First Leg!

Hey everybody! Below is a town-by-town description of our first leg of the 4K trip! Take a gander...

Waynesboro, PA
Bedford, PA
Greensburg, PA
Butler, PA
Youngstown, OH
Cleveland, OH
Sandusky, OH
Fayette, OH
Elkhart, IN
Michigan City, IN
Chicago, IL (June 12-13)
Kankakee, IL
Bloomington, IL
Jacksonville, IL
St. Louis, MO
Montgomery City, MO
Fayette, MO
Sweet Springs, MO

**I will include dates for each town as soon as I can...so be on the lookout for those and let me know if you'll be in the area!

ain't no mountain high enough

One of the 4K team members, Travis, put together this amazing elevation map of our trip!!! Just to give you all an idea of what we'll be up against...as you can see, the elevation gets pretty ridiculous once we pass the midwest.



On a more immediate note: Today we did one of our first longer rides as a team through the rural roads around Baltimore county and near Towson. I was caught a bit off-guard when we hit some of the hills, but Raffi led the ride and he was merciful enough to go steadily. I definitely have respect for those who lead the rides each day. It's more difficult than it looks to keep a steady pace for those following you. You always have to make sure that you're not dropping people and you're going at just the right pace....like a mama duck leading all of her little baby ducklings.

ALSO...a HUGE THANK YOU to those who have donated thus far! I'm on my way to reaching my $4,000 fundraising goal! The deadline has been extended to May 31st! Therefore, if you'd like to help me help cancer patients, here's where you can go: http://sites.google.com/a/4kforcancer.org/rider-fundraising/riderfundraising/jacqueline-sofia (this is my donation homepage)

bicycles and travel

I try my best not to lust after such things like bags, clothes, etc. But every once and awhile, I cannot help myself... http://www.onelanguagelabel.com/product/bicycle-indiv.html

Cancer Sucks week

The gang at Relay for Life...and posing appropriately with our new bikes! Craig and I proudly doned the spandex shorts as we pedaled into the night, along with the rest of the team, on some trainers that we attached to our bikes. And we couldn't have asked for better weather!

I'm going to take this opportunity to solicit the 4K and my urgency to raise mucho dollars in less than TWO WEEKS! If anybody is interested (**every bit helps...$1? $5? $500?) If you'd like, I will drive/ride to your house PERSONALLY and pick up your donation for you. Think about it, door-to-door service, and you get a friendly visit from me as an added bonus. How can you resist?

STEP BY STEP!
1. www.4kforcancer.org
2. click on "2009 Donation Homepage" link
3. click on "Jacqueline Sofia" on the side bar to the left
4. you'll then come upon my rider bio page (woot!)
5. click the "Donate Here" link in the top left-hand corner
6. Paypal that bad boy and you're set to go!

Big thank yous to all who have already donated, as well :) You know who you are, and I wouldn't be able to make this journey without you.
all the love.

wake up and go.

It's Your Ride from Cinecycle on Vimeo

city cycling gems.

NEW FIND! Okay, it's not really new, and it wasn't my find...I had intended to visit this place a long time ago, last semester when I was first told about it. With school etcetera, I had never gotten the opportunity to venture out. However, a combination of Shar's persuasiveness and the absolutely gorgeous weather got me to ride my bike down to the Arts district (which really just consists of couple blocks located north of the train station) to check out The Velocipede Bike Project! Velocipede is a "collectively run non-profit dedicated to helping people use bicycles as transportation." Cute, right?! It is very cool, actually. Shar was having trouble with her gears, so after getting dinner at Sophi's Crepes, we popped over to the other side of the street. Right on West Lanvale Street, there's a door propped open and you can spot a couple bikes locked to a signpost outside.

The very cool thing about this place is that everybody is helping each other. When you walk inside, there's someone at the door to direct you to a person who will actually teach you how to fix your bike! There are some basic rules to the shop, as follows (from what I could gather...)

A. You can pay a one-time user fee of $5-$10 (depending on the work you need done)

B. You can pay a monthly fee, allotting you as much work on your bike as you need within the month, for $30

C. For every hour you spend getting your bike worked on, you can trade three hours of volunteering at the shop! (This is my favorite option...and if I had the time I'd definitely get on that)

Shar chose to pay a one-time fee, which is really inexpensive if you realize how much another bike shop would cost you (a tune-up usually goes for ~$30. If you need to replace/fix something, it can cost a lot more, though!)

(Shar and Noah (employee) checkin' out her gears...in the very literal sense.)

If you want to check out more, you can visit their website: www.velocipedebikeproject.org

Get Creative.

I haven't even graduated yet, I haven't had the opportunity to feel the full weight of the economic crisis as a completely independent adult, and I am already scrounging for money. Fundraising has proved more difficult than I thought. Last week I spent spring break handing out pamphlets trying to convince people that they were the next person to cure cancer if they gave me a few dollars. Instead, every bike shop and their mother is barely making it with the economic downturn.
I have had some very generous donors...actually, all of my donors are generous considering the circumstances! However, it's time to turn up the heat. I've never been one to be comfortable asking for money. When I was in grade school, I was always the kid who would have her entire family listed next to several different kinds of wrapping paper for the school fundraiser. This time it's different, of course. I'm not trying to raise $50 in order to be eligible for a glow in the dark slinky. I'm raising this money for a cause much greater than myself. Hence, I'm going to put aside my reservations and power forward.
Some people have had some great ideas, too! One person suggested providing return envelopes with letters for people to submit their donation. Another one, which is a bit more extravagant, is to email someone famous with the same nationality as you. You know, tap into that whole, "support the (enter your nationality) community!" mentality.
One girl emailed Ellen Degeneres. I'm rooting for her to get a call back in a few days.

"Hey Oprah! It's Jacqueline Sofia. Great- So that was $50,000 you said?"