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Pictures from Chacaya!!!

~Readers:

I'm almost too excited to type. We just received word from David LaMotte, who just returned from a visit Chacaya in Guatemala. He has visited the beautiful village alongside Lake Atitlan several times, but this time he was surprised with the CONSTRUCTION SITE OF A NEW SCHOOL BUILDING!!! After visiting the children still meeting for school in makeshift classrooms on the lake's edge, he had a tour of the site for the new school, the new school being built by your donations, your support, and your encouragement! Here are pictures that David posted on his own blog (http://lowerdryad.wordpress.com/):

These pictures came as the most inspirational, supportive surprise to Jason and me; this is real. The people of Chacaya are thrilled with the progress, and they are unbelievably appreciative of all the people up in North America who have worked to make a world of difference in their community. I can't believe how far along the construction has come! The vision of a permanent structure for generations of Mayan children is realizing itself as we speak. Thanks to you all.

Today officially marks the halfway point of our trip. Roughly 2,000 miles down in 20 days, an equal distance and number of days to go. Another beautiful ride through the unbelievable lake-splattered landscape of western Ontario brought us to the town of Dryden, where Kate and James have blown us away with their generous hospitality (I'm talking ICE CREAM, people. ICE CREAM.)

We still stand at the halfway point of our fundraising goal; we still have $10,000 to go. That school is only half-built! I sincerely hope you will share these pictures with your friends and family; inspire them to inspire others!

These photos remind us of the reason for 12-hour days of riding, swarms of Saskatchewan mosquitoes, black bear encounters, being away from family for the summer (A quick hello-and-I-miss-you to everyone at my family's reunion!), knocking on strangers' doors for places to sleep and Eric's loss of 15 lbs since the start of the trip! And of course, what these photos portray add immensely to the beauty and meaning of Manitoba's unbelievable sunsets, British Columbia's glacial valleys, and our races with antelopes across Saskatchewan's prairies.

Half-way to our goal, a school half-built, the dreams of an entire village and two sunburned guys half-realized.

Please, keep it up, and thank you. -E

Hey guys!

Jason here, eager to fill you in on our time in Canada since Winnipeg!

As Eric mentioned, we had a couple of great hosts in the city, which was really kind of a shove into a series of motivation boosts that I will walk you through, one by one, and over a great deal of time, so that you can test your endurance too. Actually, I'm tired, so it will be short and sweet.

Here we go:

We left the apartment in Winnipeg and rode straight into some serious car-dodging situations as only the big cities can deliver. We stopped first, unscathed, at a bike shop where I pumped up my rear tire (I've been plagued with flats on this trip...in fact, I think that until the last couple of days I had only spent two or three days on a fully inflated rear tire, as our flat repair pump is inadequate when it is required to fill a tire to such a high pressure, which makes for some slightly more difficult riding). After the quick fill, we headed off in search of a restaurant to provide us with the proper riding fuel, and find one we did! I don't immediately recall the name of the place, but two sisters seemed to be running the show, and they were kind enough to offer us our food free of charge, which we accepted with glad hearts. We each had a very high-quality breakfast of eggs, hashbrowns, french toast, sausage and bacon, and coffee...Oh and of course, the best chocolate milk I've had on this trip...Perhaps ever. The food was amazing. We're talking glorious hashbrowns, and legitimate maple syrup all over that golden french toast...Good heavens, I'd better stop there before I head back to Winnipeg. They even offered us sandwiches for the road, which worked well with the fact that we would likely eat again soon, so we thanked them as much as we could and headed out into an 87 mile day into Falcon Lake (I know that 87 miles isnt that intense, but hey, we were ready for a little rest), and so began a three-day stint of low intensity enjoyment....Straight into a headwind on the great plains.
Oh what heartbreak! Luckily the road only maintained such an unforgiving angle for about 25 miles before it headed in a more northeasterly direction towards our destination, which gave us a wonderful cross/tailwind. We made great time the rest of the way, not to mention the sense of accomplishment we felt when we passed the sign for the longitudinal mid-point of Canada. The plains transitioned into lake country as we opened our stride a bit in the closing miles, happily pedaling the slight downhills of the Trans-Canada just before Falcon Lake. We arrived in town and followed our day's end ritual of jokes over chocolate milk before heading on to our host's home, a beautiful cabin-style house secluded from the somewhat touristy hubub of downtown. We ate some spaghetti for dinner, put on the movie "Closer," which was way more emotionally intense than anything that we were ready for, planned our route through Ontario, and went to bed. What a day, and what a night.
The night faded into today, as nights do, and there was work to be done. We ate some breakfast, recieved a very generous donation from our host, and took our sweet time getting ready for one of the shortest days of the trip, a fantastically relaxing and, as it turned out, beautiful 37 miles into Kenora...Effectively a rest day. We crossed the border into Ontario and truly appreciated the wonderful change of scenery....A delightful vacation from the horrifying monotony of the prairies. Oh, how we take a tree or two for granted.
We are now safely in Kenora, posted up at the Super 8, and now that I have seen today's stage of the Tour de France, I am ready for bed.

