Welcome to Bike for Haiti By Erik and Abdiel

The idea of this trip began ten years ago on a family road trip. As the sights of the United States passed by me I dreamed of riding my bike across the country. I brought the matter up during our road trip. I remember saying something like “Next time lets do this by bike...” Of course at the time everyone thought I was crazy. Then five years ago on another road trip I discussed my dream with Abdiel, a friend of mine. He thought that a bike trip would be crazy, but also a great experience. Overtime the idea slowly started to develop and take hold.

While this bike trip will be a great learning experience for Abdiel and I we eventually decided to ride for a cause. We not only wanted this adventure to mean something to us, but to serve a purpose for others. This is why we have decided to ride for Partners in Health (PIH), and Haiti. As many of you know it has been about a year since the earthquake devastated Haiti displacing people out of their homes. Even more then a year later people are still living in tented communities. PIH is not only dedicated to continue to help those harmed by the quake, but has existed in Haiti for many years. As a co-founder of PIH, Dr. Paul Farmer has been revolutionizing how medicine is brought to those in need throughout Haiti. The mission statement for PIH states “When a person in Peru, or Siberia, or rural Haiti falls ill, PIH uses all of the means at our disposal to make them well... Whatever it takes. Just as we would do a member of our own family - or we ourselves were – ill.” This means that PIH is very adamant about helping those who fall ill upon their doorstep. (To learn more about what PIH is doing for Haiti visit PIH Stand for Haiti website)

Any donations are greatly appreciated. We hope the links to our blog will help better inform you about PIH and Haiti. A great book to read is “Mountains beyond Mountains” by Tracy Kidder. You can make a one time donation to our cause and give our ride purpose by going to our PIH Fundraiser Page or if you would like to donate an X amount of money per mile we ride that can be done by going to Pledge per Mile. Remember even the smallest contributions help.

* Your donation can: give a years worth of tuberculosis medication for one person that costs about $10-$20 dollars in poor countries such as Haiti. Antiretrovirals for HIV range from $70-$80 per year, per person. *All donations will go to PIH*

Friday, April 22, 2011

First Lighting Storm (Day 20)

Today we left the Lutheran camp that we were staying at. It really was a home away from home. When we woke up that morning the ranger's wife came over with some coffee, egg sandwiches, and some OJ. She even made us a bag lunch for the ride. My only issue with the area is that I have been fighting some pretty bad allergies. Normally I never get allergies. That morning my eyes were so itchy and watery that it was hard to keep them open. Everyone who I have talked to say that the Ohio River Valley is known for its allergens in the spring. Because of my allergies our first stop for the day was at the drug store.

The riding contained many challenges today. As we rode we would climb out of the river valley and then descend back down. This created a lot of climbing which was pretty challenging. It was one of the hilliest days since we left New England. Being one of the hilliest today was also one of the hottest. The temp hit about 85 degrees. Overall we were able to ride about 77 miles to finish the day. So we finished strong.

During the evening as we rode we hit our first thunderstorm as we were searching for a place to camp. We put on our rain gear real quick and kept going. The storm wasn't too intense.
There were a few flashes of lighting here and there. Even though it wasn't to intense and the storm didn't last very long one lighting strike was very close to us. It struck in the woods not too far from us. As soon as we saw the flash of light the thunder was almost instant!

That night at the campground we found a place to set our tent up underneath a pavilion. There we were sheltered from the rain. Although there was no thunder at one point during the night the wind and rain became very strong. It seemed as if the tent was going to blow away with us in it.
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