Special thanks to all of the awesome volunteers who made the spring tour so successful. Full recap to come in the next week or so, but here are the numbers:

-8 Film Festivals Selections

-Over 30 screenings from Portland (ME) to Vancouver to Honolulu to São Paulo

-Largest screening: 1,000 people showed up to our screening at the Rocky Spirit Film Festival in São Paulo to see WMOTW in stunning HD on a huge 46 ft. screen. Big thanks to Go Outside Magazine for making that happen!

-Over $23,000 raised for World Bicycle Relief! That blows our original goal out of the water. New targed: $30,000 – enough to supply two schools in rural Zambia with fleets of 100 bicycles.

http://pacificpalisades.patch.com/articles/a-community-journey-into-friends-and-wheels

http://gogirlglobal.com/GO_GIRL_global/Blog/Entries/2011/4/8_Groovy__Bikes_Not_Brides.html

Honolulu

Going from the urban jungle of DC to my friend Leyla’s home in the surreally tranquil rainforest above Honolulu was almost as much of a culture shock as going from India to Japan at the end of our film shoot last summer. I woke up on the morning of the screening to a veritable menagerie of birds in the forest just across the street. Awesome.

Leyla, Daniel, and the rest of the folks at Cycle Manoa (UH’s student run Bici Centro) organized a great screening in the University of Hawaii, Manoa Art Department Auditorium. Easily the biggest screen that we have shown the film on thus far. Highlight of the night: a woman in the front row literally taking a “next pedalstroke” with Cycling Manoa on her iPhone right there in the theater! Thanks to Daniel and the crew for letting me join them on the Haleiwa Metric Century the day after the screening! Beautiful beaches, killer headwinds (tailwinds on the way back!), and my first post-ride spam musubi. Hawaii two-wheeling at its finest.

Seattle

 First taste of Seattle: a 40 mile out and back ride to do a sound check at Cascadia Communty College around the stunning Lake Washington…with snowcapped peaks in the background...all on bike path! Seattle definitely takes the cake as the most bike-friendly city that I have visited thus far. They even have a sick urban mountain bike skills park…under I-5!

After I got over the momentary impulse to hit up the pump track on my breakaway (likely breaking myself in the process), it was off to Cascadia Community College with Mike Kollins, my Seattle host and the COO of World Bicycle Relief. I had been expecting a crowd of say 30 students and a few faculty members in a small lecture hall. I couldn’t have been more surprised. The awesome duo of Megan Luce and Jessica Ketcham packed the state-of-the-art auditorium with over 200 students from over 7 classes. The normal rows of chairs had been removed to make room for a dozen or so small tables. Students were assigned to tables to ensure that each small group had a student from every class. As I walked among the tables during the post-screening discussion, it was great to hear students from Globalization, Economics, Political Science, Math, Art, and English classes all contributing different views to the debate. Couldn’t ask for a better school screening, both in terms of structure and participation.

Megan and Jessica have definitely taken several “next pedalstrokes” with their students at Cascadia. With My Own Two Wheels was just the launching point for a quarter-long focus on the bicycle across all academic disciplines at Cascadia. Can’t wait to see what two-wheel focused lessons the faculty at Cascadia come up with! Here is an excerpt from Cascadia President Eric Murray’s Friday letter:

“I couldn’t have been more impressed with Wednesday’s “bike film” in Mobius. Faculty from across 7 disciplines brought their classes together to view this film on the impact of the bicycle across the world. The director/producer was on hand as well. The students were completely captivated. Social justice, diversity, and global awareness were all wrapped around the common theme of the bicycle. Impressive.”

Looking forward to sharing Cascadia’s model with other schools across the country. Megan and Jessica’s work is a great example of how far educators can run (or ride) with the themes of With My Own Two Wheels in their classrooms. Thanks to Mike Kollins of WBR everyone at Cascadia for making our first big school screening such a big success!

Note: I also got a chance to meet with a few more potential screening hosts in Seattle. Can’t share any details yet, but look for at least one more big Seattle screening during the week of June 12^th-17^th.

Chicago/Ripon, Wisconsin

After Seattle, it was time to bring Two Wheels to WBR’s hometown: Chicago. Due to a literal act of God (pastor of our church venue passed away), the WBR-hosted screening had to be postponed. However, I still had two great screenings at Northwestern and Benito Juarez High School.

Yannell Selman (Northwestern Cycling), Rosalie Sangenitto and Stacy Moon (Studio 22), and Sana Rahim (Global Engagement Summit) organized a great screening at Northwestern. Despite the stormy weather, a good-sized crowd showed up, including many of the international delegates from the upcoming Northwestern Global Engagement Summit. Not sure how many countries we had represented in the crowd, but it was definitely the most international screening that I have done thus far. Hoping that some of the delegates might consider bringing the film to their home universities abroad.

In between the Chicago screenings, I drove up to Ripon, WI for an evening with the Ripon College Red Hawks Cycling Team. Before the screening, I got in a ride with Coach Ric Damm and one of his riders, Paul Meuer. Great spin through snow-covered farmland. Way different than the hills back home in Berkeley and Santa Barbara. Big thanks to Ric and his family for welcoming me into their home, as well as those on the cycling team who helped get the word out and secure funding for my trip.

The second Chicago screening at Benito Juarez HS was a fundraiser for Working Bikes Cooperative, Chicago’s equivalent of Bikes Not Bombs. Working Bikes has sent containers to both Mirriam’s Ability Bikes and Carlos’s Maya Pedal, so they were the perfect local and global next pedalstroke. For some reason, the heavens also decided to open up that night, but that didn’t stop a small crowd including Alderman Danny Solís from showing up to see the film. Thanks to Raul and Gaby at Working Bikes, Principal Ocon of Benito Juarez HS, and Alderman Solís for making the evening a success!

