LOAA: Guest Post & Giveaway!

Today, my friends, I have a special post for you – a guest post from my IRL BFF Erica.  That’s her, on the right, in the picture below.  The other lady there is her wife, Mel.  They are more than friends to me, they are my family, and they are about to embark on a journey that I wanted to share with you – so I did what any normal friend would do, I got her to write a post to tell you all about it. 

Hey Bloggers!

I know none of you know me (yet), but I’m that elusive BFF that Emily occasionally mentions on her blog, Erica. 

Hi!  I also occasionally check in on (stalk) the blogs that Emily follows, so I might know more about all of you than you think I do… J

For a little background, Emily and I met in the dorms our Freshman year of college.  We lived on the same floor and hung out first semester, and each had roommates we weren’t entirely thrilled about.  When a room on our floor became available second semester, we’d already become such close friends that we decided to move in there together.  We were roomies all the way up until Emily got married in 2008 – she and Tim and Cooper (and baby Katy!) are family to me.  Emily, Tim and I even work for the same company, in the same building!

I’m not much of a blogger in the sense that most of you are – I don’t have kids (yet) that do entertaining (or crazy) things, I’m not very crafty, and my life is rather average day-to-day.  Yet somehow, I have 12 blogs to my name on Blogger, just none that are really complete or that I have updated in, say, 5 years…  I’m good at starting them, but not on the whole keeping up part.

So why am I here then?  Well…my wife and I are doing something pretty adventurous and kinda cool this summer – we’ve decided to bike (as in bicycle, not the giant kind with motors) across this great country of ours, and raise money for charity in the process.  We’ve coined our journey Looking Out Across America (or LOAA for short), and we’re thrilled to see the country in such a unique way, and raise money for a good cause in the process.

We’ll ride over 4,400 miles on Adventure Cycling’s TransAmerica Trail, from the Atlantic Ocean in Virginia to the Pacific in Oregon, then up to Seattle, WA for the big finish.  We’re riding to raise funds and awareness for musician Brandi Carlile’s Looking Out Foundation, which provides funds for some great humanitarian organizations and projects like The IF Project, Easter Seals, Honor the Earth, the Fight the Fear Campaign and Why Hunger.  We’re donating 50% of what we raise to the Fight the Fear Campaign, and the other 50% will go toward the general Looking Out Foundation fund.

You might be asking yourself, why bike across the country?  Well, about four years ago now, I stumbled onto a website where people blog about their bicycle touring adventures.  I’d never bike toured, nor had I spent much time on a bike as an adult – but the more I lived vicariously through the adventure blogs of other riders, the more that trail sunk it’s claws into me.  It wasn’t long before I knew I had to do it someday.   And luckily my partner-in-crime grew to share this dream, and decided she would join me!

So starting in June, we’ll spend about 90 days “in the saddle”, as they say, on loaded touring bikes, struggling to make it to our day-to-day destinations, and having the time of our lives.  We’ll be blogging along the way too!  As often as possible, but hopefully daily we’ll upload some notes and photos (and probably some of that awesome action video that makes everyone queasy) from the road.

We can’t wait to get started!  Mosey on over to our website and follow our progress, donate to our cause if you can, buy a fancy t-shirt to help fund our personal expenses during the trip, and “like” us on Facebook too!  Thanks for your time everyone!

Emily again….

You see that logo on the top right side of my blog page?  Looking out Across America…. Yeah, if you haven’t checked that out, please do. 

Finally…. Because I am nice and I want to spread the word about my awesome friends…. I’m giving away one of their LOAA t-shirts!  I love mine, and I wish I could still fit into it, but this pregnant belly has gotten too large!  Please enter below and GOOD LUCK!