Cascadia Cabs - Pedicabs

Reminding me of being transported by pousse pousse when I lived in Antananarivo, Madagascar, Bellingham now has Cascadia Cabs offering pedicab rides throughout town.Bellingham-based company Cascadia Cabs operates four pedicabs — taxis comprised of a tricycle and chariot. Drivers set their own rates, and generally ask passengers to pay what they feel the ride is worth.Thursday through Saturday from about 10 p.m. to 2:15 a.m. The cabs are also occasionally out on Wednesdays and Sundays.
Drivers have taken customers as far as Bellis Fair mall, Fairhaven and Alabama Hill, but generally stick to the downtown area.
Cascadia Cabs was founded to continue the legacy of pedicabs in the Pacific Northwest. Pedicabs have operated continuously in the Evergreen Pacific since the 1962 World's Fair. Lovally, they are continuing on the tradition of bring fun, safe, envitonmental, and enjoyable transportation throughout the Evergreen Pacific. They provide a living wage work opportunites for youth and help change the urban streetscape with our various chariots.

Cascadia Cabs provides pedicab service for the Pacific Northwest. They are based in Bellingham and provide pedicab cruises for Bellingham's nightlife scene. Our pedicabs provide advertising for hopefully local business. When the weather improves, we roll during weekends and events. As well, we delight in making our pedicabs into "Wedding Chariots." Cascadia Cabs also provides pedicab service in Seattle. Our fleet has recently expanded to make way for 'Petals on Pedals,' our flower delivery business and 'The Icicle Tricycle,' during the summertime.

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You can hail a pedicab in person or call (360) 800- TRIKE for service.

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The following is an excerpt from an article in the Bellingham Business Journal,

Pedicabs Set to Roll
Unlike Mad Dash Courier, Ryan Hashagen delivers people instead of mail. And if you haven’t yet seen a pedicab rolling around town, you’re sure to see one soon.

Hashagen, co-owner of Cascadia Cabs and a recent Western Washington University graduate, began pedaling around Bellingham last summer offering his services to “anyone interested in having a good time,” he said.

As the summer sunshine faded into winter snows, Hashagen put away his pedicab and began planning this year’s launch, set for March 1. This year the company has five pedicabs and 12 drivers in Bellingham who will work in shifts patrolling the streets for customers.

“Each bike goes out twice a day: daytime shift and nighttime shift,” Hashagen said. “That’s how it works in all the cities that we operate in. In Bellingham we’re going to emphasize the nightlife scene and really hope to provide a safe transportation alternative for the entertainment district.”

The pedicab fleet will serve mainly the downtown core, from the south end of State Street to Roeder Avenue to the Lettered Streets, but will also make the occasional trip up to Meridian Street and Northwest Avenue. “Anywhere that’s flat,” Hashagen said.

The company operates much like a regular cab company. They rent the pedicabs to individual drivers who must each have their own business license. At the end of the night, it is up to each driver to turn a profit or face a loss.

“The great thing about pedicabbing, unlike bike messengering, is that in bike messengering you’ve always got someone telling you where to be and what to do,” said Hashagen, who was a bike messenger in Seattle in high school. “On a pedicab, it’s entirely up to you to make your own money, which is why it’s such a great job for young college students because it teaches them how to be entrepreneurs. They need to be able to motivate themselves, and if they don’t, they don’t make money. The more fun they have, the more money they make and the happier they are, the more people will hop in their cab.”

Before pedicab drivers hit the road, however, each driver is given a full day of training on how to safely operate the cab, deal with traffic, and work with customers.

Operating a pedicab is much different from riding a bike, Hashagen said. First, a pedicab is technically a tricycle and thus wider. It is also longer and capable of carrying more weight, up to 800 pounds, which includes the driver and up to four passengers. Pulling that much weight around is certainly tiring: “They don’t call it work for no reason.”

Alongside the new fleet of pedicabs, Hashagen also unveiled a pedal-powered flower cart just in time for Valentines Day. Beyond holidays, Hashagen said he is in the process of setting up weekly flower deliveries for local offices and beauty salons.

