Headed Out!

Well here I am at the computer at 9am getting ready to depart on probably the craziest adventure of my life up to now. It really dawned on me for the first time last night when I was laying down to go to sleep, and realizing that it may be my last time sleeping in a bed until August 12th, and maybe even later. It dawned on me again this morning when I looked at the 18 gallon rubbermaid bin that had all of my clothes, bike accessories, and everything else that I plan on keeping with me over the next 8 weeks. I can't express how grateful I am to the donors that made this trip a possibility for me, and if you haven't gotten a thank you letter or email from me it is coming soon. I feel like I owe it to all of you and to myself to document this trip as well as I can so that you can see what your money is going toward, and so that I can come back and remember what is sure to be one of the best experiences of my life. I need to get on the road now so that I don't show up too late, but be sure to check in often and I'll try to update this as much as possible!

Life Update and Plea for Help!

It has been quite a while since my last post, but I have been keeping pretty busy in the mean time. Since my last post I got to watch Kentucky win the NCAA basketball championship live thanks to the generosity of my friend Nora. I also attended my last college classes, had my honors thesis accepted, went on my longest bike ride to date, and got a new brooks saddle to make such long rides a little more comfortable. In the mean time thanks to the generosity of many of the people around me, I have gotten much closer to my fundraising goal for the beginning of the summer. Of the $4500 that I need to raise to participate in Bike and Build, I have raised $3907. This is fantastic, but I'm not done yet. In this break between the end of classes and finals I have been catching up on thank you letters to all of the people that have donated and developing plans for more fundraising. I think my best bet will be to ride my bike on a trainer outside of a grocery store to try to actively raise some money but I also hope that I am able to raise some more funds through these online outlets. Remember that Bike and Build is a 501(C)3 non-profit, so all contributions are deductible against federal income taxes! I will post again this weekend after my finals (I have one on Thursday and two on Friday), so wish me luck and I'll write more over the weekend!