What a trip!

So this weekend we: survived a tornado watch, lived in a fire station, FOUND $100!!, played with the CUTEST puppies, saw a crazy kangaroo hybrid, got FOUR flat tires and pretended we were on light bikes from TRON LEGACY. In other news: still in Missouri :(

Bill's Feed Shop

Janna and Travis are staying at Bill's Feed Shop in Beaufort, MO for the night. They're getting really close to Illinois!

Katy Trail

Janna and Travis made it to Treloar, MO. It's 12 degrees there and they have been riding on the Katy Trail along the Missouri river. It's beautiful but freezing!

Day of Rest

Today, on the seventh day of their journey, Travis and Janna rested with the lovely ladies of the Marshall Seventh-day Adventist church near Sweetsprings, Missouri. The heroic pair is planning to attend church there tomorrow and then start riding again after potluck. Pray that the weather holds up and that they continue to meet amazing folks along the way willing to make their journey easier.

Day 4 Update!

 Janna and Travis had their first bike maintenance issue and had to go 20 miles off route today to make it to the closet bike shop which eded up being in Kansas City, MO. The issue was that Janna snapped her shifter cable and had to get a new one put on. They have taken off their studded tires and tomorrow that should help to speed things up. Janna dn Travis are sleeping in a park by the Missouri river and it's pretty chilly. Janna and Travis are behind schedule, but are planning on playing catch-up tomorrow.

Keep praying!

Day 3

Well we just finished day 3 of our tour and are in Atchison, KS for the night. The Smith's have taken us in for the night and they feed us tons of great food. We traveled 50miles today. Still going kind of slow due to the big tires and I still feel pretty sick but we are hoping for a better day 2marrow! =)

Fighting the Traffic update

It was a rough day with lots of ups and downs, with a few torturous hills that Janna had to push her bike up.  Whoever said Nebraska is flat, hasn't seen this portion of it!   Janna and Travis started out the morning from Peru, NE, riding in about an inch of snow with a very cold night behind them.  They made it to Brownville, NE, where there was really nothing except a church having services.  They stopped in there and used the facilities and the people shared some food with them.  Then they proceeded on their route through a section that supposedly (via the NE Highway website) was clear for traffic now on Route 73.  The bridge was still out and under construction, but Janna and Travis rode their bikes across the dry riverbed and through the construction zone to the other side.  Janna got hit with a stomach virus and was vomiting off and on through the day which slowed their progress.  They made about 45 miles and stopped in Rulo, NE, where they got hot food at a small bar and set up camp by the river.  Temps are better tonight, around 30 degrees.  The studded tires are slowing them down quite a bit too, although glad they had them yesterday and this morning.  Will probably change them out in the next day or so as they get further south.

First Stop- Peru, Nebraska

We received our first word from Janna on the tour!

After pedaling for exactly 7 hours and burning 1400 calories, Janna and Travis have made their first stop in Peru, Nebraska. With some snowy weather and the studded tires on their bikes slowing them down more than they had anticipated, they didn't get as far as they had hoped. But with over 100 lbs. of gear on their bikes, the 69.25 miles traveled today was quite a feat! The excitement that still remained in her voice after such a long day was a conquest in and of itself!

At one point, Janna said she was pedaling in her lowest gear when she said she lost a tad bit of momentum and had to put her foot down. Consequently, she had to get off her bike and take it on a nice 1/4 mile stroll up a "massive hill" (her words). :) 

The trail they will be traveling on tomorrow is a rough trail with lots of gravel and bumps. It will be another long day with some rough terrain, but she still remains excited about the days to come! Hoping they have a warm and rested night tonight in their tent!

Stay tuned for more information as their bike tour continues! Thanks for all your support!

Tour Take Off

Well, the day has come that we will be taking off. We are leaving from Bike Pedalers tomorrow morning at 9:30am. We will be taking highway 2 towards Nebraska City and then off into Missouri. Travis flew in from Maine a few nights ago and we both got all our gear set up tonight. Keep us in your prayers as we undertake this endeavor.

Fighting the Traffic Tour

Things are becoming more and more official. Only 15 days til take off! Check out our facebook page and become a fan. http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/pages/Fighting-the-Traffic-Tour/166108093427365?v=wall. If you'd like to make a donation to Tiny Hands then visit http://www.tinyhandsinternational.org/ then click on the donate tab and you'll be able to donate specifically to the Fighting the Traffic Tour. All proceeds go directly to help fight sex trafficking in Nepal. It only takes $23 to save a girls life. Please help save a life and donate today!

