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 29, 2011

No Rain in Missouri (Day 28)

Today was the first full day that we have been in Missouri were it hasn't rained. After getting a good nights sleep we were off to start in Hartville again. Because there was a detour on 38 The pastor recommended that we take route 60 to 160. He said that there was a good shoulder. On the route we ended up finding out it was more freeway then a simple country road. However, it was probally best because of the flooding going on. In fact at one point a part of 60 was closed because one side of it was flooded. Once we got into Springfield there was some construction we had to get around. Instead of riding with the cars we road in the closed off areas where construction was being done. Nobody was working at the time so this gave us a whole entire highway to ourselves. After 50 miles of riding a freeway we were finally able to get off. It was nice to be on a country road again with a lot less noise and more scenery.

As we started getting close to a spot where we could get a motel in Everton, we noticed a storm coming up from the southwest that was moving up fast. The clouds looked extremely threatening. Some of the darkest, ugliest looking clouds I have ever seen. One in Everton we started to ask around for a motel. Everyones reply was “there ant any here.” Finally we ended up at a bar and the owner said we could pitch our tent up out back. With no other place and the storm fast approaching we set the tent up as we heard thunder rumble off in the distance. As it started to rain we went into the bar and got something to eat. There the people were fairly friendly to us and interested as to why wee would bike across the country.

We were in the bar for a fair amount of time because of the storm. I mostly just talked to some people telling them about the trip, and watched the weather channel which was on the TV. The storm looked big but luckily we were not in an area with any watches or warnings. It seemed that only one edge of the storm clipped us. If we had been further south the storm would have been a lot worse. We mostly had a little thunder and some good rain. Eventually on of the guys about our aged asked if we would like to stay at his place so we could stay dry. Hanging out with these guys was an interesting experience.
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