Hi everyone,

We really, really, REALLY want to be on the Ellen Degeneres show.

Here’s the fantasy:  we camp in Ellen and Portia’s backyard in LA.  They make us vegan breakfast, then we ride bikes together to the studio where they film the show.  After Ellen tells her enormous audience a bit about our project, we ride our fully-loaded touring bikes on stage and tell the world about menstrual cups, thus multiplying the effectiveness of our trip 100 times.

Help us!  1)  Write Ellen an email telling her why we should be on her show.

http://ellen.warnerbros.com/show/respond/?PlugID=10

2)  Post a comment on her Facebook page (Ellen Degeneres, “public figure”).

Write about:

• Menstrual cups and how great they are.
  • You love them.
  • They save you money.
  • They are great for the environment.
  • They are healthy (no TSS, no dioxins, no bleaches).
  • How you met us.  Did we give you a cup?  Camp in your yard?  Get a ride in your pickup truck.
• Explain why the women of the world need to know about this!
• •  Are you glad we told you?
  • Who have you told?

Please take 15 minutes to write to Ellen—this could really have a huge impact.  Every woman who switches to reusables saves 1,000-2,000 dollars and a huge amount of trash.  Ellen’s audience is enormous!

Thanks a lot!

It has been harder than anticipated to find a place to write this post.  We ran out of time in Portland, and tried to write to you from a bathroom at Cape Lookout State Park on the Oregon Coast using Sarah’s I-phone as a modem. So romantic–sitting on the bathroom floor with a tiny computer and an I-phone,  and telling curious camp bathroom users about reusable menstrual products.  Alas, no service.

We regret that we lost track of the cord that connects Toni’s camera to the computer, so we have a chunk of time that we can’t share visually with you, but we do have some recent photos from Sarah’s camera. Other things we’ve lost: two water bottles, one pair of bicycles gloves, our mini bottles of hot sauce, vinegar, and olive oil (food’s pretty bland now), two spoons, and one tupperware. We need to shape up.

Sarah feeding Toni blackberries

Peanut butter-cabbage tacos for dinner. We’re eatin’ well dad.

* * *

Last night was the new moon (taditionally a time to let things go and start anew). For reasons not worth explaining Toni and I ended up at the top of a two and a half mile downhill, just as the darkness was descending. Quickly realizing that we could not possibly ride our fully loaded bikes down a steep, pitch black winding road, we started a slow and humbling, new-moon-rebirthing kind of walk through the deeply dark night to the state park where we spent the night. We planned to pop open a bottle of cheap wine when we got to camp to wind down, but by the time we set up our tent and realized we had no bottle opener, we decided to just go to bed. We massaged each others arms (sore from slowing the momentum of our heavy bicycles as we walked), and concked out. Why have a full moon night on the new moon? This morning we re-organized all of our stuff, and are feeling excited about the next phase of our trip.

Since Portland, Toni andI  have been on the very rural Oregon coast.  There is not much to report in terms of events, but we have been in doing some great biking in beautiful country, and have given away 4 cups.

Today, we finally got to highway 101: our road for our time in Oregon.  After ab0ut an hour of harrowing riding alongside logging  trucks, we needed to calm our nerves, and smoke a metaphorical ciggarette.  We are sitting in a little bar in Hebo, Oregon (country music videos, farm hands, motorcyclists, etc) using Wi-Fi and sneaking bites of leftover grits and butter beans so the bartender won’t notice.

* * *

This is what we planned to post just after we left Portland…

Wednesday August 24th

Sarah and I are spending the day in the living room of one of the Jesuit Volunteer Corps communities in Portland.  They are all away for the day, working in different social services and advocacy organizations around Portland. It’s great to finally have some down-time to work at the computer and have a rest from bicycling!

We left Olympia on Sunday morning and arrived in Portland on Tuesday around 2pm.  The first day, we were on a lovely bike path for a few hours.  We got to tell a few other bikers about our project, and got two spontaneous $5 donations.  One woman is a teacher, and promised to make copies of our fliers to give out to her friends at a party she is attending this weekend.

