Here’s a new installment of our video from the road. Hope you enjoy the newest escapades!

The 2 Mile Challenge has given me the opportunity to see and do some of the most amazing things over the past two months.

We have seen it all from the bright lights of Vegas to the fishmongers in Pike Place market in Seattle and everything in between. In the same week I found myself riding my bike down Santa Monica Boulevard to meet up with friends in Beverly Hills for a night out on the Sunset Strip, a couple of days later we were riding through the Sierra Nevada with Kipchoge and The Ginger Ninjas. Amazing, the places a bike can take you (with a little help of our bio-fueled Bus!).

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Closing in on the home stretch of the 2MC Fall tour. Time really flies! Looking back upon the first five weeks of the tour, here’s a little slideshow for your viewing pleasure.

We’re on our way up to Seattle for the week as we hang around the Mayor’s Climate Summit. We’ll be at UW tomorrow (Tuesday), and Wednesday look for us around Pier 67 when we hope to engage some of America’s mayors with how they might help spread the 2 Mile Challenge message to their communities. Friday is our day with our friends at the Seattle REI flagship store.  We hope that if you’re in the neighborhood that you’ll come to the bus and take the 2 Mile Challenge - help actively make a difference for climate change!

Life on the road is pretty wild, I’d have to say. As the old Willie Nelson song goes, “seeing things that I may never see again…” Ain’t that the truth, William.

I’ve driven through Moscow, Idaho once in the past, but never had a chance to stop and check it out. In true 2 Mile Challenge fashion, you can’t just roll into town and go park the Bio-D fueled rig just anywhere. We wouldn’t want to anyway! What better way to see this famous college town than in that old-skool way on an Electra cruiser or a folding Dahon bike to cruise the streets with pure ease.

Zac, Cris and myself did just that on a recent brisk autumn night. We made our way downtown, enjoyed some great Mexican food and afterwards found our way over to a place called “John’s Alley.” (We apologize to the folks at John’s who quickly noted the error in us mistakingly calling it “Jeff’s Alley.” -Ed.)

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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.

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Ah, Fall. The colors, the smells, the crispness of the morning air that comes up and stings your nasal passages with that near-ice-cream-headache feeling if you get going fast enough on your bike…

Yes, Fall. And nothing says fall quite like a beautiful morning enjoying nature’s finest creations at the farmer’s market. So not to discriminate on farmer’s markets or anything, but we decided that it would only be fitting for us to pay a visit to the Davis Farmers market in the heart of the bike-friendliest city in America – Davis, CA.

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A good friend of mine once told me, if children think something is “cool,” then it usually is. Since fun is their only agenda, they tend to be honest about whether or not they’re into something. Like, for instance, the 2 Mile Challenge bus.

On Saturday when the 2MC rolled into the Santa Monica area, we had a third grader named Jonathan come through the bus to take the challenge - and who left quite an impression on all of us. (He was easily the smartest person I’ve talked to in years).

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Meet Roy.

Roy is a Navy man at his core, a smooth-operatin’ driver-of-all-things-with-steering-wheel at hand, and Renaissance man at heart. Roy has one of the most important roles here on the 2 Mile Challenge Fall tour - he gets the team safely from place to place, masterfully steering the old double-clutchin’, air-brakin’, bio-fueled rig from town-to-town with style and grace. In that vein, he is an artiste of sorts…

Second to that, he has more one-liners in his repertoire than you can shake a stick at, and is always apt to spin a yarn or two at the delight and entertainment of those nearby. (Ask him the one about Mike’s eyes…)

Despite his affinity for most machines with a throttle, Roy harkened his softer side at a rest stop in Arizona where he took a quick spin on the Electra Daisy 3-speed cruiser. His only complaint was that it didn’t come in Navy blue…

For those of you who can’t visit the 2 Mile Challenge bus in person, here’s a little peek inside. On the right, is the 2 Mile mapping tool, where you enter your address to see your 2 Mile radius and can search for places on your map.

Over on the left is a short video that spells out what’s up with driving and how bikes can make a difference. Wanna see it? Here you go: www.2milechallenge.com/ride.

Feel free to spread the bike love (and the link)!

I’m Paul, LUNA Pro Team Director, and I tell ‘ya, it’s always a surreal experience going to Interbike in Las Vegas. Seeing tattooed bike messenger types walking through the Venetian casino is odd enough, but the ability to wander for miles with a perpetual dusk sky overhead—without ever actually going to the real outdoors—seals the deal for a truly odd experience.

Interbike is a huge trade show where the bike industry congregates each September to ponder all the new equipment. There’s always fun stuff to look at, and bleary-eyed party-ers on the floor taking care of business, despite having consumed massive amounts of alcohol and getting little sleep the night before. (Can you say, “Sake Bomb?”)

When I arrived, I headed straight for our booth to see the 2 Mile Challenge Tour bus. It’s a retrofitted 1959 GMC passenger bus with 3 Million (nope, not a typo) miles on it that now runs on biodiesel.

Here’s a video featuring Tour Captain Mike Parziale, as he takes us on a quick tour:

Check it out. Awesome, baby!