THX to Andrew Morton we at long last are just now getting you our Final
2003 re****t. Apologies in advance if you've unsubscribed in the past
as we have made what we feel is the last switch in this regard. If you
want to be removed, there is a link at the bottom you can use to do so.
So now with all of our pictures and names and etc in place, here is how
our NBG summer ended:
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Story in Pictures:
Festival -
http://www.nationalbicyclegreenway.com/gallery/santacruznbgfest2003
Mayors' Rides - http://NationalBicycleGreenway.com/gallery
The Santa Cruz NBG Bike Fest that took place Sunday August 17 was a
fitting reward for all those cyclists who gave of their time, resources
and other efforts and energies to more firmly establish our second
annual National Mayors' Ride as a yearly two wheel institution. As it
celebrated our long haul cyclists, it also served as a fitting backdrop
to Congressman Sam Farr and Santa Cruz Mayor Emily Reilly
http://www.nationalbicyclegreenway.com/gallery/santacruznbgfest2003/IMG_
0752 both of whom did an inspiring job of validating our efforts. And
despite the fact that our near flawless production was under attended
(1500 people throughout the day), it drove home the message that our
Mayors' Rides are there to communicate that cycling is is not just
about recreation and fun in those areas where cars do not exist, but
that two (and three) wheel travel is a needed and im****tant way to
connect population centers.
Our festival also served to underscore the fact that we have not even
scratched surface in this regard. From the stage I talked about the
fact that Skot Pascchal
http://www.bikeroute.com/NationalMayorsRide/BioPix/SkotPascgalBest03.jpg
couldn't safely make the 300 mile connection on those remote roads
that stood between Arcata and Chico because of unsafe conditions and
then Bill Haluzak of Bicycles by Haluzak http://www.haluzak.com
in
Santa Rosa could not find a rider to bike a mere 46 miles to get to
Napa from Santa Rosa because off the danger factor there as well. And
all of the performers, volunteers
http://www.bikeroute.com/NationalMayorsRide/200Volunteers.html
, NBG
relay cyclists that were there (here is our entire 2003 roster:
http://www.bikeroute.com/NationalMayorsRide/2003Riders.html),
exhibitors and guests could be seen nodding their heads as I held up
these examples to indeed prove that there was something very wrong with
the way we move ourselves around.
First up on the stage was Ruby Rudman's
http://www.nationalbicyclegreenway.com/gallery/santacruznbgfest2003/IMG_
0460 very practiced rendition of the National Anthem. She was only up
for five minutes, but from the back of the performance platform as I
looked out on the morning crowd that had already assembled, I could see
the authority that her words commanded from most everyone I saw. Heads
bowed and hands were crossed over hearts as all of us were privy to a
performance that easily could have opened a Super Bowl or really any
televised s****t anywhere.
Soon Ruby was followed by another professional of the highest order -
Prince Lawsha
http://www.nationalbicyclegreenway.com/gallery/santacruznbgfest2003/IMG_
0722 . A world class jazz drummer, Prince sang a most memorable
version of "Amazing Grace" before he and some of the top musicians
http://www.nationalbicyclegreenway.com/gallery/santacruznbgfest2003/IMG_
759 this area has to offer, Roger Anderson on percussion, Jack Bowers
on piano, Steve Larkin on bass and 16 year old sensation Tianisha
Fitzspatrick
http://www.nationalbicyclegreenway.com/gallery/santacruznbgfest2003/IMG_
0464 on violin, did a jazz set that let all those in attendance bask
in he classy act that the Prince brings to all those whom he touches.
What an honor to have the gift of his music!
I used the break to to send out raffle prizes. With the help of Faye
Saunders' kids, Chloe and Schuyler, as well as Brionna Machado who
we'll talk about next and other kids that came and left through out the
afternoon, during the course of the day we gave away 18 different
prizes http://www.bikeroute.com/NationalMayorsRide/2003Prizes.html
. It
was fun to see the excitement of the kids as they jumped off the stage
and run to give away a prize after it was won. It was also fun watching
people crowd the raffle table, manned for most of the day by the super
helpful Scott Campbell and elegant Faye Saunders,
http://www.nationalbicyclegreenway.com/gallery/santacruznbgfest2003/IMG_
0710 for a one dollar chance to win one of the many prizes that many
of our exhibitors had so generously donated. It was also enjoyable to
watch the striking Jeanelle Martin
http://www.nationalbicyclegreenway.com/gallery/santacruznbgfest2003/Pizz
aJeanelle , she was helped by others, jump into action whenever I
reminded the crowd that the payment spit we had arranged with Tony &
Alba's pizza was one of the ways we paid for the day's festivities.
