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

Old Faithfull (Day 49)

This morning we woke up cold. The area of Yellowstone where we were at still had about five feet of snow on the ground. That morning as we were packing up a ringer pulled up in his car with his lights on. He told us how we were camping illegally and we told him we new that. We told him how it was getting dark on us and instead of hiding we figured we wouldn't hide the fact that we had to camp illegally. Once we told him our story he was very understanding. So everything worked out.

Once we cooked breakfast we were off to Old Faithful. On our way we went over the continental divide twice. In total we have crossed the divide eight times. Once we arrived at Old Faithful we were able to see it go off withing twenty minutes of arriving. We stayed around the area of Old Faithful so that I could call some professors of mine from college. They wanted to know about the trip and what I had been doing since I graduated.

Once leaving Old Faithful we checked out some hot pools as we road. By the time evening had come we were in Montana. As we biked there were buffalo right next to the road. This was kinda scary to be so close to such a big animal. Shortly after the sun had gone down we found a camping spot along a frozen mountain lake.
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