And we're off!

June 6. Departure day. Cool morning, light mist. 32 riders outfitted in matching blue and red jerseys cycled excitedly from our host church to the (slippery) Providence dock. Dipping Ceremony. On the count of 3 we all dipped our back tires in the lapping waves of the Atlantic. Now, theres just one direction - West! - Riding towards Pacific.

The streets of Providence were full of potholes and interesting obstacles. As our group of 32 riders snaked along the city's main streets (in snazzy blue spandex), you could hear phrases passed along to from one rider to the rider behind him/her such as "Pothole! " "Slowing!" and frequent jubilant cries of "P2SF!!" [i.e. Providence to San Francisco].

After 10 miles of city streets, we climbed a sloping hill and emerged surrounded by farm fields and old style New England houses. 23 miles later, we caught up with the van + trailer (painted with our mural of bikes and houses and a big map of our route across the U.S.A.) and stopped for lunch. St. Martin's church (our host during our 3 days of Orientation) had cooked us a fabulous departure breakfast of quiche, omelets, and muffins and we were delighted to see that our lunch was comprised of the delicious leftovers supplemented by the standard PPJ.

At the CT welcome sign of course we stopped to shoot about a hundred pictures with all of us riders elated next to the sign. Then, we had a couple of fantastic downhills (where one rider reached 45 mph) which opened up to a valley of quaint houses and stone walls with a landscape dotted with a few cows.
On the day, we cycled 37 miles and spent the afternoon resting at a church in Plainfield, CT - another quaint, New England town. We finished up painting the trailer this afternoon - and man, do we have some artists or what in our group! It looks really sweet. (I'll have to take some pictures to show you). And from what I hear, we have a pretty spectacular dinner awaiting us prepared by the congregation of St. Paul's.

Thank you for helping me surpass my fund rasing goal of $4000 for affordable housing!

So I made it! Thanks to the the 71 people who sponsored, I have raised (to date) $4125 to benefit affordable housing organizations across the United States.

We are still looking for sponsorships! The more money we raise, the more we can help people desperate for an affordable home! Because each rider must raise a minimum of $4000 in order to participate on the ride, I would ask that instead of sponsoring me, please sponsor my good friend Maxwell Kraft (who is responsible for introducing me to road biking to begin with!) who is a bit short of his $4K goal.

Please visit bikeandbuild.org/donate and click on Kraft, Maxwell to donate and grant him eligibility on this ride of a lifetime!

Thank you again for your continued support.

Here's to my Giant road bike

And here she is! My Giant road bike steed which carry me across the United States. I have been training almost every day now and have introduced her to these NYS hills. America, here I come!

Ghana Bike Project: loading day!

Check out these pictures of the hundreds of bikes we collected from the Ithaca area to send to Ghana to be used in rural development initiatives.

Ghana Pics For Blog

View more OpenOffice presentations from guest01b298.

Ghana Bikes on the Cornell University homepage

Check it out! www.cornell.edu
Two undergrads send used bikes to Ghana...

The road for affordable housing : I've hit the $3000 milestone

Thanks everyone for your support! With your help, I have currently raised $3145 to be used for affordable housing project across the U.S.A.

The sponsor of the day: The Blue Rooster Bakery.
The Blue Rooster hosted Jennifer Johnson (fiddler, dancer, singer) to play on March 15th and entertain guests. Proceeds of the event went in part to sponsor my ride. Thank you Karen Finigan (owner) for your support!

Ghana Bikes Project in the Cornell Chronicle!

Publicity just keeps coming our way. My dear friend and housemate Jill McCoy wrote a lovely article about Liz and my "Scrap Metal to Ghana Pedal" Project.
Check it out here.

"Old, rusty bikes sitting in the garage after years of disrepair or disuse are often sent to the junkyard, drifting into oblivion or piling up into scrap metal. But Cornell students Anne-Lise Cossart '09 and Liz Bageant '10 are shifting this paradigm by collecting and shipping used bikes to Ghana.

Jill McCoy

Anne-Lise Cossart '09, standing, and Liz Bageant '10 prepare bikes they have collected to be shipped to Ghana.

Once in Accra, Ghana's capital, the bikes will be refurbished and sold at low prices to African villagers.

"We look at these bikes and think they are rusty or dirty, but [in Ghana] they definitely get used," said Bageant, a development sociology major in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences..."