Ride Bikes Save Earth

This morning started with a shuttle ride across the bridge to Oregon. This is a long bridge with hardly no shoulder…5 years ago, Marian and I rode across it in a driving rain…this year, I was very thankful to be shuttled across by Larkin. After a quick coffee and hot chocolate with Larkin, we parted ways, each back to our personal journeys. (more…)

Our last stop in Washington was Green Angel Gardens, a beautiful 5-acre farm in Long Beach, WA. Professional flute player Larkin Stentz, who is the gardener and steward of Green Angel Gardens, hosted us for an unforgettable visit. Larkin led us on an educational tour of his gardens, chicken run, greenhouses (Bertha, Moe and Bucky, a geodesic dome greenhouse), windmill, solar water heater, and composting toilet; all together, a living environment demonstrating how our lives can be integrated into a sustainable, natural system. After helping out two other interns (Jason and Lee) with some garden work, we had a wonderful meal under the stars, listening to the fireworks on the beach. We then wound down the evening with some stretching and music in Larkin’s yoga studio. Green Angel Gardens - a spiritual, hopeful, and educational pocket of paradise giving us pieces of faith to carry wherever we travel.

Right now we’re in Bandon, OR, catching up with laundry, uploading tons of footage,  and replying to some email.  We have once again met some incredible people since we last had a chance to update our websites, and we’ll be uploading pictures and videos as we get the chance.  It’s crazy the amount of data - knowledge, people, places - that we encounter and are trying to take in on top of riding some pretty large miles.  When we get these moments to catch our breath, we find we have so much to share that we never have enough time to get it all down.  That being said, this is what the adventure is about - collecting data and stories and one day, when we’re back with a roof over our head, we’ll have plenty of digesting to do!!  As Heidi from Barking Dog Farm commented, “How do just not implode with all the information, on top of riding bikes for so long!!??!”  It’s a good question, indeed, and we are often asleep before we’re even completely in our sleeping bags.

But in the meantime, here are a few pics of some of the latest places we’ve visited:

Marian's Seattle Garden

R-evolution Gardens

Square Peg Farm

Tillamook Cheese Factory

Green Angel Gardens

Another one of those movies that make you suffle around your seat wondering how and why humanity takes these directions, or herded into these CAFO’s. Get into the passtures of greener grass and go watch this film. Its worth the thoughts.
Our summer is refined to finding, meeting, and thanking those that are doing their best for themselves, their environement, their communities. We are out here learning from those who are interested in teaching their skills and knowlegde of enjoyable farming; shareing their ingenius creations with others so that skills may be spread and grown upon.
Hopefully we can get better at sharing these ideas.

Yesterday, we left Marian and Jon in Seattle with the goal of getting to Shelton, WA, about a 50 mile ride plus a ferry ride - not bad, especially with a few rest days in the belt and fresh motivation having watched Food, Inc the night before. Marian rides with us to take us to the ferry, which is an awesome ride intermixed with all the Seattle bike commuters. One commuter rides with us, taking us right to the market by the ferry. There, Marian and I shopped for some cherries, while Darren, much to my delight, was decorating my helmet with bright, colorful flowers. (more…)

Please go see Food, Inc and then go thank your local farmers!

Low and behold we come across another steepest hill in the world, which again, happens to be within the last 3 miles of our ride. This one is called Swede hill and it’s on Whidbey Island. But more importantly, on this island is the charming home of the Close family (Marian Close is the girl who I rode cross country with 5 years ago), who welcomed us to their home for this part of our adventure. (more…)

Tonight we are going to watch Food, Inc. Besides our obvious ambition of riding across North America in the hopes to share a little of what we know and understand about food culture, I think it’s going to be a remarkable film. We will share our comments about the film, but it’s best you make your own.

One day we will be back, this is for sure!! We honestly could have spent the entire summer cycling the San Juan Islands, exploring all the islands, visiting the copious farms of organic and natural food, and swapping stories with all the amazing and talented artist and adventurers who are attracted to making these islands their home during our quick stay on this planet. (more…)

At the Sidney Farmer's Market

June 24^th – A great day!!  Not only is this day great for being the birthday of my vivacious younger brother (Happy Birthday James!), it’s also the day of our first night on a farm!!!!  As we roll up to Makaria Farm, we are greeted by a smiling, waving girl running out to us and exclaiming “You’re here, you’re here!!”  Here is the cutest little farm, ever, setting the standards high for all our farm visits to come.  Heather and Brock, a young couple who moved on from their government jobs so they could start pursuing something they felt was a bit more fulfilling and productive for humanity, started farming this lovely 10 acres just two years ago.   (more…)