An Update

Like so many other things in my life these days, my blog has been neglected. A little while ago I sent out an email with an update to many friends and family. I thought I would post it here too - just to let you know what has been going on.

Hi,

Can you believe how quickly this year is flying by? My life has been downright crazy and I wanted to send out an update on what has been going on since I have been so terrible about emailing, calling, and seeing everyone. Thus a mass email.

For the past 14 months I have been working on planning the Sea to Sea bike tour. This event, which starts next week, is a 9 week, cross continent bicycling event to raise money for poverty alleviating causes; to date the group has raised over 1.5 million dollars! I have been one of 4 staff members who have taken this crazy idea and made it a reality. We have 128 cyclists who will start the ride in Seattle, WA on June 30th and end in Jersey City, NJ on August 31st. In addition there is another 92 cyclists who will ride a 4, 3 or 2 week portion of the ride. Add in 25 support staff and you have about 250 people taking part in the event. One component of my job has been “taking care” of all of these people. Right now I feel like I have 250 children who are about ready to be set free on the open road. For those of you who have been involved with planning an event, I am sure you can imagine the work that goes into planning a 63 day event that travels through 14 states and one province. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that about half of our cyclists are Canadian. I have had quite the lesson is the cultural differences between the two countries, many times the smallest difference manifested into a major issue until I figured out the root of the miscommunication. Thankfully I know my hockey. J

The first question I get from everyone is “Are you riding?” Ah, No. I still do not own a bike, although I have picked up on cycling lingo and can talk a good game. But I will be with the tour about 3 weeks over the summer. Thursday, I leave for Seattle to get ready for our registration, orientation, bike safety course and then to see everyone off. I will return on July 2nd. A few weeks later I will head out to Denver to do it all again for the new cyclists starting there. Then the tour arrives in West Michigan, where we have 65 people joining for the last two weeks. I will be offering the orientation and bike safety classes a few weeks early and the day before the tour arrives in Grand Rapids to try to split up the group of new cyclists. After leaving GR the next stop for me will be meeting the group as they cross into Canada. Over the past year we have had quite an interesting adventure with border crossings. After consulting congressional offices, homeland security, two immigration attorneys, and now being on a first name basis with officials from both the US and Canadian border patrol, we would like to think the crossing of our tour will go smoothly, but we are not counting on it. So I will be there with a vehicle for any one who is unable to cross into Canada. Then I will be spending Labor Day weekend in Jersey City for the end of the tour and it will finally be over! If the next 10 weeks go as fast as the past 10, the tour will be over in a flash. Part of me is really looking forward to this adventure being over.

Once I close down the Sea to Sea office on September 12th, I will be taking a much needed vacation to Alaska. I am really excited about this as the more I talk to people the more I hear about how amazing this area is. We are taking a cruise and part of me is just excited to have a week where someone makes my food, cleans for me and entertains me. Plus I am thrilled about not being able to be reached while sailing in the ocean. After a summer of being leashed by multiple communications devises, 9 days of no email or cell phones sound glorious! When I return from my vacation I will be starting my full time work as the assistant to the director of denominational advancement. I have been doing a little work for this position since the first of the year, and I am looking forward to this being my main focus.

During the tour, you can follow along with the cyclists on our website, http://www.crcna.org/pages/sea_front.cfm each day one of the cyclist will be carrying a GPS so everyone can see exactly where the cyclists are. If you wonder why the route is not straight across the country, it is because we tried to pass as many of the churches as we could.

So far the past 14 months has been very interesting and things are going very well, for being less then a week out. But during the tour safety of the cyclists will be the main concern. Most people don’t realize how dangerous it is for cyclists as they ride on busy roads. Statistics are not in our favor to complete this event without major injury or a fatality. Please keep the cyclists and the tour in your prayers over the nine weeks they are on the road. A continued outpouring of prayers has gotten us to this point and will bring all of the cyclists home safe and sound.

I do hope you are doing well, I know I have missed lots things, but for me it is almost over and soon I will be able to reconnect with everyone.

Erinn