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*

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Niagara Falls (Day 9)

Today was a very exciting day! Things had improved since the day before. Another good nights rest really helped! Also we were going go ride our bikes into Canada and see Niagara Falls. We woke up, and ate a real quick snack and then we were off. The morning was foggy, but the sky was clearing. It was the best day of riding yet. Once the fog cleared out we had a blue sunny sky all day. Today we reached our furthest point north in the northeast and would start heading south from there. This made us both happy to realize that we would be moving onto warmer weather.

We crossed into Canada over the Lewiston-Queenston Bridge. Going over this bridge was a little scary because the Niagara river was so far below us in a deep canyon. Not to mention the bridge was an actual freeway. But the traffic was moving relatively slow due to the boarder crossing. It was pretty random that we pulled up to the boarder on our bikes... The officer kinda just starred at us in disbelief. However, he took our passports, asked where we were heading, and let us go. They didn't check any of our bags. Once through boarder patrol we had to pay a 50 cent toll. This toll for a car was $3.50, but I guess we got a discount because we were on bikes. Once through the toll we got off the first exit on the freeway to get on Niagara Pkwy where we connected with the Niagara Recreation Trail.

Riding along the trail we got to see the rapids of the Niagara River deep within the canyon. This was really cool to see! We road down to the falls took pictures and then kept riding up the Niagara River above the falls. This was a really cool experience for me because I had never seen the falls before. They were impressive. Plus it was earlier in the season so we had no crowds. Riding up the Niagara River was amazing too! Ice chunks were floating down the strong current. As the sun set it was awesome for taking pictures. It was kind of interesting that my great grandfather use to do scull racing along that river. He won several gold medals which during the depression he had to sell to feed his family.

By the time we got back to the Peace Bridge where we would cross back into America it was nighttime. We crossed over into the states which was actually a lot harder to get back into then it was to get into Canada. This time we use the sidewalk to cross. We got to a gate to cross and there was an intercom. We pushed the button to the intercom and an annoyed American voice came out saying, “What do you want!?!?” Abdiel just said “umm we would like to get into America...?” After waiting about ten minutes a guard came down and checked us out.

Once across the boarder and back into the states we started to hunt down the place we were staying at. Going there we ended up in a ghetto, and of course I got a flat tire right there... We went onto the sidewalk and fixed it quietly. I was a little nervous. But I am still here writing so things worked out and nobody bothered us. We made it to the place we would stay.
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