as a soil enhancer. In agriculture, it improves the quality of the soil so that both water use and fertilization needs are greatly reduced. There was also talk at the event about the value to damaged topsoil from mining and drilling operations. There were a number of scientists at the event who are doing studies with the biochar including people from the USGS (United States Geological Survey) as well as some from the USDA (United States Department of Agriculture). BEC (Biochar Engineering Corporation) is working closely with both groups tho help with the educational process around the value of Biochar. Which brings me to the second impressive result resulting from the creation of Biochar. Once the Biochar is in the soil, the carbon still remaining in the Char will stay in the soil for 1,000 years, effectively sequestering carbon. So, Biochar offers a way to improve soil conditions while taking carbon out of the atmosphere and storing it in the soil. That's why I think Biochar is the best kept secret around.

The units that BEC manufacture are small enough to fit on a flatbed and can be hauled to the biomass, rather than hauling the biomass to a central plant. This eliminates the huge financial and emissions cost of hauling biomass to a large central facility. To learn more about the process and the company, check out their website www.biocharengineering.com/.
After the event, Daniel, his friend Megan and Sean rode the bikes back to Daniel's house while Catherine and I drove home. They were very late getting home and Catherine and I felt like worried parents. I guess it comes natural to parents to worry!.

Bike shop Cruising in Denver - Looking for parts for tomorrow's "build"

Bike Shop with the same name as our electronic readout units.

Proprietors of our lunch spot covering my bike to protect it from the rain - So Sweet!!

Tour guide Daniel bringing us into Golden

BioChar unit in Operation

Daniel in his element

Soil Scientist Francisco Calderon slipping off with a couple of bags of Char for his work.

Jim Fournier - CEO of Biochar Engineering Corporation - A great guy

The sun is shining on The Green Riders and some of the BEC crew

A little "event side" bike mechanics - always

Two New Videos - Durango Reactions'' and 'What the ride is about'

2010-05-18T10:07:00.000-07:00

From the road in Durango ... including "poppa wheelies" bike delivery service checking out the bikes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0OOLVdRHGM

Jeff Litton of ugena.org joined the Green Riders for the first couple of days of the ride and created this video which is a great introduction to what the Green Riders are doing and why. http://ugena.org/thegreenriders/

Fairplay to Denver

2010-05-18T07:06:00.000-07:00

What a treat to wake up in a warm room with the outdoor temperatures in the low 20's. And what a treat to have no wind blowing at us from any direction.
Our ride during the morning was some of the best riding of the trip. We had small passes and wide open views, very little traffic and good roads.
Our final official pass was 10,000 feet and the descent was fabulous. The first part of the descent was steep and fast and then leveled out and followed a beautiful creek for quite a number of miles. What a delight!
After lunch the traffic and the road got worse but the thrill of the morning kept us happy. The final descent out of the Rockies and into the plains was unreal. Catherine handed over the reins of her bike to Sean and we got a good 10 mile downhill run with speeds way too high to talk about, and turns that put the tires sidewalls to use.
When we finally rolled out of the Rockies and into the flat lands of Denver, we loaded up the bikes and drove to Catherine's oldest son's house. Daniel met us in the street and we enjoyed a delightful afternoon with him in downtown Denver. We dropped cousin Jim off at the bus that took him to Boulder where he lives. He called later in the afternoon tell us about the bike he has and it will work for our electric bike conversion project. It was great having Jim along. We took lots of trips together as children so being together now as "old farts" was a real treat. Lots of memories to share and stories to retell.
Walking into Downtown, we crossed over a bridge and saw an endless line of rail cars filled with coal. We are in coal country now and seeing the miles of coal cars that wind across the nation is daunting. Not only do I see coal cars but I see destroyed landscapes, poisoned air and water and and a suffocating atmosphere.
On the other hand, Downtown Denver has recently added a bicycle rental system similar to what exists in Paris. The bikes are beautiful, durable and we did see people using them. There are also lots of bike trails along the rivers and we saw more people on bicycles than we've seen since we left home. We were also treated to a very intense downpour that provided great entertainment as people decided whether to wait out the rain or run through the rain to their destinations.
Daniel is a sustainability hero. He recycles everything, buys almost nothing new, uses house paint from discarded Habitat for Humanity stock for his artwork and thoroughly enjoys his simple, satisfying life.
Sean is so happy to be in a city again where he can hang out with people who are under 50 and wear shorts in the warmer temperatures.