Eventually, Hashagen said, he hopes the presence of pedicabs on the streets will inspire other business folk to consider alternative forms of transportation.

“I would like to see bicycles and tricycles used for commercial applications all throughout the Pacific Northwest.”

(All photos were found on the Internet.)

Moving Sally

Five men, three women, three pickups, two vans, a station wagon and a car is what it took today to move Sally. Part of an old homestead in rural Ferndale, I found the cottage where she had been living for the last three years absolutely charming.

The men did most of the hard work! They loaded up the trucks with all the bigger pieces of furniture and we put the boxes and smaller items in the vans and cars. All vehicles were stuffed, but somehow we got everything loaded and were able to take it all to her new apartment near downtown Ferndale in one trip.

After all was unloaded and carried up the stairs to her new apartment, Sally, Kriss and I headed back to clean the cottage. More hard work, especially since we are in the middle of a record heat wave! One last trip for Sally so she could get her cat, then it was back to her new apartment to get settled in.

Fudge cycles for all!

Cowboy Church

It felt like we were walking into an old fashioned church revival service as we entered the barn and went up the stairs to join the others for Cowboy Church. Coy Huffman from Pro Rodeo Ministries was the guest pastor for our worship service at the Sonshine Ranch Cowboy Church on Trigg Road in Ferndale, Washington.

Opening with cowboy gospel tunes and then singing several Psalms as a cowboy played his guitar, we were further entertained by rodeo rope tricks performed by Rider, the eldest son of the Kiesner Family who regularly travel the rodeo circuit performing daring acts with their guns, knives, ropes and horses.




The Cowboy Church meets monthly in the barn at 1713 Trigg Road, Ferndale, Washington. Contact Roger and Rosemary Gustafson at 360-380-1638 for more information.

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Coy Huffman

This text is from The Arizona Star sports page.

Tucson Region Rodeo has its Own Breed of Religion

Cowboys Buck Satan, Pray All Will be Safe

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Before they call his name to go out in the ring, bull rider Chance Smart leans over the chute and puts his hands on his assigned bull, praying that he will have dominion over the animal.

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"I pray no weapon formed against me or the animals shall prosper," said Smart, a 24-year-old Mississippi native, referring to a passage from the Bible's Book of Isaiah.

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"I pray for the whole rodeo, for everyone here." Smart is among a group of professional cowboys and cowgirls who remove their hats, kneel in the dirt and pray each day behind the chutes at Tucson's La Fiesta de los Vaqueros rodeo. They pray before and after the daily events, often amid dust kicked up by animal hooves and above the din of crowds, clanging gates and neighing horses.

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Not all say they are religious, though most are Christian. Christianity has a heavy, and for the most part appreciated, presence on the rodeo circuit, they say.

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Led by the Rev. Coy Huffman, the group's prayers are simple and to the point. He uses the Bible to motivate the bull riders, bareback riders and barrel racers who join him in worship.

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"God's helping me every time. It's his will I'm rodeoing," said Joe Meling, 22, a bull rider from Oregon. "I've been injured, but I've also been healed."

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Bull riding is generally considered the most dangerous rodeo sport. Riders' injuries are frequent and can include cracked skulls and collapsed lungs. Some riders have broken their backs and necks, and never recovered.

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"When you're facing danger every time you do your job, you've got to have some kind of faith," said Texan David Samsel, 36, also a bull rider. "If you don't believe, you'd better not be in this game."

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Bareback bronc rider Chris Harris said not every preacher is welcomed by professional rodeo riders. Some religious leaders talk down to the cowboys, the 31-year-old Texan said.

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"You can't just walk into a group of guys like us and expect us to respect you," said Harris, who describes himself as not religious but a believer in God. "Coy is one of us. He's here to lift you up, not to take."

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Harris said he was hit in the head by a horse 12 days ago and was knocked out cold. He's trying to reach inside himself now, to remove self-doubt.

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That's where Huffman can help, he said.

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Bull rider Casey Baize, a 28-year-old Texan, said the services are a comfort when he's on the road, away from his wife and children. He said he found God while competing in rodeos during high school and was baptized during a rodeo in 2000.

