Sorry everyone for the delay on entries, let me catch you up since my departure from Gainesville.

I left Gainesville and the day started great. I had a strong tailwind the whole morning, and I was able to maintain a good speed most of the day. The beautiful day and good conditions allowed me to set my personal best for this trip so far and I cycled 105 miles. This sweet accomplishment had it's share of sour too, though. About five miles before Perry, FL I felt a snap in my back wheel and a spoke on the inside of my gear cassette (same as in Orlando) had broken.  With little options, I adjusted the tension of the surrounding spokes in order to minimize the wheel's wobble, and continued on to search for a bike shop in Perry. But, of course, like any small town in the middle of nowhere Perry had no bike shop. So with only a short amount of day light remaining, I decided to continue on toward Tallahassee and try to find a place to camp off the highway. About a half of a mile before I found a hunting trail suited to camping a second spoke on the same side of my back wheel snapped. More than frustration, I felt worried that I wouldn't be able to make it to the capital of Florida without some kind of motorized assistance. Fortunately, even with the second broken spoke my wheel's wobble had not increased and was still ridable. So I found the hunting trail, set up camp, called my friend in Tallahassee to warn him of my situation, ate some trail mix, granola and fruit then passed out from exhaustion. And for the record, there is a type of mosquito in Florida that is larger than any other I've seen in my life, and they could care less if you have bug spray, on the contrary, I sprayed my shoulder right as one flew through the spray, landed and bit me. I retreated into my tent realizing that it was a losing battle for me.

The next morning I awoke to the lights of a pick-up truck at 5:45am realizing that it was Saturday and the hunter had come out and found me on his trail. Luckily, he didn't even speak to me. He closed the gate behind him, got in his truck, and drove off into the woods. I got up a little later, ate, packed and left for Tallahassee. The capital area is really rather hilly and it was a tough ride in. By the time I got to my friend's place I was pretty tired. It was so great to see my friend from college that I hadn't seen in so many years, I actually didn't recognize him at first! I stayed with J.C. Barnes and his fiance Sara Roberts for several days while I spoke at a Rotary club meeting, put up flyers around the FSU campus, and ordered an expensive replacement back wheel so that I wouldn't have any more breaking spoke issues. The Rotary meeting went well, and I experienced some more of the generosity that makes Rotarians such special people. Then J.C. showed me around campus and gave me the 25 cent tour. After relaxing, rehydrating, and refueling for a few days and getting my bicycle upgraded I was ready to head back out on the road. J.C. and Sara are awesome hosts, and great friends. Sara is going to be the best wife ever, and I'm totally jealous of J.C. Thanks for a great stay, ya'll, and I'm going to do everything I can to be at your wedding in October.

As I woke Tuesday to a bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios and a phone call from my dad, it was soon brought to my attention that a rather strong storm front was bearing down on me in Orlando. So much so that the local radar was brightly colored with yellows, oranges and reds along with the friendly warning of tornadoes in the area.  So I sat by hour after hour watching the storm pass by, and finally around 1 o'clock the storm was light enough outside to pack up and be readying for a tough afternoon ride. I got onto the road around 2 pm and headed West on highway 50. The winds were extremely strong blowing into my face from my left side, which made being out on the road extremely dangerous. The crosswind was plenty strong enough to blow me and my trailer around, but what's worse were the cars flying by trying to fight the push that would send them into me on the right. I made it only about 9 miles before I realized something was wrong and saw that my back tire had a bad wobble to it. I pulled over into a shopping center and started examining my bike. Turned out one of my spokes on my back tire had broken, and needed to be replaced. I carry spare spokes so that was no problem, but after further inspection I realized that of all the spokes on my bike the one that broke was in the group that is behind the cassette (gears) which requires a special tool that I didn't carry due to its heavy weight and size. So, I called Jamie and Jenny, my hosts in Orlando who were only nine miles back and asked for help. Jamie came in his truck ten minutes later and luckily there was a bike shop only a mile or two down the road. Well after brining my bike into the shop and getting it up on the rack, we quickly realized that I also had a flat front tire and a broken back brake pad. When it rains it pours, right?

