Solvang, California 2007

Solvang, California, is a Danish community, 35 miles north of Santa Barbara near the Pacific Ocean in the Santa Inez valley. Locals claim the temperature is the most ideal in the world. It is supposed to be springtime but the budding flowers suggest the scent of summer. They tell me it is inordinately warm, another global warning sign, perhaps? Protesters in Denmark have graffitied the "Little Mermaid" pink, student activists protesting the removal of many freedoms. Unlike Solvang where almost everyone seems happy, especially the 5,000 bikers who just finished the Solvang Century. Mark will be bicycling the Solvang Double Century (200 miles) soon. He is warming up with his Twin Cities Bike Club for the week, after January's Marble Fall, Texas, rides and February's Scottsdale, Arizona, rides. The local Phoenix Bullshifters Club would like him to move south permamently, as they have adopted him.