Support for the Great American Coastal Excursion
Donation protected
Like "our" last adventure called The Great American Triple Switchback, "we" won't be able to finish what we start without financial help.
I say "our," "we," and "us" because I like to think of this as a team effort. And I wouldn't be out there without your help.
I like to think of any financial donation as maybe a subscription to the cause by which I'm obligated to do certain things along the way. Almost like a real reality show Seriously. I try to be as transparent as I can which I've certainly showed in the past. I will make mistakes out there and own up to them.
The goal is to cover 11,000 miles over the course of 7 months. The map is the Bibbery Travels FB profile page.
This is all done completely solo on a human powered bike and I'm the human that powers it. I just like to clarify that as often as I can.
The Great American Triple Switchback ended up being 16661. Both symmetrical and a palindrome. There's no purpose for me to write that but people who follow Bibbery Travels will understand.
The first obligation for me is to make my own donations along the way. Not money, but blood. On this trip I plan to donate blood/platelets at least 14 times myself. Thats about once every 2 weeks.
This is the "cause" of this adventure. Bringing awareness to blood donation. "We" (you and me) have already started setting up blood drives which will be promoted as we travel.
As I donate blood personally the goal is to encourage and promote everyone that is eligible to do the same. This seemed to work well on the Great American Triple Switchback.
So far we have things set up with Impactlife in Madison WI with a 2 week blood drive of sorts, Cleveland OH where I'll be donating platelets at the Red Cross, a full Bibbery Travels blood drive in London OH on July 27th with the Red Cross, and a blood drive at Spoga Fitness with the blood bank of Hammond LA. Date to be determined.
I have a ADRP conference in Charlotte NC where I'll be making more contacts and filling in some blanks. I will be presented with an award at the conference for our work with promoting blood donation.
I feel this response with the blood donor organizations so far is right where we need to be! Thank you!
The second thing I obligate myself to do when traveling is keeping everyone up to date each day with 3 in depth posts on Facebook. I've been really good at sticking to that which people seem to enjoy as I show things in real time.
I quite literally put all my finances into the adventure. I like to say I'm "all in."
I'm certainly not looking for sympathy given the support and self satisfaction I've achieved over the past 2 adventures. I've been able to "live" live.
However just to put things in perspective, I live without health benefits, savings, retirement, or any other type of assets including property. I do have a car I use for Ubering and that's how I save as much as I can up until this point.
Right now we have about 90% of all the equipment for the adventure including a used bike I ordered. I'm not gonna officially name this bike Seabiscuit 3 because there's still time for a sponsor to step in and equip us with a brand new Seabiscuit 3
With this, I'd just like to say I'm not in this GoFundMe to make a buck. All donations will go towards trip expenses. You'll see me eating peanut butter sandwiches as opposed to lobster bisque with freshly crumpled crackers as I pass all the seafood restaurants along the coast. If that's my biggest problem I'm doing pretty darn good!
I also sleep in my tent unless someone gifts a hotel room directly or offers their home which does happen more frequently than I ever expected.
Departure date is June 10th, 2023. We certainly don't need all the money before we leave but a nice bump would be encouraging.
I do try to sell Bibbery Travels Shirts which I'm really proud of. Here is the link for that if you feel that's more appropriate
Also some people do ask for my Venmo which is @Bob-Barnes-15
I think most people know how I roll and I can't say thank you enough for all the support already provided both financially and otherwise!
Organizer
Bob Barnes
Organizer
Syracuse, NY