On the Road

So I said that finding Internet access on the road would be difficult, and it's true. This is the first time that I have been able to really check email in five days.

Orientation was a lot of fun and getting to meet 29 new people and blending so many different personalities. We left from Nag's Head on Friday with a full police escort, very cool. That night we stayed at Soule Methodist Church in Swanquarter, where they fed us very well and get us ready for our next day's ride.

My next day was very rough. I ended up have a very difficult day on Saturday due to the combination of rainy conditions, a hole in my Camelbak and two broken spokes due to the bumpy roads. I finally got to Belhaven, which was amazing. The people there were so nice and accomadating to our every need. They threw us this awesome cookout Saturday night and built a campfire for us later.

Today was much smoother. I had to sweep today and pulled into Greenville around 3:00. This guy named Steve have offered us his house for the night, as well as dinner.

I will try to update in a few days when we finally pull into Chapel Thrill!

Cheers

It's Here

So all the hard work with fund raising, interning and training has made its way to this moment. I leave early tomorrow morning for Nag's Head to meet up with the other 33 people that have made this commitment for the summer. I have been looking forward to (and dreading leaving everything/everybody behind for 2.5 months) this moment for four months and it has finally been realized. I am biking across the country/continent starting Thursday. From what I hear and expect, this is going to be the most exciting/interesting/enlightening summer of my life. I can't wait to dip my rear wheels in the Atlantic in two days and set off on this amazing journey from there.

In an update of my fund raising effort, I think I have come to the total of $3,650 from everyone. I plan to make up the difference as my own kind of donation toward the effort this summer. Even though it is too late to have money counted toward my total (unless you find me tonight in Chapel Hill), I hope that you will still try to help Bike & Build by donating whatever you can toward the organization. You can make a general contribution by going to www.bikeandbuild.org and clicking "Donate."

Thanks so much to everyone that helped me in getting me to where I am now. I promise your money will go so far.

Hopefully the next post I make will be from the road, wherever that may be...

Cheers

My Schedule

I realize that some people may think that I am heading off this summer and I have no idea where I will be at night or that I will be camping out in strange lands every day. This is, however, not the case. Although I will have never seen most of the lands that I will be biking to during the summer, our Trip Leaders have gone to great lengths to make sure we have places to stay (albeit schools, churches, etc.) in each town we stop in.

This is where I will be every day throughout the summer:

Week: Date City - State Mi. 05/21 Nags Head - NC 0 05/22 Nags Head - NC 0 05/23 Swanquarter - NC 62 05/24 Belhaven - NC 34 05/25 Greenville - NC 54 05/26 Wake Forest - NC 77 05/27 Chapel Hill - NC 58 05/28 BUILD DAY 0 05/29 BUILD DAY 0 05/30 Winston-Salem - NC 77 05/31 Taylorsville - NC 70 06/1 Linville Falls - NC 54 06/2 Asheville - NC 50 06/3 BUILD DAY 0 06/4 Gatlinburg - TN 85 06/5 Maryville - TN 40 06/6 BUILD DAY 0 06/7 BUILD DAY 0 06/8 Sweetwater - TN 40 06/9 Dunlap - TN 77 06/10 Sewanee - TN 55 06/11 Pulaski - TN 85 06/12 Savannah - TN 84 06/13 Bolivar - TN 37 06/14 Memphis - TN 70 06/15 DAY OFF 0 06/16 Brinkley - AR 82 06/17 Little Rock - AR 70 06/18 BUILD DAY 0 06/19 BUILD DAY 0 06/20 Clarksville - AR 88 06/21 Fayetteville - AR 73 06/22 Grove - OK 60 06/23 Bartlesville - OK 80 06/24 DAY OFF 0 06/25 Ponca City - OK 71 06/26 Cherokee - OK 80 06/27 Coldwater - KS 89 06/28 Dodge City - KS 67 06/29 Garden City - KS 53 06/30 Lamar - CO 102 07/1 Rocky Ford - CO 75 07/2 Colorado Springs - CO 96 07/3 BUILD DAY 0 07/4 DAY OFF 0 07/5 Buena Vista - CO 87 07/6 Gunnison - CO 85 07/7 Ouray - CO 106 07/8 Durango - CO 75 07/9 BUILD DAY 0 07/10 Cortez - CO 45 07/11 Teec Nos Pos - AZ 47 07/12 Kayenta - AZ 73 07/13 Tuba City - AZ 72 07/14 Desert View - AZ 56 07/15 Williams - AZ 80 07/16 Prescott - AZ 85 07/17 BUILD DAY 0 07/18 Wickenburg - AZ 60 07/19 Wenden - AZ 45 07/20 Blythe - CA 65 07/21 Brawley - CA 88 07/22 Julian - CA 75 07/23 El Cajon - CA 50 07/24 San Diego - CA 36

I also have places where I can pick up mail sent to me throughout the summer, but I will post those locations later.

72 Hours

The real countdown has begun, and I start this amazing trip in little over three days!

In the meantime, I have had a huge rush to raise the last bit of my $4,000 goal. I have seen so many people help, and I am so thankful. Today, Sunday, is the last day to make donations online. In order to do that you simple go to www.bikeandbuild.org and click on "Donate." From there you can choose the rider you would like to support and proceed with the transaction through Google Checkout. All donations are tax-deductible!

Also, The Stokes News, my small, local newspaper from back in King did a story about my journey this summer. It can be found here:

http://www.thestokesnews.com/articles/2008/05/15/
news/doc482b4229cc331405090498.txt

Thanks so much to Wendy Byerly Wood for giving me the opportunity to share this experience and cause to all of the people back in King.

Now I am just in the process of gathering all of my clothing and equipment and getting ready to head to the Outer Banks on Wednesday.

Getting Close

So the start date for this amazing journey is getting very close. Less than six days til we all meet in Nag's Head. I have kick-started my fund raising again, and hopefully I will have all $4,000 raised before next Wednesday, meaning that I will be able to focus all of my personal money toward bike maintenance on the road.

Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone that has donated. I have definitely seen a lot of generosity from people in giving, especially from people I would have never expected. I am currently $900 from my goal. Please donate if you can! Every dollar counts!

Catching Up

So it has been quite a while since my last post, and that time has been split pretty evenly between preparing and taking finals, rowing towards end-of-season regattas, and trying to continue fundraising for Bike & Build.

As a quick update, I have seen a lot of generosity from people in trying to fundraise. I am currently sitting at $2,300 towards my $4,000 goal. I have a little over a week before I leave for the trip, so this week will be quite a push for donations.

I was featured last week in the Winston-Salem Journal by Lisa O'Donnell (thanks Lisa!) and the link to the article can be found at:

http://www2.journalnow.com/content/2008/may/09/west-stokes-grad-
to-bike-3700-miles-build-houses/?living-columnists-lodonnell

I will also be featured in The Stokes News this coming Thursday.

Thanks so much to everyone that has donated so far! I am still trying desperately to recruit anyone that would like to donate or any businesses that would like to sponsor me. I have quite bit to go so I can go on the trip, and every dollar counts!

Please help! It will go much farther than the 3,500 miles that I will travel!

Travis