Oh The Places We Will Go

“You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You're on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the one who'll decide where to go...”

I have chosen Dr. Seuss's "Oh The Places You Will Go" as the theme of this blog, trip and while I'm at it my life. I have used what little brains I have in my head to embark on a trip of epic proportions with two High School friends. Lets meet my partners in crime:




Katrina Lefrancois-Hanson
Originator and instigator of this trip, she is finishing up a two year stint with the Peace Corps in Armenia. I met Katrina through Kira Helm (thank you Kira) in High School at the local Climbing wall.



Zach Hale
I met Zach in band at Lake Stevens High School, we were never close, probably because I was a snobby trumpet player, but Zach is apparently super-ridiculously-computer-savvy and works by laptop as he treks around the world. I'm pretty sure he is the James Bond of web design.





Then there's me...Will Trimble I just scored a sweet new gig with Kama'aina Kids on Oahu so the natural thing to do is to ask them for a 2 1/2 month vacation after working for one month, they naturally agreed...naturally.





So that's it, that's us. The group is a strange one but I think each of us fills a personality role and we will learn more about each other as we take this journey together. What journey is that you might ask?!

Starting approximately June 28th we will meet in Yerevan, Armenia then spend the next 2.5 months avoiding death (as best we can) riding bikes across Europe eventually departing from Munich, Germany. Why would we design a trip that is obviously going to be mentally and physically challenging? I'll give you three reasons:
1. It's cheap (we are but two poor post college students.....and one maybe marginally rich post college student....who wish to see something new)
2. To see more (I don't know if it's true but the rumor is "the slower you go the more you see". With us three on bikes I'm sure we will redefine slow)
3. To do something cool for someone else. (That's right, as if this trip wasn't complicated enough, we have decided to add just one more aspect to it. We will turn it into a benefit ride.)

This trip is an amazing opportunity for us three to see the world and it will be something that we will share with our families and friends. To include YOU we are asking for pledges. For every mile we ride we would like you to make a donation to the American Heart Association. We ask you to make a promise of at least a penny a mile we ride. Though our route is still in the planning stages I expect we will ride any where between 500 and 700 miles. So if you were to pledge a dime a mile and we rode 652 miles your contribution to The American Heart Association would be $65.20. I understand that many people are in financially rough times so we ask that you pledge what you can and help us support a worthy cause. If you would like to make a pledge send an email to your rider with the amount per mile you can afford. DO NOT SEND US MONEY (we are poor post college children and we will spend it....probably on something shiny or that will just rot our teeth). The donation you make at the end of our trip will be made directly to The American Heart Association.

As we plan I will bring you updates, I hope everyone is as excited as me!