The Mules crossed the Golden Gate Bridge

Little Girl, Lady and Who Dee Doo at the Golden Gate Bridge

Late morning on Tuesday, August 25, the Mules began the walk from the hills above Sausalito where we have been staying for the past week to the Golden Gate Bridge Vista Point on north end.

I tied the mules up to the chain linked fence at Vista Point in a place out of the way from people and traffic. I informed Golden Gate Bridge police officers that I was going to walk across the bridge to deliver my letters to the Administrative Office and then come back to pick up the mules.

For those reading this who have never visited the Golden Gate Bridge, here is a photo that I took of the Golden Gate Bridge’s 10-foot wide sidewalk with railings on both sides. I walked on the bridge sidewalk from Sausalito north end to San Francisco south end of the bridge.

While it is crowded with pedestrians and cyclists during daylight hours, the Mules still feel that our request was not unreasonable to the Bridge Manager for permission for the Mules to walk across this sidewalk at 2AM when the sidewalk has no pedestrians, little cyclists and least automobile traffic on the road.

I dropped off the letters to the assistant clerk of the Bridge Board to deliver to the Bridge Manager and the Bridge Board of Directors.

As I left the Administrative offices and started my walk back to Marin, Bridge Authority approached me and informed me that they had contacted the Marin Humane Society to bring a trailer to Vista Point North Side to help the Mules cross the bridge. When I arrived at the north end, an animal control officer was waiting for me and I helped load Lady, Little Girl and Who-dee-doo into the trailer, where we were dropped off at Crissy Field in San Francisco. The Marin Humane Society officer gave me her phone number and said that if any officers in San Francisco gave us trouble to have them call her.

Thank you to all those who showed support in our stance by sharing our posts and sending your emails. Bridge Authority finally took responsibility to provide an alternative solution in lieu of the mules walking on the sidewalk by contacting the Marin County Animal Services in which they have a contract to handle any situations concerning animals. This was a different answer than what we were provided two weeks ago when we first contacted the Bridge District about crossing the bridge.

The Mules still stand on what we wrote in the letter and urge the Bridge Board of Directors to revisit the policy on animals. We feel that this is a positive step and the initial blueprint has been drafted. Final blueprint will be when mules can finally walk across the bridge.

—————————–
On a sidenote, the Mules would like to thank Rob from Sausalito who invited us to stay on his property in the hills of Sausalito for the past week. This gave the Mules time to rest, contemplate and write our follow-up letter to the Bridge Manager and Bridge Board of Directors. The Mules would also like to thank the Marin City Public Library for having computers and printers for public use so that we could print the documents. Here is a photo of Rob. We hiked from his property along the ridge to an overlook with spectacular San Francisco Bay views.

Rob with the Who Dee Doo, Lady and Little Girl. San Francisco Bay and Angel Island in background.
Share this:

Mr. Chen Guan Ming

Chen Guan Ming on his tricycle

Awhile ago, I heard the story about a Chinese farmer named Chen Guan Ming who has been traveling the world since 2001 peddling a one speed, heavy tricycle loaded with his gear and pulling his rickshaw with a rope to get up mountains, visiting 23 countries and over 87,000 miles.  He sleeps outside in his rickshaw with his belongings and by news accounts has been redirected to remove himself from riding on a few public thoroughfares by police for safety. My interest in Mr. Chen grew greater when I heard that he had entered California. I wondered if our paths would cross. But before we get to that, here is some background about Mr. Chen.

The Olympic Rickshaw Rider cycling around the world 
In 2008 at age 53, Chen decided to ride his three-wheel rickshaw 497-miles from his village to the Olympics in Beijing. He rode around 1,700 cities in China to celebrate the Beijing Olympics and was dubbed the “Olympic madman.” Filled with the Olympic spirit, in May 2010, he decided to embark on a truly epic journey. A two-year rickshaw ride from eastern China to London, England, the host of the 2012 Olympics. His long and tortuous route took him through some of the world’s most troubled regions and difficult terrain including flooded Thailand,  the Himalayan foothills, war-torn Afghanistan and Pakistan. But despite the condition, and being turned away from Singapore and Myanmar, he finally made it through 16 countries that also included Vietnam, Turkey, Italy, France, where he took a ferry to England and arrived in London in July 2012.

Because nobody knew he was coming, nobody in London welcomed Chen. And with no English to explain his rickshaw odyssey to the locals, it didn’t look like anyone would recognize Chen’s feat. One man, John Beeston, spotted Chen slumped over the handlebars of his rickshaw. Using his limited knowledge of Mandarin Chinese, Beeston discovered Chen’s amazing story and set out to tell the world. Only a few days later, Chen had spoken to BBC and CNN, been awarded a ticket to the opening ceremony of the London games, and been honored at a dinner held by the Chinese Olympic team. Energized by the that journey to the London Olympics, he set his mind to ride to the 2016 Olympics in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil.

In June 2013, he flew from London to Nova Scotia, traveled west across Canada, entering the United States in Washington in January 2015, riding through Oregon, and entered California in February.  After KRCR News found him traveling through Red Bluff and ran astorythe 3 Mules began receiving more messages from followers about Mr. Chen traveling through California and we were informed about his Facebook page with posts on his whereabouts.

Little Girl, Who Dee Doo and Lady

The Mules Close encounter with Mr. Chen
While Mr. Chen was in Northern California riding south to Los Angeles, and we (the Mules) turned around in San Diego to head back north, I kept tabs of his progress. I wondered when and where our paths would cross since we were both following Hwy 101 going in opposite directions. On March 21, I found out an hour after the fact that we were both in Santa Barbara riding/walking on the same road. However, the Mules missed seeing him by a mere 30-60 minutes as we had experienced a delay in our morning start. However, I still felt it was really cool that someone who I have been following and cheering virtually from afar was so close by, but we had no way to catch up to him at our 3mph speed.

The Mules in front of Orland City Hall

Out of the Who Dee Doo
Fast forward to July 6, 2015.  Woke up in the morning on the Sacramento River, packed up the Mules, and started walking on Hwy 32 going west towards Orland. We got to Orland around 2:30 and went to the city hall to deliver the Declaration of Emergency. We then walked through Orland to Hwy 99, where we decided to we would go south to Willows. Around 3:00, there was a nice green grassy spot along the side of the road for the mules to stop and eat.  As I was sitting on my water bucket letting the mules graze, a gentleman named Omar approached and introduced himself. He looked us up on 3Mules.com and appreciated what we were doing. We said thank you and then we had a conversation that lasted for awhile. He asked us if we liked peaches and said he would bring us back some peaches from his tree. When he came back, we continued our conversation.

Omar and Mr. Chen

During one part of our conversation, he started out by saying “There was a Chinese gentleman that came here with his bicycle…”

I immediately said “Mr. Chen!”

“That’s right!” said Omar.

He then took out his Smartphone and showed us a picture that he took of Mr. Chen near the same exact spot that we were currently sitting.

Thus, we think this is something that comes out of the Who Dee Doo. Because if we hadn’t decided to change course and stop in that same exact place at the time we did and wait awhile, we would never have met Omar, who met Mr. Chen, a person we have great interest following on his inspiring, epic world journey to “promote the Olympic spirit, hope for world peace, and protecting mother earth.”

This is the energy, magic and mystery of this place that we seem to encounter frequently along our journey and where we find ourselves in this point in our lives.

Omar with Lady and Little Girl (Who Dee Doo on other side of Lady)
Share this: