Post #14 - It's started!!!

Oh man, Bike and Build has finally started.  After months and months of preparation, mile after mile of training, dollar after dollar raised, and now its here!!  I feel so blessed to have had such great support from everyone at home.  And now I am blessed to have a totally awesome group of people to ride across the country with me. 

So arriving Thursday was kind of like the first day of camp.  A lot of peoples parents dropping them off, people trying to figure out where there stuff goes, and all that fun stuff.  Of course we did the classic ice-breaker type games.  Trying to learn 29 names is pretty tough for me.  I'm slowly getting them though.  We really do have an awesome group from all over the place:  Alaska, California, New York, Michigan, and everywhere in between.  I have been dubbed as the bike guy, which I am cool with, I like working on bikes.  So I helped some people get their bikes put together and adjusted. 

I love the sight of so many bikes all in one room!
  

So today we got up from our awesome night of rest on the floor nice and early.  Did some more orientation stuff early on, and then we got to go on our "shakedown" ride!  Basically just a short practice ride to get everyone used to riding together.  It was super fun!  We got to ride over this awesome bridge!

On Saturday we did our first build day. It was super cool. In Charleston they have a lot of historical codes to help preserve the character of the city. So we worked on a ladies house doing a restoration. She grew up in the house as a little girl and we were fortunate enough to be able to help out so she and her dog can move back in as soon as possible. The house has been completely gutted down to the studs.

It was such a great experience getting to help out. I did my fair share of hammering, and oh man were my neck and shoulders letting me know today on the bike.

So today we actually did our first day of actual riding!! We got sent off by our amazing hosts, Trinity United Methodist in Charleston. They prayed over us and we proceeded down to dip our tires into the Atlantic Ocean!

So we headed out to Moncks Corner, South Carolina. The group I was riding with only missed one turn... Not too bad I thought. We ended up riding around 40 miles. We ended up at a nice little church with an awesome lake we all jumped in before our showers. Pretty much an awesome day. So now we chill til dinner! Whoop whoop!

Hammock Chillin'

Oops...

Post #13 - The Final Countdown

OH MAN!!!! It is almost here!!!

I am pretty stoked.  I'm actually sitting in Charleston writing this.  The fam and myself came up a few days early to just enjoy the town and rest up before I rolled out.  I did get to see Salter (aka Coolest Niece Ever!!) before  I left.  Check out the pics and be jealous!

And I even got to see sweet MJ!

And MJ's cute momma too!

So I'm here.  I have all of my stuff for the summer in a 20 gallon bin.  I've got a bike that I am really pretty fond of.  I've got about 1,000 miles under my butt for the past two and a half months.  I've (with the help of a TON of people) raised over $5,000.  I've got my volunteer hours done.  I do not have TB (which is nice) and the doctor (which happens to be muh Dad) has deemed me ready to go.   SO LET'S GO!!!  I really am ready to hit the road.  But I've still got to meet the whole group, which I happen to be super stoked about.  I've gotta get orientated.  Yep, Orientated.  Then we do a build day, which will be awesome because I love that stuff.  And finally on Sunday May 27, 2012 we put tires to pavement and ride out!!!  So, what I need at this point is simple.  Prayers.  Pray for safety for our group.  Pray for the people we are going to help.  And please pray for all of the rider's mothers!  Mothers seem to worry about their kids heading cross country on a bicycle.  I can't wait to post from the road!!! Feel free to email me whenever, barrett.hoover9@gmail.com or call me!!

Post #12 - Bo (& Barrett) Bike Bama

Holy Crap!  I got to ride my bike with Bo Jackson!  That's kind of a big deal.  Especially for me, being that I am a huge Auburn fan.  I've grown up hearing about the might Bo Jackson.  And now I've been on a bike ride with him!!  Here's a picture for proof!

Oh, no big deal, but I also got to ride with Ken Griffey Jr.

Ok, so why did I bike with Bo Jackson?  Bo was riding across Alabama to raise money for the continuing tornado relief effort across Alabama.  He was riding over 300 miles in 5 days following the path of destruction.  Last I heard he had raised nearly a half million dollars!  Not bad eh?  

It was my first time out in my newly ordered 2011 B&B jersey.  It's pretty dang sweet.  The ride itself was about 54 miles.  It went from my hometown of Cullman to Jasper. It was so cool riding along with Bo and having people all along the way cheering us on.  We were able to ride by a school in Curry and had several hundred elementary kids all out yelling and screaming for us!  Got a lot of good high fives riding past them.  I am so thankful to Bo and the other celebrities for helping to raise money and allowing me (and many many others) to ride along with him.  

The ride also afforded me the opportunity to meet many new people.  One of the people I met is a girl who is also getting ready to bike across the country!  She, however, is heading from west to east.  She is hoping to raise money for an Alabama charity that is providing tornado relief.  Check out her blog for a much more well written post about biking with Bo:  http://lifeislikeabicycle.com/blog/

So the ride with Bo gave me a good chance to test out saddle #2.  It was all fine until about 30 miles into the ride, then we didn't get along anymore.  SO, I've been on saddle #3 a couple of days, its ok, but I've moved on to a different option.  One I probably should have tried to start with really.  My trusty WTB Rocket V.  I've had a couple of these on mountain bikes and love em.  I did a 32 mile ride on it yesterday and am pretty happy with it.  I'll get a couple more rides on it and see how it goes.  

Ok, now the big news...

I have met my fundraising goal!!!

That's right.  The check to meet my goal is in the mail as we speak.  Now this does not mean that no more donations will be taken, not at all!  However if you have been holding out on me, then you could do another South Carolina to Santa Cruz rider a solid and donate to them if they haven't quite gotten theirs yet.  Or you could just donate to me and make me look like the awesome fundraiser that I am (not really, I hate asking people for money).  Thanks to everyone who has donated!!!

Now for a few bonus pics I took:

Bo's sweet Trek bike.  He had a different one for each day of the ride.  They were auctioned off at the end to raise money!  Way to go Trek for helping out!

These are from the Bo Bikes Bama Facebook page.  Photos by Glenn Kasin