As I was raised in the deep south, “family reunion dinners,” “suppers on the lawn,” and “church pot luck” meals were a big part of my life.  You never knew quite what you would eat, but you knew it would be tasty.  At every one of these events, I would hear at least one person, if not more, exclaim, “Oh no,…. my eyes were bigger than my stomach,” meaning that the person felt full but there was still food on their plate.  We have all faced the reality of our ability not matching our ambition.

Today was my “first” Fuller Center Bike Adventure conditioning ride. The “REAL-non Virtual” Fuller Center Bike Adventure Cyclists begin cycling on June 11 in Seattle, Washington, so I have around 2 weeks to build up to cycling five miles a day. They are riding all the way to Washington D.C., 3600 miles. I mapped out a route in my mind that I thought would be about two miles.  Surely I could cycle two miles!  

About half way through today’s ride, I started thinking about those pot-luck meals of long ago.  My heart was pumping hard, I was gasping for breath, and my sweat was pouring out as fast as I could drink the water in.  As I crested a big hill, I felt like I wasn’t going to make it to the top.  I keep thinking, “Oh, no, my eyes were bigger than my … my eyes were too big ... my two mile ride is too far, what have I done?”  This ride was too far for my unconditioned heart! Yes, in this situation, my proverbial eyes were bigger than my pumping heart.  In my exuberance to get started, I tried to ride too far.

With just a little over a month until the start of this year’s Bike Adventure trip from Seattle, Washington to Washington, D.C., we can almost feel that cool Pacific Northwest breeze whipping through our bike tires already – and it seems that the shorter our countdown gets, the more our excitement grows!

But we’re not jumping out of our desk chairs for nothing (and no, we don’t just want to escape the escalating heat of the unfolding Georgia summer). The blueprint for this year’s journey is truly promising to be the best yet in the four-year existence of the Fuller Center Bike Adventure.

Here’s why:

Hear from Ryan Iafigliola as he builds on the final project in New Orleans--a Katrina victim finally has a decent place to live five years after the storm hit.

(Read more about the project here.) (And more about the finale of the Bike Adventure here.)

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(Written on Aug. 7)

Well the Fuller Center Bike Adventure finally came to an end today for us all. It was once again another exciting and fun filled adventure in which we were able to spread the word about the issue of poverty housing and about the work of the Fuller Center. I want to say congratulations to all of the riders who participated and especially to the six who rode the whole way, that is quite an accomplishment.

Today started off with our last bike ride as a group. We were able to ride with a local group called the Crescent City Cyclists who gave us a great tour of New Orleans. We rode through the French Quarter, downtown, through the campus of Tulane, and a couple other places as well. At the end of the ride we pulled into a little park area across from Bayou Cycles where we had a great lunch and little ceremony with a bunch of friends from all over.

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Final Build

I woke up today a little late. Well, later than I wanted to. I usually wake up to people rummaging in the room, but since we are actually staying here in the Mennonite Disaster Service volunteer housing for more than one night, no packing and noise was made and hence I slept in a little. Maybe going to sleep early would help but I just couldn’t fall asleep that easily. Maybe because I was anxious to start the next day… our final build day. I was awoken though, to pancakes and bacon prepared by Miss Susan. There is nothing like a good hot meal to start the day. Mmmm.

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We've reached New Orleans! 2,500 miles complete (more on that later from Ivan Cunningham), one build day to go (more on that tomorrow from Aaron Alaman).

For now, check out the short clip below and hopefully you'll be willing to help us out. Donate now or tell your friends!

We made it to the Big Easy (twice, for myself and Aaron)!

We ended up leaving the Aldergate United Methodist volunteer housing late this morning, deciding to wait for some pretty fierce-looking weather to pass before heading out; as it was only a 40-mile day, we weren't too concerned about getting an early start. Once we set out, the ride was pretty smooth sailing, especially with two of us already knowing most of the route, though Colleen did get a flat early on and Chris went a couple miles in wrong direction (sorry, Chris). The team came back together at the first rest stop of the day, as per usual, and then Aaron and I announced that we were going to make another stop a few miles down the road at a Vietnamese cafe, that we'd stopped at the day before with Brett, to get some delicious boba smoothies. About half of us opted to stop for smoothies, while the rest continued on to the Mennonite Disaster Services volunteer housing where Tamara Danel had jambalaya waiting for us.

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Today is my third day on the ride and I was honored to be asked to offer the morning devotion before we headed out from Biloxi, Miss. to our destination of Slidell, La. (59 miles). I chose Matthew 25 to set the stage for a story about my dad, a Presbyterian pastor who, following bypass surgery in the 70s took up jogging to improve his heart and health. He would find coins, pennies mostly, everywhere he ran. He gathered them and reflected on why people would not pick them up, especially when they might be seen by others. To him, those pennies came to represent the marginalized people in our society--the people so oftened ignored, overlooked and forgotten.

So with this story in mind we embarked on our journey for the day, contemplating for whom we ride and seek to raise awareness and money. We also prayed for the safe journey of Brett, Ivan and Aaron who departed 45 minutes earlier in the dark on their ride to NOLA.

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It seems like just a few days ago we departed from Niagara Falls. Now, here we are, finishing a delicious dinner at First Presbyterian Church of Biloxi, within view of the Gulf. Today was my last day riding with the FCBA team, so I’m seizing the opportunity to blog one last time. Unfortunately, I’m going to miss all the festivities in New Orleans, as well as the final build day. I’ll be flying to Honduras early Thursday morning with a group of students from our “Engineers Without Borders” chapter at the University of Akron. If all goes according to the plan, masterminded by FCBA segment rider Melissa Merrill, we will eventually build a drinking water filtration system for a village of about 4,000 people!

Although I have to leave before the end of the Bike Adventure, I’m still planning on biking all the way to New Orleans… tomorrow! Aaron and Ivan have offered to accompany me on this 85-mile ride to the Big Easy. Our final ride together will mark the end of the “three mustacheketeers”—back in Niagara Falls we each agreed not to shave until we reached New Orleans. I’m wondering if they really want to ride with me, or are just that desperate to shave, and will pull razors out of their jersey pockets when we reach the city limit sign.

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Today we figured out what the Bike Adventure was really about as we traveled from Destin, Fla. to Daphne, Ala. Our little vacation came to an end at around 4:30 this morning, when the first alarm clock went off. We got ready to start our 99 (but we like to call it 100) mile bike ride today. 

It was real hot. In fact, Graham’s tire started bubbling due to the extreme heat.

We stopped several times along the way to refuel. Thankfully, an afternoon storm rolled in when we stopped at an ice cream shop, around mile 80--thanks so much Water's Corner for letting us crash for over an hour. We stayed there until the first storm passed and then we raced against the next storm to get to St. Paul’s Episcopal Church where we were greeted with cold refreshing showers and warm delicious dinners.

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