Riding The Kindness Bike for up to 8 hours a day leaves little time to keep up with office work, especially this time of year, when school is about to start. I make a lot of phone calls to schools across the country to promote One Million Acts Of Kindness. Multi-tasking on The Kindness Bike lets me raise awareness about Domestic Violence and Childhood Sexual Abuse and promote One Million Acts Of Kindness to schools.
One website puts me in contact with every school in the United States, affording me the opportunity to reach every school age student in the country through their principal or counselor. The website is SchoolTree.org
Kindness Certificates and One Million Acts Of Kindness Week are the perfect anti-bullying measure. Students with a constant mind set of kindness have an awareness of how important it is to respect one another. Please spread the word about our Kindness Certificates. They can be found on the homepage of our website.
We have a couple of very busy days ahead, with visits to the Kansas Coalition Against Sexual and Domestic Violence and LifeHouse Child Advocacy Center.
The Kansas Children’s Discovery Center in Topeka is our home base for the next few days, they are even letting me put on several performances of my puppet show.
Today’s proposed ride of 52 miles fell a handful shy of the total. I am hoping to ride many bonus miles the next few days, along the beautiful paved paths in Topeka.

A wonderful movement I learned of today is, Living is So Big. It is all about spreading awareness of just how great life is to experience and how the little things can have a huge impact on life.
Living is So Big, founders, Jesus and Iliana are on a cross country promotion, teaching the importance of being grateful for all the good in our lives. I met them and their son, Christopher, who lives in Lawrence, after they had taken dozens of photos of The Kindness Bus. They have a passion for what they are doing and are so inspiring. I found myself counting my blessings for the very rich life I have; an 84 sq. ft. bus of everything I own and a life filled with everything I need.
Bill and Beverly stopped by The Kindness Bus as I was getting some mail ready to be sent. They had seen us on the news and in the newspaper and stopped by to give us their blessing. The site, www.livingissobig.com is definitely worth a visit to add your comments of what you are grateful for in your life.
Thank you to Annie for putting together a last minute neighborhood party for One Million Acts Of Kindness, it was a great way to have an entire neighborhood get to see The Kindness Bus up close.
We are getting some great sleeping weather and cool mornings for riding, 40 miles today. We push west to Topeka tomorrow morning.

A positive message to say the least is
“You, are your gift to the world.” In creating this phrase, I tried to find words to inspire. You CAN be the most incredibly kind person on the face of the earth; it is only you standing in the way of making this a reality. This is the life all of us need to live. “It’s a choice.”
We began our 4th month yesterday of The Kindness Bicycle/Bus Tour to raise awareness about Domestic Violence and Childhood Sexual Abuse. Today seemed to be a day of conversation with dozens of people. I talked with Danni who is such a great role model for her 3 daughters. They had seen The Kindness Bicycle previous to my talking with her and she told me that it started a great conversation in their family. Cathie from The Willow Center stopped by to take some photos of me in red heels for a possible appearance in The Red Shoe calendar.  Kevin and Melissa, a young couple stopped by The Kindness Bus to show their support. Kevin just got back from Afghanistan and was thrilled to see such a positive message.  A big thanks to Natalya for the huge interest and hospitality.
Today was supposed to be an off day but I rode thirty miles to whittle away at the deficit of over two hundred miles. The picture I used today is of the beauty of the flora along the path I rode.

“We don’t talk about that kind of stuff,” he said to his son.
A family of 5 walking past The Kindness Bike held the interest of the son of about twelve years of age. His teenage sisters were interested as well, but didn’t express themselves verbally. The mother was silent as the father tried his best to usher his family to the car as quickly as he could. The son chose to read aloud, the 2 signs; “Boys should never hit girls” and “Be a man, don’t raise a hand. Stop Domestic Violence! “We don’t talk about that kind of stuff,” the father said, to my amazement. Once in the car, the father sped off, only to get stuck at a long line of traffic in the turning lane just out of the parking lot. I of course rode the couple of hundred feet to be in full view once again as the father had to wait for the light to change as the boy in the car looked my way and continued to express himself. The light changed and I watched as the long line of traffic in the turning lane started moving, but not fast enough, the father was about to get stuck first in line at the light again. He chose to run the fully red light!!
I don’t know if the father was in a hurry or if he just didn’t want to see the signs on The Kindness Bike for a third time, but one thing is for sure, he had better start talking to his family about important issues which can affect his children or there won’t be any room left under the rug for him to sweep everything he chooses not to discuss.

