Clouds tell the story

Warm weather clouds...
even giraffes are about...
basking and reveling in the warmth as the sun goes down on the Pacific.
5 miles inland, even the ghosts in this pink beauty drink in this warm summer evening...
while her neighbor looks on.

Grand total: $1850! (133,399 Kenyan Shillings)

$1315.00 for KIBISOM and counting...

We've raised $1315.00 for KIBISOM through your donations! Thank you to all of you who supported me on my ride from Seattle to Portland! I will let you know who will benefit from this donation as soon as I hear from Esther. Thanks again!

BIKING from Seattle to Portland...for KIBISOM!

I am biking from Seattle to Portland on July 11th and 12th.

That's right... 200 miles in 2 days!

You can support this adventure by donating a few cents per mile to KIBISOM, a women's group that I worked with on Rusinga Island, Kenya in 2007. Your donation to this group will keep me cranking when the muscles start to ache!

Please visit the donation page here: http://kibisom.eventbrite.com

Stay tuned to this site for information about the projects that your donations will support!

wind, fog or flight

3 different days
lend themselves to:

crystal clarity

fogged in focus

or beauty bobbing on a highwire.

Choose your own adventure.

Lifeline

Some mornings start out calm and clear...

and I ride south with the wind at my back.

Others are shrouded in fog and three friends in Golden Gate wake

to hang in the clouds.

But inevitably on the same misty day, I am suddenly grounded,
riding right over a shard of glass in The Mission.
I puncture the back tube (why is it ALWAYS the back tube!),
and manage to change the tube before the sky really opens up.Just a little grease...

...deepening the biker's lifeline.

Things to do in California in the Summer in the Spring...

Ride up 17 mile Road.

See the sun turn the blue sea to gold.

Catch late light on the land.

Wake up back in the city and ride to the ocean.

Ride home after work in the sun...

,,,and stop to see the poppies.Check out clouds indicating change.

But opt to revel in the warmth of the day
like the flowers on the side of the path.

To work...
to play...
to see...
to race...
to the top of Mt. Tam and back down to the sea!

The Quietest Engine

The quietest enginecan take you
on solo urban journeys,
or carry you
into a mass
critical

to the beat of the city.

Beauty in the eye of the beholder...

I usually shoot up this street near Glen Park without much attention to the "view." Today in the mist and drizzle I saw a patch of blue sky hovering above the city and immediately hoped for a rainbow to appear. Just as quickly I shifted gears and suddenly thought: who needs a rainbow.. there's beauty right here in the every day white noise of Highway 280 and in the watchful windows of the Excelsior.

Here are 2 sequences taken from the same place that show how it is so easy and possible to change how far
we can choose to focus our gaze.

(1) (2)

(3)

(1)

(2)

(3)

Early to Rise

Spring Ahead

The clock leaps ahead,
Wickedly stealing an hour of slumber.
I tenderly tumble into the day
As time trips forwards.

Sunlight bathes the streets awake.
I fly for miles
before I fully see
This Day, growing full around me.

Later light lingers longer
Evening falls sleepily, slowly.
The beauty of time's change sinks in
as I too settle deeper.

Name that corner..."I love the Mission in the morning" (to the tune of "I love Paris in the springtime")... Watch out for that truck! I hear they can break gear shifters off and even bones in your hands!

Work sweet work..

A Starting Point

Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco, CA

Every story needs a start, and what better way to begin to share a bit of my "air-time" than with a view of the Golden Gate Bridge from the Marin Headlands. The images posted here will represent some of the amazing things I view from my strong, sturdy and amazing Specialized Allez that I have nicknamed "Toblerone." More to follow on that...