May 1, 1999 Billings, MT

I have had a very productive week of resting and recouperating in Billings. Rob Moler and his family Geoge and Camile Zent have been pampering me with Montana hospitality. It has been nice to spread out a bit park my bike and not think about it for a while.

The project probably saw its most successful day on Friday, April 30. Pedal for Peace was featured on two billings news stations and in the Saturday edition of the Billings Gazette. A copy of this article has also been posted here.

Rob and I visited two different classrooms at West High, his former High School. We talked to Mr Micheal's 5th and 6th period global studies classes, showed slides, played some West African Drum rythms and answered many questions. From there it was off to the Friendship house, where we had arranged a special activity with the director Carmen Gonzales.

The Friendship House is a nieghborhood meeting place for children and young adults. They offer support to the underprivaledged in the community and organize ethnic and cultural diversity events to build community identity and strengthen common values. It was a perfect place for a stop-over. I showed some slides and talked about the PC, Ghana and its culture. Then we went on a bike ride around the block. The kids colored signs depicting mesages of peace and hope. It was great to be a part of. I donated a PC book (The Great Adventure) to the houses multicultural library, the only one in Billings. They gave me a back pack filled with all kinds of things that thought I might need on a cross-country bicycle trip for peace! It is wonderful to do things like this. For the most part I am absorbed in the rigors of the physical aspects of the trip. But every now and again I come out and make contact with communities, schools and people, like Mr Micheal and Carmen Gonzales, who basically use the uncommoness of my actioness as an outlet to express thier own idealism.

I was thinking after the events Billings and the general successes I have had throughout the trip so far, that I could essentially stop now and be happy with what has happened. But then I realized, well if that is the case than everything else is just cake and icing, and what kind of cake could not always use a little more frosting?!