New Book, New Website!

For those of you who have been waiting on pins and needles for the past 5 years wondering when the heck the book of the trip would appear, wait no longer. It is here!  It is renamed The Bar Mitzvah and The Beast. For more info, go to my website Matt Biers-Ariel.com. April 22 is the book launch at the US Bicycling Hall of Fame in Davis at 4:00 PM. Hope to see you there!

The final Photos!

The last batches of photos are here!

See:
http://web.mac.com/dkgiles/iWeb/Site/KY-VA.html

Look for the pages:
KY - VA 1
KY - VA 2
KY - VA 3
KY - VA 4
KY - VA 5

Enjoy...

Djina's Final (and I'm not kidding..this is really the last one)word!

Well, we are slowly settling in. Friends have been gliding through, dropping off pies, garden delicacies (alas, my garden is a wreck, as I expected but a bummer nonetheless. I was able to find some tomatoes and squash amidst the weedy rubble, but that's about it.), fruit, hugs, CHEESE and breads.....
Lloyd, our mailman, just came by with three huge postal boxes full of mail to sort through.
Our bikes are still missing in action but I've been reassured by friends that they will eventually show up. I rode my around town bike to my beloved Co-op yesterday and bought about 10 bags of groceries! It was just heaven being around all that organic produce, tofu, and good juju. Everything I love to eat was there, and more....
The boys have been luxuriating in all their free time by wakin up late, playing on their gameboys, reading back issues of SportsIllustrated, and trolling through the kitchen for something to eat every half hour or so. They did spend a couple hours picking up all the fallen apples, and picking plums from the plum orchard.
It was weird being back the first day. I felt sort of culture shocky. But a few morning runs with Sharon, cheese with Ken and Betty, Mark and Sharon, seeing Shulamit home from her year in Israel (Baruch HaShem), running into everyone at the Co-op...it is starting to feel normal again....as long as I don't go out to my vegetable garden....
Thank you all for your support and comments, prayers, e-mails, phone calls, and love.
Unfortunately I don't have a blog address for Paul and Karen in India. If I get one, I'll send out an e-mail.
Loads of Love,
Djina
Ps I'll put the last set of photos up on the website asap, for anyone interested. They include the rest of Kentucky, Virginia, and DC.

Matt's post-mortem blog

We're back in Davis. I start work tomorrow. This is my last entry. A quick post-mortem of the trip.

One: Our meetings in DC were incredible. We met with David Moulton, the staff director of the select committee on energy independence and global warming. He was very receptive to our petitions and insights we gathered along our trip. But more importantly, he knows his stuff and the House is really moving on Global Warming. We can all thank Nancy Pelosi for this. She is making it her signature issue and progress is being made. There is an energy bill which will be in conference committee when Congress reconvenes. It is far from perfect, but it is a good step in the right direction. Our second meeting was with Karl Mulloney-Radke, a staffer at Thompson's office. He is not Thompson's staff for global warming, but he was an incredibly articulate and interested young man. I think it planted in Yonah the idea of going to Washington to intern after college. The third meeting was with Boxer's staff director for the committee on Environment and Public Works, Bettina Poirer. This woman is remarkable for both breadth of knowledge and passion. And Boxer is committee chair! Things are looking up for the environment with these powerful women and their staff taking the leadership. I can feel the planet about to cool.

We did the museum thing and I highly recommend the new museum on the American Indian. Profound.

While the museums and meetings and food, don't forget the food, in DC were sublime, the actually taking leave of the city was a nightmare. First we had to box the bikes. Turned out that The Beast was too big for the airplane. The next option was UPS, but we couldn't get ahold of them and the UPS store was hard to reach from the bike shop where we boxed things up. Not only that, but we had tickets to the Nationals-Mets game at 7:00 and it was already 5:30. What to do? I swear God spoke to me and said, "Sell the Beast!" AFter all, I'm probably going to retire from tandem riding. So I strode back into the bike shop. There was a staffer who liked the bike and I said, "For $200 it's yours." How could he turn it down? For those who know bikes, it is a classic. So he took it and we stuffed the two other bikes in a cab and went to the hotel. We made the opening pitch by 45 seconds.

Nightmare 2 was at the airport. I bought tickets from Travelocity for Frontier Airlines. Two days after I bought them, I realized we needed more time to make the trip and I tried to change them. These tickets were non-refundable or changable because they were block tickets, but I explained the situation to someone in charge, and after paying a large change fee we changed the dates. Fast forward to Saturday at the airport. We have the seats reserved for us, but Frontier would not let us on the plane because Travelocity apparently did not clear or pay for the changed ticket. To say I went apoplectic would be a mild understatement. All the oneness with the universe I attained by the sweat of my brow this summer came to a sudden end when the guy was telling me I would have to buy 4 new tickets to sit in the seats that I already paid for. I'm sweating just telling the story. Djina made me leave, so Homeland Security wouldn't have to be called. Finally, they figured the thing out and we got the green light. Unfortunately, the guy behind the counter was quite green, only third day on the job and probably would not get into a rocket science graduate program. He moved so slowly that our bikes were left in Washington DC and put on a later flight.