Claire Machado's
http://www.nationalbicyclegreenway.com/gallery/santacruznbgfest2003/IMG_
0709 beauty then graced the stage. Not only is she stunning to look at
but her voice borders on the angelic. She was joined on stage by Randy
Hudson, of the This Hear Band http://thishearband.com
who played
mandolin. And THX to David Handloff, of More Music, a local musician's
supply store, Claire played confident and strong on a Renaissance
guitar made by Rick Turner. Last May someone ran a spear thru Claire's
heart when they stole the classical Spanish guitar on which she had
composed a lot of the music we were hearing. Believing in people,
when it still hadn't returned as our show grew nearer, the More Music
people volunteered to help her with the instrument she needed for our
show. And if Claire's performance was not enough of a show stopper,
when her 8-year old daughter, Brionna,
http://www.nationalbicyclegreenway.com/gallery/santacruznbgfest2003/IMG_
0726 who had already sung "Between the Sun and the Moon" with her mom,
closed out the Machado Girls set with a solo rendition of "Over the
Rainbow" made famous by Judy Garland, it seemed as if everything else
stood still. All eyes were focused on the stage as Brionna stood there
in her little Alice in Wonderland dress merrily signing away.
Jessica Menendez
http://www.nationalbicyclegreenway.com/gallery/santacruznbgfest2003/jmat
t_buffwear , the emerging darling of the bicycle festival set, got on
stage next. And as the stage behind us was readied for the Keen
Cousins, Jessica had me hold the microphone as she wowed the audience
with all the many ways once can use a buff. And what a story Jessica
is. She came from a tough beginning to start her own company, Alaska
Buff Wear http://menendeznet.com
. And with it, she travels around the
US doing triathlons and selling buffs. No more than an oversized head
with colorful designs that can be stretched to serve as a pirates cap,
a tube top or a mini skirt and many other ideas which she demonstrated,
a buff is Jessica's winning personality hard at work. Easy going, happy
and charming, everyone just loves Jessica!
A short act that followed brought the audience even closer to the
stage as she offered her wares. On display was a masterful female
physique
http://www.nationalbicyclegreenway.com/gallery/santacruznbgfest2003/IMG_
0735 . Gabrielle Nicander's several minute posing routine showed why
she is fast becoming a ****ning star on the regional bodybuilding
circuit. Her powerful presence was the subject of innumerable cameras
that pressed forward to get a view of her in action. After she was
done, I made sure to ask her a few questions so that those in
attendance could see that this massively muscled woman was also a
sweetheart. And she told the audience that there is a lot of cross
over between bicycling and bodybuilding and encouraged those in
attendance to consider such weight training as a way to make them
stronger more fit bike riders.
The Keen Cousins were next. With Phil Kleinheinz
http://www.nationalbicyclegreenway.com/gallery/santacruznbgfest2003/IMG_
0737 on stand up bass (that he even stood on on occasion as he played)
and Eric Keene
http://www.nationalbicyclegreenway.com/gallery/santacruznbgfest2003/IMG_
0738 on guitar, the two of them held court for the next 45 minutes as
people kept asking me who they were and where they came from. Handsome
and young with slicked back hair, in tight jeans with the cuffs roiled
up, their retro look fit perfectly with the 50's era rock and roll
that they so comfortably and expertly played. Nor was percussion even
necessary as Phil would pluck his strings in a way that made his
instrument produce a light drum beat when that was necessary. Great
kids and extremely personable, these guys are going places too.
I gave away a bunch more of the smaller prizes as kids bounced on and
off the stage all around me when I then spotted Congressman Sam Farr
D-CA
http://www.nationalbicyclegreenway.com/gallery/santacruznbgfest2003/Sam_
MK and Santa Cruz Mayor, Emily Reilly, mixing with the crowd and
talking to exhibitors. A couple prizes later, I blew their cover when
I asked them to come to the stage. Sam took a few minutes to tell the
crowd that we have got to act. He talked about the im****tance of
contacting elected officials with letters; that ours must be a
proactive position. I then asked Sam to tell the audience about his
own use of the bicycle to produce results. In 1972 he was the main
organizer for a ride down the California Coast that was largely
responsible for much of the coastal protection legislation that is in
force today. And as he spoke about how much pain the bike seat caused
him and how much press there was for the hundred or so riders that
kept growing in number, I could see that he was endearing himself even
more into the hearts of those who have kept him in office for the last
ten years.