Sunday evening, as dusk was approaching and we were beginning to look for a place to camp, we happened upon a whole field of tents… and bicycles!  Turns out we had run into the crew from Ride Across Washington (RAW), a 6-day “supported tour” (meaning  trucks carry your stuff and other people cook for you) all over the state.   They were great hosts, letting us “camp in their yard” and giving us dinner and breakfast.

Monday we got started biking at 7:30am, hoping to make it to Portland (almost 100 miles that day).  We tried our best, but ended up camping in Columbia City, a tiny town 30 miles north of Portland.  We stayed in the back yard of an elderly couple, Jenny and JD.  Jenny told us that she had always wanted to do something like our trip, but that “girls didn’t do things like that back then.”  One kid she knew had gone on a 200mile bike trip, and another had roller-bladed to the next town.  Jenny offered us the use of their bathroom (extensively decorated with ducks), and told us to help ourselves to the kale growing in the garden.

We are so excited to be in Portland, and dig into the sustainable menstruation part of our project.

Yesterday evening, we had a great event at In Other Words, a feminist community space, library, and bookstore.  About 20 people showed up, only three of which already used cups.  We did a lot of nuts and bolts education on the why and how of using a cup.  A few bought Mooncups right then and there from the store, we gave a few cups away, and many people left interested in buying themselves a cup later.

* * *

Since we have recived so much kindness from Toni’s Jesuit Volunteer (JV) network, a little more about them:

Jesuit Volunteers live in community on a very modest shared budget, with just $80 of personal spending money a month (some of which goes towards buying pads and tampons).  For a JV, and many other low-income people, $35 dollars in one chunk is hard to part with.  We decided to give cups to half the JVs in each house we visit, and have them split the price of buying the cups for the other half.  That way, everyone gets a cup for half price—the cups are made accessible, but there is also some sense of responsibility and sacrifice to own one.  When we came here yesterday, one women in the house had a cup—now all five have cups.  Its’s really exciting to know that their community will be producing zero waste from menstrual products!

We hope that there will be a big ripple effect from each cup we give away.  In the case of the JVs, the cups go to idealistic passionate people who have access to underserved communities.  Many JVs go on to become leaders in social services and advocacy organizations.  They can be part of the project of bringing sustainable, affordable, healthy, and empowering menstrual products to underserved women.

* * *

We have been distributing copies of an amazing zine, “Menstruation Sensation,” written by Alyssa Beers (www.alyssabeers.com) of Gladrags. When we got in touch with the company about copying the zine as educational material, Tracy Puhl, the now-owner Gladrags, invited us to their office in Portland to meet her, see their space, and talk about what we are doing. Gladrags is a Portland based company started by one woman sewing cl0th reuseable pads and selling them to her friends. The rags became very popular, and now Gladrags are sold all over the country. In addition to cloth pads, Gladrags also stocks and sells sea sponges, and menstrual cups from all three companies.

Tracy was enthusiastic about our trip. She gave us Gladrags to add to our stock of gifts to give away, educated us about reuseable pads, and gave us two great books about menstruation and the health risks associated with pads and tampons. Gladrags is a great connection for our project.  In addition to making their own products, Gladrags promotes and sells all sustainable menstrual options. Gladrags often offers wholesale prices on bulk orders to non-profits and social service agencies. We will make sure to tell caseworkers and organizations we meet along our way.

In order to help us track some part of our impact on menstrual cup sales, Tracy offered to create a coupon code for sales on the Gladrags website, “sustainablecycles.” Anyone can use that code to order any product from Gladrags to get a 15% discount (and all cups ship free!).

We think what Tracy is doing is awesome, and we hope she will come ride bikes with us for a weekend somewhere on the coast.

* * *

For those of you who don’t know already, Toni and I have two grandiose/whimsical goals for this trip. 1) Get Portlandia to make an episode about us, and 2) be on the Ellen Degeneres show.

Portlandia…

 When Toni was being interviewed for the Willamette Weekly article (see “press” sidebar), the reporter commented that our whole trip sounds like a Portlandia skit.  For those of you who don’t know, Portlandia is a TV show that makes fun of the idealistic culture of Portland 20-somethings.  At first we were a bit offended, then we realized that people making fun of us is a great way to get the word out about reusuable menstrual products.  Any press is good press, so they say.

We have sensitive ears, and were able to find a film shoot for the TV show while we were in Portland!   We pulled aside a filming assistant, Tucker, and told him about our project.  Tucker learned  all about menstrual cups, our project, and why we would make a perfect Portlandia skit.  We gave Tucker a menstrual cup and got him to promise to get the cup to the director’s wife.  We stressed his responsibility to make sure that she uses the cup. 

Who knows what will come of it– Tucker!  If you are reading this…. don’t let us down!

Our Ellen fantasy…

We camp in Ellen and Portia’s backyard.  They make us homemade vegan breakfast in the morning, then ride bikes with us to the studio.  After Ellen announces our project, we ride our fully loaded bikes on the stage and tell Ellen’s huge audience about sustainable menstruation – multiplying the effectiveness of our trip 100 times, at least.

* * *

Let us know if you have any connections with Portlandia or Ellen DeGeneres.  Stay tuned to be part of a mass lobbying effort directed at Ellen – if we get 30 people to write to her, maybe she will notice!

Remember, if you are interested in buying a menstrual cup for yourself or a friend, you can get 15% off and free shipping by using the promotional code “sustainablecycles” at gladrags.com

We bid adieu to friends in Seattle at 9:30 on Thursday morning– riding in high-style, as you can see.

Day one… 10 hours, 35 miles… way to go Sarah and Toni!

A couple hours of stop-and-start traffic in Seattle, a sunny ride along Alki Beach in West Seattle, a ferry to Vashon Island, beautiful (might-as-well-a-been vertical) roads and a whole lotta walkin’ on Vashon, another ferry to Tacoma and a ride through the suburbs to our hosts downtown.

Whew!

Toni spent the last year as a Jesuit Volunteer in Seattle.  Jesuit Volunteer Corps (JVC) is a year-long service program funded by Americorps.  Volunteers live in communities of 4-8, living simply on a shared budget.  We stayed with the JV community in Tacoma on our first night of the trip.  Their house is right next to Guadaloupe House, a Catholic worker house which provides transitional housing and showers and meals for the homeless.

The Catholic Worker was self-described by a resident as “the hippies of the Catholic social justic movement.” We got a tour of the house by a long-standing resident, as well as their extensive garden in the back and a little bit of information on the other community houses on the block. The Catholic Worker owns an entire city block with houses of all kinds of social justice institutions.

We had an amazing experience at the Irma Gary house, a home for recently incarcerated women. All of the women were out at work, but we had the opportunity to talk with the “house-mom,” Patty for a while about the cups and this demographic of women. In prison, women are not not allowed to have any of their own belongings, including underwear and bras, and women are only allowed to use pads- no tampons. Patty described to us that the bras are like tubes that create a uni-boob, and the underwear are so cheap that women pull up the unraveling elastic to floss their teeth after they eat. Patty also told us that buying, bumming, or finding pads and tampons at distribution centers is a struggle for women experiencing poverty. Because Patty lives with the women for several months as they transition into independent housing, we hope she can be an ally to help them make this empowering lifestyle change. Patty now has five cups to give away to women who she thinks will use them.

