1000 Americans: Jeremy Frazao & Matt Flannery, Kiva, San Francisco

Jeremy (Technology Director of Kiva) was one of the first people to work for Kiva after Matt  (CEO of Kiva) had started the company in 2005.

Of course they both did not know then that it would mean long hours with no pay, but due to dedication of the first key people like them, Kiva survived and is now one of the most praised companies in the US, facilitating microcredit lending to entrepreneurs in developing countries.

Read more about Kiva and how you can support them, here on our blog.

1000 Americans: Dr Hal Rosenberg, San Francisco

Dr Hal Rosenberg is a well-known Chiropractor in SF. having worked on the medical staff of the USA Triathlon Team.

It takes a sportsman to help one and though I sometimes felt he was trying to kill me, the crunching of the back and neck helped 🙂

1000 Americans: Adriana, San Francisco

Adriana was born in Colombia and her heart is still divided between there and San Francisco. She is a nanny and enjoys cooking wonderful meals, spending time with her friends, enjoying life and promoting peace… And of course her boyfriend Gerard 🙂

1000 Americans: Gerard, San Francisco

Gerard is one of the many ‘import-Americans’, being born and raised in The Netherlands. As many expats in SF, he works in IT, but uses his time off to enjoy the wonders of San Francisco and around as well as his girlfriend Adriana.

Photo by Mitch Aidelbaum, editing by me 🙂

1000 Americans: Jessica & Mikelanjelo, Oakland

Mikelanjelo contacted us through our form on the site and offered us a place to stay with his girlfriend Jessica and their friends in Oakland.

He is a bicycle advocate, has even worked as a bike courier in Honolulu and has done several bicycle tours across the US. They are now planning their next trip, around the world on a bike!

He is the grandson of famous pilot Max Conrad (The Flying Grandfather), who might still have the Guinness Record for most solo-miles flown as well as many others…

1000 Americans: Nicole Dreon, Truckee

Nicole –Colie for friends- Dreon has been working behind the scenes for the sports TV channel ESPN for a long time, but has done quite a bit of sporting herself, still living near Ski and Snowboard resorts in Lake Tahoe.

She is one of the few persons in the world that has skied in Uganda and besides being an overall great person, she is a great photographer as well, posing in front of one of her images.

1000 Americans: Alison Levine, San Francisco

Alison is a well sought-after public speaker as she combines her extensive business career with a love for adventure. She has climbed the 7 summits, hiked unsupported to the South Pole, and has done a million things more as you can read on her website Daredevilstrategies.com.

I have known Ali for 10 years, we only met 4 times, but every time was on a different continent…

1000 Americans: Street musician in Berkeley

Even in early January it was sunny and warm in the bay Area and the musicians were playing full power at the local flea market, where a mix of people were enjoying the beats of the impromptu band…

Day 152-160, 10-18 Dec 2008: Breaking a knee in steep California: from Red Woods to a Golden Gate…

We had camped in the cold Redwoods & enjoyed the rest of the Avenue of the Giants leisurely. After no more than 35km we ended up in Redway, where we called Johnny, our host for the night for directions to his home and he picked us up and took us far into the curvy hills.

He told us how basically everybody in the entire county was somehow involved in the growing of marijuana, either for ‘medical’ or for business reasons, and that even the local radio had special announcements when ‘the helicopter’ would be on patrol.

This got confirmed by Todd, our host for the next night and was amazing to hear as we thought that with the ‘war on drugs’ and all, easy targets (like very citizen in a 50 mile radius) would be focused on first, but apparently it was just part of life here.

We had been told about Todd by our friend Kristen from Vancouver, who had cycled and met him here a few years ago. But before we could sit down at the fire and listen to his stories we had two encounters.

When going slowly uphill I noticed some fresh looking scat on the side of the road. It didn’t really look like Grizzly material and I thought we had left the wildest bear country by now.

Soon I saw more and with the sun in my face, I viewed a dark shape halfway up the hill. Even though I was only going about 8km/hr (5mph), it was the first thing I encountered on a hill that was slower than me and soon I caught up with a strange sight: A large wooden horse cart, pulled by 3 horses -with a 4th on the side- was slowly making its way up the hill, completely blocking one of the two lanes.

An old man with was standing proud. he was not too friendly and didn’t say much, but I found out that his name was Dakota and he had been travelling like this for 25 years, all west of the Mississippi…

Our next encounter was with a dreaded place: the Leggett Hill. Actually it was much easier than feared beforehand, steep but constant, narrow, but zero traffic. We did not have to walk and Ivana arrived at the pass as well without much problem.

A Short downhill later we arrived at a level part, called Haley’s Grove, where we spent the night inside a trailer. Read about our chance meeting with Todd here on 1000 Americans.

12-14 Dec: Breaking a knee and viewing a lion between Hales Grove – Jenner, via Mendocino. 74km + 78km + 70km. Plus 3km  up and down..

A long downhill through the woods brought us back to the coast, but there was one more surprise, the Rockport Hill. When going up, my knee started hurting and we both pushed up several parts as it was too steep in places.

Back at the California coast, the road kept on oscillating between sea level and a few hundred meters above it for the next days. In 5 days we had climbed more than 5000m, so 1km vertical per day. My knee started hurting more, even on the flatter parts and at the end of the day I could barely walk as my knee would not bend.

Probably the best thing to do would be to rest or see a doctor, but we were on the ‘Lost Coast’, far away from any medical assistance. Besides, we were only a few days from San Francisco, se we decided to continue and seek help there. Also, not only my knee was bad, our multi-charger had broken down and I had no more batteries for my cameras, which made me feel even more handicapped than the fact that I stumbled more than I walked…

We had stayed with Barry in Mendocino, who was about to embark on his own bicycle trip. as happens often with our hosts, he called some friends, Chuck & Maria, to ask them if we could stay with them the next night. Some hours before we arrived, I was waiting on the side of the road for Ivana to catch up so I could point out a large group of deer, when a car pulled over.

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Day 152/3, 10/11 Dec 2008: The Avenue of the Giants

One of the greatest places we have seen on this trip, was dark and cold… Views were very limited, but that was exactly the main attraction as we were cycling on the Avenue of the Giants, a 50 km (31mile) long road through the Humboldt Redwood State Park in Northern California.

Only about 4-5% of the original giant trees (Redwoods and Giant Sequoias) are left after the logging activities, and this place is one of the best to enjoy the grandeur of the trees.

After cycling through thousands of kilometres of forests and nature, we had not expected to be so impressed anymore, but just cycling and walking between these Giants, some over 100 meter high and thousands of years old, made us feel humble and small. It also gave hope that maybe nature can be saved if humans try to do their best as well…

Soon more stories about Northern California, for now I just wanted to share some images of the road, the trees, the villages and the odd tourist attractions. It is hard to put the Giants into perspective, the light is always wrong (or absent) and no photo will ever do justice to the feeling of being there.

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