Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Southern California

Only a few days left before we hit Tijuana.

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Arrived in Newport!

Hey! I dont have much time, we've arrived in Newport! The weather is looking better!

Here's a couple videos you guys can check out!


http://sportsgist.com/video/1162

http://sportsgist.com/video/1172

Cheers!

P.S. the Oregon coast must be one the most beautiful places on Earth.

Sunday, June 8, 2008

Global AFC hits Oregan!

Hey! Yesterday, we had a relatively short ride. Little rain! Rain, really changes a lot. When the weather is nasty, we bike faster, we take 5 minutes to eat lunch, and we hardly glance at the sights around us. The objective is just to get to the next destination, eat, and pass out. But yesterday, although it was pretty gray, there was no rain! So we took our time, looked at the scenery around us. We went along the Columbia River, until we hit the 1.5km bridge that links Washington to Oregon. When we entered Oregon, we ate lunch at co-op bakery called the Blue Scorcher. They kindly gave our entire group 40% off, since we had biked 40 miles to get there! We ate very well to say the least!

From there we headed to Seaside, where I'm writing from right now. It's a nice town! And we headed down to the beach, watched the sunset, the waves...oooh man it was soo nice to see it! We made fire, took out the acoustic guitar, played some tunes, and celebrated our first day with no rain! A fire, at the beach, with an acoustic guitar, has to be one of the best things in life! All we needed was a clear sky to see the stars at night...

But, I have a feeling there will be many more beach fires on this trip! And our bodies are getting used to this cycling. I couldn't believe how my leg muscles have already started to get firmer! So we're having more and more energy at the end of our rides!

Especially after our 23 mile ride today! That's nothing for us! Sounds like a break!

We'll be camping for the next 3 days, so I dunno if i'll be able to write!

Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Seattle

Grey. Arrived in Seattle after a 120 km ride through lots and lots of rain! Our fingers and toes were numb. Lunch was eaten in barely 5 minutes, we just wanted to get back on our bikes, and make it to Seattle. No time to look at the scenery.

Okay, this does paint a pretty grim picture. And the picture indeed was grim, but we made the best out of it! We sang songs....from All Star (Smash Mouth) to the Umpa Lumpa song (Charlie and the chocolate factory). We told riddles. We discussed micro-credit. We talked about God, about religions, about physics. About everything and nothing.

Arriving in Seattle was a great relief. Our team got split up into two homes. We just passed out once we got inside. Our gear soaked. We got some hot chocolate going to warm our insides. We also cooked up a bunch of pasta! So delicious, people were eating the noodles before the sauce was even ready...we were THAT hungry!

On that note, we've been well fed on this trip. Everyone has had more than enough to eat! We take energy bars on the ride...these are probably one of the biggest costs for food. We're looking at the possibility of making our own energy bars. Dried fruit, granola...? Please leave a comment if you know of any good recipes!

Anyways, the next morning (today), we had a day off to explore Seattle. Which was a nice break for our legs! Tomorrow we'll be up at 5AM, so I have to get off the computer and get some sleep!

But I was happy to hear today that grade 3's and 4's are keeping track on my progress and checking out my blog! It's a big motivation for me, to keep writing them! So thanks "y'all" !

I've had some interesting discussions about micro-credit and charities in general on this trip.

Monday, June 2, 2008

Daily updates at GlobalAFC.org

Hey! So the ride has been going great so far! I'm dead tired today, we're staying at a church in Stanwood. I've been taking lots of pictures and footage which I hope to be posting on this blog soon, but for now, I just wanted to put up our main blog site.

Here you can find out what's going on during the trip, it'll be updated daily and is written by the team (each person takes their turn at it!)

To access the blog go to: http://www.globalafc.org/blog/

Day 2!

We filled ourselves with bananas for breakfast in a Safeway parking lot. We had to eat up all the fruits we had before crossing the U.S. border (Ben ate 8 bananas for the cause!). The border was a breeze. It was the first time I’ve crossed an international border by bike, I think that’s why it hasn’t hit me, or many of the riders that we are no longer in Canada! The ride was great, Kamila and I were sweepers (we stay at the end of the pack, making sure that no one gets left behind.
The 50 km ride was even cheered on by a herd of cows who seemed to be gathering by a fence, all their heads raised as we passed by).

We arrived at the Community Bike Shop in South Bellingham to find a small one-storey building, which seemed to be full of hidden corners. The place was littered with used bikes. All of them donated. They get repaired here, then are sold off. It’s a pretty sweet place! Complete with a “suicide machine” (a kind of homemade unicycle that many of the riders tried to balance on), and a barbecue (where our wonderful cooks made beans, potatoes, salad).
We showered at a nearby YMCA, used their sauna and steam room! So good! We found ourselves a documentary-guitarist-song-writer dude who came and interviewed some of us! Keep your eyes peeled for a mini-documentary on YouTube!
Although, South Bellingham seemed pretty slow on a Sunday night, our team got the party started. We hooked up some speakers to a laptop, got some bike lights (our strobe lights) and created our own club in one of the rooms in the bike shop! Dancing the night away, everyone was busting out some pretty sweet moves! Definite good times (hopefully we can link up some footage from it!)! We even turned many cycling terms into crazy dance moves! No need to look for a party, the Global AFC team is ALWAYS a party!

-Philippe Murphy, 2008 Rider

Thursday, May 29, 2008

Orientation!

