This fall, I'm doing something completely ridiculous. On Sept. 9th I'll start pedaling my bike south from Seattle, and won't stop until I get to San Diego. Well, actually I'll be stopping quite a few times for food and water... and to play shows. It's the Plea for Peace Bicycle Tour 2005!

Basically, it’s a charity fund raising tour to open up an all ages teen center in San Jose. For more information on the cause, you can check out <http://www.pleaforpeace.com/>

I’ve been training for the last few months, and it’s going pretty well. I have to admit, I’m a little nervous about it though. I think we’re going to try and average around 75 miles a day. I’ve never done anything this physically demanding in my life! Gerry from MU330 will be driving Mike Park’s van along the route with all our gear, and we’ll be camping all the way down the coast to try and save money so more will go towards the teen center.

We are desperately in need of donations to help make the ride a success. The financial responsibility for getting a bicycle and all the gear together for this tour has rested completely on my own shoulders, and because the 5 1/2 week tour is an attempt to raise money for the charity, that basically means 5 1/2 weeks with no income. Any donations you could spare would help us greatly help us greatly along the way, and in turn, help the dream of this teen center to become a reality.

As I look through my address book, I can see that most of the people I’m contacting are fellow musicians who are just as broke as I am. For everyone who can’t afford a donation.. Please just take this e-mail as a “hey, here’s what I’m doing this fall” kind of thing. Please imagine that I didn’t just hit you up for $$$.

For anyone willing to make a contribution, there is a donation form attached. These contributions will go directly to the Plea for Peace Foundation and will go towards the teen center. Another option would be to send a check made out to “Dan Potthast” to 145 Franklin Street, Santa Cruz, CA 95060. These donations would go directly towards fixing my early 80’s model road bike that I bought for 5 bucks at a rummage sale. It’s going to take a lot of duct tape to get her to San Diego.

One last thing to consider.. The ride is about 1400 miles long, so if you were to sponsor me at a rate of half a cent per mile.. That would be a 7 dollar donation!

Any other questions, please feel free to e-mail me at dantacruz@aol.com

Thanks for your time. -Dan P.