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*

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Down Down Down... (Day 54)

We woke up earlier then normal because we weren't use to Pacific Time which we entered yesterday. Getting up so early we decided it would be good to try making pancakes. For me cooking pancakes in a pot was a disaster... it turned out to be more like a pancake crumble. Abdiel on the other hand was almost able to master the art of cooking pancakes on a campstove. This is pretty hard when the stove can only run as off or full blast... no simmering options for us... Even though they weren't the best pancakes we have made they still tasted great! So I guess that is all that matters.

We continued to ride along the Clearwater River. In fact we stayed on twelve the whole day and watched the river as it kept growing and growing. As we road along the river we continued the downhill trend we started yesterday. I believe we have been going downhill for at least 100 miles. All the gradual climbing we did in Kansas has finally paid off with a nice long gradual downhill.

The day was pretty normal besides the humming birds that would zoom by our heads whenever we stopped. It amazed us how they would hover two to three feet away from us. Throughout the day I also worked on getting a plane ticket for returning home. Another reminder that things are almost to an end.
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