* * *

The ride from Tacoma to Olympia… not one pleasant rode or view. But we made it, with a little help from some new friends in pick-up trucks. Thanks to our inappropriate, blind trust in our new, hand-me-down i-phone, we found ourselves dead-ended into Fort Lewis, a big military base outside of Tacoma. Our options were a scary, winding, 45mph road with no shoulder, or I-5 (a huge interstate). We carefully chose a couple friendly looking pick-up trucks to get us into Olympia. Our first ride was from a military mom with two kids in the backseat. She, herself, was not terribly interested in menstrual cups, but it got us thinking about another whole demographic of women. Women in the military are highly active, and often traveling in rugged conditions for weeks or months. Menstrual cups might be a really practical options for them. Let us know if you might be the person to reach out to this community.

Our second ride was from Betsy and her partner, also a military family. Betsy makes a living cleaning homes as military families move in and out of town for deployment or reassignments. She had never heard of menstrual cups, but was a quick convert after a 15 minute conversation on our way into Olympia. She was immediately struck by the economic benefits of menstrual cups. She has three daughters and especially excited about all the money that their family will save by making this switch.

* * *

In Olympia, we pre-arranged to stay with a house-full of young bicycle enthusiasts, “Penguin House,” through the website warmshowers.org (like couch surfing, but for bicycle tourists).  They have chickens, a big vegetable garden, and a hammock under a grape arbor.  Most of the residents were guys- surprisingly open ones.  All had heard of cups, and one, Ben, bought cups for two of his friends at age 17!   When we make our list of sustainable menstruation super-stars, he will be on there!  Ben made papusas, we used the computer, had good talks, and overall felt very at home.

Mmmmmmm! Ben’s starting a papusa business– Mr. Penguin’s Papusas-– he’ll be dressed as a penguin. If you’re in Olympia, support him. Best papusas of my life!

We had our first event at Last Word Books on Saturday at 4pm.  We scheduled the event only a few days in advance with Sky, one of the owners, who publicized on Facebook.  Not many folks came, but it turned out to be an incredible learning experience.  We ended up talking about our project to two trans-gendered identified people who were hanging out in the shop. We were very humbled by this conversation and deeply appreciative for the openness with which these two young folks spoke to us about issues that were so personal. We realized that our extensive use of the word “women” in our literature excludes many people.  Not all women menstruate.  Not all bodies who menstruate are women.  For trans-gendered people, menstruation is a deeply complicated and sensitive issue.  We are thinking about how to talk about these issues at our next event, and how to perhaps change the language in our literature.

Next, we talked to Sky’s partner Hannah. Hannah is a social worker working with low-income and homeless youth. We gave her a cup for herself, and four to give away to some of the youth she has worked with.

Comic relief: On the way home, three young teenagers (we’re guessing thirteen), saw our ask-me-how-much-I-love-my-mooncup pins on our backpacks and asked, “How much do you love your mooncups?” To their red-faced dismay we embarrassed them thoroughly with a dorky and detailed explanation about how cool menstrual cups are! Needless to say they didn’t take the bait, but maybe that information will stay somewhere in the back of their growing minds.

* * *

Traveling by bicycle you meet a wide cross-section of humanity. Over the last few days we have gotten many new ideas and suggestions about populations we could be reaching out to on this trip. We believe that person-to-person relationships are the way that people make this lifestyle change. We are on the move and we don’t have time to make relationships with everyone. We are realizing the importance of finding allies or spokespeople who can carry this message to their communities. So you’re trans-gendered, in the military, a parent, low-income, homeless, incarcerated or recently incarcerated, in a sorority, live on a commune or a co-op, post-menopausal, menopausal, a teenager, a lesbian, a man, a father, a husband,  a brother, a house-wife, a church-goer… the list could go on… We are not the right people to talk to many of these communities, but you might be. Because of the structure of this project, we don’t have the time to make deep connections and build trust in every demographic.

We are relying on community leaders of all kinds to water the seeds that we plant.

