Day 55 - What is Bike and Build?

As I was riding today, I realized that a lot of my readers may not know much about the purpose of Bike and Build and the mission of Habitat for Humanity, the affordable housing organization that my route works with exclusively. 

Bike and Build's mission is two-fold: one is to raise money and awareness for the need of affordable housing. The other is to empower young adults and to encourage them to commit to a lifetime of service. 50 cents of every dollar we raise goes directly towards affordable housing, 35 cents goes toward supporting the bike tour which is the "empowering young adults" portion of the mission. The other 15 cents covers overhead costs. The funds that support affordable housing are distributed in four ways: 1) They are distributed in the form of grants that related organizations can apply for. 2) We donate a portion of the funds to an affordable housing organization of the choice of our host sites in their name. 3) The funds are used to sponsor a specific project, ours was the Klein family's house in Colorado Springs. 4) Each rider has the chance to donate $500 to an affordable housing affiliate of their choice. 

Habitat for Humanity is a commonly misunderstood organization. Habitat does not give away free houses. They give "hand-ups," not "hand-outs." The houses are made affordable due to volunteer labor and donated building materials. The homeowners pay off their house with no-interest mortgage. The monthly payments are less than what the family would have been paying before their Habitat home for housing. 

So that is Habitat and Bike and Build in a nutshell. I barely scratched the surface so if you have any specific questions, please feel free to email me. 

Today was another great day. We cruised so fast for the first 40 miles because it was mainly downhill and a tailwind. After first lunch, it was a little slower but still doable. We stopped for ice cream in Dinosaur, CO and then we crossed into Utah. 

Ice cream!

The awesome Utah state sign!

Mike had a crash today after he accidentally crossed tires with another rider. Luckily, they were going uphill at only about 8 mph but he got some great battle scars!

It was a long 110 mile ride today! When we got to the host site, everyone passed out on the floor. The couches looked too nice to be sitting on them in dirty shorts so we all just laid on the floor and fell asleep. I woke up on the floor and looked around and everyone else was snoring peacefully. It was really funny!

Soo sleepy!

Tomorrow is a 77 mile ride to Duchesne, UT! I can't believe we only have 3 weeks left!!! :(