Settled in for the night in San Diego
After long car rides/flights most of us are finally settled in for the night in San Diego.
14 of us drove out from Columbus starting late Friday and drove the R4WH vans (our newly decaled Budget sponsored vehicles) for 45 hours stopping only for pit stops and gas. Here are my lessons from the trip.
1) It can snow up to 2 feet in western Oklahoma, almost in Texas, at the end of March!
We hit a massive snowstorm in OK. Slowed us up a bit and was pretty scary with cars off the road, rumors of road closings, and power outages at multiple gas stations keeping us from filling up our tanks. We made it through safely with the help of our very skilled van drivers Dan Kim and Sebastian Brooke whose cool heads and quick reflexes kept us all safe as a car in front of us slammed on its brakes causing multiple cars to swerve over the road. Hopefully that is the last snow our bikes see this trip - at least for a while!
2) When you are hungry and been on the road 30+ hours, hot pockets from a gas station in the middle of the desert and heated up in their microwave taste amazing.
After miles in Arizona without passing any gas stations or food we finally came to a small gas station with a fridge full of hot pockets, frozen burritos, and frozen pizza. Microwaved hot pockets have never tasted so good!
3) RSC stands for Roll Stability Control.
About 2 hours into the trip, these three letters started flashing on the dash as the car made a high pitched beeping noise. After some calls to Ford and some searching online, these letters apparently stand for Roll Stability Control and is meant to warn you if you are going to roll over. Unfortunately, If something in the sensor goes faulty, it can cause this warning to go off exactly every 5 min and 22 seconds for 30+ hours (Yes we timed it - you have to keep yourself entertained on cross-country drives!)
With those lessons learned and after finally meeting in person many of the wonderful people I have read so much and written so much about as PR/Marketing director over the last few months I am now off to bed to catch up on some much needed sleep. Looking forward to a full day tomorrow as we learn the new 2009 Ride for World Health Lectures and go on our first group training ride! The ride officially starts of in 4 days!
Alissa Gilbert
2009 National Team Rider
Welcome to Ride for World Health 2009!
2009 National Team Riders Kristen Burwick, Dan Kim, Christian Walker-Richards, Kami Teal and Clara Ruiz pose for the camera before a training ride on 3/22 in Columbus, OH
Hello and welcome to the Ride for World Health (R4WH) 2009 Blog! We will be starting the drive out to San Diego in just 2 days and are getting very excited, and a little nervous, about starting this amazing journey.
Please stop back and follow us on our journey as we work our way across the country to raise awareness of health needs around the world and raise funds to benefit the worthy humanitarian global health organizations Esperança and Village Health Works. You can also join our Facebook Ride for World Health Fan page (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Ride-for-World-Health/11862555943) where we will be updating pictures from our ride as close to daily as possible – though we can’t promise we will be able to get reception every single day in the desert!
I have linked up some of our riders own personal blogs which you can find on the right side of our blog page under "Rider Blogs". Also, please feel free to check out the global health experience blogs of R4WH co-founder Andrew Suchocki M.D. as he traveled to Kigutu, Burundi to work with 2009 R4WH Beneficiary Village Health Works this past August, and 2009 National Team Rider Ellen Acree as she worked in rural northern India this past February. Both of these blogs can be found on the right side of our blog page under "Global Health Experience Blogs".
We have many great events planned during our ride this year including..
• Global Health Days in Los Angeles, Kansas City, and Columbus OH
• Solidarity rides – where you can join us for a day of riding in support of global health – in Colorado Springs CO, Columbus OH, and Poolesville MD (at Riley's Lock, just outside of Washington DC)
• Talks and Global Health Fairs across the country!
Our full event listing is now available online at www.rideforworldhealth.org/news/events.html.
We hope you will enjoy following our blog and make it out to meet us at one of our events!
Alissa Gilbert
National Team Rider 2009