I fell asleep last night with the violent ranting of Jarico and John rolling through my head of "Mother F**king New Jersey!.....Why don't they label the roads!...... Who designed these streets?..... This is the stupidest place! New Jersey is the stupidest place!..... Wouldn't even let us use the bathroom back there!...... F**king New Jersey!........ I hate this place!....... Where's the turnpike?!........ The map is wong!...... Why is the map wrong?!" Amazingly sleep comes.

Then the morning came and I felt a gentle rocking of the bus. I hear a manaical laugh and see John Law run away as the bus slows it's rocking. I sit up. We've made it. We're in Coney Island. I can only imagine the time it took to get here..... driving through the night.... lost in New Jersey. But we are here now, and that seems to be the important thing as there is practically no one left on the bus, everyone gone off to the beach, or the boardwalk, or possibly to Nathan's to eat a hot dog. I decide that it is time to rise and eateth of the dog in celebration of our long journey from the dogs at the carousel diner. When I arrive at the hot dog stand, scrunched in among the other stands boasting of candied apples, ice cream and clams, I see a pack of our bus crew. Some have eaten more dogs than others and David is munching on some frogs legs. Yum. We all chow on the grease that is Nathan's famous hot dogs and fries, and experience first hand the concept of New York coffee (if you don't ask for it straight black it comes pre- creamed and possibly sugared.... with lots and lots of cream and sugar). Next we meander down to the board walk. We stroll along the beach and watch as the rides slowly open. We play with horse shoe crabs that have washed up on the shore and pick up shells. Unfortunately we need to leave before most of the rides open, and just as we are pulling out i see the mechanics of the "Cyclone" begin to move (the huge wooden rollercoster of Coney Island) and i promise to come back again when i will ride that thing until my nose bleeds.

Scott and Lori are on the bus when we start to pull out of Coney Island. Little did i know at the time, this was merely the beginning of the masses of people who would be boarding the bus today.

We begin our slow journey from Coney Island to Brooklyn. We pass through many neighborhoods of baffled residents who stand with gaped mouths as they watch our bus of dancing freaks pulling dog heads go by. And then we reach the Madagascar Institute where Julia greats us with open arms. There are people waiting for us at Julia's..... all from San Francisco, about 6 people join our party and board the bus. Our next stop is Times Square where Mr Lucky is going to sing from the dog head trailer with Kitty Kitty Bang Bang at his side and Nick Phelps playing behind him. We pick up Mr. Lucky, Kitty Kitty Bang Bang, Nick and Nancy Phelps as well as a HUGE CLOWN POSSE and many others! Now the bus was full. A head count was attempted, but I think in jest as more than half the people on the bus had to stand squished together. Many clown got roudy, a bull horn was taken out and abused, and general insanity issued. I have no idea what the driver in the front of the bus thought of all this, for i could not see the front of the bus in my middle of the bus position.

We stop at time square. Mr. Luck, Nick Phelps and Kitty Kitty Bang Bang jump out of the bus- all in full costume- and onto the Dog Heads beginning to play. They do three songs and attract much tourist attention who create a large crowd around us snapping photos. I'm not sure how those photos will be explained later- but we stayed there for a while with amazingly no police attention- and then moved on.

Some how, after Times Square, the bus is more crowded than ever. Are there tourists on the bus that think we are going down town? Hopefully so! They will be in for a surprise! We drive along and then suddenly, after about 15 minutes, everyone decides that they want to get off the bus. I has become too much. It is too crazy. There are too many clowns.

We make a stop at the Guggenheim, where clowns fall out of the windows of the bus and many people depart through the door. Then we move on, still packed to the gills, but a little more calmly, to CBGB's Gallery.

Here we also learn that the bus is in need of another back tire. There is one on there that is falling apart.

Arriving at the Gallery, the Bike Rodeo decides to join New York's critical mass (which they do on the same day as SF). So bikes are taken down from the top of the bus and other- non bike rodeo people disperse in their own personal directions. The bus will stay at CBGB's until night time, when it will be brought back to Brooklyn and then decided upon how to fix the tire. I personally decided that drink and hot good food was in immediate order. I found some people that agreed and we went on our way. Still in full clown makeup.

-Jillian Northrup