Ken's Latest Creation

Ken made this walking stick today.  Pretty awesome!

New Flags!

Our SHINY new trikes.  :)

Thanks to Nancy Evans at Donate Life America today we received two new flags to fly on our trikes!  How do you think they look?

The Best Soap Ever!

Since we will be taking very few things with us on the Just Be-Causes Tour we are going to be careful about what those things are.  We don't want to be advertising for companies we don't believe in - such as (brace yourself, this might hurt) Burt's Bees who recently sold out to Clorox. Vomit.  By doing our research and learning about how to best represent our beliefs while supporting companies who's priorities match our own we hope to find products we can use and tell others about.  The soap you see pictured above is going with us FOR SURE, and I want to recommend it to all of you.  It is WONDERFUL, and at around $5 a bar (which lasts forever) you have replaced your soap and your shampoo and your conditioner!  It can be found in health food stores or ordered online at:  J.R.Ligget's Shampoo Bar
Know of any similar companies that would benefit from being with us on our ride?  We prefer they be environmentally friendly, part of the solution, and small or family owned.  Please do not hesitate to tell us about them.  We would love to know!

School-Houses

The building in this picture is one of my favorite places in town and is just at the bottom of our hill.  A former Elementary school, it has recently been renovated and turned into homes!  Don't tell anyone, it's a secret, but I am using it as one of the settings in my novel.  Riding our trikes by it on this little path usually inspires me to come home and write.
We rode 21.9 miles today and the weather was gorgeous!

Rainbow

Beautiful rainbow in the back yard the other day. I didn't think the camera would pick it up but it did!  If you click on the picture and look really close you can see that this was a double rainbow.  Made me think of Jack Johnson singin about rainbows:  "That was God tellin me, everythings gonna be alright...."

Terras in Tramway

We double checked the distance when we got home because it sure didn't feel like we'd gone over 20 miles, but we did.  Wow.  We must be getting into shape!

Sanford Churches

      Churches come in all sizes, don't they?

This Methodist Church was one of our pit stops today. 

Irreplaceable, by Stephen Lovely

Those of you who know me know I don't recommend a book unless it is truly exceptional and this book is at the very top of my list.  The subject is of special importance to me (Organ Donation) but even if donation has not affected you personally this is still an excellent read that reveals much about the inner workings of our fellow human beings.  Stephen Lovely has become aware of our Tour and will be helping us promote our ride as we help support him in his upcoming paperback publishing next month. Give it a read - you won't be disappointed!

Our Dream Home

Eventually this is the type of low-imact house that Ken and Jen want to build themselves one day.  To live a low-impact lifestyle is to live lightly on the earth.

In essence, this means to intelligently and intensively manage our surrounding environment in order to maximise return (in the forms of energy, water, food, shelter and products) and minimise waste (through recycling, composting and energy efficient systems).
In practice, this means to adopt a land-based, simple, localised lifestyle that works with the land and natural cycles available to us.
To learn more about permaculture visit this site:  http://www.simondale.net/house/index.htm

Simon's First Long Ride

Today's ride was the longest so far on our new TerraTrikes - about 40 miles or so.  Other than being hungry we were feeling super, which we found VERY reassuring.  Simon joined us today for the first time and he did great!  He seemed to enjoy himself so much and felt so at ease riding with us that we are now more sure than ever that bringing him with us on the Tour is the right thing to do.  Simon barked only once or twice and that was because horses like to chase trikes!  Isn't that great? Watching the horses run along side us was magnificent to behold.  I wish I'd had my camera ready, and I hope we see alot more of that on the Tour.

Back Pack Pals

This morning we did some volunteer service work with a local group called BackPack Pals, A Program by Communities In Schools of Lee County.  This is a program that helps provide regular nutrition to children who would otherwise go without.  Several volunteers get together to do this every week and we were really impressed with how many children they are currently helping!  It felt good to be a part of something helpful, and we want to say thank you to Jenny Vaillancourt for telling us about this wonderful opportunity!  What a nice group of people!
If you are interested in donating food or funds to the BackPack Pals, or would like to volunteer your time, send your email to backpackpals@hotmail.com

Rollin Around Town

In the gazebo at our Kiwanis park where we used to walk, and where we now RIDE!  Bikes aren't allowed in some parts of the park, but the sign doesn't say anything about trikes... hmmm....  LOL

A quick snapshot outside the store.  It was cold today but not nearly as cold as it has been so we didn't have to get quite as bundled up.  We also didn't ride 25 miles, which is what we figured out yesterday's ride was.

