Hey all,
So I’m at the Denver Train station getting the bags and bikes ready to leave for the east coast in 4 hours. There is one last show in Denver in 2 hours down the road (5 pm), then off to my first adventures on the east coast by bicycle and train. A lot of this trip is dedicated to ways for a 2012 collaborative bike tour of artists and musicians that want to create a sustainable future. So far I’ve been thinking of ideas about guerrilla camping styles and clean up activity to promote social and economical awareness, as well as environmental stewardship. When I woke up today by the river coming through Denver, I had this epiphany that we the people can take care of the land together. With state national wildlife preserves closing down because of not having a budget to keep their doors open, now is a time where the people can take action to allow access to the land under the presumption that the land is left better off when people come in leaving no trace, as well as cleaning what is seen. I’m doing a horrible job about describing this because I have to take off to a show in a few and have some things to do before hand, but I wanted to blurt this out so that we all can start a conversation and think of ways to preserve and uplift natural wildlife areas nation wide.
Right by the river, can’t get no betta’!
Denver has some great trails by the river, but most are surrounded by power plants on both sides. What happened to the value of nature? I’m all for awaking our awareness of the hedonic value of open land. The more people that get out and try and find open spaces to camp and see the land, the more they would realize how far we have gone in desecrating our natural world. So far freeways and large power industries being the biggest restrictions to open land and air that I have seen.
(A day later)
I had to not post yesterday due to the quick rush to the show, train, and the fastest breaking down of bikes into boxes for the train ride to date. The show was at 5 pm to 6 pm, and the train was leaving at 7:10 pm. I boxed up Morgan’s bike before the show as well as taking out half of the screws on the Mundo to make it a bit faster to box the bike later. We headed to the show that was a great ride down a creek south of the downtown area. It wrapped around the city and was about 5 miles long. We got there, played for an hour, managed to score some great food that I am still eating now for breakfast, and then started heading back down the river trail back to the Amtrak station. Going about 20 MPH, things kept flying off the bike and Morgan was holding on for dear life (it wasn’t that scary, but I was definitely hurrying). When we got back to the train station the train was already there. They I had 4 minutes to put my bike in a box and bring the 7 bags to the train station. I either could panic or kick into gear. I started to take the bike a part as Morgan gathered the bags onto a moving cart. It took about 15 minutes to box the bike and start bringing the bags over. I was grateful for Greg, a train worker helped tape the box up a bit. We ended up on standing by the train for 10 minutes waiting to load and had time to get everything on. I’m not sitting in the viewing cart in the early morning heading through middle America with rolling green hills on both sides, filled with tons of trees. The views from a train are the most beautiful and ugly areas of America, making for a very realistic perspective of the rich and poor areas of the land. Off to Chicago, Albany NY, Vermont, and then down to New York again for a Rock The Bike pedal power show, the biggest to date with 17 pedal power bicycles.