Donald Miller and the Ride:Well Team Bike America

Portland, Oregon (Friday, May 9th) For todays update, I want to say a bit about bike culture here in Portland. Bicycling Magazine listed Portland as the top cycling city in the country this year, and I think that’s been the case for the last several years. They had this to say; "What perennially puts Portland atop our list is that you don’t need to know anything about bike lanes or city planning to see that it is a haven for cyclists. Just hang out in a coffee shop and look out the window: Bikes and riders of all stripes are everywhere…." This really is true about Portland, and I confess I take it for granted. We even have bike-through coffee shops. Not sure what I would do with a cup of coffee in my hand, riding the streets, but at least I have that option. Second on the list is the city up the freeway, Seattle Washington, though apparently Seattle has contributed 240 million to building bike lanes and paving more than 450 miles of bike paths, specifically to knock Portland out of the number one spot. Worst cycling city: Dallas, Texas. That means all you cyclist in Texas can come out and join us on the city ride there, and maybe we can contribute to raising the biking profile in the Lone-Star State. I actually know a few great riders in Texas, so I am sure there is some hope.

The picture above was taken on the Freemont Bridge here in Portland during the annual Portland Bridge Pedal. Each year, on a Sunday morning in August, the city shuts down all the major bridges crossing the river and more than eighteen-thousand cyclist take the thirty-two mile journey in and out of downtown Portland. This year the ride will take place on August 10th and I’ve got more than a few friends flying in with their bikes just to take the ride. If you want to come to Portland and do the ride, August is always a beautiful month. You can learn more by googling "Providence Bridge Pedal" or by visiting www.providence.org/oregon/events/bridge_pedal/

With less than a month from the cross-country ride, I’m finding myself making to-do lists and getting things done in preparation for being away from the house for two months. I hope to have the new book complete, at least in rough-draft form, then I will be editing on the road, wherever I can find a quiet place and a few hours to work. Other than that, I am automating all bills, having breakfast with as many people as possible, and cleaning up the house for a guest who will take over for the time I am gone. Nothing much else to report. I can’t wait to be making these updates from the road.

As I’ve started training for the ride, I picked up a gadget at REI called the Garmin 350. I actually got it on the cheap because it was on sale and I had a dividend so it was worth the twenty or so bucks I had to spend. I’ve become something of a data geek using this thing. The unit itself is just a watch that you can wear on your arm or place on the handlebars of your bike. It then works with satellites to give you your speed, distance traveled and all the other stuff a regular bike computer offers. Where it differs from normal computers is you can take it home and see a map of where you traveled, hi-lighting any way-points you clicked along the way. You can use the computer to compete against your best time, which it remembers, or have it guide you back home if you get lost. The Garmin 305 comes with a heart-rate monitor too, so you can see what your heart was doing when you fainted. Anyway, here is a map of tonight’s workout, a great ride out to St. Johns, then a stop at a pub in the NW, then a quick trip back home. Not a very long ride, but they will get longer as we get closer to the ride.

Portland, Oregon (May 5th) There is truly a connection between what the Ride:Well Team is doing and the problems facing modern Africans. I took this picture back in March when some friends and I visited Uganda. These large, heavy bikes are all over Uganda and are popular because they are simple, strong and easy to maintain. After having spent some time there, I would say bicycling is the dominant form of transportation in rural areas, where Blood:Water will be drilling most of their wells. The site of a young man riding a bike too large for him while also carrying water (five or so gallons, 40 pounds each container for large containers) was not uncommon. I must have seen hundreds of people carrying water on their bikes, and many of them were children. When a child has to leave his village to get water from a distant source they are often not in school. So providing a well for a village changes more than just the stability of their health, it also provides opportunities for children to advance. Here are a couple more pictures that I took While in Uganda.

Portland, Oregon (Sunday, May 4th)…The above picture is of myself and Jena Lee Nardella, the director for Blood:Water Mission. Bood:Water was actually started by some friends who make up the band Jars of Clay. I first met Jars years ago when they came through town and we were able to get some time between their sound-check and concert. We hit it off immediately while walking around Powell’s books. The guys are all very, very well read and it was funny meeting because all I wanted to talk about was music and all they wanted to talk about was books. From that meeting, the guys invited me to tour with them for a couple weeks and open their show with a book reading. After living on the bus with them for a couple weeks, we went from friends to brothers. They are some of the most quality guy’s I’ve ever known. It was about this time that they started Bood:Water.

After traveling in Africa, the guys decided to do something about some of the problems facing that continent, and realized building wells was one of the ways they could have the greatest impact. Once the organization was started, they hired Jena Lee Nardella, who has since become a friend as well. She’s an outstanding girl who runs a tight ship. The above picture was taken at their annual banquet that tookplace in Nashville. They’ve already built many, many wells in Africa but have an ambitious goal of drilling one-thousand in total. I’ve supported Blood:Water in a number of ways since the guys started the project, but the bike ride, along with people like you who are donating to the cause, will certainly do more for them then I could do alone. One of the greatest things about this ride, for me, is being able to introduce people to the organization itself and also to Jena and the guys in Jars. Blood:Water has grown into a three-million dollar per year organization and they are only getting stronger. Their impact has been astronomical, and I will be sharing more about that as this blog continues.