Leaving for Jacksonville

Well, Laura and Claude (two of my co-leaders) finally got here tonight after a long day picking up the van and trailer on Long Island and driving it down. They pretty much went right to sleep after spending about 10 hours on the road. (Fixing a trailer delayed their departure to nicely coincide with New York rush hour.)

I, on the other hand, have somehow managed to not finish packing yet, even though it's 2:20am. I think I'll go to sleep for a few hours and finish the rest in the morning. We leave at 7:30. This still doesn't seem real. I'm about to leave and spend the next nine weeks living on a bicycle and in churches and tents as we make our way across the country. In just over two weeks I'll be in New Orleans. In a month I'll be in Texas. In about 8 weeks we'll be camping in Utah. In about 10 weeks we'll be dipping our wheels in the Pacific. Here we go!

On another note, thanks to all those who have given me last minute donations. And if you would still like to donate, it's not too late! You can send in your donation or make a check out to me and get in contact, I'll let you know where to send it.

"It is by riding a bicycle that you learn the contours of a country best, since you have to sweat up the hills and coast down them. Thus you remember them as they actually are, while in a motor car only a high hill impresses you, and you have no such accurate remembrance of country you have driven through as you gain by riding a bicycle."

- Ernest Hemingway

Counting down the days

Welcome everyone. It's barely still Monday, which means that in:

5 days - I will be in Jacksonville with my fellow trip coordinators
8 days - The rest of the group will show up
11 days - We will depart Jacksonville
73 days - We will arrive in San Francisco

It's hard to believe how drastically my life is about to change, but I invite you to share it with me here on this blog. Whether you are seeing to what use your (very generous) donation went, wishing you were on the road as well and living vicariously through this blog, or conducting research on mental illnesses which drive people to put their bodies through extreme suffering for the purpose of achieving a personal goal of dubious real-world worth, you've come to the right place.

I hope to be somewhat regular in posting chronicles of my trip here for all to see, but I know myself all too well and I will apologize in advance if a week or two goes by that I seem to miss. You'll also be able to follow the group on the Bike and Build website.

Thanks to everyone who has donated and to everyone who has offered their support. It means a lot.