It was a happy birthday made all the happier for June Moxon and Ken Beidleman.

After 80 miles, four meals and three casinos, they expected the celebration of the day they share to cost them less than a gallon of gas.

“We’re going to eat and play on their money,” Beidleman said as he prepared to make the local gambling circle in the championship vehicle of the 1997 Kinetic Sculpture Race.

Sharply attired and appreciative of sweat-proof make-up, Moxon sat in the passenger seat of the vehicle they converted two years ago from human-powered to a human hybrid.

For $150, they added a 4.5-horsepower Subaru engine that cruises along at 28 to 30 miles per hour and gets en eye-popping 120 miles per gallon.

“You can still pedal it,” Moxon said as she pointed to the open floor of the waterproof transport. “You can pedal it as hard as you want and you just get better gas mileage.”

They also get in better shape. Moxon credits pedaling with taking three more pounds off a frame that lost 20 in converting from beer to wine.

“Our Toyota, a ‘69 Land Cruiser, gets 12-to-13 miles per gallon,” Beidleman said. “This one gets 100 to 120, depending on the wind. Do the math.”

“I need one of those,” a young man intoned as he walked by the vehicle shortly after it emerged from the entrance hallway to their apartment above the Lost Coast Brewery.

Beidleman nodded. “They used to think we were crazy. Now they think we’re smart.”

Moxon said they pushed the vehicle to top speed once.

“It can go 38 miles per hour, but that was terribly scary,” she said.

Not as scary as having traffic roar by them when they pedaled across America, sans engine, in a 2,160-pound kinetic sculpture a few years ago.

“We have a mind-set that this is how it should be done,” Beidleman said. He hopes to start making the vehicle for others someday.

The pair regularly makes the trek between Eureka and Arcata, doing it in 15 minutes with the wind and 20 minutes against.

“We’re always pedaling,” Moxon noted. “But we save 10 percent of our body strength for emergencies.”

“The triangle in the back lets everyone know we’re a slow-moving farm implement,” Beidleman said as he pointed toward the the back of the open area behind the seat that held an ice chest, the engine and the three-sided sign that warns traffic from behind to slow down.

“We could weigh as much as five tons,” Beidleman said of the wide berth the triangle gets from passersby. “They don’t know it weighs 300 pounds.”

On Wednesday morning, Bear River Casino was the couple’s initial destination; wind the deciding factor.Blue Lake Casino and Cher-Ae Heights were for later in the day.

Their plan: to turn the $5 apiece each casino gives for gambling into a full day of activity that would end with a freebie dinner at Sunset Restaurant.

“They give meal tickets, too,” Beidleman said, although he allowed he wasn’t quite as clear on that birthday detail. “We’ll play until our $5 is gone or we win more.”

Moxon said their goal is to turn the casino loop into an 80-mile race celebrating alternative energy as well as their joint birthdays.

The human hybrid is a prototype. Beidleman is taking notes, implementing changes, and tinkering on a new model that will carry them on their next alternative energy excursion.

“We plan to pedal across the lower part of Australia,” Moxon said.

“Forty days, 40 nights on 40 gallons,” he added.

“We’re going coast to coast as soon as we get some money,” she said.

They’ll have a hard time getting there on the penny machines Moxon said they play.

No matter. For six hours Wednesday, they were both the same age. Australia was their future, pedal power their past. The two helmeted peas in an alternative pod were immersed in party of unknown duration.

They couldn’t have been happier.