Local color in Fairplay

Capitalizing on the South Park TV show

Catherine and Cartman

On the Colorado Serengeti

Incredible views all around

The last official pass over the Rockies

Board and tired

This is the real place

Pancha Pass to Fairplay

2010-05-17T06:19:00.000-07:00

Hopefully thins morning was the coldest morning we'll have. The thermometer read 20 degrees and the ice on the bikes, car and tent proved it. We sought out the sun by climbing up the hill and it barely warmed us. By nine, everything was dried out and we were ready to go.

The first part of the day went well. We all made phone calls as soon as we found cell reception and Sean was able to wish his girlfriend Catherine happy 21at birthday. Sean also picked up a small cactus that we planted in an empty coffee bag and velcroed to the dashboard. It's name is Pancha.

After leaving Buena Vista, we climbed up and over another pass and had to compete with lots of weekend warriors for road space. Way too many bicycles hanging from cars rather than joining us on the road. Loads of trailers hauling the comforts of home, off road vehicles and other fossil fuel hungry toys.

After getting to the bottom of the pass we had about 20 plus miles of road through South Park. It was some of the worst riding we've had. Strong head and cross winds, masses of weekend traffic returning to the Denver area going well over 65 mph, very narrow shoulders that we had to share with the "wake-up washboard" that the kind folks at the Colorado Department of Transportation dug into the shoulder space. The idea is to wake up drivers who drift off the road but for us they created a nightmare.

Catherine was really stressed out by the conditions so she portaged the last 10 miles into the town of Fairplay where we are staying in our second motel of the trip.

It's going to be "butt cold" again tonight so we are delighted to have a warm room for the night.

It's hard for me to think of a positive way to look at all the fossil fuel powered toys that we humans are so enchanted with. High fuel prices and hopefully fun electric vehicles will eventually temper the appetite that we seem to have for destructive, noisy toys that contribute to the challenges facing the creation of a sustainable future.

Morning Frosting

Jim's favorite time of the day

Success!!

Almost Switzerland

Crestone and Pancha Pass- May 15

2010-05-17T05:58:00.000-07:00

We had a delightful evening with Jim's friend Ward. We watched "Who Killed The Electric Car" and it got both Sean and Catherine angry that we could be so stupid to 'kill' such a great car. And now we get to bail GM out! The good news is that the electric car has finally hit the mainstream. I got an email from the NIssan Leaf team and they've got Lance Armstrong on their payroll. That sounds like mainstream to me!!

We were very grateful to have a house to sleep in last night. The puddle of water on the cover of the hot tub was frozen! Granted we are at 8,500 feet but this is the middle of May.

Ward took us on a tour of homes in his neighborhood. The area he lives has no building codes. There are only inspections for plumbing and electric, the lots are cheap and so lots of very interesting homes are tucked into the landscape. The homes that Ward showed us were mostly straw bale, but we did see one that is made out of 'pumicecrete', a combination of pumice stone and concrete. Not only is the product lighter but the air in the pumice stone has great insulation value. Very cool.

Our last visit was to an Ashram that had build an 'earthship' house that had a small gift shop in it so we were able to poke around and check it out.

After having lunch and Catherine's nap, we headed out for a relatively short day of riding. We headed up Pancha Pass which wasn't too steep but we had a pretty strong headwind. The scenery was incredible and Catherine, Jim and I felt the presence of our father's (Jim's father was our father's brother) who both adored the mountains of Austria where they grew up and we felt sure that they were smiling down on us from wherever their spirits happen to be.

We are 'wild camping' tonight alongside a roaring creek about a mile up a dirt road. We are enjoying being on our own. We got real silly tonight as we grow closer and closer to each other as a result of so many great shared experiences.

Sean with his friends via youtube

Ward and Jim above Ward's house

A Straw Bale Home that Ward built - Concrete floor, Adobe hearth and nice thick walls

Ward describing the short people who live in Crestone (Just kidding)

The most amazing house - Straw Bale, Adobe, pumicecrete and years of labor

Wow!

