The town of Sebastopol, California was mentioned to me a handful of times over the past few weeks. People highly recommended I come here, all of them were right.
This town is plain and simple, kind. Conversations come easy and people are as welcoming as can be. It’s as if something is in the water.
Visiting two local schools was a joy, talking with front office personnel and parents who happened to be visiting during my stay led to longer conversations about bullying. Two of the parents had seen me riding in Sebastopol yesterday. The students at Park Side Elementary School were working on a huge art project in the front hall, they loved seeing The Kindness Bicycle parked out front.
Thank you to CJ and Lisa for arranging such a beautiful place to park overnight, with a view of the mountains in the distance.

I spent most of the day in this town to the interest of many as I rode the busier streets on my way to local schools. The outdoor lunch crowds were very supportive of my mission, which inspires me all the more.
On my travels from town to town, not wanting to overburden The Kindness Bus, I am being very selective with choosing routes I take and towns I visit. I am avoiding long grades at all costs, pampering this tired, old bus in its last bit of service. The thought is always on my mind as I go up a grade, is this the last hill it will climb?
I talked with Monica, a school crossing guard at one of the schools I visited today, she is popular with all of the students. She says it hurts her to see and hear all of the children who are being hurt by bullying that takes place in schools today. “It just needs to stop,” she says.
Thank you to Pauline who remembered The Kindness Bus from South Beach last winter, she was so happy to see it in Sausalito, that she brought over a homemade green juice smoothie. It gave me energy for the entire day

In reading some of the more than 1,200 blogs that have been posted to this website, I came across this one below, from two years ago, that has a direct connection with the ROCK ride I am currently on.
Having 8 sisters, I am cognizant of the well known adage, Kindness and Moms go hand in hand. This is something I witness as I travel the country seeing lessons being handed down from mother to child, one generation to the next. The best way to learn lessons as a child, is for a parent being a role model to the child. My favorite demographic is young child / parent, and the conversation which turns to a lesson as child or parent discusses a meaningful, timely phrase written on The Kindness Bus. There is quite possibly a lesson for nearly every teaching moment. I love to anonymously stand nearby The Kindness Bus and listen to parents ask their children what a particular message might mean to them. One such lesson was in response to a mother asking her teen age daughter about the message, “Don’t use words that hurt.” The daughter replied, “That would put an end to all cyber-bullying.” The daughter had given her mom the perfect Mother’s Day gift.

My timing couldn’t have been any better as I drove across the Golden Gate Bridge. A sea of waving Girl Scouts were walking from the north side of the Golden Gate Bridge the the south and then down to Crissy Field in the Presidio. Thousands more were arriving at the starting point by motor coach. I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to park The Kindness Bus for all to see.
As many of them and their moms explained, the girls are bridging from one level to the next and this most popular event in all of scouting is looked forward to all year long.
The Kindness Bus was the perfect backdrop for so many of the troops before they began their “right of passage” to the next level of scouting. The group in today’s photo is from Truckee, California.

Cooking and eating while living on the road can be challenging when you have no refrigeration or running water. Having a one burner camping stove forces one to be creative in simple ways. It also creates an opportunity to eat fresh, raw foods which have become the biggest part of my diet…which is a good thing.
Having an opportunity to use a full kitchen comes my way every so often and I “seized the day” recently, by cooking up a feast for San Francisco friends, Rob and Sharon.
To me, the most comforting of comfort food is a Thanksgiving meal with all the fixins’. Cooking everything from scratch can be very therapeutic and the best thing is, is that it takes the better part of the day. There was no better way to give my knees a rest for the day and to bring comfort to me, inside and out, by cooking up some comfort food for friends.
Here’s to being thankful, every day of the year.

When I drive The Kindness Bus or ride The Kindness Bicycle I get my fair share of looks and sometimes hushed comments. Most, if not all of the audible  comments are positive. Very few audible comments are directed at me in a negative tone. Every now and then I will overhear a hushed comment that is made in conversation amongst passersby that is negative and I feel like addressing it, so it is a learning experience for all parties involved.
A couple of months back, I was in a hurry first thing in the morning. I needed to be on my way and out the door but needed to be clean shaven. I was spotted by a two couples about my age while I was using a pink Lady Bic razor while I rode. Now I agree it was probably quite a sight for them…but they were reading the “Overcome bullying with kindness” sign on my bicycle and still felt the need to make a hushed comment.
“Did you just bully me?” was my comment as I rode up to them. After a fun conversation, we were all in agreement that using negative, hurtful words is bullying.
The thought was, a child in school who does many good things, day in and day out for years, does one embarrassing act and because of the Internet and before you know it is the butt of the joke for the entire community.
Yes…gossip is bullying…and it is easily spread.