But none of that bothers me. The trip was fantastic, a once in a lifetime journey. Stay tuned for the slide show. We'll tell you the date soon.

Scored another dime bag of time on the computer...

sometimes when I'm writing I forget that it is not just my closest friends that are reading this blog. Besides the people who identify themselves as "lurkers" (Trudi's term that I stole), there are all kinds of other people that have been following our progress across the country. Like famous radio personalities for example!!! I was shocked and delighted to read an e-mail that Matt forwarded to me, from none other than Jefferey Callassen!!!! The host of NPR's Insight, or CPR or something like that. I'm sure you all know who I'm talking about...the guy with the funny accent. I am actually a faithful listener of Insight. Mostly because I like to try to decipher his damn accent...I have a few working theories, including but not limited to; Irish parents who fled to Chezchslovokia when he was a mere lad, only to send him off to be raised by an Aunt in Texas when he turned 16. Anyhow, he wanted to see if we would be interested in being on his show!!!! You just never know who is tuning in here at ride2cooltheplanet. Oprah...if you're out there, we could probably make some time for you too. Just e-mail us. I promise I won't let Matt use the whole time to hawk his books!
Anyhow, I'll let you all know when it is. Of course the whole e-mail could have been just a prank pulled on us by Ana, in retaliation for the time I sent her a letter on official UCSF stationary, informing her of the huge monetary prize she had been awarded for her academic achievements. If we really are going to be on Insight, I'll let you all know so you can listen.
I looked over the other bullet points and decided they had either been covered sufficiently, or didn't need to be covered at all.
So, tomorrow we fly home. Sharon and Mark are picking us up at the airport. By the time we get back Eli will be at UC Berkeley...it will be so weird not having him around...I'm sure Sharon and I will be making lots of suddenly crucial trips to the Cheeseboard, there in Berkeley.
I just went to check on Solomon, who is reading in the children's section. It is so cute, he is the only white kid there, amidst a sea of Black mothers and their children. He hasn't moved from his spot beside the Tin Tin books in almost an hour. I told him we would need to leave soon and he frowned!
We are going to take our bikes to the bikeshop and box them up for transport home and then go to the Renwick gallery!!!! My favorite. I've been looking forward to it for the last 10 weeks!!!! I may go tomorrow too. There is just so much to do here...I will need to come back and live here for a year.
Love,
Djina

