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, May 15, 2011

A Windless Day (Day 45)

As we left the campsite a couple miles down the road some locals informed us that we had chosen a perfect day to ride. They said it was the first windless day they had seen for a couple of weeks. As we have been reading some about Wyoming I guess the prevailing winds cause it to be a pretty windy place. The bike map for Wyoming I have says to expect strong headwinds at all times! So we were truly lucky to have a windless, sunny day.

As we road today off in the distance we could see the Wind River Mountain Range. They were caked with snow. I remembered the summer after my freshman year in high school my dad brought us to the Wind Rivers to do a backpacking trip. Backpacking in the Wind River Range was an awesome experience. It was really cool to hike past green glacial lakes, and see glaciers off in the distant mountains. So seeing those mountains again reminded me of that experience.

Another great aspect of today was that there was a lot of downhill! This helped to have our best average speed of the whole trip 12.1mph. Also as we biked an older couple stopped their car and started to talk to us. They wanted to take us out to dinner that night. Bill, the older gentlemen had ridden across the United States twice. The first time he did it he was 64 years old. Once in Lander Bill and Marry Joe took us out to eat! They fed us well! Bill told us that we couldn't leave till we had eaten at least 6,000 calories. As they dropped us off to where we would camp it started to rain. So Bill and Mary Joe decided to get us a motel room in town. We were very gracious for what Bill and Mary Joe did for us. One would think it was very selfless, but they said in reality it was selfish. Bill said that they loved to do stuff like that cause it made them happy to help others out. So in a way it was selfish, but Abdiel and I both appreciated the selfishness that they showed us.
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