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Midori's Blog
Day 2Midori's Audio Blog - Day 29pm. I’m in the media relations tent with 2 of the other official ALC bloggers Jon, Gary. We’re tapping away on our day’s experience. I’ll be honest with you. I’m exhausted today. It’s been a long and tiring day for the riders… Today’s ride was just over 105 miles… and that, for the sweep team, means a long day of picking up broken bikes and burned out people. Many of the riders this year aren’t fully prepared and trained. The long rainy Northern California weather kept people from training the previous months. So that meant a lot of folks with injuries, fatigue and being behind on the time line. (Yup, we actually have a time line. If you’re not at a certain point by a certain time we ‘sweep’ or ‘sag’ you in a vehicle. This is for the safety of the riders and road safety for local drivers.) The thing is, today is the first “Century” or 100+ miles. Many are dead set on getting their “Century” in… but many also would be dead if they continued. Most riders that have to get a ride in to the next rest stop or forward to the night’s camp site are grateful and understanding. Unfortunately a rare few get sulky, cranky or bulligerant about us telling them that we have to drive them forward. (Hey there’s some talk in the tent right now about how sleep deprived team captains ought to get tied up in computer cables and forced to sleep for a change. But I digress.) But we’re not tired as those who are suffering alone out there. The Director of Pangaea spoke about the out-of-control AIDS epidemic in Africa and Asia. People are HIV phobic. Family members are exiling their own. In the US, homophobia, estrangement and (homophobia related) low self esteem is driving people to party with Tina – crytal meth – and lots of unsafe sex. There are those who are, for many reasons, suffering alone and in pain out there. So we all keep riding. I made sure to stop by the water stop at Mission La Soladad. It’s one of the original Spanish Missions with two foot thick adobe walls, quiet and sacred. Outside was a goofy, disco sound themed water and restop. Inside was a timeless silence. I just heard that ALC got front page photo in today’s New York Times. Wow! Tomorrow’s “Quad-Buster” so I’ll be doing a lot of cheering. Good night… Day 3Midori's Audio Blog - Day 3
“ohhhh yeah, baby” These were the moans and sighs that I got today. All because I had a misting water bottle full of ice water along the long hot stretch of country roads outside of Bradley. I tried to make a voice log today, but I didn’t have much in the way of cell phone signals. To tell you the truth I’m really wiped out today. Ken and my van have been out since 10am and we wrapped around 8pm. We stayed out until the last rider came in. I got to ride on the back of SFRacerX’s KTM as part of the full on all motorcycle safety motorcade of the last two riders. That was totally moving. This army of roaring iron horses slowly escorting the last rider, brave and strong despite the long journey… All for personal perseverance… and for perseverance against the damned disease. In so many ways this is the most rewarding vacation I can spend. We are all here to make a difference. It’s bizarre what brings us a sense of purpose and accomplishment. It’s just hard to explain this. You really have to be part of this to understand. And for some reason, sense of accomplishment, authentic community (even if temporary) and contribution to making the world a bit better, is quite addicting. So people keep coming back. My sweep buddy Ken, he’s not going Sweep next year. Instead he’s going to ride. I keep giving him hell that I’m going to sweep his butt in. It’s all good natured bantering, but we both know we’ll both be there. It’s nearly 10pm. The showers are closed now so I’ll have to schedule that in tomorrow. But I wanted to make sure to get a dispatch out to you. Now there’s a self inflating air mattress that’s calling my name… Good night and I’ll talk to you tomorrow. Day 4: Tonight... I'm tired but that's meaningless.Midori's Audio Blogs - Day 4There is so much to do around here I keep not getting to the Media Relations tent until late... and tomorrow's a 6:30am day so I'll need to keep this short. I've been busy today making audio blogs on my personal LiveJournal blog today. So I'd really love it if you could go over there and hear the "live action" blogs and interviews I did. We had to sweep a lot of riders today. Same with yesterday. Those of us roadies, whether in Sweep, Traffic or Moto Safety, are noticing that the riders are not as well trained physically this year. This is probably due to the long and unusual rainy season we had in Northern California. They're also not doing well with road safety rules and calling out 'On Your Left', 'Car Back' etc. I wonder if they think it's not a big deal and it was just a Training Ride thing. I wished they'd realize that it's all about keeping the ride safe and fun for them. Tomorrow is Red Dress Day or Dress Red Day. With 1800+ cyclists on the road, and a loop in one point of the route the road will look like one large red ribbon. One large ribbon of rememberance for those who have passed and those who are suffering. The surface of it