Swarm! events for 2010

Bikeswarm.org is down (as is the Bikerowave site) because the server was hacked, but I didn't want to wait to get these dates out. I'll have more specifics for each event up soon. Photos and details of previous years via links.

Feel My Legs, I'm a Racer hill race (5th year anniversary!) Sunday March 28th, 8am
Meet at Silver Lake Farmers Market at Sunset Blvd / Griffith Park Ave
Background (from 2009)
Previous year write-ups:
2009
2008
2007
2006


Thus Climbed Zarathustra, CycloCat AlleyCross race, Sunday March 21, 1pm (exact time may change)
Silver Lake Dog Park
History:
2008
2006


Crucial Vegan Friendship Picnic 2, Sunday March 28th, 1pm
Elysian Park. Exact location tbd.
Info from 2009

Los Angeles Anarchist Bookfair

(click for larger)
From CrimethInc.

Anarchism is a very loaded word that conjures specific images in peoples' minds. It's difficult to overcome these stereotypes and honestly I don't discuss it often. We can't even get Universal Healthcare in this country, how can we expect communalism, mutual aid and consensus-based decision making? I'm a poor anarchist in that I'm not very active politically. I try to live and act in manners that reduce oppression and hierarchy as this is what anarchism means to me and, like veganism, I try to live my life as an example (easier said than done!). This past weekend was the Second Annual Anarchist Bookfair and it was one of the best events like this I've been to in a long time. The location could not of been better: Barnsdall Art Park. It's near bus and train lines and easily accessible from Hollywood or downtown. Most importantly it's freakin beautiful. Trees and open space on the top of a hill with beautiful views in every direction.

Looking East. Silver Lake in the foreground and snow-capped Baldy behind

I gave a workshop on veganism that addressed concerns about veganism/animal rights being an issue for only white affluent folks and otherwise unattainable. My argument is simple: You have to separate the issue from who does it. Animals are caged and killed for human use and this is an issue of oppression. I care about living beings and want to reduce suffering therefore I don't eat or wear animal products. Do you have to eat at Whole Foods to be vegan? No. In my household rice and beans (dry beans!) is a common meal, as is stir-fry with whatever veggies are in-season and low-cost at the farmers market or local grocer. There are barriers to veganism, but they are overcome with a few resources. This is the focus of my presentation. It was well-received and some good discussions developed.

I spent the rest of the afternoon chatting with friends and activists. Hung out with the people at Earth First! and Little Black Cart. Hundreds of people attended and the vibe was great. I credit the hard work of the organizers in reaching a diverse set of folks and not having any punk bands play. The space we occupy and communicate in influences how that communication happens and this space only improved it. Bike parking would have been nice, but you know, we can't have everything.

Impromptu yoga during sunset watching. Cliches aplenty.

The next event is the Anarchist Cafe on Sunday February 28th at 1pm in DTLA. I'm hosting a workshop specifically on vegan nutrition in the early afternoon. See you there.

12 hours of Temecula Race #1 2010

Even though I live in Los Angeles and 'cold' days are only in the 40's or 50's, I still have the hibernation genes embedded in my east coast body, i.e., I spend the winter eating, riding less and putting on weight. Often I'm 20 pounds heavier, Jan Ulrich style. But has been important to take a mental break from always being on the go, traveling and being busy with projects. Sleeping more often really helps my mental and physical health!

This winter has been different. I've only put on five pounds. After my positive experience at the 508 I was MORE stoked on riding. I took a healthy break, but have gotten in a few long rides already, including a Christmas day century around the Rose Bowl. 25 laps plus to/from = 100 miles of holiday spirit. I hate riding in circles, but ridiculousness = more fun.

Moi at 12hrs of Temecula. He was also my partner for the Lonely Man Christmas Day
Century around the Rose Bowl. Photo from this dude.

Still I wasn't so sure about racing the 12 hours of Temecula in January. Twelve hours of base miles? I haven't been on my mountain bike much partly because of the damage from the fires in the San Gabriels and partly because I've been riding road so often. And since I broke a cleat I've been riding on old BMX platform pedals, which is awesome, but not the best 'training'.