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"A lot of rodeo guys have a bad rap. Some of us might be wild and crazy guys, but a lot of us love the Lord," Baize said.

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Huffman leads Sunday services in the Rodeo Grounds' Hospitality Barn, including one set for 10 a.m. this coming Sunday. The services are open to rodeo spectators, too. When La Fiesta de los Vaqueros wraps up this Sunday, he'll head
to the Parada del Sol Rodeo in Scottsdale.

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Huffman's Pro Rodeo Ministries got their beginnings in 1970, when he spent every cent he had on a Bible, he said.

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"I was about to become the richest man on the Earth."

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He hit the road with his wife, Donna, in 1976 after being ordained through the Fellowship of Christian Assemblies. The couple live in a motor home, and though their home base is in Sonora, Calif., they spend less than one month per year there.

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He and his wife also run Cowboy Church International. They help set up cowboy churches around the country and hold conferences for church leaders. Their first conference 12 years ago attracted 30 people. Last year's event drew 300.

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"Done got 'er did" is one of Huffman's favorite sayings. It means the will of God is done on Earth as in heaven, he explained.

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He hands out prayer notes called "Power Up" that he offers as inspiration to the rodeo competitors, who often spend more than 10 months per year on the road.

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Huffman is a former rodeo competitor himself. He did bareback riding in the 1950s and '60s. That's how he met Donna, a former barrel racer. Huffman will acknowledge only that he was born in the 1930s, but he declines to give his age.

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"You never tell your body how old it is, or it will react accordingly," said Huffman, who was raised on a ranch and farm in Kansas and Oklahoma.

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New Mexico native Larry Leist, 31, a bull rider, has known Huffman for 15 years and says his presence provides a helpful way to stay mentally focused.

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"I've backslid, and I haven't always walked with God as much as I should," Leist said.

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"In fact, I used to call guys like Coy eight-second Christians . you know, they just worshipped long enough to help their ride and stay on the bull.

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"But I disagree with that theory now. Anytime you can spread the word of God, it's a good thing."

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- By Stephanie Innes, Arizona Daily Star, Tucson, Arizona
Published: 02.23.2008

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Mother's Day Celebration on the Lake Whatcom Railway

Every mother aboard was handed a long-stemmed rose by the conductor today during the annual Mother's Day ride on the Lake Whatcom Railway.
Billed as "the friendliest excursion railroad" in all of America, it was an obvious labor of love as Mr. Culp, the conductor and owner of the railroad, and other volunteers greeted each passenger as they boarded his old passenger train.
Steam generated from a one hundred year old steam engine in the storage shed was piped over to heat the old Northern Pacific Railway passenger train used for today's ride creating a very moist, warm climate in the cars as we boarded and took our seats. Now powered by a diesel engine, "for political reasons," Culp says can no longer use his steam engine to power the train along the tracks.
The hour and a half train ride left Wickersham Junction shortly after noon and traveled slowly along the tracks. Passing through a dense, marshy, mossy forest and on past great views of Mirror Lake, we saw several fishermen sitting very close to our tracks as they looked up to see our train pass as others fished from the opposite shore. Once we reached the switching tracks, the engine was disconnected and driven on the switching track to the other end of our train, and then the caboose disconnected and the train cars slowly pushed along the tracks in order to reconnect with the caboose so we could make the journey back to the Wickersham Junction.
Stopping at a park area along the tracks on the way back, some passengers enjoyed the picnic lunches they had carried with them and others mingled around the park to more closely examine the train cars used for today's ride.

Others rode the hundred year old hand car.

Others yet trekked through a field and into the woods to view the magnificant waterfall as it cascaded down a weathered sandstone cliff.
On our return trip to Wickersham Junction, a banjo player sang and played bluegrass music as he strolled up and down the isle of our train car.
Back at the Wickersham Junction, there was plenty of time to wonder around and get a good look at the many other ancient train cars and old relics on display in their storage shed and around the grounds.

