I want to ride my BICYCLE...

Wow. The first couple days here have been a complete whirlwind. Pulling into the church was an amazing feeling and for the first time seeing all these smiling faces of the people that will share the most intimate, embarrassing, and meaningful experiences for the next 60 days.

Our group is AMAZING. Besides having more than twice as many women as men (always a plus), we have people from such diverse backgrounds it is just fantastic. West coast, south, east coast, midwest, Iran, and Greece. Consisting of a plethora of knowledge, experiences, and interests.

The first day consisted of a lot of silly introduction games, attempting to learn everyone's name (harder than you think), and just settling in. We all spent a lot of time chatting and everyone had a smile on their face the whole time. It was like it was Christmas and we were all each other's presents. Another awkward analogy...

I didn't sleep hardly at all the first night. It was loud, people were snoring, I could not get comfortable on my thermarest. Either way, we got up at 6:30 am the next morning to go to our build site at the Beaches Habitat. We layed sod most of the day and did other landscaping. The people were just amazingly nice giving us food and slushies the entire day. I can tell already that having people make food for me the whole summer is going to make me feel really guilty. So when I get back I will just make food for people for a long time or something :).

THe beach is only about 2 miles away or so, so we have been going to the beach in the evening and hanging out there.

Today we did a shakedown ride of 10miles, it was super slow and chill but just a SWEET sight to see 30 bikers in a straight line on a road. Seriously, it is so inspiring.

Gotta run, 1 computer for 32 people is NOT enough. I can tell already that posting will be difficult, but I am trying to take a lot of pictures so that I can describe things to you later. I also bought a small journal and am going to write highlights in it after each day so I don't forget.

I love you all,

Brad

Tomorrow

Tomorrow is the big day, it all begins tomorrow. We all meet in Jacksonville, FL at Sunrise community church at 1pm to begin assembling our bikes and get acquainted with one another.

Thursday June 12th we work at two different build sites near the church for the day and then go swimming and relax in the evening.

I now have exactly 4k fundraised, thanks to some amazingly generous donations from family, friends, friends of family, and some individuals I hardly know. I must personally thank my dad and step-mom, without their amazing contributions I would have been hard pressed to find all the money needed to do this amazing experience.

Now it all comes down to making the experience worth the time, effort, and money put into it. Around 50% of all the money you have all donated is given directly to affordable housing organizations, projects, and funds. The rest goes to financing the trip and bike and build as a nonprofit organization. Thus, I need to do $2,000 worth of work, service, and good along the way. I will try to do my part.

I have a feeling I am going to sweat a LOT this summer. I also have realized I am going to get up close and personal with a lot of roadkill. Ick. But, it is all part of the experience and understanding why cars are such horrible machines for the world (and poor little cute animals too).

I fit all of my gear into an internal frame backpack that I got. I figured it would be very useful for the Peace Corps following this experience. Two pairs of shorts and two shirts are going to be very grimy once I finish :).

I cannot wait until tomorrow... look for some more interesting posts coming soon!!!

Brad

Progress!

Progress is a wonderful thing! I only need ~$600 more dollars to reach my fundraising goal of 4k and to actually allow me to do bike and build over the summer.

I have been trying to bike every 3 days or so, but it is hard with all the work and the crappy Minnesota weather lately. I really need to find a comfortable seat. I feel as though you should be able to ride for longer than 10-20 minutes before your but starts being sore, but I might be wrong. Maybe my "razors for butt-bones" cannot be helped by anything...

Have my only real final tomorrow in health care economics... it is going to feel so GREAT to be done!! However, coming down with a nasty upper respiratory infection doesn't help my studying ability. I jut hope it is not mono since I know a friend on the ultimate team that came down with mono recently. I really wouldn't want to have to begin B&B with an enlarged spleen....

Thanks to everyone who has donated to my trip so far. I will not forget your kindness anytime in the near future. Especially those who are friends or aquaintances from college, I have had fellow college students giving me $50-100 donations, which is just an amazing amount of money for someone still in school. So I want to thank you all, from the bottom of my heart.

Also... if there is anyone out there who is still interested in donating... please do! I still need $600 in order to actually go on the trip!!!

I will write some more once I am done with school and can relax a bit.

With love,

Bradley

Fundraising

Hello everyone!,

You have found my blog for my bike and build trip this coming summer! Yayyy!

Fundraising is going well, I am up to $2500 out of $4000 needed for the trip! I am getting really excited for it to get warm enough for me to hop on my new bike and start riding. Yes, this might be influenced by the fact that I am unable to play Ultimate right now due to a broken right navicular bone, but I go in to the doc's to get that re-X-rayed tomorrow so wish me luck!

The response I have gotten in regards to this trip has been amazing. I really really appreciate all of your interest and incredibly generous donations to this cause. I will try my best to not let you down and get a lot out of this trip.

Look for more information about how training, fundraising, and background research is going in the coming months!

Thanks!

Brad