Since arriving in Seattle last Thursday night, Toni and I have been planning, packing, getting in touch with all sorts of rad organizations, and have also already given away 10 cups! Now, with donations from all three FDA approved menstrual cup companies (The Keeper, Lunette, and Diva Cup), we have been able to hit the ground running with this project. Toni has been keeping a log of every cup we give away (who we give it to, what kind of cup, and a little about each lady). At the end of our trip we plan to get back in touch with each person who takes a cup to hear about how much they love/ don’t love it, answer any questions, hear stories and feelings, find out if they’ve been telling their friends, and collect any other relevant information.

We hope to leave Seattle Thursday morning, which is a few days later than our projected departure date. Seattle has afforded us with some great opportunities to meet people and brainstorm about our project, and Toni has some important goodbyes to do in this city that has been so good to her.

We have two exciting events coming up in the next week. Join us if you are in the area to learn more about menstrual cups, and bicycle touring, for a group discussion on sustainable menstruation and a thinktank about this project.

Saturday, August 20th we will be in Olympia, WA at Last Words Books — 4pm

211 4th Ave E.

http://www.lastwordbooks.org/

Tuesday, August 23rd we will be in Portland, OR– 6:30- 8pm

8 NE Killingsworth

http://inotherwords.org/

Hope to see some folks at these events. If you have some friends in these areas let them know! We are looking forward to meeting people in these communities.

We are just 8 days away from our send-off, and things are coming together fabulously!

We have gotten cups donated by all three of the menstrual cup companies in the US (Diva Cup, the Keeper, and Lunette).  I just got 60 Diva Cups in the mail yesterday– an amazingly quick turn around by Francine Chambers, the founder of Diva Cup– we had our first phone conversation on Thursday morning!  Cups from Lunette and the Keeper will be coming in soon.  We are so excited to have the support of all the manufacturers.

Friends and family have also offered amazing support.  Thanks to:

• Those of you who donated online– we have raised 900 dollars: enough to eat and fix our bikes comfortably for the trip.
• My mom and Sarah’s Dad– who are covering our plane tickets with their frequent flier miles.
• Patrick Fay– who donated 2 sets of panniers and a mini-laptop (!!).

We can certainly still use more donations, but it feels great to have a baseline to work with.  We know we can do the trip without going completely broke.  It sounds corny– but this is a dream come true.  Sarah and I cannot thank you enough for helping to make this trip possible.

*         *         *

In other news:

• Sarah is writing to all sorts of feminist organizations, radical bookstores/spaces, alternative communities, and yoga studios throughout our route.  It’ll be great to meet these people on our trip.
• I am sending out a press release to the newspapers along the way.
• I gave away our first cup yesterday! We will keep track of the age, email address, location, and a few details (when did you first hear of menstrual cups, etc) in a notebook.  A few months later, we can email the whole group and ask them how things are going.

With the send off for our trip only three weeks away, Toni and I are busy bees, spreading the word about this project to friends, family, advocates for sustainable menstrual alternatives of all kinds, menstrual cup companies, and radical  bookstores/ spaces, yoga studios, food coops, and bike shops along our route.

Toni and I are so excited for this adventure, and to spread awareness about sustainable approaches to menstruation!

Unfortunately, we are not getting quite as much sponsorship as we were expecting, so we still need to raise $800 to make this trip happen.  We are glad that one company, The Keeper, is generously donating 30 cups for us to bring with us to give out along the way, which is the the most important part.

If you are able, consider making a donation.

Toni and I are doing this trip cheap for sure, but we do have some costs to cover including Sarah’s plane ticket, a little bit of bike gear, a little reserve for some inevitable bike repairs, and $4 a day for food per person for 60 days.

We’d also love it for you to “subscribe” to our blog to continue to educate yourself as we keep learning more and get updates about our adventures and misadventures as we roll down the coast.

Thanks for your support, and keep in touch!

Our send-off for our ride down the west coast is less than two months away—both Sarah and I are busy figuring out logistics, getting the sponsorship we need to make the trip happen, and getting the word out to as many people as possible.  It is an exciting time, but there is still a lot up in the air.  We are operating on a lot of faith—taking a leap and hoping that wings grow before we hit the ground. 

