Yearly Archives: 2015

You heard me right; that’s 2x the monies you donate, going to help folks around the world.

Watsi recently opened up their Universal Fund, wherein you can set up a reoccurring donation and automatically support a new patient every month. And if that’s not cool enough for ya, the first 1,000 to join will have their first month’s donation matched. Let me lay it out real simple-like for you: Donate $5 and Watsi patients will get $10 worth of healthcare. Donate five-hundred bucks and Watsi patients will get a thousand bucks worth of healthcare! I can’t even imagine how many casts, and cataract surgeries, and foot surgeries, and so on that that amount of money could pay for.

Anyways, head on over to Watsi’s Universal Fund to learn more about this awesome opportunity. As always, if you enter the Watsi site through https://watsi.org/welcome/within-biking-distance/within-biking-distance your donation will be tracked in our campaign. If not, that’s cool too. We just want you folks to help folks.

-Lizzy

Thomas Stevens left Oakland, CA in 1884. He was 22.

This is Thomas Stevens, one of my heroes–not to be confused with Thomas Stevens the famous trumpeter, though the later Stevens is a cool fellow as well. This Stevens became the first man to ride a bike (his 50 inch Columbia highwheeler) around the world. It took him three years to do it and nearly died trying. He eventually ended up a theater manager in London and had touring Yogi Magic show where he performed magic tricks he’d picked up in India.

Now that January is crawling to an end, Lizzy and I are working our way through the final logistical details of the WBD tour. Details like:

1. Engineering a viable rat containment system, specifically for night time. You see, rats are nocturnal. Also, they chew things. Also, I don’t want a rat chewing holes through the tent while I sleep.
2. Engineering a rat temperature control system. You see, rats can get chilly, or really hot. Thus, a bicycle friendly rat heating/cooling system is necessary to maintain optimal rat comfort.
3. Finding a proper rat sized bicycle helmet, preferably in red.
4. Figuring out what gear to take, and what gear to leave. Years of hoarding camping equipment are coming into play on this one.
5. Getting Lizzy’s bike ready with much thanks to Pat and Ben at Tommy’s Bike Shop in        McMinnville. We are currently retrofitting a 1975 (?) Trek 700 series. I’m excited about it, but if  you’ve ever retrofitted a bike before you know that goes.
6. A long list of boring stuff no one wants to think about, which is why we have to worry about it last minute. Stuff like ordering tires, finding easy ways to do road side budgeting, and stuff like that.

Oh, and,

Perhaps most importantly, figuring out ways to promote Watsi whilst touring. As of right now, we are working on making some “real” business cards to pass out to friends and strangers along the way, and some explanatory flags for the cycle-scoots, buttons maybe, perhaps a catchy jingle. We’d appreciate any ideas that come our way.

Next Adventure: floors upon floors of really cool stuff.

We recently got in contact with the fine folks over at Next Adventure in Portland about possible sponsorship for our tour. We were in need of a few bits of gear (mostly cold weather wear for cycling through mountain passes & freezing our collective tucuses off). They were more than happy to help us out by donating items from their lovely used bargain basement (and I do mean lovely, I love that place). So, we stopped by this Saturday and as always, the staff was very friendly, helpful, and knowledgeable about their stuff. If you’ve never been to Next Adventure, you should definitely check it out. I could (and do) spend hours rummaging through their huge collection of outdoor gear. This place is like the Powell’s of recreational equipment. I don’t think I can explain it any better than that.

Anyways, here’s the tour stuffs we got this weekend:

this is some quality stuff yo.

You may notice that large stack of Next Adventure bandanas. They were kind enough to offer these to us for giving out. So, we’ve got some contests planned in the works wherein you (yes, you!) will be able to have a chance win one of these bad boys. Keep your eyes peeled for updates on these giveaways.

Anyways, just wanted to give a big old shoutout to Next Adventure for being awesome. Stop by sometime & mention that we sent you and they’ll probably be like, “what are you talking about?” but that’s okay, they’re cool. 🙂

Flashback to 2012. Heather and Lizzy enjoying a break from a long and chilly afternoon on the Oregon coast

It is already 2015! I can’t believe it. When we started planning this tour a few years back it seemed like 2015 was merely a figment of future imagination, but now its here. A lot of people have wondered about the WBD planning process–myself included. All I can say is, when you have enough time you can plan anything. Whether that plan works is up to the field test, in our case that means we are going to throw a bunch of junk on our bikes and pedal off into the wilderness (more or less). If you want to take up bike touring I think you should do it. If you are the flexible type, and have the gumption, then you are a perfect candidate for a successful tour. This particular tour began back in 2012 when Lizzy, my sister Heather, and I were on biking down hwy 101 to Napa, CA. We decided that a one month tour was too short, also, we decided that we wanted to go coast to coast. From there, the 48 state idea was the logical next step, and though we initially thought we should be gone a year, I think 6-9 months is quite enough time for a solid adventure. From that summer on, I started tearing the weather maps out of the backs of USA Today newspapers and plotting potential routes on the United States map during my lunch. The tricky thing was to find a route that would efficiently hit all states and bring us home before the ice and snow. I suppose we’ll have to see how well we did. It was Lizzy that found Watsi, and we are both so glad she did. I can’t say enough how great Watsi is, and how wonderful it is to be working with them. If you haven’t visited the Watsi Website please, please, pretty please do it–right now!

In the spirit of the new year, I thought it might be fun to post a few pictures from past tours. I hope you don’t mind.

Flat repairs are no fun.

Lizzy maybe loosing her mind?

Haley and Heather, the Winkel-Twins, enjoying some beenie-wennies

A beautiful day on the Oregon coast

Missing from picture: the massive centipede infestation we woke up to the next morning

My first tour with my Dad (2008) Washed-out roads may stop a car, but not a bike!

Dad en route to NYC

Touring with dad in Canada

One of many confusing parts of Pennsylvania