One Week!

Here we are. One week to go. I feel sufficiently loaded up with carbs and coffee milk. Fundraising, as you know, went really well. Thanks for all of your generous support! Cue up a drum roll because I have the final donation tally to unveil....

We raised $5,506! Yes!

Thanks for all of your contributions. The fundraiser was such a blast, and an amazing success. We couldn't have done it without the organizers, the raffle prize contributors, and of course the folks that come out to the event. So thank you! Below is a machine some of you may be more familiar with than others. It's a tattoo machine, and this is the one that my Uncle John hand-crafted and then auctioned off to benefit affordable housing. What a cool machine, huh?


While we're on the Moniz family handiwork, take a look at the picture below. I came up with a problem that no one could seem to find a solution for. I bought a lovely new bike seat, but the bag that I normally put underneath to hold extra tubes, tools and snacks just wouldn't fit! I went over to my Uncle John and Aunt Shellie's place. They fixed me right up. Check out this aluminum piece my uncle fit to the saddle. That bag will fall apart years before the aluminum even loses its shine. And not to be outdone, my Aunt Shellie made an amazing pair of linen pants for me. They look amazing. I really haven't taken them off yet, and probably will not until we reach San Francisco.


What is all this below? It's part of our route for riding through a section of Utah. Utah... I really cant even imagine being out there in a couple of months! Well, it's a big mountain pass where we climb 4,000 feet over 15 miles... followed by 28 miles of downhill!


So our group of 30 riders will meet up on June 3rd, and then we have a couple days of orientation. We'll also build for a day with the Providence Habitat for Humanity group. Then we leave from Providence on June 6th. Phew, there's an update for you, I'm getting really excited! Thanks for checking in!

Thank You!

A big thanks to everyone who made our Bike and Build fundraiser such a huge success! Our friend Pat who spent the night taking pictures during the event sent a whole bunch my way, so I'm happy to share them. But first, whether you came from out-of-state to attend, contributed a raffle prize, or placed bids on our silent auction prizes... thank you!


How about some fundraising updates?! Well, from the night of the fundraiser alone, we raised an astounding $1,771! Also, some of you may know that my Uncle John handcrafted a tattoo machine, he then sold on ebay. 100% of those proceeds went to Bike and Build. That puts our contribution to affordable housing projects across the US at well beyond our goal of $4,000... and makes it $5,486. Wow. You are all amazing. Thank you!


The picture above is our huge raffle table. My Aunt Shellie, in no time, managed to beautify the table and arrange all the items for our bidding pleasure. Some of the notable wins were Scott Lombardo winning a sweet desk clock, and then promptly giving it away to my mom's coworker.... what a guy! Also, Andrew was very excited to win two folding chairs for tailgating the Jimmy Buffett show this summer.


So thank you all for attending, contributing, and wishing me well for the journey! I've been training hard these past weeks. A couple of days ago I biked 65 miles from Providence to Boston on these great back roads that wound through Cumberland, RI to Franklin, MA, and then eventually to Mark's apartment in Jamaica Plain. I also had a great 50 mile day riding around the super scenic bike paths in Lily's area of Northampton and Amherst.


If you haven't checked this out yet, Bike and Build has created a great way to follow riders during the cross country trip. This site has a map that will show my location during the summer. It'll also show pictures taken during the trip, and has a quick link to this blog. As always, thanks for checking out the blog, and I'll have more updates soon on our departure... just about two weeks to go!