Truth Window - Adobe, Rigid foam and pumicecrete

Very Gaudiesque

Straw Bale Wall and house that Ward built. Southwest Hansel and Gretel

"Earthship" at the Ashram

Tires filled with rammed earth and covered with stucco form the foundation and rear wall. Uncovered tires deteriorate in the sunlight. Not good

A Surly portrait - Our views after leaving Ward's

Headwind pain

Wolf Creek Pass - Piece of cookie!

2010-05-14T18:55:00.000-07:00

We woke expecting horrible weather with the predictions calling for 70% chance of rain, thunder and wind. Instead there were some fast moving clouds, sunshine and lots of blue. Not taking any chances, we got an early start and Jim's friend Tom joined us on his road bike for about 10 miles or so. Jim was really happy to see his friend again and we enjoyed Tom and his wife as well.
The road from Pagosa rose gently for about 18 miles before heading up the pass. We stopped just before the climb and Sean did some tuning on Catherine's bike. The pass went quickly. We were using about 1 amp of power for each mile of travel so the 8 mile ascent used more than half of the power I used for the 66 miles we rode today.
Going down the backside of the pass was a great ride. It started snowing just as we left so we didn't linger on the top. We flew down the backside with hail pelting our faces and giant grins on our faces.
We rode on to Del Norte when the wind and weather and time of day forced us to portage to our destination with Jim's next friend on our route, Ward Olin who lives in Crestone, a community at the base of the Sangra De Christo mountain range. Right now it's storming outside, Ward just lit a fire and we are very grateful to not be outdoors riding or even camping.
As we were riding out of Pagosa Springs, we passed a number of housing developments that made me think about sustainable communities. In Navajo country, the families live together and create the villages that raise the children. What I saw today reminded me that the American dream of a house in the country has contributed to the polarization and isolation of our communities. Sustainable communities challenge many of the rugged individualism values that Americans adore. Our hosts along our route are helping to build the kinds of communities that the world needs more of. Sharing their lives and being curious about our lives are two keys to building the kind of world I want for my children.

Jim and Tom enjoying a great morning ride out of Pagosa

Sean test drives Catherine's 'ride' before heading up Wolf Creek Pass

70% chance of rain? Right!

Heading up the pass

Jim pushing the Surly

May 14th?

The summit - No signs but my phone said we are at about 10,500 ft

I guess they were right about the rain

Durango to Pagosa Springs - Dead Deer Day

2010-05-14T06:20:00.000-07:00

First off, the title of today's blog. We rode 60 miles and saw at least 20 deer carcasses along the side of the road in every level of decay. Pretty awful.
Otherwise, the ride was better than expected after getting multiple warnings about how horrible route 160 is. There were some harrowing sections but overall, the road was good, the scenery was excellent and the driver's were courteous. Cousin Jim did great on his first day out but I don't know if we'll be able to get him out of bed in the morning!
When we got to Pagosa, Jim's friend Tom and his wife greeted us with a lovely lunch and then we headed off to the hot springs where we roasted and played for a couple of hours.
I got a message from Jeff who had joined us for the first two days of our trip and he sent me the video that he created about The Green Riders. He did a great job.Check it out!
We've got our biggest pass tomorrow and the weather predictions are not good so we'll see how it goes.
Hey, we're the Green Riders! We can handle anything. (Plus we have our portage vehicle!)
I was reprimanded yesterday for not giving context to the PI Cycle that we were hoping to get.
So here's the PI website where you can see the bike we almost got and that will hopefully do well in England this weekend!

Waiting out a squall with Catherine's new mascot "Hoot"

Happy biker

Another happy Biker

Even a happy support crew

Cousins on adventure

I've never seen studded bicycle tires!