But before I go, we have a few fun things to discuss:

Adaptations to a life riding through prairies all day:
- Beer bets. That is to say, a list of "fouls" one might commit on a cross-country journey, and each one requires the offender to do penance in the form of buying one beer for his friend. Examples: First one to cry(we broke even, crying at the same time), first to get a flat (Jason might as well buy Eric a 12-pack), first to crash, first to smooch a Canadian (Jason gave Eric 3-1 odds), a long list of Tour de France bets, first to vomit, etc.
- Trading 5 mile pulls in the wind, giving the day structure, and providing us with interim goals.
- Counting Ground Squirrel carcasses (like counting sheep...There are as many as you can possibly imagine)
- Getting flat tires and accepting the fact that you will be riding on 50 psi for a long time.
- Stopping and eating PB and J's.
- Singing all of Michael Jackson's hits...Over and over, the way they were meant to be heard.
- Water
- A delightful in-tent camping game where, provided that you are bored enough, you open the flap for a count of 5 seconds, close the flap, and go to war with all the mosquitoes that made it inside.

The top conversation points on this trip, in order of frequency:
- "This wind sucks."
- "My butt hurts." - Eric
- "PB and J break?" - Whoever gets to it first.
- "Matthew Kanagy is awesome."
- "I don't care if he's crazy, Michael Jackson is incredible."
- "I understand your claim that the modern religious climate in America renders its populace susceptible to philosophical fallacy, but I maintain global economic trends indicate that..."
- "I hope we don't have to pay for this..."

Animal sightings:
- More black bears! A dead fox! People!

Number one goal of this trip:
BUILD THAT SCHOOL. Everyone get involved!

A brief message to the good people at Bob's Bicycle Shop:
Hey guys! I recieved your hello from my mother, and I just wanted to take the opportunity to say hello back! Rod, thanks for the call, its nice to get the support. Brad, I think its safe to say that we opened it up a couple of times out here. Brett, your ears are pierced. Everyone else, eat a lot of Moe's for me...Lauren is mercifully exempt. - J


I hope everyone is doing great, and we will be back for more soon! Night!

- Jason

A Visual Glimpse into the First Week

Eric reporting from Kenora in....Ontario! 3 provinces down, 3 more to go. Ontario is certainly the widest of the provinces, we will be kareening over its rolling hills and falling into its thousands of lakes for the next 11 days. There was a welcoming committee of black bears awaiting us at the border, which was a good sign that this province would kick some serious sore butt. More on the last couple days later, but for now, some photographs from the first week.

This is the morning of Day 1, in Vancouver, 6:30am. Ken, our wonderful host, stands with us as we prepare to dive headfirst into British Columbia.
Day 2: atop the 2nd of 3 mountain passes. Jason would get to the summit first, so he would have a chance to get some sick action shots of my panniers.