Up next: Dartmouth, Cleveland, Austin, and Tour of California madness!

Showing one's film in Washington D.C. can be an interesting experience. One never knows who will shop up. Case and point: attendees of our three D.C. screenings included World Bank and National Immigration Services employees, pedi-cab drivers, a freelance writer for the Washington Post and People Magazine, and Georgetown grad students from several different countries.

I had no idea what to expect going into the nation's capital. How big would the audiences be? Could we compete with the literally hundreds of other events going on in the city every evening? First good sign: my hostess and long time family friend Heather recommended that I grab one of the bright red Capital Bike Share (Cabi) bikes at the kiosk near her house to ride dow to the venue. City Bike Share?! Turns out that D.C. has over 100 kiosks stocked with bomb-proof 3 speed town bikes. One swipe of Heather's Cabi key (she works for the District Department of Transportation and doesn't have to pay to use Cabi bkes), and I had a trusty steed to carry me downtown. Make no mistake, Cabi bikes share more in common with beach cruisers than Bianchis, but they do the job.

Things only got better from there. When I rolled up to our BicycleSpace, our first venue, I was greeted by the sight of dozens of bikes and pedicabs...always a good sign. Inside, over 100 cyclists were milling about drinking local beverage and chili made by the shop owner's mom. Perfect. Nelle from the Bike House and Eric of BicycleSpace and their respective crews ran an awesome show. Pedalers of all ages sat on the shop floor – it was like story time at the local library. They had some of the best questions yet, and wisely chose to come see WMOTW instead of the playground match that was the NCAA Men's Basketball Championship.

The following night was the big show. The Washington Area Bicyclist's Association rented out the Arlington Drafthouse and Cinema, voted one of the best theaters in the District. I knew that WABA had a large following, but I didn't expect that we would sell out minutes after the box offic openend. Over 3/4 of the tickets were sold in advance sales! This was the largest venue that I had shown the film in since Santa Barbara (250 people), and the energy of the crowd was great. Thanks to Kevin, Nelle, and the rest of the WABA folks for puting on such an awesome night!

To round out the trip to our nation's capital, I had to have at least one university screening. Fellow Cal Cycling alum Jessica Kuo helped put together a more intimate screening at Georgetown University for my last night in town. Much smaller group than the huge showing the night before, but it was great to have a more engaged discussion after the film.

After the Georgetown screening, hopped on another trusty Cabi bike and headed to what has become a must-visit for me in D.C.: Ben's Chili Bowl. While I was probably the only customer who in the house who biked there, it hardly mattered. Nothing caps off yet another great trip to D.C. like one of Bill Cosby's favorite chili half smokes.

I have to admit, I never thought that I would be doing a screening of the film in Maine...let alone 3! The cycling community in Maine blew away any preconceptions that I may have had regarding the impact of cold weather on the strength of a region's cycling community.

Our three Maine screenings came together in a rather bizarre fashion. On an earlier visit to Maine, I stopped at the Horny Toad/Nau shop in Freeport, and got into a conversation about the film with Chris York, one of their salespeople. One thing let to another, and Horny Toad/Nau - Freeport manager Ponch Membreño had helped me secure screening dates at the Frontier Cafe in Brunswick and SPACE Gallery in Portland – two of the coolest indy film venues in Maine.

To help promote these screenings, I fired off a facebook message to a few friends on the Colby College Cycling Team. Less than 24 hrs later, I received a response from Andy Notopoulos informing me that she had secured ANOTHER screening date for us at Railroad Square Cinema in Waterville – an awesome independent theater that was part of the Sundance Film Institute's Art House Project.

I couldn't have asked more of our ad hoc Maine screening organizing team and the three awesome venues. All three screenings were impressively filled, and the staff at each venue bent over backwards to help make the screenings great successes. Special thanks to Nancy Grant, the Bicycle Coalition of Maine, and the Colby College Environmental Studies Department for sponsoring the screenings, and Ponch, Chris the Horny Toad/Nau - Freeport folks for throwing down some great swag for the screening raffles.

It was great to finally show the film to David, Allie, and the rest of the Bikes Not Bombs community. The intimate shop space was packed with cyclists of all ages from across Boston. Definitely one of our best Q&As yet. BNB even had one of their youth program graduates (now one of their paid mechanics instructors) at the door collecting donations and signing people up for their mailing list. It was awesome to see how much the local community has embraced such and awesome project.

Ian and I made several connections that may yield future Boston screenings, so if you live in the area and couldn't make it out to this screening, never fear! Keep checking the blog and our screenings page for announcements regarding future Boston screenings.

We had the fortune of being paired up with Race Across the Sky for one of our two screenings, which brought in a huge crowd. Technical glitches at our first screening aside, SLOIFF was a great experience. Our festival host Jenny Mathis not only made sure that we had transportation to the venue, but gave us directions to some local trails to ride while we were in town!

Special thanks to Karen, Don, Dena, and Pancho from SRAM for representing WBR at the screenings and providing me with the best Q&A prop ever: a WBR bike just like Fred's!

Students and friends from Cal Cycling and the Blum Center's Global Poverty and Practice Minor showed came out in force, and we had our second sold out screening! It was great to see so many faces – both old and new – in the crowd. Several members of the Stronach Baccalaureate Prize Committee – which funded the production of the film – were also in attendance. We were truly honored to have Professor Ananya Roy introduce the film and moderate the Q&A.

In keeping with the "Next Pedalstrokes" that we are promoting with the film, Mike Kollins from World Bicycle Relief and Elokin from Cycles of Change came down for the evening to get people involved in the awesome work that both of their projects do. We managed to raise just over $1,000 for WBR through donations in a fishbowl (literally) at the door. Awesome!

Up next, San Luis Obispo International Film Festival.