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!

More on Vegas soon…

After my whirlwind 24-hours at Interbike, it was back to San Francisco for me. I was too exhausted to cook, so I rode over to my favorite East German restaurant, Walzwerk for an early bite before bedtime. And look-ee what rolled on by:

This was the 15th anniversary of the event, which started in San Francisco. Although it’s been controversial, the spirit of creating bike-friendlier roads and riding together is what I admire. I didn’t have enough memory in my camera (nor the patience) to film what seemed like an eternity of riders celebrating bike life.

Besides, I would have gone out to join it on my own two wheels, but my dinner was getting cold.

Today, the CLIF BAR 2 Mile Challenge kicked off in Las Vegas. As I type this, the bus is on the convention floor at Interbike, having its first visitors checking out what they (and their bikes) can do to fight global warming.

It’s been a long (dare I say) strange journey from a kernel of an idea to reality. For the past year, me and a small team of dedicated Clif-sters have mulled over, shaped, pulled apart, played with, laughed at, cried because (not really), and dreamed of a way to get people to make a small change in their lives that can have a HUGE impact on climate change.

As it turns out, it’s as easy as riding a bike. Riding a bike for all trips under 2 miles or less. I know I’ve been guilty of driving to get coffee, when I could have easily taken two wheels instead of four. The fact that 40% of urban travel in the U.S. is trips under 2 miles (and 90% of those trips are by car) was a wake-up call for me. Heck, back when I was doing triathlons, I’d put in over 100 miles a week. Why not put in a handful of two-fer’s as I go about my life?

Welcome to 2MileChallenge.com. Why don’t you take it out for spin?

• Map your 2 Miles and search to see what falls in your radius.
• Take the Challenge by picking one or all of the six options.
• Ride a bike to fight global warming

Now, I’ve gotta finish up here and get packing, so I can go see the bus in person! Next stop for me: Las Vegas.