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The Lake Whatcom Railway is a dedicated living preservation of the Pacific Northwest Railway heritage. The passenger cars date back to the early part of the last century and were originally used for many years on the Northern Pacific passenger trains out of Seattle. Ancient wooden freight cars from the Great Northern Railway are also on the grounds. More information about the Lake Whatcom Railroad and their passenger schedule is available on their website at http://lakewhatcomrailway.com/.

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My photos highlights from the 2008 Mother's Day train ride on the Lake Whatcom Railway.

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Information leading up to the "political reasons" why Mr. Culp can no longer use his old steam engine to power his Lake Whatcom Railway runs as origially published by Safety Department of the Northern Pacific Railroad, Saint Paul, Minnesota, in their publication, The Tell Tale, on April 3, 1998:

CULP UPDATE - Train May Be At End Of Line Safety: Valentine's Day Train Ride Canceled Over Safety Concerns.

Wickersham--Lake Whatcom Railway has canceled today's Valentine's Day train ride after safety concerns raised by the Federal Railroad Administration shut down the train indefinitely. Berwin Culp, whose son Frank owns the historic 1907 steam engine, said they may close the ride permanently. ''He's so upset,'' Culp said of her son. ''He ran that train
for 25 years and never had a problem of any sort.'' The train offers around 25 rides a year, on holidays and on Saturday afternoons during the summer. The train carries up to 200 people in antique passenger cars on a privately owned rail along state Highway 9. In December, Federal inspectors threatened to shut down the train just as riders were boarding for a three-mile ride accompanied by Santa. The ride was allowed to commence, but after a full inspection on January 6, inspectors told Frank Culp the train couldn't be run again without repairs, said David Bolger, spokesman for the Federal Railroad Administration. Inspectors said a wheel of the locomotive was rubbing against the firebox, where coal and firewood are burned to heat the steam engine. A crack in the firebox could result in an explosion or derailment, Bolger said. ''It's 91 years old and with the condition it's in, it's a cause of great concern,'' Bolger said. Berwin Culp, who runs the train gift shop out of a box car, said the 200 people with reserved
tickets, including 150 from a Canadian Tour group, have been notified today's ride was canceled. None of them had paid for tickets yet, she said. Train owner Frank Culp, planned to lease a diesel locomotive for a year from Mount Rainier Scenic Railroad to replace the steam engine, his mother said. But the locomotive couldn't be sent by flat car in time. ''I don't know if he's even going to do it now,'' Berwin Culp said. The Culps contend the wheel has been in the same position since the 1930s and a steel plate on the fire box protects against any cracks. Re-engineering the locomotive to the federal inspector's specifications would be either impossible, or dangerous, Berwin Culp said. ''Frank's ready to give up and not run the train at all,'' his mother said.

-Erica Pizzillo, Bellingham (Wash.) Herald, 14 Feb 1998, via Don Hanley, 31 Mar 1998

I have heard a number of stories about the pop inspection by the FRA, and though I like revenge as much as the next guy, sufficed to say none of the stories will do anything but aggravate and already bad situation. One item I was happy to hear was that the FRA inspectors are reportedly to fed up with local shenanigans and if their good graces are further abused, they may crack down on all operations equally. You heard it here first folks--work for safety and community--or else.

-John Phillips

Procession of the Species

Bellingham's Procession of the Species parade, held each year in celebration of community, art and nature, has to be one of the most colorful, entertaining and fun parades I have ever enjoyed.

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Giant Peace Doves soared along our streets.

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The turkey paraded around in the park.~~~~~

A tall gorilla danced with the flower girl. ~~~~~

Turtles showed up in pairs. ~~~~~

An eagle hovered above our crowd.

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This huge red spider, one of the most impressive!

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Prior to the parade each year, people of our community gather together to create these wondrous creatures and plants. Masks, large wearable puppets, inventive instruments and colorful banners are all created out of recycled materials following three simple rules - no motorized vehicles, no live animals or pets and no written or spoken words. Beginning in front of Bellingham City Hall, the procession winds along our streets and ends with a huge gathering and closing ceremony at Maritime Heritage Park.

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My photos from today's Procession of the Species.

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And it did not rain on our parade!

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