Emily Reilly, dressed in a beautiful flowing dress showed why she is
such a popular mayor here in Santa Cruz as she as well was able to put
herself at the level of the majority opinion. With great ease and
charm, she talked about how much the City of Santa Cruz sup****ts
cycling (which it does) and later went on tell us how we can access
those legislators that Sam had been talking about. And her insight is
something I'd like to see us deploy at NationalBicycleGreenway.com. In
sum, she recommended that we go to the US Congress website
(http://www.congress.org/congressorg/home)
and locate the
trans****tation committee. It lists all the various congressman that
are working on that committee and the district they serve. From these
names she had the great idea that we get the word out to people we know
who live in the districts served by these politicians and have them
write letters to these elected officials asking them to sup****t those
bike bills we are working on. Later, Emily walked the two wheel talk
herself as she became a part of the Festival by listening to and
meeting other performers and even visiting more of the exhibitors that
were there. How lucky we are here in Santa Cruz to have political
leaders like these two.
Andy Santana, who used to live and wow audiences here in Santa Cruz,
came all the way down from Mendocino 230 miles away to play for the NBG
cause. And like Prince and Claire above and Wes who we will describe
next, Andy has played for us before. In fact Andy played our very first
Swing for NBG back inn 1998 at Moes Alley and at our Year 2000 send
off to DC http://www.bikeroute.com/NBGLighthouseParty.
And it was on
his snappy tunes that I cut my swing dance teeth when swing had
become all the rage in the mid 90's. Alive and powerful, his tunes
drove my feet into motion. So much so that the free form dancing I used
to do to the fire he brought to the stage easily evolved into swing
when partner dancing then became popular. What an honor to be blessed
by his love and the West Coast Playboys he had pulled together to play
with him for us!!
As August West led the charge to ready the stage for the next act,
Banned Together, as he did so a couple of outrageous kids in their
early 20'a showed what kind of excitement can be created with
instruments normally reserved for less spirited music. Flying all over
the stage in high top tennis shoes, Anton Patzner's violin came alive
with excited energy as his brother backed him up with an equally
fiery stand up bass accompaniment. Calling themselves the Patzner Boys
String Metal,
http://www.nationalbicyclegreenway.com/gallery/santacruznbgfest2003/patz
ner_001 they were only on stage for maybe 15 minutes, but they had
everyone buzzing about what they had just seen.
Our music offering ended with Wes Anthony's Banned Together. To give
you an idea of the size of Wes's contribution to the NBG, he drove me
and my bike a couple weeks before all the way up to Berkeley for our
reception with Mayor Tom Bates and councilman Kriss Worthington,
supplied the sound system that all of our musicians and speakers used
on this day and now here he was with his band driving out one perfectly
crafted swing tune after another. And unlike most dance bands, instead
of the drummer, Mike Shannon, who played powerfully and impeccably,
setting the tempo, Wes controlled even that too with his very studied
saxophone as Steve Czarnecki also powered away on organ. Knowing how to
make his horn do things that far transcend the ordinary, this man
lives music. Armed with a masters degree in music, Wes also teaches
local youth how to play sax and he's always playing somewhere either in
his own band or with someone else as he is much in demand. A visit to
his house or a drive in his car finds him not just listening to the
music he plays (swing and salsa) but studying it for each and every
nuance and variation. And like the Prince who started our day, people
love to play with Wes because they know he helps them bring their music
to another level. What a fitting end to our day of music -- WoW!
The people we built this event for were next. Andrew Heckman
http://webpages.charter.net/200a/AndrewHeckman2.htm,
the man we
dedicated last years's ride to before he then miraculously survived
being run over by a car, in most eloquent fa****on, talked about how
bicycling removes all those barriers we use to keep ourselves separate;
how it is the great equalizer. And in closing he left us with this
reply he had received earlier in the day when he had seemed surprised
that someone would thank him for surviving:
When someone gives you the daisies,
It is better to appreciate them NOW
Than when you are in the ground
Andrew was flanked by other NBG Giants we had come to celebrate As I
gave certificates of honor to each of these powerful parts of the NBG
effort I took few minutes to talk about each of them. There was Max
Chen who rode to DC for us in 2000 http://www.omsi.edu/bikeusa
with his
brother Mark and then again this year to here from San Francisco to
Santa Cruz. Jim 'Parky' Wetherell http://inevergiveup.org
was also
acknowledged for this ride here from SF as he courageously fights an
unrelenting battle with Parkinson's Disease. Mighty Jim Muellner,
http://www.bikeroute.com/NationalMayorsRide/JimMuellner
the 67 years
young man who had met and exchanged with 15 mayors and mayors offices
on his ride here from Wa****ngton DC on his company's tricycle
http://justtwobikes.com
and inspired a whole nation of admirers and
well wishers was formally thanked by the NBG. Our Pocket Mail Poet was
also rewarded with a certificate for his effort both this year and
last. Skot Paschal who braved the fires that raged out of control
between Boise and ****tland last year, this year rode from Eugene to
Napa and took many many captivating pictures that now make his ride one
of the most visited galleries
http://www.nationalbicyclegreenway.com/gallery/Arcata2003
at our site.