Jack, Jeff and I headed out together to Temecula the day-of, which means an absurd 430am alarm. Moi met us there and we set up our 'pit' which consisted of four piles of stuff, no tent, no chairs and no crew. Jack quickly made some friends with the folks next to us, a dude crewing and his 2009 solo champion wife. They were pro, but still impressed with our style of self-support. This guy Dean, who raced Feel My Legs in 2009, showed up in time for the parade lap, went out for five hard laps and then left, so I never saw him again. Jeff did 11 laps, which put him in the top five in the Expert class (the results page hasn't been updated). Tinker won the Pro category easily with 12 laps in under 10 hours and stopped there!

Olympic athlete and RAAM finisher Tinker Juarez. Photo stolen from www.mtbracenews.com

Each lap was 9.3 miles and it only took a few before my whole body was sore! Just wasn't feeling it, which happens. I did a lap with Jack, which was rad, until he crashed hard on the last downhill into the start/finish (he's okay). Then Moi rolled up and we chilled. I txt messaged a bunch. Jeff rolled up, stared at the three of us not on our bikes, and then pedaled off in full race mode (starting his 8th lap and therefore lapping me). Moi and I went out for a lap together mostly spent playing around, bunny hopping obstacles and finding sections to jump. Then I felt tons better.

Checked the standings, saw I was only a lap behind the Single-Speed leaders and still in the top half, so I put on my lights and warm clothing and went out for a night lap. The conditions were faster and I felt the best I had. Came through the pit, grabbed food and went straight out again. My tactic was to do a fast second-to-last lap and start the last lap before 9pm and take my time. As I finished lap 9, my borrowed Nightrider handlebar light was dead and Jack informed me I had to finish my last lap by 9pm or it didn't count. It was 750pm and my 'fast' night lap was sixty minutes. Shit. I headed to the Nightrider van and the dude gave me a light to borrow. Battery doesn't work. Switched the battery and that one doesn't work. Finally we switch the whole system and I'm rolling away at a few minutes before 8pm. The course is empty. I'm three miles in before I see another rider. I run the sections I can't ride. I have no clock and no idea of my time. It's so damn tricky to ride fast at night while fatigued and still be careful enough to not flat or crash! I pass a dude and encourage him. I go past the neutral support and they're packed up and gone. I ride a section I had to walk on my previous laps and keep pushing.

I roll into the start/finish unceremoniously at 854pm. Lap ten and one of my fastest of the day. I don't know how the hell I've ever done a 24hr race solo. I changed, ate some Moroccan carrot-raisin salad (I'll post the recipe) and checked in with the others. Stoked. Moi top half in Sport, Jeff top five in Expert with 11 laps and Jack, well, stoked he wasn't too hurt. I think I ended up 5th or 6th out of 15 in Single Speed. I would have won Sport! Haha.

So here's to the start of 2010, the year I take myself seriously as an athlete?

12 Hours of Temecula

1st race of the year!
Three Swarm! riders and a few friends, all solo. The entry fee cost
25% of my complete bike, but I'm trying not to complain about money as
much this year.
Follow us at www.twitter.com/bikeswarm

Yo, you got the juice now, man.

Mt. Laguna Bicycle Classic Pre-ride

Our friend Chris from AdventureCORPS, besides putting on the Badwater Ultramarathon and the Furnace Creek 508 (which I've written about so often I made a 508 tab), puts on more accessible, less well-known events like the Death Valley CORPScamp and Hell's Gate 100.

A new ride for 2010 is the Mt. Laguna Bicycle Classic (100 miles and 10,000ft elevation gain) in East San Diego County and back in November he invited a few of us out to pre-ride the course. There are meticulous details on the route, elevation and area on the site. My concern was that I was going to feel like I wasn't getting anywhere by riding up to the same ridge three times. But I had never been to this part of California and was amazed and stoked on how beautiful and varying the terrain is and never felt that way.

This is looking back down the last climb. This was described as
'Not like a real road, more like a fire road that has been paved.'

Some steep sections here. The course is entirely paved,
but on two of three climbs it looks like this.
Can you see Jack waving?

Chris' photos from the day cover a much wider range of the area. Jack, Brian and I were trying to think of accurate descriptors for the area. Alpine desert? When you finally get to the ridge, the far side is open and vast and slightly desert-y, but you are in pine trees. California never quits. The descent was super fast and smooth. Riding with those two guys the descents are always a race of who can go fastest and use their brakes the least..