After about an hour we got all my bike's problems sorted out, I thanks Jamie profusely and I got back on the road. With the poor weather and my set backs, I had only about two, maybe three hours of riding time left. After pushing forward I made it to Leesburg, which was my goal for minimal distance that day in order to make my Wednesday trip to Gainesville possible. The kicker was that as I reached the Southern edge of Leesburg, I noticed my back tire was going flat. I pulled into a parking lot, decided it was a slow leak and pumped it up in the hopes that it would hold for a few more miles. That inflation lasted about a mile, where I pulled into a church parking lot and pumped it up again. At this point I was feeling quite desperate to find a place to camp since it was getting close to dark and my rear tire wasn't holding air. A short ways up the road from the church I saw an undeveloped neighborhood that went a short ways off the main highway. I rode in to take a closer look, and found no homes, just empty lots. At the back of the subdivision there was a small stucco office with a concrete "patio".  I decided to disregard the "No Trespassing" sign in the window and set up camp on this patio. I didn't try to hide, I simply figured if a police car did a sweep through the neighborhood that night and found me, I'd explain myself and hope for the best. Luckily, no such explanation was needed and I made it through the night without incident. Before falling asleep, I changed my tire's inner tube, ate some peanut butter tortillas and trail mix, and called my mom to let her know I was okay.

Wednesday morning I packed up camp, and got onto the road around nine o'clock. It was a much prettier day, very sunny, not too hot with a good strong wind blowing right into my face. I guess you can't have everything go your way. I stopped in Ocala for lunch and took about an hour to rest. I received word that a member of the Sunrise Rotary Club in Gainesville had offered to host me and that made the afternoon ride even easier with that motivation. I pulled into Ron and Diane Farb's amazing house around 4:30 in the afternoon and was warmly greeted. The Farbs have hosted several world travelers, exchange students, and humanitarians in the past and were excited to have me stay in their home. Ron is a world class mountain climber, world traveler, and started his own non-profit, Climb for Cancer. Over the past six years he and his wife have raised over a million dollars for the foundation. They are both very interesting and very caring people. This morning, April 16th, I spoke at the Sunrise Rotary Club meeting at the Hilton on the University of Florida's campus and was very happy with the experience. The members of this Rotary club were very friendly, and very receptive to having me there to share my experiences and plans. They asked lots of good questions, and in the end, while I was speaking with members individually, they passed around a Sunrise club coffee mug and gave very generously to me with personal donations, leaving me quite speechless. I'd like to thank the members of their club, again, for their hospitality and generosity, and for not holding the fact that I am a Gamecock against me. I'd also like to thank Ron and Diane Farb for opening their home to me and being wonderful hosts.

Tomorrow is going to be a LONG day. I am aiming to reach Perry, FL which is 95 miles away from Gainesville. I don't actually know anyone in Perry, so motivation may be lacking, but Tallahassee is 56 miles after Perry and I don't want to fall too short of Perry making Saturday's ride that much longer. Luckily I will be able to take a few days off in the capital. I am staying with a friend from college and will hopefully have more opportunities to speak to people. I think the wind is supposed to be at my back for at least half the way tomorrow, so that is good news. I just hope my body keeps going strong. The good food the Farbs filled me with will definitely be put to good use as fuel. So, thanks for reading. I'll post more from Tallahassee...goodbye Gators, hello 'Noles!

Well, I took that last week off in order to rest, visit with my friend from the Peace Corps, Ben, and to prepare for the next leg of my trip. It was a great week in Melbourne, FL, the weather was nice and I am really happy I was able to catch up with Ben. It had been a year since I'd seen him last and there's no telling when we'll be in the same state again. I got to see the Florida Institute of Technology campus where he is a grad student, as well as where he works in a community environmental education center right on the Atlantic ocean, next to some preserved intercoastal waterway land. So, thanks Ben, for letting me crash on your couch for a week and visit with you.