A typical scene at the end of a day; Jason strutting his kit amongst a menagerie of gear.

Much more later, once we load some more pictures.

-E

In Too Deep, Part I

Hello to you all!
A Quick Update of our progress:
We are currently in Winnipeg, on the morning of Day 18 of the Trip, mile 1,763 of the trip. So close to half-way!
We just spent a wonderful, absolutely perfect night with two CouchSurfing hosts, Dianna and Richard, who fed, took us out for candy, let us listen to wonderful music, and gave us great Canadian beer, and wonderful conversation (about everything from mustaches to polar bears to indigenous relations to my long underwear leggings). After a night of much needed rest, we are ready to head out to our next town.
The last few days have been tough. From Indian Head (the location of our last blog update) we moved 95 miles to Moosomin on the #1 Trans-Canadian Hwy, and we celebrated Canada Day with a welcoming pary of mosquitoes and a free dinner at Pizza Hut! Delicious. That night, we slept of the lawn of an extremely nice Chinese family that had just moved there from Toronto. The next day, we booked it out of Saskatchewan and into the province of Manitoba, ending after a long, hard, mentally trying day (115 niles) at the town of Minnedosa (whereupon our arrival, we witnessed perhaps the most spectacular sunset ever; sadly, because Manitoba roads do not have shoulders, we had to concentrate on not getting hit by trucks and could not take any pictures.) At Minnedosa we luckily found free lodging at the Valley Motor Lodge, and scrounged a late dinner from a local gas station. Yesterday, we did a long haul (135 miles) from Minnedosa to Winnipeg. We were tired. Enough said. But the warm welcome from Dianna and Richard made the day a supreme success. Again and again we find that the people we meet while on this trip will be the thing that pushes us to the east coast.

In other news, an article by Jennifer Torres was just released in several local newspapers on the Space Coast, including the Bay Bulletin. Hopefully this will go far in raising awareness about our efforts. Thank you to Jennifer Torres! Readers, show the article to your friends! Another press release came out on the Sewanee e-news, which can be accessed from the university's home page: www.sewanee.edu

More later, I am sre. But now, to breakfast!!!

Love,
Eric

To our readers: A Rally Call

Dear friends, families, and supporters:

First, allow us to give you a glimpse into the ethos that provides the foundation for this trip. To do so requires us to describe in a little more detail what the average day has been like so far:
The sun rises at 4:45am, and the sky is usually spectacular. We roll over and throw our sleeping bags off of us, trying to get a couple more hours of sleep before the heat and the bright day demand that we also rise. We step outside of the tent and look first for a sign of which direction the wind is blowing. During days on the prairies, when the scenery seems to be a looping tape of the same fields over and over again, the only thing you mind can really focus on besides your spinning legs is whether the wind is helping you or hindering you, or threatening to blow you into traffic. Within an hour, we are on our bikes. Our minds are busy recalling dreams from the night before, reciting the dialogue of funny confronation with interesting characters the day before, singing the tune of a catchy song, and wondering if our butts are going to last another 2,400 miles. calculating how far until the next settlement and whether our water supply will last. Every once and a while, we feel hungry, and stop to fix a PB&J sandwich (without question THE solution sandwich to any bout of fatigue or famine). We don't talk much while on the bikes; I am usually out of breath in trying to keep up with Jason, and the passing semi-trucks and hard winds make it impossible to carry on a conversation at anything less than a shout. So we gather conversation points as we ride, and while on breaks we share where our minds have wandered to during the last stretch of riding. We talk often, perhaps too much, of home, of old friends, of lost memories and people we wish we could see again; a trip like this, despite the constantly new scenery and faces, leads you only back to what and whom you left.
To cope with the monotony of Saskatchewan, we tend to set interim goals for ourselves (gotta make it to Martlach by 5, hope to get on the other side of Regina by 3, etc.). The last 20km of each day tend to be the toughest, mentally as well as physically, simply because the anticipation of food and sleep become overwhelming by 7.30 pm.
8-12 hours of riding a day tends to send your thoughts in interesting directions; mine often explores which mindsets are the best to adopt to make it through long days: do I concentrate on the "now," this kilometer alone, or do I try to frame the present within the scope of the day's 100 or so miles? Or, do I try to adopt a mindset that would sustain me until Day 39 or 40, a way of thinking that paces myself to the end of the entire trip? Or, do I let my mind float, feeling what it wants to feel, whether it be stubborn fatigue or excited elation, cynical pessmism or adrenaline-fueled optimism? What kind and extent of self-discipline should I use to make this trip a success? And then, it is impossible not to remind yourself that it is only day 14; what will my thoughts be like on Day 15? Day 20? 30? 39?

Luckily, for us, we love cycling. It has given us meaning before, and it has continued to be fulfilling in and of itself each day of this trip. We really are living a dream, a dream we have both shared passionately since our first year out of high school. We are cycling across a country - WOW! - we never thought we'd ACTUALLY do this. But whoa, here we are. Concentrating simply on our spinning legs, the maintenance of rythm, the maximization of efficiency, the invigorating sensation of easily earned speed, can sustain us for most of the demands of this trip.

"Most" is the key word here. This trip has been designed - this entire dream has been concieved - in such a way that merely finishing a century-a-day of riding for 40 days is not enough to call the trip a success. Yes, we certainly feel a sense of accomplishment when we reach our destination-town each night. We are proud of what we have done so far, and we will be proud of what we will have done once we reach the east coast. But the ambition, audacity and idealism of this trip does not stop at the 4,000 miles in 40 days. It also includes, of course, the building of a school in the Guatemalan village of Chacaya.

If we reach the east coast and we have not achieved our fundraising goal, we will be unable to justify the last 40 days of riding.

The 2 days in which we rode 295 miles were eye-opening for us. It was the most demanding stretch of riding the two of us have ever endured. When we reached Swift Current at the end of that 2-day stretch, we did not feel the sense of achievement that so often accompanies a hard day's ride. We felt, well, empty. And it was not just the energy we lost in the process. It was having done so much only to question what we are actually achieving. We may be getting closer to the east coast, but we don't see ourselves getting closer to our fundraising goal.

This trip is demanding. Our deep passion for cycling alone will not sustain us to the Atlantic coast; what we need to know at the end of the day is that we are not just spinning our wheels. We want that school built.

So many of you reading this have already given out of your own pocket to get us halfway to our fundraising goal and nearly halfway across Canada. We can't thank you enough for that. What we need is more people, more open ears, more open minds to join us in believing that passion is the first step in mending a fractured world. The strength of our project is that people only have to do a little to make a world of difference in the lives of the Guatemalans in Chacaya. $10,000 more will provide an education for generations of children to come.

Tell more people about Chacaya, about our ride, about what we need. Refer people to our website, our blog, the PEGPartners website. Try to tell them the idea behind what we are doing, how cycling across Canada to build this Guatemalan school somehow makes sense. Ask your churches, your rotary clubs, your newspapers, your neighborhood newsletters, your schools, your youth groups, your cycling buddies, your favorite restaurant, your neighbor to help. The communities we know and love CAN change the community of Chacaya.

As David LaMotte says at each of his concerts, you are changing the world whether you like it or not. Get in to it. Become intentional in how you change. Invite others to do the same.

Sorry to become so melodramatic, but hey, my butt hurts, and the fact is that we're in this now, the ride of a lifetime.
Tell others to join us!

Hopefully,
Eric

We Don't Know What We Are Doing: Part III

"If you can't build a robot, be a robot."

First, happy July!
Happy Canada Day!
Happy 4th of July's Eve'sEve'sEve! Headache.

It is very difficult to find the energy to find a computer or, once we've found a computer, to find more energy to update a blog, so let us apologize to our regular readers out there...It is our goal to get better at this.