No true environmentalist travels w/o a foldable bowl and spork

The ride had roving support by Adobo Velo, a Filipino cycling club. They had been teasing us all day about not eating meat, then surprised us with some vegan adobo. I don't think vegan balut exists yet, but maybe it won't be too long since vegan veal is already a product. They were super fun. I want to try and jump on one of their club rides these days.


Some friends from the San Diego chapter of Organic Athlete were having a vegan potluck in Ocean Beach, so we made the drive over from Pine Valley (sort of) on our way back to Los Angeles. First we hit the co-op so as to not show up empty handed, then made our way to a vegan bakery for some sweet cinnamon rolls.

Yes, we ate twice before going to a potluck. That's how vegan cyclists roll!

How fortunate are we to have been able to ride this and hang out with such great people? So fortunate that I've almost forgot about the 32 degree weather at the start and the flat I got in the first three miles. April will be warm and it'll be great to push a little with 300 other riders out there.

Bike Far Eliminate the Car

Wanted to let everyone know that bikeswarm.org is being updated regularly by a handful of authors. Can't wait for the photos from tandem cyclocross!

My friend Enci just wrote mini-dissertation called The Case Against Bike Paths. Wow. I use them regularly, but only when riding 'road' when I'm heading to the coast. For commuter purposes they are not very useful, at least here in Los Angeles. Incidentally I came across this post while on the Twitter page for the first time. I said I drew the line just before Twitter, but a more tech savy Swarm! member set up the Swarm! Twitter account. Follow us?

Next up the ubiquitous Stephen Box lays out what exactly a good bike plan should be: LA's 'Best' Bike Plan Bringing Home the Bacon. Thank you both for making the city a better place for us all.

Vegan Nutrition

I'm working on a big vegan nutrition project -more on this soon- that has me researching topics I haven't looked at in years. It's a strong reminder of the amount of misinformation in the tubes of the interwebs. I hate to say this, but most of the influential vegan info I found when I 'went vegan' in the mid-90's was exaggerated or simply not true. My profession as a public health dietitian, which I do not discuss often on this blog, is to disseminate accurate, reliable knowledge to the public. I see my training and education most useful as a filter between this mass of dis/information in the world and what people really need to know.

My thanksgiving day salad with purple cabbage,
sunflower seeds and toasted walnuts

Here are a few of my colleagues' blogs that I recommend if you want more info about veganism, nutrition and cooking.

Jack Norris, RD has a blog he describes as 'news for vegan advocates and those eating a plant-based diets.' He is the co-founder of Vegan Outreach (one of my favorite animal advocacy organizations) and also runs Veganhealth.org.

Virginia Messina, MPH, RD has a blog called Thoughts On Being Vegan: A Dietitian's Viewpoint. She's the author of The Dietitian's Guide to Vegetarian Diets which is my go-to-book when I have a question that I can't answer.

Dina Aronson, RD runs veganrd.blogspot.com which has accessible nutrition information as well as recipes. I have worked with Dina through the Vegetarian Nutrition Dietary Practice Group of the American Dietetic Association, of which we are both active members.

For recipes I mainly use the cookbooks I already have, but tend to peruse both Isa Moskowitz' Post Punk Kitchen and www.vegweb.com.

For the new year you should check out the Physician's Committee for Responsible Medicine's 21-Day Vegan Kickstart.

2009 Bike activism in LA

While I do a variety of things that do not include updating my blog, Stephen Box over at soapboxla.blogspot.com wrote a terrific article called 2009: The Year of the Bike that anyone interested in bike advocacy in Los Angeles should read. We have an uphill battle, but the energy and effort by people like Stephen is paying off. He's part of the Bike Writers Collective who organized the LA Bike Working Group (I wrote about it here) in response to the City of Los Angeles 'Bike Plan' that reduces the number of bike lanes from earlier plans.

Stephen ends the article with this:

The year 2009 closed with LA's Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa using the word bicycle in a sentence. He said, in an interview with KPCC's Patt Morrison, "In the area of bicycling I've gotta do a better job and the city's gotta do a better job."

To those of you in any number of major US cities this is not a big deal. Your mayor probably rides a freakin bike, but Villaraigosa had never even muttered the word 'bicycle'. I'm not getting my hopes up because he talks way (way) more than he does, but it is a step in the right direction. Come on Los Angeles, we are so close. Let's step it up in 2010.