Our to do list, roughly:

-Get lots of menstrual cups to give away along the road.   

Switching to using a menstrual cup is a significant lifestyle change.  We don’t want to hand out cups to every Sally, Susie, and Shannon—it would be a shame for the cup to sit unused for years in someone’s bathroom cupboard.  However, when we meet the rare person who is ready to make the switch, but feels hesitant about making the purchase, we want to gift them a cup.  We believe in gifts!  When you buy something, you pay money, and the slate is clean—no further action is necessary.  With a gift, there is momentum.  Maybe the recipient will feel inspired to give a friend a cup a few years down the line, or become an advocate for sustainable menstruation by educating their friends about cups.

So far, The Keeper (www.keeper.com) has agreed to donate 30 cups to our cause.  This is incredibly generous—at $35 each, the market value of those cups is about $1,000! 

-Get our gear and funding in order. 

A rough look at our budget:

• Food $480: $4/person/day for two months.
• Plane tickets about $600: One-way ticket home from LA for Toni + round trip ticket for Sarah.
• Gear $480:  Bicycle for Sarah: $300.  Lights for Sarah’s bike: $30. 1 pair good quality panniers: $100.  Miscellaneous: $50. 
• Documentation:  Small laptop for blogging and posting photos: $200.
• Bike repairs: at some point, we are bound to need to take the bikes into the shop.  With any luck this shouldn’t total more than $200.
• “Insurance” (extra money we would like to have in case any of our computer or digital cameras get damaged.  Hopefully we won’t need it):  $200.

TOTAL (for two people to live for two months and do some great advocacy): $2,160

 We want to get as many people as possible invested in our project – both literally, by donating some money or cups, and in spirit, by becoming advocates for sustainable menstruation.  You can donate to our trip through paypal! 

Donate Now!

-Get the word out. 

We want as many people to know about menstrual cups as possible, therefore, we want as many people to know about this trip as possible.  We are contacting different women’s health, feminist, environmental, and bicycling organizations, hoping that they will put a link to our blog on their website, or tell their members about our project. 

Let us know if you have any ideas!

In April, I had the opportunity to do a week-long training at the Duke Center for Integrative Medicine on teaching yoga to seniors.  Of the approximately 30 participants, I was far and away the youngest.  Everyone in the course was a woman, and most were menopausal or post menopausal.   We were together for 8 hours a day for a week – lots of time to get to know each other.  From social work professors, to “post-corporate” women seeking a more fulfilling vocation, my diverse bunch of classmates shared my interest in embodied spirituality.  Sarah and I were still in the early phase of envisioning our project, so I picked the brains of my classmates.  Almost no one in the group had heard of menstrual cups, but they were forthcoming with stories of their experiences with different kinds of menstruation products: the messiness of their experiment with sponges in the ‘70s, their concerns about the health dangers of tampons, and of course, the limitations of pads for people who love to move their bodies.  They were excited about the environmental, health, and economic advantages of menstrual cups.  Many wanted to suggest a menstrual cup to a daughter, niece, or friend.  One woman was inspired to ask her local cooperative grocery store to begin stocking cups!  At that point in the evolution in my thoughts on the project, I thought, “this is not my demographic.” Clearly, I was wrong.  Whatever stage of life a woman is in, she has a personal connection to issues surrounding menstruation, and can be an advocate for more sustainable ways of dealing with our periods.

One conversation started with me telling a group of women about menstrual cups.  Soon we were talking about dangerous chemicals in commonly used toiletries, and women were trading tips on where to find ratings on which products are safe.  Thirty minutes later we ended up talking about social justice, the economy, and taxation.  I got really excited about the trip!  So often, conversations with strangers and new friends can be superficial.  Maybe by starting conversations with people (in whatever age/gender demographic) about this issue that we care about, we can inspire reflection and action on other issues of social and environmental justice.