Bike for Change

It all started as a spontaneous idea conceived over some hot chocolate.

I'm not quite sure who initially said it, but somehow both Vikki and I knew right away that it was something we needed to do.

"Let's plan a long distance bike trip."

A few weeks later Vikki called me up on the phone...

"Were you actually serious about planning a bike trip?" she asked.
"Yeah," I replied, "were you?"
"Of course," she immediately replied.
"Let's do it then."

And so the planning began.  How long should our bike trip be?  How many miles a day are we capable of riding?  What time of year should we go?  Should it be across the United States?  Through South America?  We shot around ideas for awhile, before deciding that our bike trip would be a one month journey from Vancouver to San Francisco in May, averaging about 50 miles a day.  This was back in January...

Now here we are, quickly approaching the beginning of our trip.  How have I been preparing you might ask?  Well, about that...it's quite cold in Chicago (and not to mention rainy recently), so my training has not been going as initially planned.  After being caught ten miles away in the pouring rain, I have given up on training for a bit, in the hopes that all my years of playing soccer have made my leg muscles strong enough to endure whatever might be thrown at them.  According to my grandfather (who bikes 30 miles a day), that won't cut it, but I guess it's too late now...

Our bike trip will be raising money for Support for International Change (SIC), a charity that Vikki volunteered with in Tanzania.  We have already raised almost $2500, which is much more than we initially planned!  (www.bikeforchange.wordpress.org).

We plan to camp the entire time.  Surprisingly, I have not been camping too many times.  In fact I can count on my two hands the number of times I have gone camping in my entire life.  I guess by June I will have added 40 to that number...Packing will be quite the challenge since everything I need must fit into two panniers that attach to the back of the bike.  Our only plan is to somehow make it from Vancouver, Canada to San Francisco in five weeks, without killing ourselves or one another.  Should be quite the adventure...