Dont Get Fat 'training camp' Days 4 and 5 ahead

*Update for Day 5* Due to Angeles Crest still being closed we're going to do a flat-ish 100 on PCH. Still meet at Cafe Tropical at 7, ride at 730. Route will be Sunset->Santa Monica blvd ->Federal->San Vicente->Ocean-> the nibble down to PCH->'the rock'->return. Eat at Carousel at Santa Monica and Normandie. I'm ready to fight mapmyride.com so no map! Westside meet-up can be the bathrooms/water at San Vicente/Ocean probably 9ish. Email bikeswarm on gmail if you're trying to hop on and I'll be sure to check it.

Michael riding up Epic-er road in
Glendale/La Canada with DTLA in background

Today we met at CycleWay Coffee in Hermon for some chillin and caffeine consumption, rode the hills of Mt Washington, South Pas and some other little-known roads and ate at Hugo's tacos in Atwater, which included a damn hot habenero salsa. Map of the route for your riding pleasure. More photos and updates over at bikeswarm.org. Thanks to everyone who has come out!

Join us tomorrow:
Dec19 Sat-Meet at 7am for coffee at Peet's on Larchmont, rolling at 730am to Palos Verdes for a 73-mile route to India Sweets and Spices on Venice Blvd. Here is roughly what the route will look like.

Battery covering 7 Seconds' Young Till I Die for motivation:

Don't Get Fat 'training camp' Dec 16-20th

Update 2: Friday Day3 route. Ride to the ride from Sunset blvd and Griffith Park blvd (Silver Lake farmers market location) leaving at 730.

Update:
Day 1 route and join us for a 655-755am yoga class at Urth Yoga on 2809 W. Sunset Blvd. Indoor bike parking and $5 class and $1 mat rental!
Day 2 route

Join Swarm! as we drink coffee, ride in spandex and eat vegan food all over Los Angeles during a 5-day Don't Get Fat 'training camp'. Each day we'll meet at a coffee shop, ride a great route and end at a vegan-friendly restaurant.

photo from AdventureCORPS

Dec16 Wed 8/830am- Intelligensia, riding Beachwood through the Hollywood Hills onto Mulholland (40 miles-route), eat at Flore

Dec17 Thur- 8/830am- Trails Cafe, riding Griffith and Elysian (40- route), eat at Pure Luck
Dec18 Fri- 8/830am- CycleWay Coffee, riding the hills of Mt Washington, South Pas and some other little-known roads (50), eat at Hugo's tacos in Atwater
Dec19 Sat-7/730am- Peet's on Larchmont, riding Palos Verdes with two options of difficulty (60/75), eating at India Sweets and Spices on Venice Blvd
Dec20 Sun-7/730am- Cafe Tropical, riding Big Tujunga, Angeles Forest/Crest. (75-100), eating at Carousel

(first time is coffee, second is rolling, estimated mileage in parentheses)

What should I bring?
Snacks, tube; the usual for a self-supported ride. Also money for coffee and food. On the longer rides we'll have an additional stop for food and water.
Can I keep up?
If you do Wolf Pack Hustle, BiciKillers, Caturday Warriors or something similar, yes.
Will you wait up?
Probably. Though if you show up in jeans on a track bike, probably not. Unless you are Cole or some other monster then you'll have to wait for us.
Do I have to do everything?
Hanging out is mandatory unless you can't then that's cool.
Does it cost anything?
The value of these rides is greater than money; we require your time and stokedness.
What are the percentages for the climbs and what wattage can I expect to put out per hour, on average?
These rides are probably not for you.
Who is putting this on?
A 'bunch of fucking boring semi-employed geeks' known as Swarm!. Questions? Get in touch at bikeswarm on gmail.
Swarm! events for 2010
Feb: Dan's urban cyclocross race, I Got Fat training camp
March: Thus Climbed Zarathustra; Feel My Legs, I'm a Racer (5th year!)

vegan pizza

When I went vegan at 17 my Italian mother was not happy at all. Mostly she feared I'd starve to death without manicotti, ravioli, lasagna or pizza. In the mid-90's vegan cheese consisted of only tofutti slices that are about as similar to cheese as the package they come in. But I was motivated by the likes of Chokehold and Earth Crisis (though maybe not enough to have Firestorm karaoke at my wedding) and was committed to never eating these foods again.