all will be high camp but our hearts run deep as the deepest chasm of the ocean. Tonight, someone out there is dying. That's why we ride. Good night, ladies and gentlemen. Day 5I was never the cheerleader type in high school. In college, at Berkeley, I was such a nerd (and off campus student) that I didn't even know we had cheerleaders until my third year. The phrase "Go Bears" didn't pass my lips much at all. As a student from Japan, I never did grok that 'team spirit' thing that American schools were so big on. I still don't quite understand the point of screaming at commercial sport teams whose members don't come from nor pay taxes to the city of the teams that they represent. So now I find myself standing by the road side, waving a pom pom madly, screaming encouragement "Go! Go! Go! Riders Go!" "Hang in there!" "You can do it!" while dressed like a rabbit. Um, so what happened to me? I guess I finally found a team worth cheering for. Today Ken and I succumbed to the pleading of a cyclist who wanted to be swept backwards. We didn't understand why he wanted to get swept backwards, nearly half way... to a big old hill, until he told us that he wanted to cheer the riders on and ride up the hill with the ones that needed support. A young Positive Peddler who's cheering on the other riders and will go up a hill over and over to make other people's dreams come true. His buddy, a hard core dedicated ALC motivator, is a cyclist who gets up extra early on Quad-Buster day - Day 3 - even skips breakfast, slinging her megaphone over her shoulder, just get to the middle of Quad-Buster to cheer and help the other riders. She'll stay until nearly the end for this. - - - Today's a very cheery and upbeat day for the riders and roadies. Traditionally Day 3 is cyclist melt-down day, followed by Day 4 for roadie melt-down day. Many ALC participants, make that most, have some sort of melt-down days... some have emotional melt downs from the grueling long days, some from release of and facing grief, others from sleep depravation, some from care-taking others... some have physical meltdowns from injuries, mechanical breakdowns, fatigue... This year, maybe it was due to the general lack of training with the rainy spring that led to a larger number of people being SAG-bussed, the majority of cyclist meltdowns didn't seem to happen until Day 4. So we had cyclists AND roadies melting the same day. Oh goodie. This would explain my tired and somber post so late last night. But today's a really cheery day... Even if I had to wake up at 5am. (ug) I am not a morning person, but at ALC even dedicated night owls turn into morning birds. So Ken and I were on the road for the 6:30am shift. Yowch. Red Dress Day! Oooh yeah lots of tutus, sequins, lace and fringes. (Mmmm sequins and ButtBalm, what a combo) It's just the wildest party on wheels. Then add Red Dress Day with the open air disco dance-off and group rendition of "YMCA" at Casamilla, a ranch town of 120 people. It's the sort of town where tumbleweeds blow down the main street. They are just so welcoming, it's fantastic. They had a fundraiser booth with the finest grilled pepper steak sandwich lunch. All the proceeds goes to fund the school kids' feild trips and craft supplies. They have 25 students in their school. The grilled-on-the-spot sandwiches were so good that I had 2 of them. I wondered what the effect for the kids and grown ups in this forgotten rural town was... annually to have 2,000 wildly dressed people with divergent orientation come through with so much love and support for the town... It's gotta be good for the spirit. - - - We're also cheery today because it's a short ride day (relatively speaking). Only 43.7 miles. (I'm not a cyclist. I still think they're nuts.) So it's a glorious sunny afternoon in the park where our camp is. People are showered (aka they don't smell like ranky sweat and stale butt balm), happy and strolling around. This is also when all the previous days' cruisings turn into hook-ups. Hooking-up aka 'tricking' at ALC. - - - Ok, my brain is mush in the sun. I have to go... more later. luv ya all! Day 6Is it already Day 6? It’s flown by so quickly… Today was a slow day for us in Sweep, which is a good thing. Our job is one of those jobs where being bored is a good thing. People seemed to pace themselves better. Some finally felt OK to take it easy, even to take the day off. Tomorrow’s the big day so it’s better to rest. Most of the day for the cyclists was spent cruising along the beautiful coastal highways of Southern California. It was slightly overcast and cool, which is good for the cyclist. At several points they took the well maintained bike paths through parks, along beaches with dolphins and surfers. (Those of us in cars had to make ridiculous detours just to catch up with them.) ~ ~ ~ In many communities the local teachers bring out their students to cheer on the riders. The grade school kids make signs of encouragements with crayons on craft papers and wave and scream from the sidewalks. They see our Bunny Van go by and just giggle with delight. I know from talking to the cyclists that these local cheer teams really make their day and their painful butt and legs and general aches worthwhile. What I found interesting