Yesterday I saddled back up and made it 78 miles to Orlando, FL. The traffic was surprisingly light most of the way. I thought being the day after Easter it would be much worse, but I made it safely to my friend Jodi's (from the Ft. Lauderdale area) sister's house.  It was a great day to ride. The wind was at my back most of the way and it was flat for the most part. I was able to average almost 18 miles per hour the whole way.

Today I am headed up to the Ocala, FL area. I don't know anyone up there, but will try to find a fire station or somewhere that will be okay for me to camp for the night until I push on to Gainesville on Wednesday. There is a big belt of severe thunder storms about to hit right where I'm riding so I'm going to hold off today's start for as long as I can, hopefully letting the strongest parts of the storm front pass by. But since I'm speaking in Gainesville Thursday morning, it's imperative that I cycle at least 40 miles today, making Wednesday's trip 70 miles or less.

This will be my first day pushing through bad weather, so everybody wish me luck. It's going to be blinking red LED's from the back and lots of wind and water in my face. Let's hope my Burley trailer holds most of the water out like it is supposed to, and that everything goes well today. I certainly don't want to deal with a broken bike or trailer during a downpour. 

Well, thanks for reading my blog, and for all the support I've received. So until my next stop with wireless internet, help me in the fight against global hunger and spread a little awareness of your own! Tell your friends and family about my website and my cause. It takes so little to make a huge impact.

After my last entry, I packed up my trailer and headed up the road about ten miles to meet up with my friend Jodi at the high school where she teaches and coaches tennis. We had lunch and I thanked her again for her parents taking me in and feeding me. You always appreciate good home cooked food more when you're living a very basic and rough life. While living in Niger the only thing I missed more than family and friends was food, more specifically my mom's cooking. Once lunch was over, Jodi headed to the Bahamas and I started pedaling again.

53 miles later I pulled into the Jonathon Dickenson State Park with just enough time to set up camp, call home and make some peanut butter tortillas for dinner. I woke in the morning to a very slow start. This being my first time camping on this trip, I didn't quite realize the amount of time it takes to break down camp and repack the trailer for the next day. So I finally got onto the road around 9:45 am and took off on what would be the longest leg of my trip so far.

I had a lot of motivation to get to my friend Ben's place in Melbourne, FL where he's in grad school at the Florida Institute of Technology. We served as Peace Corps volunteers together in the same region of Niger so I was really excited to finally catch up with him. With this end in mind I spent seven long hours on my bike and made it over 90 miles finishing at the gym on campus where Ben works. The word "tired" doesn't quite do my body's state justice. I drank a LOT of Gatorade, showered, and sat for about two and a half hours resting until Ben got off work.

I'm going to be spending the next several days resting, trying to schedule talks at the local Rotary club and any schools that are interested, as well as preparing for the next leg of my trip. I will keep ya'll updated as things progress this week. Thanks everybody for keeping up with me and my trip, all of your comments and support are a major source of inspiration and motivation. Feel free to contact me at any point!

Well, my first day of pedaling did not go quite as I had planned. Since I have never done this type of cycling before, I had set a really lofty goal of making it 107 miles to Key Largo where I had a contact to stay with. Starting out in Key West I quickly was hit with the "first day set backs".

I made it about four miles before I saw that I had lost a screw on my front fender and had to remove it. About two miles after that I broke the toe-clip on my right pedal and lost one of it's screws, now it keeps popping off from it's one and only screw holding it to my pedal, requiring me to stop and reattach it a few times each ride. Then somewhere around the 15-20 mile mark of my morning ride I looked behind me and noticed that only half of my trailer's flagpole was still attached. I never saw the pole or flag fly off, but I imagine it happened while crossing one of the Key's bridges where the wind was really powerful and in my face. After this I made it to Marathon Key about 48 miles into my first day. I stopped at a public library I passed to rest, rehydrate and each lunch. A couple hours later I remounted my steed and started toward what was my goal of Key Largo. About 15 miles into my afternoon ride, I was trying to cross the two lanes of the road from where the bike path ended on the left where I could ride the shoulder on the right. Well I apparently pushed too hard down on my pedal and my chain exploded, stopping me dead in my tracks. I got my bike off to the side of the road, inspected the chain, and took out the tool I bought which was supposed to help me fix the links. Well, this "well" made tool ended up breaking and leaving me with no options.