Rocky Brown also appeared on stage with Dirt Bag (DB)
http://www.nationalbicyclegreenway.com/gallery/santacruznbgfest2003/IMG_
0747 , the rubber lizard that was such a big part of the Pocket Mail
descriptions
http://www.nationalbicyclegreenway.com/Events/Mayors_Ride/Re****ts/Archiv
es/cat_2003_leg_12_boise_id_****tland_or.php of his ride from Boise to
****tland this year. He rode last year from Salt Lake City to Boise and
was acknowledged for both of those rides.
We also certified some non riders this year. Jody Fitch, the man who
designed the cutting edge web site NationalBicycleGreenway.com for us
and who serves as our indefatigable high tech trouble shooter got an
award. As did Claire Machado who played for us this year and last and
went beyond that call of duty by pressing special CDs of her music for
each of our honored guests . And lastly I honored one of the biggest
NBG believers not with a proclamation but with a kiss. And I think I
even surprised her. Faye Saunders
http://www.nationalbicyclegreenway.com/gallery/santacruznbgfest2003/IMG_
0458 , who as Jim Muellners pointed out, spoils me terribly with
great food and many other forms of sup****t and who helped us get
riders, took care of a lot of the raffle details, got our riders lunch
in San Jose, Palo Alto and Santa Cruz and who is always there to help
in whatever way she can in between the demands placed on her in her
fast paced highly demanding job at Apple Computer also deserves a thank
you from cyclists everywhere.
Conspicuously missing from the awards ceremony were Jim Redd
http://www.cyclechicago.org/pocketmail/jimredd.php
of Chicago and
Andrew Morton http://drewish.com
of ****tland both of whom rode for
Andrew Heckman last year and who this year were and are a huge part of
building NationalBicycleGreenway.com. Special THX also needs to go out
to Ro Fischer in the Pittsburgh Mayor's office, Lorna Davros in the Des
Moines Mayor's office, Berkeley Councilman Kris Worthington Arcata
Mayor Bob Ornelas and Kristine ****gley in the ****tland Office of
Trans****tation. We also feel indebted to Jeff 'Bubba' Stephens and Dan
Trevas from Columbus, the powerful Western Pennsylvania Field Institute
http://wpfi.org,
our major sponsors, John Brown of Family Cycling
http://www.FamilyCycling.com,
Tom and Pattie of Connection Magazine and
Bonnie Smith of Kool Stop http://koolstop,com
, and to all of our other
sponsors and riders who helped to make our 2003 Mayors' Ride and
Festival a rousing success!
Next year, we will certainly be honoring Scott Campbell who worked our
event from 7AM to late that nite and to Don Loomis who captured a lot
of the days events on his video camera. Of which, if anyone has
bandwidth we can access, we can put it all on line!! Can anyone help
here?
We ended the day by raffling off the grand prizes. J Matt (he is
pictured visiting the Buff Wear booth above) won the Kool Stop Papoose
Caboose trailer http://www.koolstop.com/trailers/caboose.html,
a world
class magician named Ken Martin http://mrmiraculous.com
won the amazing
S&B Malibu re***bent http://home.pacbell.net/re***bnt/page82.htm
and
Peter Campbell
http://www.nationalbicyclegreenway.com/gallery/santacruznbgfest2003/IMG_
758 won the top prize of the day the long awaited Backsafer re***bent
http://www.backsafer.com
that I plan to review at some point soon!!
Next December we start again where we left off. If you are interested
in riding next year please visit
http://NationalBicycleGreenway.com/Events/Mayors_Ride
. And indeed it
promises to be far bigger and far better than ever before!! THX for all
of U!!
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Thanks again for all your kind words and for inviting me to Friday's
and Sunday's festivities. You are a real inspiration.
Santa Cruz Mayor Emily Reilly
Great event Sunday, that's a coup and a tribute to you to get Sam Farr
and Emily Rielly out there to bring the political clout to the party.
Also I loved the music, particularly Andy Santana, the lead guitar
player is awesome.
Pete Campbell
Thanks for organizing this whole event!
Marielle Stoellinga
Thanks to you and others for putting this year's Bikefest together. I
really enjoyed meeting the people there and it was great!
Donald Loomis
MARTIN KRIEG: "Awake Again" Author c/o BikeRoute.com
79 & 86 TransAms, nonprofit Nat. Bicycle Greenway CEO
Ever wanted anything so bad U were willing to die for it?
Really die? By moving thru clinical death and reversing
paralysis, *I saw God* when I answered that question.
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