All good things must come to an end, they say.

As many of you have seen over the past two-plus weeks, we’ve been touring with bona-fide bicycling lifestylists and all-around fun people, The Ginger Ninjas and Fossil Fool. Since meeting them all, the 2MC crew has been continually inspired by their music and dedication to the bike cause. It’s such a wild experience getting the chance to tour with musicians. We have loved having the opportunity to groove along to their infectious tunes while we spread the word about the 2 Mile Challenge. Even now in their absence, it’s not uncommon for Mike to break into his own renditions of “Bike-blended Smoothie” or “Dick Cheney” en route.

In addition to the music, we’ve also stood in awe of their collective engineering prowess, as a lot of the Ninjas and ‘Fool are a small portion of the genius behind the Xtracycle and Rock the Bike. We learned in Davis that although we had to say goodbye to our new friends for now, “Fossil Fool” Paul was hooking us up with one of his famed Soul Cycles for us to carry the “party on a bike” torch throughout the rest of the tour!

After our afternoon cruise around Davis with the Ninjas and Paul, the team invited us to join them for dinner at their exotic hideaway/Xtracycle World HQ, Willow Springs Mystery Ranch in Nevada City. This worked out perfectly as their place was right on our way to Reno – also affording Paul the necessary extra time to put the finishing touches on our own 2MC stylin’ Soul Cycle!

Getting the bus through the winding roads of the Sierra Nevada would have proved difficult for any amateur driver, but luckily we had Roy “Don’t Call me a Busdriver” Zimmerman behind the wheel, who could take those turns on those narrow-lane roads in his sleep.

We didn’t know quite what to expect at our Willow Springs Mystery Ranch detour, but after the tour of the place, we were amazed at how they used their land. There were varied farm animals, crops, a homemade wood-stove hot tub…and even a recording studio.

Getting oriented on our new Soul Cycle, we took an inaugural, pre-dinner spin to the local organic grocery store called Mother Truckers to get the essentials. Echo Lopez, the famed Ginger Ninjas vocalist/guitarist/washboard percussionist, prepared an excellent meal of couscous and mixed veggies that we all shared in their kitchen.

They invited us to stay the night but after Paul wrapped up the last tweaks on his creation, we decided it best to get along down the road to Reno.

It was an awesome end to this stage of the tour: an unforgettable night shared with good food and good friends. Thanks for the good times, guys.

-Zac

This entry was posted on Friday, October 19th, 2007 at 12:00 pm and is filed under from the road. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.