Alright, here are a few video’s of the last few days. The first of which is a video taken out of the van by one of our leaders and it is pretty awesome. The chorus of the song says, “looking for a hero” and right when it says “hero,” Sebastian rolls by–pretty awesome.

The next video is one of our build site today in Athens Georgia. I was two stories up on the roof cleaning out the gutters at the time. It’s pretty entertaining. We deconstructed some pretty dilapidated housing, and demolition is… very fun. No joke–watch the video. I might post another one but I am in a kind of hurry to finally get out and about in Athens so I am gonna go. Don’t be afraid to comment!

Oh yeah, the third video is one of our build day in West Ashley the day before we headed out.

Bike and Build is hella hella cool.

P.S. Hey Linda, thanks for stopping by

-C

Hey everyone, I know it has been a long time since I posted on here but I promise to be much better about it once I get on the road.  Today is Saturday May 22nd and I leave for Charleston tomorrow with my dad.  We will be staying in a hotel somewhere in downtown Charleston, then on Monday Orientation begins!!!  I am getting very excited but still have a few things to do and errands to run today.  So here are the Mail drops for my route:

Big thanks to everyone who has made a contribution to affordable housing!  I would like to keep the donations anonymous but thanks to the ones who helped me get over the $500 mark over new years!  Also a big thanks to everyone who donated in the month of January for helping me top the $1,000 mark.  When I broke $1,000 I was sent my bicycle which is a Giant Defy 2.  Here is a picture of it off of the Giant website, click the picture to view a larger version.

Giant Defy 2

I haven’t bought anything for it yet, but the first things on my list are: a nice saddle, and some super sweet spandex (poor poor perineum), a bag under my seat, two water bottle cages, and a computer.  I sold my cleats and shoes a year ago to a friend of mine who now lives in Raleigh.  I am LONG overdue for a visit down there so those will be on the bike within a week or so.

Also, please give some suggestions for the name of this beastly bicycle in the form of a comment below!

-C

“If you don’t feel alive now you never will!”

That is a quote from my friend Dylan. He said that to me as we were flying down a single track in northern Thailand on mountain bikes as the bottom fell out of a monsoon. We were on an all day mountain biking trip through a jungle near Chiang Mai, we were flying down rugged single tracks, and climbing dirt roads winding our way through rice paddys and very rural housing. It was a once in a lifetime event, and looking back I about wasted my life doing it–but I will guarantee you that every second was worth it.

This coming May I will join 29 other young adults in a bicycle ride across the country through a non-profit called Bike and Build. Bike and Build is a 7 year old non-profit that organizes cross country bicycle trips which benefit affordable housing groups. In addition to riding a bike to show our support, we also stop on average twice a week to help out at various affordable housing groups. Check out www.bikeandbuild.org for more info.

I doubt I will be riding any single track while bicycling across the country, but I bet I will be riding in a line for most of the time. Although there may not be any monsoons, I bet we will run into a few harsh storms as well. And as for those rural houses, well, we will and are doing our best to help fix that problem (Over the past 7 years Bike and Build has been around it has donated over $1.5 Million dollars to affordable housing groups). Somewhere in between riding into a 45mph headwind, getting dumped on by a summer shower, and stopping twice a week to to help out at affordable housing groups, I hope to feel the same way I did in Chiang Mai Thailand–alive.

I hope that you will check out www.bikeandbuild.org if you haven’t already. If you can afford it please donate to the cause, ANY size will be greatly appreciated ($1 $2 $5 $1,000 )–and be sure to tell them I sent you! If you are hard strapped right now as most Americans are, it would be wonderful if you could at least take a moment and spread the word to your friends, family, and/or co-workers.
I will try my best to update this blog as frequently as I can over the next four months during my training. Internet will be spotty for me during the bike ride this summer but be sure to keep up!

best,

Craig