Pre-Trip Thoughts by Mike G

The day has finally come for us to depart on BAAM! I have been dreaming and planning this trip since Urbana, which ended New Year’s Day. Some of my great ideas pre-trip totally fell through because of lack of time and last minute everything. That’s okay I guess I knew something like that would happen.

I pride myself on being confident and comfortable in any situation. In my mind, I can go anywhere and talk to anybody about what I want. I’m a pretty carefree and laid back person, and this is pretty much true. This likely was kindled by student council staff training, leadership workshops, etc. Even though I left with a bad feeling from unethical practices and minimal, tangible results outside the organization (exceptions being SMOBs, volunteer work, and legislative days), these were very important formative years for myself (and probably many others involved). But, I still overanalyze many things and think too much on trivial matters.

Last week, I got real nervous about this trip. I had to buy a million things, we didn’t have housing planned out for ~50 nights, I didn’t have directions printed, I hadn’t advertised much, I had no idea what we were going to do when we went to speak at different churches, etc. I still don’t have half of these things done! Some I’ll finish today, others not a chance. Heck, my original plan was to visit a bunch of VBS camp kids and do planned activities with them on water, to educate the children, who would educate the parents, who would give us money. HA I haven’t even come close to that level of organization. Now, I don’t even know how to raise money. But, I’ve found that by virtue of stating we care enough about international water issues and individuals who need clean water in Zambia to bike across the country that people will give us money along the way. We’ll also talk with them a bit and show them the documentary FLOW.

But, that’s okay, I have peace in God’s plan for this Summer.

The main problem in trip planning was me being frugal. I thought I could design up a route myself using Google Maps. You can get directions no problem, just plug in location A, B, C, etc, click no highway and no tolls, and BAAM! you might be on your way. But that idea was stupid, Rt 40 isn’t a highway, but I don’t want to bike on that road! So I caved and dropped $160 on maps. But that was ~1 month ago. Without a route you ain’t got nothing, no places to stay, no people to talk to, no sites to see, etc. So, note to self: DON’T BE FRUGAL/LAZY DURING EARLY STAGES OF PLANNING BIG STUFF. Also, thank you Adventure Cycling Association for making really sweet maps and routes, I highly recommend them for any long distance touring plans.

I think that’s all for now, I guess this is a decent first blog post. If you find yourself for any reason feeling bored this Summer, well I have about 10 things I can give you to do :P. Call me at any point this summer, for the sanity of BAAM! and yourself! 443-255-5103