Ken smiling his way up the hill on Sunset Drive.  Hills are so easy now, if you can handle a slow pace which in our opinion is the whole point. 

The Sanford Herald - hopefully our first media coverage will happen here.  We spoke with them today and gave them our packet of info about Donate Life, TerraTrike, and the Tour.

We also went here.  Don't tell them but we've never watched or listened to any of their programming (we don't really watch much tv).  They just happened to be next door to the Herald and we thought 'why not' since we plan to tell EVERYONE about what we are doing and why!

Listen to this song!

I found some new music I just had to share with ya.  It just wouldn't be right to keep something this good to myself.  Check out Sean Hayes: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9uzhtSwzW4&feature=related

Dog Attack! Not really.

Rural Methodist Church with a red door where we stopped to stretch our legs. 

We were a bit worried about dogs attacking us since we sit so low - about FACE level with a dog - but that was not the case with this "Dog attack."  This scraggly bowser loved Ken and tried to kiss him!!  When we left he ran along with us for awhile.  We were worried that we would follow us all the way home and were relieved when he turned around.  He was a sweet dog but Simon would not have liked that one bit!
We overdid it a bit today but still had a great time.  We rode for about 5 straight hours in this cold (34 degrees) and aren't exactly sure how many miles we went.  We got to use the blinking lights that came as part of our safety package since it was nearly dark by the time we pulled into our yard.  Boy were we glad to be home!!  Whew!  Tomorrow will be a lighter day.  We did learn alot about longer rides, though, and tried out the Bob trailer which worked great.  With each day we ride we are gaining some more confidence about the Tour.  We are so glad it will be warmer by the time we leave!

Watch Our First TerraTrike Rides!!

http://vimeo.com/8651430

2nd Day!

We took off yesterday around 2:00 to go to the bank, and came home 3 hours and 15 miles later!  People honked and waved at us the entire time!  The looks on people's faces, reading their lips, "What is that thing?" and answering questions that were literally hollered at us, "Where'd ya'll get those things?" made the ride so much fun!  These are the attention getters we needed to be able to get our message out about Organ Donation.  Our regular bikes would not have worked.  Thank you everyone!!

To The Store!

It didn't matter much to us that it was only 34 degrees and windy!  We went to the store, and then on another 5 miles or so, just to get a feel for these incredible machines.  Boy do the people stare!

Our First Ride!

They are even more awesome than we'd imagined them!  So comfortable and fast!  What a blast these are going to be!!! 

Delivery Day!!

A Warm and Heartfelt Thanks to All

We wanted to thank all that contributed to raising the monies involved to purchase our TerraTrikes. Your selfless generosity is very heartfelt by us. When we started this venture we started it with just a grain of hope and faith. Izzi (Higher Power) has taken it to a place we never expected. As the time went by and we saw Izzi moving through people and all the "coincidence" that occurred we were really very much in awe of what we were taking part in.  We realize today that what we are about to embark on is a very big and good thing. I (Ken) would like to thank especially Jen's Mother and Father in their support of this venture.  Their emails and contributions to our morale have been a major factor in us being able to get this far. We feel very blessed to have their support now and on the road in the future. I would also like to mention TerraTrike for their strong support in our mission and having the faith in us to put themselves on the line for our cause.  Everyone that has contributed to this event has our blessings. Without you all working together for the greater good none of this could have happened. This has boosted my faith in my fellow human beings. This is something that I lacked for a while but have gotten back because of you all being good compassionate people that cared about what message we will be trying to get out. Our Trikes should be here by Saturday. Of course there will be blog posts with pictures of the delivery and opening the boxes.  In the few months coming before the start date we will be training on the Trikes and putting on a few benefit rallies in North Carolina reflecting Donate Life and TerraTrike. So stay tuned for upcoming coverage.  We will be leaving the Donation Button up and going for those who would like to contribute to the trip itself. All in all Jen and I have never felt so Blessed. Thanks so much.