democracy

Friday, August 10, 2007

YAY bike blog!

thanks John!
This is blog spot great!

I uploaded my photo album to my fotki site: http://www.fotki.com/coryallegory/biketour2007/

Also, I wanted to let everyone know about my bike friendly friends, the Ditty Bops. They are two fabulous gals backed by an old timey band. Last summer, they went on a tour of the US on bicycle. 4500 miles total! They had a support van with their gear and instruments, but they pretty much biked the whole way. Anyway, this year they are on tour again, but now they are doing a Farm tour, where they are stopping in big cities to play shows, but also on small farms. They are amazing and are playing in Portland tomorrow night and Seattle this upcoming week.

Even if you can't check out their show, you should check out their site and bike blog:

The band's website:
http://www.thedittybops.com/

Their blog takes a while to load because it's all on one web page, but it's worth it. And you start from the bottom up...
http://www.thedittybopsbiketour.blogspot.com/

cheers...Cory

Thursday, August 9, 2007

Hi John,
I'm glad to see you try this community blog concept out for us. It's a great opportunity for making group communication easy.
For now I will just say I think we had a great group, and I miss the whole lot of ya.
During our trip, I asked one of the staff what was the most interesting aspect about the job. The reply was (and please forgive my necessity of putting it here in my own words) to the effect that each group has a unique collective "personality" of it's own, much like an individual does. I thought that's an interesting observation. On that note, I want to say I am very glad to have been part of this group due to the individuals I became acquainted with, and for the collective good will and support evidenced as well. Although my hearing loss precludes my participation in oral group discussions, (to my regret) there is a lot more to group vibes and communication than words alone. You each helped make a good experience that I feel very fortunate for.

Best to everyone, Joe

Wednesday, August 8, 2007

Vanessa and Lorelei's Adventure... hi friends! thanks so much, john, for setting this up. it's great to be connected with all of you, although i must admit a little bittersweet to see and hear about all your adventures after mom and i had to leave the group. probably the hardest thing about leaving early was missing out on six more days to get to know such an amazing group of folks. it does my heart good to stay connected in this way.

as we talked about, we went on with a bike adventure of our own. we stayed monday night in nehalem where we had said goodbye to you. tuesday morning we drove robby's van (thank you robby) back to portland. both mom and i were so thankful to have some time with betsy (seim's office manager) over lunch tuesday to share with her some (hopefully) constructive critisisms as well as postivie feedback about our experience. although it was strange to be pulling back up to se portland again so soon, both of us felt much better after meeting with her.
after portland we headed back to the coast -- this time to newport where a friend of mine lives on a houseboat. we got to see him briefly before he headed out on his own cross country bike tour (motorcycle, i should say, nowhere near as fun, if you ask me :)

on wednesday morning i started biking down 101 out of newport and mom acted as my faithful sag. we on this way for a couple of days -- until we got to bandon. i was having a great time -- loving the riding and the views (my god, if you haven't already, bike the whole of the oregon coast - it's breathtaking). but, after two days of riding and all the emotion of the week, we were both a bit spent, so we decided to take a day off.

bandon was a really sweet town so we were happy to stay there for a bit, sitting on the beach and putsing around town. then we drove a little ways more to gold beach (an unremarkable town, by our accounts) and on saturday i biked from there into california.

we had a great night in eureka, ca saturday -- and drove back to san fran on sunday -- with a drive thru the avenue of the giants (another great biking road, if you get the chance).
all and all i biked about 125 miles -- so not the numbers you all achieved, i know, but a good amount none the less. we did get some sustinable nuiances to our trip too -- eating at resturants that served local and organic and vegan as much as possible (including the wild rose in bandon -- which we both highly recommend), stopping at the solar living center in northern california for a tour on sunday, and marketing my mom's haitian co-op cards to a fair number of little shops along the coast.

so, all and all we made it into a fun and memorable time, although i think both of us are still feeling a little bit of the sting of disapointment.
i'm excited to hear more highlights from the remainder the the trip from you all.
also -- as i mentioned on the tour -- my partner and i have a guestroom here in san francisco and all of you are more than welcome to come and stay anytime you like. (just not all at once).
thanks for taking the time to read this....
blessings,

vanessa (and lorelei)

... if you want to see our pictures in full, check out: www.vanessaverleespictures.shutterfly.com

Books!

Hey, what were the books that everybody said they were reading at the beginning of the trip? It sounded like a lot of people were reading interesting books, and I'd like to add some to my list!
John