Pagosa Springs

Durango pulls out all the stops

2010-05-12T21:18:00.000-07:00

We woke to a beautiful cold morning and got into high gear right away getting things rolling for the day.
I started by talking to Marcus, the CEO of PIMobility who told me that we weren't getting the PI because it had received an invitation to go to Oxford , England for an award. What a thrill. The bike is such a beautiful piece of work, it deserves the attention it is now getting. Marcus did say the bike is running great and I take some credit for that since I have been pushing and pushing to get the bike ready for our trip.
Anyway, the upshot of not getting the PI is that we have decided to get an old frame, a front wheel hub motor kit and a couple more batteries and build up a bike while we are on the road. We all agree that if we can build up a bike without much expertise and with not much cost (under $1,000.00) our story about the viability of electric bikes will be improved and more people will consider conversions as a viable way to get some fun, low carbon transportation.
After arranging for the shipping of the kit and batteries, Catherine and I drove off to do a radio interview which turned out to be a lot of fun. Our hosts graciously loaned us their car and while we were gone, Sean and cousin Jim took the van and trailer down to the Transit Center where they set up our display for the afternoons event.
The event was great. Lots of people, lots of interest, free food and we all talked ourselves out. We also took the opportunity to go over the bikes and found some very loose things that could have caused some very big problems. Thanks to Sean, we are ready to hit the road again tomorrow.
The highlight for me at the event was an electric motorcycle built by a saddle builder. It is just beautiful, can get up to 80 mph and can get 30 miles per charge on very heavy lead acid batteries. Loren, the builder of the bike is a delightful soul whose craftsmanship is astounding.
Tomorrow we leave early and hope to have a small entourage as we head out of town. Sean cruised the bike shops and encouraged riders to join us for the ride out of town.
We'll see what happens!!

Sean cleans the bikes while talking it up

Loren on his "electric horseman' motorcycle - Unreal

Cousin Jim checking it out

Fine detail on the rear bumper

My new buddy Loren

One size fits all - especially if it looks like fun

Definitely fun

Video: Sean almost gets a dog!

2010-05-12T10:49:00.000-07:00

Check out the latest video from the road. Sean negotiates a dog. Great and appropriate soundtrack!

The video footage comes directly from the trip as it happens - the raw footage is edited by Stephen Marra back at base, posted on YouTube and then on our blog.

Let us know by your comments what video topics you would like to see.

Day off in Durango

2010-05-12T08:25:00.000-07:00

Getting in a day early gave us a whole day to take care of laundry, cleaning up the van, hanging out in bike shops and enjoying a low pressure day. Sean had a bad night with a stomach bug so he was pretty low key but we managed to meet some fine bicycle folks in town.

Mac and Caroline Johnson are fabulous hosts. I feel like we could just stay here and enjoy Durango for weeks.

As I was describing our trip, I told a story that deserves retelling.

As Derrick, Catherine and I were riding up the pass before dropping into Sheep Springs, I startled two wild horses who were grazing by the side of the road. They took off at the same pace that I was riding and we moved parallel up the road for about 300 yards. The horses kept looking at me with a worried, curious gaze until they finally dropped into the canyon and disappeared from sight. Catherine and Derrick were behind the three of us watching our progress up the mountain.

When we stopped for lunch a few minutes later, Derrick announced that he had a Navajo name for me.

"Oliver Runs With The Horses Bock." I felt honored and asked Derrick if he had an Indian name. There was a short uncomfortable silence after which he answered that he did but that no one new it except for him and his grandparent who had given him the name. His daughter immediately queried about whether she has aNavajo name and apparently she does but she doesn't get to learn it until later.

Caroline arranged for Catherine and I to go to the school where she works and talk to two classes of 5th graders about our trip. The kids were great. They had endless questions, comments and curiosity. When we demonstrated our bikes by driving around the parking lot, the kids applauded us. Boy was that easy!!

Later in the afternoon, Catherine and I went to the airport to pick up cousin Jim who is going to ride with us to Boulder. A dust cloud had moved over the area and everything was grey and gross. It was a good day to not be riding and we're hoping that the winds will die off as the week progresses.

Dust storms like this are new to this area. People speculate about why things are getting worse and we hear theories ranging from the many new roads and clearings created by the oil and gas industries that have disrupted the protective surface skin to "global wierding" which is unleashing much stronger winds than anyone can remember.

We all went out to dinner and invited Catherine's friend Catherine Willner along as well. The Catherine's were really happy to see each other and I know sister Catherine was thrilled to reconnect with one of her dearest friends from over 30 years ago.

