Thursday, October 9, 2008

UP, UP AND AWAY!!!!!

BioRide 2008 – ‘Doogie’s Log’
Wednesday, October 8th – Day of Departure
WE ARE ON THE ROAD! OFFICIALLY, TOTALLY, FULLY, WHOLLY, MIRACULOUSLY ON THE ROAD!!!! DOOGIE IS AAALLLIIIIIIIVE!!!!!!!!!!!!

After beginning this project just over a month ago, we have obtained, fixed, painted, tweaked, altered, and named the vehicle which we now know fondly as ‘Doogie’, our wheels around the country. In addition to that, Team BioRide has managed to gain sponsorship from Cloud Creek Institute for the Arts, Propel fuels, City Hardware, Kavu, The Cellar, Whole Foods, Mona-Vie Energy Supplements, Outdoors for All, Big Brothers Big Sisters, Feathered Friends, Garcia Family Coffee Farms, tvwriter.com, and Hurricane Café. We have also gained support from a number of local companies and individuals. In all honesty, I am blown over by the generosity of individuals.

This is day one of the road trip adventure and we have had some difficulties. T he conversion process was actually quite simple. The mechanical ‘problems’ we have had are because we driving a 1985 Chevy Suburban. Ryan and Jeremiah have spent numerous hours fixing, replacing, and adjusting various parts. We are all learning the personality of ‘Doogie’, our 4th companion on this trip.

Lately, I have had to come to terms with is my expectations for this experience. My ideas of grandeur are consistently met with the hard face of reality. Funding this has been very difficult. I need to do homework for my grad school classes while we travel. I even need to leave the team two times throughout this to fly back to Seattle to attend class. Total Bummer. It will be difficult to concentrate on anything but the here and now of this amazing opportunity.

We even picked up a PANAMANIAN on our first day! I received a call from David Garcia (old roommate& close friend of the group). “Hello, Niick. I haave decided to come with you for a few days.” Now, because David’s presence is welcome, it required us to pick up another seat to install. David’s demeanor and verbal communication really help keep things light, even when a storm cloud approaches. He will ride with us to Los Angeles, where he will then fly back to Seattle.

We are currently on I-5 heading south down into Oregon. The initial excitement of departing Seattle is slowly being met with the onset of fatigue. We hope to get past Portland tonight. Let’s see how that goes. More later…

No comments: