A few months back, Tom Hudson, one of Peace Coffee's delivery guys, was biking on the Greenway and ran into an animated biker with a mission! This was none other than "joke peddler" Dan Ettinger. Dan had recently decided to bike across the country with a childhood friend-collecting jokes for a book they will write next year, tentatively titled "Why did the bike cross America?" Biking alongside Tom, hauling our oversized bright red trailer loaded with coffee beans, Dan thought to himself, "Wow, Peace Coffee might just be a crazy enough company to want to sponsor my journey." 

Dan was no stranger to Peace Coffee. He is a recent graduate of Macalester College, which exclusively serves Peace Coffee in their dining hall and campus café. He also spent most of his summers during college working as a bike mechanic at Grand Performance Cycles, a local independent bike shop that sponsors Peace Coffee's bike team. Unfortunately we didn't have a lot to offer Dan in the way of money for his trip but we did have lots of spandex shorts and jersey's and of course coffee. He generously accepted both, although this would be his first time ever wearing spandex. Month's later Dan and his spandex padded bib shorts would become intimate friends (here are the pictures to prove it: http://www.jokesacrossamerica.net/photos/)

Shortly after we met him, Dan and his spiffed up Surly Long Haul Trucker bike flew to Oregon to join up with his soon to be bike partner, Simon Goldberg. In late August, they started their journey eastward. Besides their camping gear and a change of clothing they carry a camera to record all the jokes their told along the way. They believe capturing the joke teller is a lot richer than just writing down the joke, because so much of telling the joke is the delivery of it. Agreeing that live is always better they decided to host an Open Joke Telling Night in Minneapolis. Arriving here marked a halfway point for their ride so they took some time off their bikes to promote the show. They got the word out by flyering college campuses, telling jokes on local radio shows and sending jokes to local newspapers. The show was packed and even the Peace Coffee staff couldn't resist telling a few coffee jokes!

Simon and Dan took off the day after the show. This time they are heading South. Their final destination is Simon's home Charleston, South Carolina. Dan and Simon are not only real jokesters but they make everyone want to get on their bikes and just ride!

If you get the bike bug and need some cycling gear you can always ride in Peace Coffee spandex. Even though we don't have money to sponsor people, we are happy to send you coffee on the road, just as long as you send us a postcard with a joke or a fun story!

To keep up on Dan and Simon's progress go to:
www.jokesacrossamerica.net/where.html

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