Catherine heads to town from Johnson's house

Off to the Post Office to get rid of uneeded stuff

Sign alerting "Parkers" about our event

Caroline Johnson soaking up the morning news

Cousin Jim looking forward to a few days of cycling adventure

Mesa Verde tourists pedal to Durango

2010-05-11T09:47:00.000-07:00

I woke early and looked out the window of the van to see a huge cloud bank closing in on us. We huddled together changing our plans and preparing for riding into Durango in the cold and rain. Within about half an hour it was snowing and we were not feeling elated. The view up to Mesa Verde looked dreary and cold so we ate our breakfast and prepared for the worst.
Almost suddenly, the sky turned blue as the storm wing passed over us. Our moods lifted like magic and we made our way up to Mesa Verde where we did a tour of the Cliff House with Germans, Italians and Americans. I felt like a real tourist and was reminded how lucky we are to have created this trip in such a way that most of our experiences are much more personal.
We visited another ruin (Spruce Tree House) with a busload of Japanese tourists, checked out the very nice museum and hit the road by 2:30 for the 40 mile ride to Durango. We have left the Navajo winds behind and we had to work! What a shock! The road and the scenery were great but the driver's were less considerate that those on the reservation and there was a lot more traffic.
Back to the real world, I guess.
We had a great hill down into Durango and Catherine survived it without too much stress. Without too much braking, we were able to hold our speed to under 35 mph although I let it go occasionally and got up into the low 40's.
When we arrived in Durango, we found our way to the Johnson's house who are graciously hosting our visit here. They are a family that we met through Camp Unalayee. The summer camp where I went as a child, where my kids are going this summer and where Catherine's children spend many great summers during their childhoods and where Catherine's youngest will be a counselor this summer. Camp Unalayee creates a community of people who are connected in a similar way to the Navajo clans. We all share a love for experiencing life in the woods and mountains with very little in the way of creature comfort distractions. All the camp people we meet are delightful, warm and adventurous souls who lives are enriched by frequent contact with the natural world around us.

Tourist Catherine heading down to Cliff House

It was snowing two hours earlier!

Cliff House

Sean soaking up information from the Ranger

Bike rack in Mancos - Colorado is bike country

Two New Videos - The Mayor of Flagstaff and High Desert Cruizin'

2010-05-10T16:01:00.000-07:00

The mayor of Flagstaff tries out an electric bike ... and likes it!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gbu2PnQjtBI

Cruising through the high desert
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJsIT63UEjw

Window Rock to Mesa Verde-

2010-05-09T20:52:00.000-07:00

We woke to more wind and predictions of 50 mph + winds by the afternoon. Even though it's Mother's Day, we managed to get Derrick to ride with us for the day and we headed out after saying goodbye to Linda (Derrick's mother in law). She was so sweet to us and we basked in her hospitality.

We went to Mc Donalds to get "the best coffee in town", unload our bikes, use the bathroom, load up on water and head out of town.

The first 25 miles or so were up a wide valley with smooth, rounded red rock cliffs just on our right. It was some of the most spectacular scenery we have seen and our friendly tailwind kept us smiling. Derrick was a delight. He enjoyed every minute of the ride and added his knowledge and fun commentary to our day.

We turned east and headed up the pass that would drop us into New Mexico. Again, tailwinds helped us up a somewhat challenging pass and we stopped to picnic right below the summit where the rest of Derrick's family met us. It was great hanging out with them and Sean played in the snow with the three kids until his hands hurt from making and throwing snowballs.

At the top of the pass, Catherine turned over the reins of her steed to Sean to avoid the long steep windy downhill. And it was a long, very steep downhill. I used my brakes most of the way down and had trouble keeping myself below 40 mph.

Sean disappeared immediately and I won't say how fast he went. Almost at the bottom, I got my first flat tire and did a roadside repair with the help of Catherine who stayed behind us and was able to stop and help me fix the flat.

We reached our destination and it was obvious that our path forward was full blown sandstorm again. So, after a fond farewell to our new friends Derrick and his family, we loaded up all the bikes and detoured up to Mesa Verde where I am now sitting in a campground while Catherine cooks mutton stew and we are looking forward to spending most of the day tomorrow exploring Mesa Verde.

It's sad to be leaving Navajo Country. The limited services and lack of internet barely registered on our radar when compared to the warmth and beauty of the Navajo lands and people. I will need to come back and I will never forget the strength and warmth of the Navajo's we were so lucky to get to know.

Gearing up for the days ride at Mc Donalds

Roadside attractions

While rolling - Pretty good huh?

Yet another roadside attraction

A happy green rider - Derrick

I-phoning the route

Green Riders in front of a green mountain

Sean and Logan playing

More snow play

Derrick wants an electric bicycle - And so does Jessie

Yet another dust storm