was that most often these lovely school kid cheering squads, along with smiling parents, happen in low income and marginal communities. The kids of farm workers come out to make us happy and write us letters. This doesn’t happen in the super wealthy communities that we ride through, with the polo clubs and mega mansions facing the pretty beaches. ~ ~ ~ Speaking of cheering squads and love from the community. Thank you so much to the crew that makes Paradise Pit possible! Paradise Pit, in Santa Barbara, I am told, is an unofficial rest stop originally organized by former participant. It’s on one of those triangular park islands in an intersection. Palm trees are strung with rainbow balloons. The local ice cream shop, McConnell’s, provides the ice cream. UCSB students provide cookies, brownies and other sweets. They also had the sweetest fresh strawberries! Mmmm! The local massage therapists had tables for the riders. Water and juices galore. The local waste management company provided the trash service and porta potties. (We were all excited that they were ‘luxury’ porta potties with fresh water, soap and paper… instead of the hospital skin scrub gels. Oh the simplicity of life on ALC. We get so excited about the simplest things!) Paradise Pit is something that all the riders and roadies look forward to. You should see the pure delight and child like smiles light up the faces of all these grizzled and exhausted cyclists! I just think it’s soooo cool that some folks got together to make this possible and then got loads of sponsors of local businesses, organization and individuals to make it even more fantastic. ~ ~ ~ Today we began the process of a new kind of rider loss and rider attrition. It’s not going to be to equipment failure and fatigue. As we head into Brentwood / Los Angeles, we’re losing them to food and coffee. Today I spotted many in coffee joints, pizza parlors, and other delicious detours. We’re sick and tired of chicken (in every possible form) and Clif Bars. I carry my own snacks for this very reason. ~ ~ ~ I have to go soon… The evening dinner announcements will begin soon and then it’s the candle light procession and vigil on the beach… for our lost lovers, friends and families… for those who can’t be with us… 2000 candles and a world of love and tears. Please, if you don’t mind, light a candle and have a moment a silence with us for them tonight. Thank you, Love Midori Candlelight Vigil2000+ candles and hearts on the darkened beach. I sat and guarded the candle and made a castle of sand around it. I turned to walk the flame to the waves, to let it join the waves of eternity. Day 7: Last day + Closing CeremonyLast day... I understand that people get excited.. and that's good. but it's not good to lose sight of safely issues. ~ ~ ~ The lunch stop was just spectacular. It's a lagoon/marsh that leads to the beach. I decided to skip the long lunch line and just walked out into the park paths.... over ponds with fish, white egrets, ducks, lush vegitations... off to the beach. A few of the cyclists were laying out in the sun among the lounging surfers. Magnificent pelicans soared over head. One of the cyclists dared me to run into the gaggle of pelicans. I'm wearing my bunny hat... so imagine a tiny woman with huge rabit ears running in to a group fo pelicans barking like a dog! Imagine the baffled pelicans! We all got a good laugh out of that. ~ ~ ~ Closing ceremonies. This year the organizers made sure that the roadies got to hear the closing speech. Last year we were left out of the speeches and were brough in later. Maybe they thought that would be a dramatic way to highlight the roadies but the real result was to leave us out in the sun baking and have us miss the speeches. This year they made sure that we were included. They rode in the "Riderless Bike" with the unworn helmet, representing all those who've fallen to AIDS. The closing ceremony, under the bright sunny sky of LA on the lush grounds of the VA, is hugely moving and affirming. You just can't miss it. Huge screens allow for all of us to see the speakers. They compile a video of the past week that we watch, hoot and hollar and revel in. We hug our friends good-bye, exchange numbers and e mails, we're re-united with our loved ones. Even then, the roadies and LA-based day volunteers are working... After the closing the sweep unloaded our vans and did inventory of supplies. The luggage people sort people's bags for pick up. Traffic is controlling the flow of taxies and family cars waiting to pick up people. Next week the tents get cleaned, equipment accounted for and returned, bills paid, accounts managed, etc. I think this is done by staff, but that's still people working on ALC 5 long after the riders have gone home and their butts have healed. We all pitch in... because health, peace, love and live are worth it. Hear my live ALC voice posts!Some of you may not be aware that during the ride I was doing voice blogs using my cell phone on my personal blog. The contents are different and more "in-the-moment" This allowed me to blog as my mood hit me and not have to remember everything until I got to the computer at the Media Relations tent. Click HERE if you want to take a listen. Let me know what you think! |
Midori |