1998 - Bike-Aid 3,600 Miles Across The U.S.A.
1999 - The Great Divide Mountain Bike Expedition
June 11, 1998 - Seattle - Orientation
DISTANCE TRAVELED: 0 MilesTIME: 0 Hours
AVERAGE SPEED: 0 Miles/Hour
TRAVEL CONDITIONS: Sunny Warm Day
ROAD CONDITIONS: N/A
TERRAIN/DIFFICULTY LEVEL: N/A
DAILY JOURNAL COMMENTS:
Today I arrived at the Chruch meeting area around 3:00 in the afternoon after driving up from San Diego. As soon as I arrived I began meeting my fellow riders whom I will be spending a period of three months with. By around 6:00 at night, everyone was at the designated starting place and we began to do a more formal introduction. We met with three of our riders, Israel Conrady from La Paz, Bolivia, Cosmus Matipira from Masvigo, Zimbabwe, and Pinky Serafica from Quezon, Phillippines. They are all involved in helping the poor and needy in their home country. Two of our foreign riders, Israel and Cosmus help to give loans to the people in their homeland and Pinky works with the news and the radio, telling of the problems that the Phillipinos are facing today. This trip is very fitting for these three foreign riders since it is so heavily involved in service-orientated events, just like they are involved in at home. As the night continued, we had a dinner with stir fried rice after which we had a period of "Questions and Answers." Not too many questions came up but I am sure that they will as the week continues. After this, we had the traditional "passing of the candle" which involves each person telling why he or she is going on this trip and what each one wants to gain from the experience. Everyone seemed to be centered around the idea of service but each person seemed to have a different way that they had come to the decision to participate on this long trip. The meeting ended around 9:30 and we made plans to be back at the church by 11:00, with lights out. It is now 11:30 and we only have about half of the people back! I think that everyone is still out getting ice cream while I am retrieving my stockpile of e-mail messsages and writing up this report.