Sleep, Eat, Bike, School, Eat, Bike, Sleep!

This is the schedule that I am ruled by! And not necessarily in that order since at this point I seem to be sacrificing my eating and sleeping more then other things, which is never a good option. I have been training a lot and have found the Great Plains Trails Network around Lincoln to be awesome for riding on. Heres some pics from riding.

On a SWEET note: My friend Travis has officially got his ticket to fly out here to Lincoln and is going to be riding the whole tour with me. I'm very Excited! Also, I have invested in some adventure cycling route maps so that we will have more of an exact plan to follow. Only 6 weeks until we take off so there is still lots of planning to happen before then.

For one thing this week Paul Yates from Tiny Hands International, Scott Larson (my PR man), and myself are going down to cycle works to meet with the owner. Scott has written up a proposal that will basically ask the cycle works company to completely support the tour and in return we will advertise for him by having the cycle works logo connected to all the gear, posters, ect. Pray that God's hand is in on this meeting also since this decision will have a huge impact on the tour in a really positive way or a really negative way.

Well, I'm off to write up a lab report! Have a great week everyone!

Janna.

Bike Tour 2010

   So many people are wondering exactly what my plans are for this epic bike tour that I am planning on doing; so I thought I would start blogging about it. Obviously, I'm not leaving right now so for now I will keep everyone up-to-date on my training and how fundraising is going. 


   This idea got stuck in my head a few weeks ago when I went to the Lied center here in Lincoln to hear Ben Skinner speak at the Global Issues Conference about slavery in the world today. He is the author of a crime so monstrous and has traveled all over the world to find people who are in slavery today and write their individual stories to help raise awareness of this issue. Just like Stalin said: "1 million dead men is a statistic, but 1 dead man is a tragedy." Hearing him speak got me really fired up. There is more slavery in the world today then there has ever been in earths history. The actual number is right around 27 million slaves today. That is insane. This is an issue that we have swept under the rug because although its everywhere its "nowhere". Since we don't see people selling other people on the corner of the street we assume they aren't being sold anywhere, and this is where we are so wrong and so nieve.


   After hearing him speak I realized that I don't want to just be aware of this issue but I want to be an activist. I want to help stop this issue. That night I couldn't sleep one wink and I kept thinking about a way that I could get involved. I got up since I couldn't sleep and was fiddling around with trying to get a plane ticket home for christmas and couldn't find any for less then $500 and was frustrated. I thought jokingly that: oh, i should just ride my bike home for christmas because that'll be cheaper. And then it hit me! This was how I could get involved. I decided that I would ride my bike home for christmas, from NE to FL, and that I would do presentations, ect. to help raise awareness and sponsorships for this endeavor. 

   When I shared this idea with Mr. Blake he told me about this organization based right here out of Lincoln called Tiny Hand International (tinyhandsinternational.org). This organization is awesome because all the money they raise goes strait to stopping women from being trafficked across the boarder of Nepal into India. They literally have people standing on the boarder that watch people come and go and have the right to stop and question people who look suspicious or have a girl with them that looks like she shouldn't be with them. They have rescued thousands of girls. I met with Paul Yates who heads things up here on this end in Lincoln and he shared with me their vision. It is a Christian based non-profit organization and they not only stop these girls from being trafficked they also have 8 children's homes that they are able to place up to 15 kids in at a time. They also have a home for street boys so that they don't grow up to end up being traffickers. 


   I am very excited about doing this tour to sponsor Tiny Hands. I still don't know exactly how we are going to do it but I am thinking about asking people to either sponsor me per mile that I ride or to do a $20 dollar sponsorship since that's how much it costs to help stop a girl from being trafficked across the boarder. 
As far as the biking goes I have begun training and have been riding everyday. I'm trying to get some gear sponsorships from local bike stores so that it won't cost much. I am getting a touring bike since the bike I have isn't made for such a long journey. My friend Travis G. will be flying here from maine to do the ride with me. We will leave Lincoln on Dec. 17th and hopefully arrive in Tampa by Jan. 3rd. 


    If you want to sponsor this journey to help stop slavery please feel free to contact me through this blog or at my email janna.buttrick@gmail.com. Look for more updates coming soon. =)