Changing my inner tubes so many times yesterday, I inadvertently took the wrong brake pad apart instead of using the quick release on the opposing side. I rode today’s 40 miles with a dragging brake pad making the ride seem like 100 miles. Needless to say, I will visit a bike shop tomorrow.

Don “Red Dog” Gardner has been doing his best at what he does for the good of the Lawrence, Kansas community for the past 27 years. A former Marine, he started an exercise program for local high school athletes that has grown into several free classes a week that thousands in the community take part attending. I was one of the lucky guests today. Thank you Red Dog for letting me ride The Kindness Bicycle for all to see.
Riding mid-morning and needing to hydrate we stopped in to a local grocery and were discovered by Eric, a manager of a local sushi restaurant. He was blown away at The Kindness Bicycle Tour and had his friendly staff roll some incredible denizens of the deep. Thank you Eric.
I am somewhat mechanically inclined, today I was stumped however. My inner tube has been losing air and I finally replaced it. Soon after replacing it with another, the 2nd one had an even faster leak. Thinking that perhaps Bogart used that inner tube as a chew toy, I replaced it with the 3rd, that tire was flat in 5 minutes. What is causing it, I thought. I water tested all three and found all of them were leaking in the same place. I searched the tire for a nail in the tread and looked for twenty minutes to no avail. I replaced the tire and the inner tube one last time, problem solved.
Tonight was incredible. With a total of nearly fifty miles today I got to thinking that on the next picture perfect day, I’m riding my 1st century. (100 miles)

Doctors seem to take a big interest in One Million Acts Of Kindness and The Kindness Bicycle Tour, I’ve talked with nearly a hundred over the past few years. Today I met Doctor John Listerman who had read the article in The Lawrence Journal-World about One Million Acts Of Kindness. He has spent the last several years, caring for the indigent and has seen first hand the effects of kindness on others. He and I talked about leading with a kind heart and helping, not hurting one another, To him, hands are meant to heal. What a beautiful way to live one’s life. Our conversation reminded me of a meeting I had nearly 3 years ago, in preparation for heading out on the road, I talked with Stephen G. Post PhD, who is now Director of the Center for Medical Humanities, Compassionate Care and Bioethics at Stony Brook. He wrote “Why Good Things Happen to Good People.” This book should be read by everyone because there are huge health benefits to being kind. If its teachings and beliefs were embraced by everyone, no one would ever lay a hand on another human being.
Today’s cool temperatures made the nearly sixty miles I rode on the University of Kansas campus and surrounding area seem like a walk in the park.
** Stephen G. Post’s newest book is a must read. “The Hidden Gifts of Helping” How the Power of Giving, Compassion and Hope Can Get Us Through Hard Times

Never before have I seen such excitement, prior to a visit at a Domestic Violence Center. I had two contacts by board members to see if The Willow Center would work into the schedule of The Kindness Bicycle Tour, I was also sent an advance email, formally inviting me to a luncheon meeting at the Willow Center. I never could be made to feel more welcome.  These women get it! There was such great interest as we met “town hall” style and brainstormed how our two organizations could do our work more efficiently for the betterment of those we serve. One of the women talked of when women call the crisis line that she helps by focusing on the many problems presented, by solving them one at a time, giving the caller great hope in seeing her problems being solved in this fashion.
One of the very creative ways The Willow Center raises money is by the Red Shoe calendar. This calendar is the brainchild of board member, Cathie Rodkey. All twelve months are represented by a photo of local celebrities “putting their best foot forward,” while wearing 6″ red high heels. All of the men in this calendar, took part in the Willow’s, “Walk a Mile in Her Shoes” event. I love it!!
News travels quickly in this town as one of the viewers of the NBC Kansas City piece of two days ago, contacted the Lawrence Journal World to let them know of our visit to their town. Reporter Chris Hong contacted me and he and his cameraman met me for a future article. The kindness of people is in no shortage in this town as Chris invited me and Nathan to dinner at his house for homemade pasta from scratch. We stayed late, “solving all of the world’s problems” over some homemade wine brought by Quentin, one of Chris’ friends.
Thank you to everyone, for making today a very special day.