homemade eggplant pizza as seen on Pizza Intolleranza

My how times have changed. 'Which vegan cheese do you use?' is now a normal question at pizza places. Just got back from a short trip to NYC and ate more 'cheese' pizza than I have in years. Pretty stoked though I hope people still work on developing great recipes that aren't dependent on vegan cheese. On some levels that is happening as is evident by my friend Gian's vegan pizza blog. I recently sampled some and was quite pleased. Since I developed my lasagna de bartolomeo vanzetti recipe (as seen in Please Don't Feed the Bears) I have not played around with Italian recipes nearly enough. Will do though. Thanks for motivation, Gian.

another great email

Re: I finally got the BOB Trailer

Matt,

We finally finished our over 4 month, 12,000 mile trip to and from Alaska. Your Bob Trailer worked well! Here is an article that came out in Steven's local Orlando, FL newspaper after we reached Alaska back in August. We finished our trip at the end of October. Steven got so attached to his trailer that he would like to keep or buy it off of you. Please let me know what you decide.

Sincerely,

Danny Chew

website: http://www.dannychew.com

Top Five Things to do in LA

Def includes Hollywood Farmers Market.

a great email to receive

subject: your old surly long haul trucker

you'll have to pardon the bad scan, but this is me at the end of my
trip this summer.  after riding santa cruz to los angeles i got super
stoked on touring and flew out to seattle a week and a half later.  24
days after that i was back in santa cruz and then came back to la to
ride to the border to top it off.  your old bike has seen 1902.6
glorious miles of the coast this summer =)

Bike Plan, Ongoing

Since my Let's Get Down to Business post I've been thinking about why the Bike Plan is important. Five years ago I would not of cared nor thought it worth spending time on. You know what has changed? Us. Those who pedal in this city. We've come a long way. We have numbers and energy that I didn't imagine possible in 2004, yet those outside of our circles don't see it. They need to see us, hear from us and know what we are about.

Yes, I know the city doesn't give a fuck about us. Special interests run government and we're irrelevant to them. But you know what? We are motivated, passionate, loud and our cause is just. This is exceptional. The 2009 Bike Plan is actually less useful/relevant to cyclists than the 1996 one, but their cogs keep turning and doing what they do - nothing. If we don't cause a ruckus and spell out why this is so fucking important to people - not just cyclists - those cogs will just continue spinning into oblivion and uselessness. Let's put a wrench in it!



Joe Linton wrote that LA's Bike Plan is a Step Backward on Bike Lanes from the 1996 plan. If you have not made a comment regarding the Bike Plan, what are you waiting for? Here is the real site and then a fun, mirrored one with a little more umph (where your comments still get submitted to the city): www.labikeplan.com. Alex Thompson gives a more thorough critique related to the Council District Transportation Advisory Committee with some great talking points. Enci discusses why non-cyclists should care about the Bike Plan.

Also LA'S BEST BIKE PLAN - BWG WORKSHOP:
Meeting at Santa Monica/Vermont Red Line Station at noon on Saturday the 31st and heading Downtown for the 1pm workshop. On facebook also.

Meet @ The Exchange at 1pm: 114 W. 5th St., Downtown LA, CA 90013


A new city meeting has been added in Northeast LA:
Wednesday, Nov 4
Ramona Hall
4580 N Figueroa Street, Los Angeles, CA 90042
6-8pm

Eat your colors

Fried rice to be.

New Moon Century

My friend, housemate and co-conspirator in many adventures, Sasha, organized a century ride on Sunday Oct 18th: the New Moon Century. It was in the beautiful Santa Monica mountains and utilizes many of the terrific roads on the Mulholland Challenge and the Different Spokes Century (which incidentally is the first bike ride I ever paid for AND where I learned about double centuries way back in 2004). All of the proceeds go to an anti-hunger organization and Sea Shepherd!


Sasha is one of those people that when she gets a good idea, she just plows forward and learns as she goes. I could learn something from her, as I tend to over-think and over-organize before even getting started. It was all a little chaotic, but the best things in life usually are. We had a great team putting this on, including a SAG vehicle driven by Janet Christiansen, who finished Race Across America this year.

About 75 people rode one of the three options- 36, 62 and 100 miles. Outstanding considering the narrow focus: kosher! vegan!