I walked through a gate to a trailer home that sat right in front of where I had broken down and I knocked on the door. A man opened up, who I learned was Mike Daugherty, a local painter/handyman who originally came from Maryland, but came down to the Keys for vacation one year and ended up staying. He was an exceedingly nice and helpful man. I first asked to use his phone book to find a bike store, then he offered to drive me over to the closest one, ten miles back in the direction I had come from. This bike shop didn't have  a 9-speed chain in stock and said it would take 2-3 days to order one. This was bad news. So Mike offered his spare room to me and I offered to buy us dinner. After a pizza and some friendly conversation, I feel into a DEEP sleep. I hadn't been this tired since high school sports. The next day, I woke to learn Mike had looked up some other bike shops and found that the only place to get a proper chain was actually up past the Keys into South Florida below Miami. I didn't want to "cheat" and take a car ahead of where I had biked, but there really wasn't any other option. It turned out to be the smart move, because above Key Largo for about twenty miles there was a stretch of construction which would have made travel on bike near suicide with the amount of traffic and lack of room. This also put me back on schedule to get where I needed to be.

So after getting my new chain, and loading up I made it up to my friend's parents house in Lighthouse Point above Pompano Beach, FL around 8 o'clock at night. It was soooo nice to stay in a big fluffy bed and eat a hearty home cooked meal.

Today, I make my way North to a state park about 60 miles away where I will try to camp. Saturday I will try to make it up to Melbourne, FL where I have a friend who served with me in Niger as a Peace Corps volunteer. Hopefully all of my bicycle-breaking woes are behind me. So, until my next update, wish me luck.

So I'm just about to jump on my bicycle and head out up Highway 1 toward mainland Florida. It's going to be a very long day seeing as it's about 99 miles just to Key Largo. I'm shooting for Marathon Island which is about 50 miles away to stop, rest, and have some lunch. Then it'll be back on the bike for another three or four hours of riding. This being the first day of serious riding that I've ever done, I'm sure I'll have a few surprises, a few set backs, and some extremely tired and sore body parts by the day's end.

Yesterday was a great day, and hopefully a taste of what's to come along this journey. I spent all day yesterday speaking with classes at the Key West High School. I spoke in two different teachers classrooms, while a couple other teacher brought their kids in to listen. By the end of the day I spoke to around 250 students and word spread around school so fast that even a school paper reporter showed up and took some pictures and notes. Overall it was a really fun and successful experiece. I met a lot of really interested and curious students, and I am truly hopeful that I will be able to continue visiting schools along my path. I'd like to thank the teachers, Andrew Solomon and Jane McGill,of Key West High School for having me in their classes, and the students of Key West High School for making the experience totally worth while.

So, I'm saddling up and heading out. Wish me luck, I'm surely going to need it. Until next time, bye everybody!

Welcome to my blog. Right now I am finishing all of the preparations to start my campaign. I leave for Key West, FL on Monday and have my first opportunity to speak to students at Key West High School on Tuesday, March 31st. The following day, on April 1st, I will set out on my first day of cycling, which is bound to be a tough day because it's over a 100 miles just for me to reach mainland Florida...and that's no April Fool's joke.

I'd like to thank all of those people who have encouraged me along the way and who helped make this opportunity possible. I want to especially thank the Rotary clubs and all the Rotarians that believed in this project and myself and gave me the support to put pedal to pavement. In particular, I would like to thank Lyn Kenney, Rotary of Aiken, SC memeber and incoming AG for Rotary.  She was this project's and my Godsend. She supported this campaign and found others to support it when no one else would, and she continues to be my point person, finding more and more support. 

I want to encourage everyone to consider how little it takes to make a difference in someone elses life somewhere in the world, and go to my campaign donations page to give what you can. Just a tiny amount can change someones life, so please, join me in the fight to end global hunger!