With that said, we move into update mode!

Where did we leave off....Aha. We were resting in Banff, basking in the glamour of the mountain village lifestyle, living it up, hanging out in a hot spring, shocking the other tourists with the spectacular intensity of our tan lines. Good times. Time, it seems, has a very loose grip on the now, and tends to let it slip away.

Now is not the now we knew. That was then. This is now. Wonder how? I do too.

We left Banff for Calgary, which was a lovely and scenic 85 or so mile ride, mostly downhill, that took us officially out of the rockies; a transition that was both abrupt and emotional. The steep walls of the western american highlands gave way to the great plains, and the straightest roads on earth...which was exciting...at the time. Once in Calgary, we met up with our hosts, some couch-surfer students from the local university, and had some Vietamese cuisine at their recommendation. It is a beautiful city, especially from the saddle of your bicycle as you weave in and out of the large amount of pedestrian traffic. All of the houses there had such personality. Go visit sometime.

Then we left Calgary in a general east-northeast direction, en route to Hanna...The birthplace of the pseudo-band Nickelback...And how. We got 3/4 of the way there to our checkpoint in Drumheller, a thrilling dinosaur-themed town in the Canadian Badlands, where we had planned to visit the RoyalTyrell Dinosaur museum. The cheesy dino statues all over town had us very concerned for the legitimacy of the museum itself, but alas, it was fantastic. Ornithomimids, a pterosaur, plenty of ceratopsians, and a spectular re-creation of Dr. Jack Horner's T. Rex skeleton that had Eric captivated. Impressive stuff.
We left the museum and rode out straight into a beast of a wind storm...One so strong that when we made an attempt at the road out of town, we were virtually pushed backwards. We found a hotel that would put us up and decided to make up the distance the next day.

Which meant that the ride from Drumheller to Mantario would be 158 miles, and so it was.
We worked all day at pulling it off, surrounded by the most spectcularly mind-numbing scenery that you can possibly imagine, into a fairly harsh crosswind, only to discover that Mantario, despite being recognized on a national map, was one street and half-abandoned. We set up camp with heavy hearts and went to bed.

Mantario to Swift Current offered another long day at 137 miles, 30 or 40 of which were on gravel roads....For all you scholars out there, that is indeed 295 miles in two days. It was long, perhaps harder than the day before as a consequence of the day before, and hot. We did our best to stay positive and kept working until we finally arrived at dusk, which was too late to go door to door. With heavier hearts, we found the cheapest room we could, but at least that meant a shower.

Swift Current to Moose Jaw was a bit of a break at around 108 miles. Moose Jaw was the biggest city we've seen since Calgary, and quite a relief at that....It really is stressful being surrounded by nothing. Moose Jaw saw us feast like kings thanks to a generous sponsorship from the local Boston Pizza restaurant where, on top of his already stellar record of helping us out, the shift manager pulled some strings and got us into the local mineral spa for free. Fantastic. Best pizza ever. Great mineral spa. Camping in a stranger's backyard. Does it get any better? No need to answer that.

And now that brings us to today, when we rode from Moose Jaw to Indian Head, where we are set up at a camp ground and looking forward to heading on to Moosomin tomorrow, where we will celebrate our own version of Canada Day, likely by sleeping, although I am reminded of a tip from one of our friends in Calgary:
"What do you do on Canada Day?"
"Camp. Whatever. Go out into the woods. You can do whatever you want...And drink."
Sore bottoms up.

Notes:
Animal sightings - Two foxes, hundreds of ground squirrels (some dead), antelope, and deer.....Not to mention the many species of waterfowl, the occasional bird of prey, and this orange-winged black bird that intrigues me so deeply.
Total mileage - 1473 miles
Casualties - Eric (nearly...see below), Eric's butt, Eric's mind.

p.s. Eric almost got hit by a truck. The guy was a moron. More later.

Goodnight everyone! We miss you all!

Love,

Jason