This blog didn’t get posted a couple weeks ago, check it out!! Thanks Ben

Written by Ben Amundson, 2008 rider
I think we all would have been disappointed to hear that no one
spotted an Elk after such a bold name. However, in her early morning
escapades Vera was able to spot a whole herd. As she moved closer, the
crowd came off the prairie and onto the road simply to stand and mill
about in the highway. But using her bear-scaring tactics she was able
to make herself very large and intimate them with her manly-man voice
until they meandered across the street.
The ride itself was a breeze even after some fat fibs from our leader
Jess. She carefully explained the daily route as flat and more flat.
Several miles into it, the rolling hills swung us up and down all
afternoon. At this point in the tour, a 60-mile day of soft hills in
the sunshine is a walk in the park. A conversation began that carried
over into the following day. If we are disappointed with ‘the system’
(the traditional banking system for example), what is the best means
of altering it? Do you try to alter it from within and risk it
altering you? Or do you abandon it all together, ignore it and try to
live completely outside of it in an alternative system? Or do you try
to destroy it? While everyone had contrasting viewpoints. I found the
middle ground to be that we should live outside of it and try to work
for new alternative systems. Micro-credit is this the idea in action.
With our fingers crossed, we rolled into Arcata with no host
accommodation confirmation. However, the lovely Karin was there as the
church doors opened with insurance information in hand to secure our
stay. The church on G Street was an ideal location to downtown where
the group spent the better part of the day conversing with strangers
about micro-loans.

Ben Amundson, 2008 rider