What is this Bike & Build thing anyway?

I'm biking across the country. cool? heck yeah! But there's way more to it than just that.  The Organization I am riding with is called Bike and Build.

Here's the breakdown:

Bike=cool, we bike our way from coast to coast. 

Build=cooler, we're raising awareness to the lack of affordable housing in America. 

The basic break down of the trip goes like this.  Over a period of 72 days, we bike 56, build 13 and take 3 days off. The ride is fully supported meaning there's a van&trailer to carry all our stuff, they provide breakfast before we set off in the morning, lunch on the road, and dinner when we get to that night's location.  Most days average 50-70 miles. We sleep usually in a church or community center, maybe a campsite, and give presentations to the hosts about affordable housing. 

On build days, we go to a site to get some hands-on work done, usually with a Habitat for Humanity organization or something similar. My route actually has two build days in Columbus, July 7th&8th. I'm so excited to hopefully see a bunch of friends while I'm in town. 

Days off, well those are days off. I'm anticipating wanting to sleep a lot then. But with days off in Pittsburgh, Roswell, NM, and the Grand freaking Canyon, I'll probably be way too excited to go sightseeing.  

I think that sums up the general idea of how it all works.  Here's the description of the route my trip actually takes, I think it has a lot of highlights I'm looking forward to, mainly Cbus, Route 66, the desert in general, and of course the Grand Canyon. 

After a two day Orientation held just outside of Portland, ME, the ME2SB route heads west across the Berkshire Mountains of western Massachusetts and the Appalachian Mountains of Pennsylvania, interrupted by a day-long ride along the Hudson River. Upon leaving Pittsburgh, the trip continues across the rolling hills of Ohio and vast open spaces of Indiana and Illinois, crossing the Mississippi river in St. Louis, Missouri. At the end of week four the route turns southwest to parallel classic US Route 66 through Oklahoma and Texas. As the terrain transforms from plains to desert, riders will literally be, as The Eagles sang, “standing on the corner of Winslow, AZ…” Pie Town, NM, voted one of the top three overnight locations by last year’s crew, will see riders cross the continental divide, as well as indulge in copious amounts of the local delicacy.

Tulsa, OK, Amarillo, TX, Roswell, NM, and Flagstaff, AZ are all stops en route to the Grand Canyon's south rim. The last week of the trip says goodbye to the Mojave Desert, as California’s border gives way to rugged cliffs, beautiful vineyards, and finally the beautiful coast of Santa Barbara, CA.

In order to ride I have to raise $4500. Roughly half of this goes towards supporting me (food, bike, places to stay, etc.) and the rest goes towards the affordable housing cause in several ways(more on this later)

I'm currently in the process of selling shirts to help me raise money, they're going to be $12, so let me know if you want one/what size, you can post here: https://www.facebook.com/events/251197498341504/ or call/text/message/smoke signal me. 

As always, you can donate directly to my ride at http://bikeandbuild.org/rider/6690

Much Love, 

Jeff