Epilogue

Those of you who have logged on in the hopes that there will be one last posting, you shall be rewarded. I just wanted to finish the days I missed (August 12-15th), write about the bullet points, and mostly tell you about the great families we stayed with the 12th & 13th.
I have just scored myself an hour of free Internet at the MLK Jr. public library in downtown DC, where they have a very complex system of reserving and securing a computer. It is an enormous and beautiful library.
So, first the family we stayed with on the 12th. We had just come down from the Blue Ridge Parkway and we rode into Afton. We called Kevin and Jennifer and they came, he in his truck, she in her Suburu, to pick us and our bikes up and take us to their house in Faber, where they live with their 17 yr. old soccer star daughter, three dogs, and two cats, on 12 gorgeous acres with a pond you can swim in. They built their house and it is one of those under earth houses...I forget what the official name is...there is one in Village Homes. It was just beautiful. (I took pictures) They both had done lots of long distance bike touring so they could totally relate to everything. We swam in the pond, the boys went fishing for the first time...and by pure luck no one got snagged in the face by a hook..or caught an actual fish...except Kevin..who caught a Bass that he immed. unhooked and threw back in..much to Solomon's relief. We had a delicious dinner of homemade Manicotti and a mouthwatering green salad. Solomon spent most of his time with the dogs and is now soooo jonsing for a puppy. Kevin and Jennifer didn't help matters by constantly saying "awww, a boy his age needs a dog". For now he has Yonah...we said we would see about a dog when Yonah goes off to college. He may not be able to hold out that long.
Anyhow, the next morning we all went into town for breakfast at the local hot spot and then they both went to their respective jobs and we got on our bikes and headed into Charlottsville. They are an amazing family and we just loved hanging out with them. We had a great day at Monticello and all that..I think we already wrote about that..and then we went to Tom and Carmi's house. Matt knows them from when he lived on Kibbutz Gezer and Chicky and Steve had e-mailed us to tell us that they now lived in Charlotsville. So we rode to their house around 7pm, jumped in their pool, and had dinner with them and their daughter, Tamar (also 17 yrs. old,a dancer, who had just gotten back from a few weeks in Israel and was suffering withdrawal longings). Matt and I slept outside in this screened in porch area with a bed and I tried to see some meteors but fell asleep before I could see any. The next day we got up early, rode back to that breakfast place and had breakfast (same waiter, cook, everything), bought some groceries, and headed out for Remington where we were planning on sleeping. Well, after 70 hard, hilly, hot miles we got to Remington and there was NO place to sleep. Not even a park or gas station. So we went to Opal where about 3 different locals told us they would "not recommend staying at either of the two hotels in town". But the alternative was another 7 miles, along a really busy freeway, out of our way...so we got a room and it was skankier than we have ever seen. I think I already wrote about this so I'll just say that from there we headed out at early as possible. We thought it was going to be a relatively easy 50 miles to DC but as you know, it was almost 90. But we made it and have been having a blast in DC. Jonathan and Yaniv came to see us and we all went to the spy museum. Then we met back up with them after our meeting with Markey's office staff and we took the Metro (I love the metro in DC) to one of Sharon's favorite restaurants in DC, the Lebanese Taverna. We had been once before with Sharon and her family, when we were staying with them in DC (they were in DC for a year working for NSF)and it was really good. Well, after 10 weeks of canned peas, Doritos, and grilled cheese sandwiches...it was AMAZING!!!! Even Loni (Jonathan) said "make sure you thank Sharon for me..this is really great". So, there you go Sharon!!
We said goodbye to Loni and Yaniv at the train station stop and they went back to New York, and we rolled back to our hotel. Now I am really done eating like that! I have to stop eating like I'm biking 60 miles everyday or I will turn into a big, round melon!
I will try to hit as many of the bullet points as I can before my time runs out.
#1 the girl and her mom on the porch. We were up early this morning and it was still cool. It was about 7am and really quiet. It was a Sunday so no cars. We were in an area of rolling hills and enormous, perfectly mown lawns with houses set between the lawns, about an acre apart. We had not seen lawn ornaments for awhile so I was surprised to see a plastic fawn on the lawn of the house we were approaching. There was a young girl sitting in a rocking chair on the porch, fiddling with something in her lap. She was tanned and trim, had light brown hair with shiny highlights, neatly pulled back into a glistening ponytail. She looked like she was about 11 yrs. old. I thought "how sweet, she is outside, enjoying the cool, fresh air, before she will have to seek shelter in her air conditioned house for the remainder of the day. I wonder what she is working on? Needlework? Knitting? If she is knitting, I will forgive her the tacky plastic deer". As I got closer, I saw that in another rocking chair on the porch, sat her mom. Also tan and slender, hair all pouffed and coiffed, wearing orange tennis type shorts and an orange (and I'm not lying here)tube top, reading a magazine. I thought, this is such a sweet scene. Mother/Daughter outside enjoying the morning on the porch. It was like me and the boys reading in the hammock on the weekends (minus the tube top). Then, as we got almost to the top of the hill, where their house sat, I saw the girl lift up what she had been working on and point it at the plastic deer. It turns out she was fixing one of those plastic machine guns that you pull the trigger on and it simulates the firing off of about 10 rounds of ammunition. As we passed she was still taking careful aim at the deer from the comfort of her rocking chair and firing off rounds! It was so bizarre I just started laughing.
OK, I gotta send this because I only have a few min. left.
I'll try to get some more time and finish the other bullet points later.
Love,
Djina

3,798 miles

By my odometer we went 3,798 miles from SF to DC. There is so much to say, but I will limit myself to just a few things. One: We just met with the chief staff member of Rep. Markey, who is chairman of the select committee on global warming. They listened to our ideas and looked over the petitions. I have to say Markey is totally on board with global warming legislation. The House just passed a bill as did the Senate. The bill will be in conference committee when they come back to work. The bill doesn't have everything we want, so please, please contact your representatives and insist that they increase CAFE standards (gas mileage)and they cut oil and coal subsidies in favor of subsidies for wind and solar. If you have had enough time to comment on our blog, please speak to your representatives.

Two: An anecdote from the second to last day of riding. We left Charlettsville and found ourselves in the middle of the morning commute. Our technique is to pull over as soon as it is safe. One time we did this 6 cars passed us. 2 or 3 waved. The 7th car honked and gave us his middle finger. Here we were trying to be as concientious as possible and for our troubles we get flipped the bird. The car passed us. On his rear window were 2 American flag decals. On his bumper were two stickers "Bush/Cheney." Figures, I smugly thought. But what if I were not a left coast, tofu eating pussy, but rather a macho heavy equipment operator with Rush on all my preprogrammed radio dials? Wouldn't I start to think, "Maybe Bush really is a dickhead since his supporters sure are." I mean, doesn't this guy realize he's a rolling ambassador for Bush. If he wants me to vote for Bush or people of that ilk, better he offer me a cold bottle of water at the top of the hill. Yonah's take on it is "Why don't we put a Bush/Cheney sticker on our car and act like dicks?" To which Solomon said, "Why would we want to be dicks?"