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, May 6, 2011

Our first Century (Day 35)

We got an early start and biked to a small breakfast shop for food. We headed off planning to bike about 75 miles to a town called Sheridan Lakes. The weather today was good! It was sunny and warm, but we still had a headwind. It got so warm that Abdiel and I decided to bike shirtless before we left Kansas. We were inspired by pictures we saw of cyclists riding the Trans American Trail for the first time in 1976. They were shirtless and helmetless. However, we did keep our helmets on.

Once we got to Sheridan Lakes, CO we decided to keep biking. We were still feeling pretty good, and had a couple hours of sunlight left so we decided we would try to bike to the next town about 30 miles away. As we continued to ride the landscape started to changed from grasslands to more desert. The wind also changed direction giving us a small boost. That part of the ride was very rural. For the thirty miles that we biked we saw two houses. We ended up pulling into Eads, CO at night. It was really beautiful to bike in the desert landscape with the sun setting off in the distance. As it got darker we could see flames burning from some of the oil pumps off in the distance. At one point we stopped next to an oil pump and listened to the machinery at work. After riding about 104 miles we decided to set up camp in the town park.
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