Lunch stop volunteers and riders
For Jacob and Mike, sitting on the left, it was their first century

I helped at the lunch stop and had the honor of explaining to people what the hell tofurky and vegenaise are. Some were not interested and it was funny to watch them make a tomato, avocado, mustard sandwich, which is what I have to do when it's real deli meat. But most people did try and seemed to enjoy it.

I had a fantastic time hanging out at Peter Strauss Ranch in the Santa Monica mountains and helping people accomplish something as demanding as a century. Putting on and helping at events can be as rewarding (and tiring!) as actually doing them. I also got to meet some new people, including a vegan cardiologist who I had only communicated with via the internets. She has a write-up on her great blog.

Thanks to the groups who helped out: Orange 20 Bikes, Clif bar, Tofurky and others:

Mandatory vegan restaurant hang-out post-ride:
Vinh Loi Tofu

The Yes Men Fix the World screening

The Yes Men, those political pranksters responsible for the 'News We'd Like to See' fake New York Times have a new movie out called the The Yes Men Fix the World. I was fortunate to attend the west coast premiere last night at the Hammer Museum in Westwood with my friend Lisa (link to her and her awesome sweaters!), amongst others. The last time I went to the Hammer was for Bike Night, where aforementioned Lisa organized a screening of Breaking Away and a fully-catered vegan dinner.


The Yes Men, if you are not familiar, pose as the representatives of the companies that are responsible for social and environmental destruction and make presentations with ridiculous topics to get the audience to question the legitimacy and power these companies have. As the film progresses, they struggle with just how much bullshit people are willing to accept if it makes them money ('We were hoping to offend them and they only asked for our business cards!' one of them says).


Especially worthwhile is how the Yes Men deal with the discomfort they feel when pulling these pranks. The film begins by showing Andy's live interview on BBC on the anniversary of the Bhopal chemical disaster, posing as a spokesperson for DOW Chemical. He speaks directly to 300 million people. Seeing his nervousness and what he is pulling off makes you think these guys are just like you and me! I'd be nervous too, but maybe I could do something like that.




I think normal protest tactics trigger automatic responses in people. Often the issue at hand is not even discussed. I'm a big fan of political pranks because they:

1) challenge accepted norms of behavior and the status quo.
2) make people uncomfortable! Being out of your comfort zone inspires new ideas, thoughts and perceptions (see how this can relate to ultra-cycling?)
3) get media.
4) inspire others.
5) do not cost much money, require a board of directors or official non-profit status.


Lastly, I admire that they have an anti-capitalist stance and encourage active participation. During the Q&A they mentioned Tim DeChristopher, the Utah enviro activist being charged with federal offenses for making false bids at a BLM auction and a site advocating civil disobedience called Beyond Talk. They don't just want companies just to be a little nicer they question if these huge, wealthy, powerful companies should even exist. Are they good for the majority of people? I believe the answer is no.

Most recently they posed as the Chamber of Commerce, which was also covered on this great site, Art of the Prank. See the film, get stoked and see what you are capable of...

Gibraltar Loop from Mesa Ln in Santa Barbara

Went on a little day trip to beautiful Santa Barbara for some road riding: Gibraltar Loop from Mesa Ln. Unlike my last trip to Santa Barbara, I was with others and we all piled in a car and drove up. Finally able to hang out with Alex, Ron and Ilya, who I have only ridden with occasionally or not at all.

Mountain, ocean, you know.

Not sure how Ron got these colors with his iPhone

After a mechanical and some other delays (if you count coffee as a delay, I count it as a necessity), it was pretty warm for the 9-mile climb. Some sections hit 14 or so percent (or so claim those with the GPS devices rattling off numbers). I was missing having that 27 on my cassette.

This lower area had been hit by a recent fire, but there were finally pines near the top

Sweet descent

On Painted Cave Rd back to SB

Alex has some friends with a house/property above the beach.
This is the view from the hot tub platform!

Watching dogs play on the beach has to be one of the most
smile-inducing activities in the world.

Nice to get out of my normal routine and do this. Other surprises: opportunity for a post-ride outdoor shower on above mentioned property. Also being the only vegan and saying, 'Yeah I can eat anywhere don't worry about it' and ending up at a brew pub with very few options (the beans had meat in them!?).
Thanks Alex for planning the route, Ron for driving/taking photos/drinking excessive amounts of coffee and Ilya for keeping us entertained.