I guess it goes a little something like this:

Los Angeles, clean up your city. It was one of the most dirty cities I have been in. Trash, congestion, lack of bicycle infrastructure, too many cars, and too many other things too list. That being said, I’m sure there are cool parts in the city. I never found them, but they have to be there. Otherwise, why would people live there?

The Tour de Fat event was looking like it might be a bit hectic, and it was, but the festival-goers made it worthwhile. Everyone that showed up there was about as nice as can be, and they had a lot of sustainable knowledge packed into their metropolitan brains.

Anyways, we spent a short time in that city. Thursday night through Sunday morning to be precise. Then we headed back to San Diego to experience some more depressing weather. Out of the 20 or so days I spent in San Diego at random points, I saw the sun on two days. It rained. It was overcast. And no one wanted to come out.

After unpacking and repacking sound and staging gear from truck to truck, waiting for truck repairs, and prepping ourselves for something like hell, we set off for Austin, TX, the final stop of the tour. Since we weren’t able to leave until Tuesday at 4pm, we had to haul some serious ass. The lead truck in the three-truck caravan is severely underpowered and can only average about 50 mph, so it’s slow to say the least. What is usually a 24-hour drive from San Diego to Austin (in a normal car), slowly turned into a 35-hour drive in our rigs. We drove from 4pm-1am on the first day. On Wednesday, we drove from nine in the morning to ten at night. Finally we pulled into Austin on thursday at a quarter after four after having been on the road since nine that morning.

All in all, this tour has been fantastically phenomenally wonderful. Some of the most incredible people have wandered into my life, and the connections are priceless. I’ve seen 19 states in the last four and a half months. This job hasn’t been a money-maker for me, since it’s expensive to live on the road, but they couldn’t put a price on how awesome the travel has been. So many different cultures and faces and styles and this list also never ends. Thanks to Wolverine Farm Publishing, New Belgium Brewing Company, Nomad Sounds, the countless volunteers, all the diverse food vendors, the city park services, and Sustainable Waves for making this thing possible. Maybe I’ll see you again next year.

As for my life now, I’m still in Austin until Thursday. My main reason for being here that late is to record with Rion King at Nomad Sounds here in town, and to check out this city that I’ve heard is so awesome. It’s proved to be that so far. Not many other cities have kept me up until 7 in the morning. Let’s hope it can keep it’s charm. See you Fort Collins kids on Thursday!

Cheers to beers and bikes and all the wonderful things in life.