So, I've survived Vancouver, one of the most expensive cities in Canada. Thanks to many kind individuals who offered me couches to sleep on. Such as the guys living close to Adam's house. Or Nasra and her sisters, or Adam, or fellow couch surfer members, or Bronwyn. Also thanks to those people for feeding me! And people like Anna and Chanique and their friend from the Explorer program at UBC that packed my backpack with loads of food (sooo good!)! There's also the bakery on Granville island which gets rid of all its bread every night at 7:30PM. It's good stuff! You just have to toast it! And Emma (one of the leaders for the trip) let me use her kitchen and ingredients so I could cook up a storm!

I have to say I was living a luxurious life as a homeless bum. I have biked in all directions in Vancouver. I know this city now. The Mountains to the North, the Ocean to the West...Went down to Richmond, up to North and West Vancouver, visited the Lynn Valley, went to Bowen Island.

But, the stress of eachday wondering where I was going to sleep at night, was starting to get to me. I was definitely looking forward to getting our project started. Where food and sleeping would be taken care of! And I'd have a team of 24 people to help me out if needed!

And so we've gathered for our first orientation! For the first time I met all the riders. Except Peter, who seems to have vanished. We have little details on his fundraising status, his bike status, or any status for that matter!

Everyone has managed to get up to the $3000 fundraising goal, or atleast pretty close (meaning just a couple hundred away!) Although one of the riders is still far behind, but we're hoping and praying that they'll be able to pull it off before the ride begins. It's pretty strict, we HAVE to raise $3000 to participates no 'buts'.

All the riders are awesome! Everyone coming from all different backgrounds and experiences and cultures! Each person with ideas and perspectives! There WILL be a lot of debates, there WILL be problems, but we're all in it together. There WILL be a lot of fun! And we've gone through the values that we would like to have while on this ride. We have also signed to obey certain rules while on the ride.

I'm am looking to forward to getting to know the stories of each individual on the trip! We even have a guy from Sweden! Tom! Pretty international, and it's only the 2nd year that this ride is taking place!

Saturday, is our kickoff! We're going to start with about 100+ riders who will ride with the team from the Vancouver Art Gallery to commercial drive (a 10km route). This is just a big awareness event! Once we get to commercial drive, we'll be having a bbq! @ 1pm, we'll be getting on our bikes and heading down to our first destination, White Rock. There will be other riders accompanying us for some or even all the way down to White Rock if they'd like! But after Saturday, it'll be just our group of 24. Sunday, we're already going to be crossing the border into the States!

The route we're taking has changed slightly, so I'll post the most updated one we have so far...there are still a couple places that may change.

.murph.

Saturday 05/31/08 White Rock, BC
Sunday 06/01/08 Bellingham
Monday 06/02/08 Stanwood
Tuesday 06/03/08 Seattle
Wednesday 06/04/08 Seattle
Thursday 06/05/08 McCleary
Friday 06/06/08 Bay Centre
Saturday 06/07/08 Seaside
Sunday 06/08/08 Nehalem Bay Stat Park (yurts)
Monday 06/09/08 Cape Lookout State Park
Tuesday 06/10/08 Cape Lookout State Park
Wednesday 06/11/08 Newport
Thursday 06/12/08 Florence
Friday 06/13/08 Coos Bay
Saturday 06/14/08 Port Orford
Sunday 06/15/08 Port Orford
Monday 06/16/08 Brookings
Tuesday 06/17/08 Elk Prairie Campground
Wednesday 06/18/08 Arcata
Thursday 06/19/08 Humbolt Redwoods State park
Friday 06/20/08 Leggett (Standish-Hickey State Park)
Saturday 06/21/08 Leggett (Standish-Hickey State Park)
Sunday 06/22/08 Fort Bragg (mendocino)
Monday 06/23/08 Gualala
Tuesday 06/24/08 Bodega Bay/Doran Park
Wednesday 06/25/08 San Francisco
Thursday 06/26/08 San Francisco
Friday 06/27/08 San Francisco
Saturday 06/28/08 Half Moon Bay
Sunday 06/29/08 Santa Cruz
Monday 06/30/08 Monterey
Tuesday 07/01/08 Kirk Creek
Wednesday 07/02/08 Cambria
Thursday 07/03/08 San Luis Obispo
Friday 07/04/08 San Luis Obispo
Saturday 07/05/08 Lampoc
Sunday 07/06/08 Santa Barbara
Monday 07/07/08 Oxnard
Tuesday 07/08/08 Santa Monica
Wednesday 07/09/08 Santa Monica
Thursday 07/10/08 Dana Point
Friday 07/11/08 San Diego
Saturday 07/12/08 Mexico
Sunday 07/13/08 Mexico
Monday 07/14/08 San Diego
Tuesday 07/15/08 San Diego
Wednesday 07/16/08 San Diego Thursday 07/17/08 San Diego

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

A Vancouver (cont.)

So I've already ridden some 75km on my new bike. It is sweet! And I've never seen a more bike friendly town then Vancouver. Not only are there countless designated bike lanes, but there are things such as, easy reach buttons on the side of the road on intersections to change the light. There are bridges and highways with dedicated bike lanes.

The weather here has been awesome! Lots of sunshine! Everyone here including myself got burned. The beaches were so crowded! Everyone taking advantage of the nice weather! I really like the beaches here...because you go into the water, and you can see the snow covered mountains in the distance. It's just unreal. You're enjoying the heat, but far away you can see snow!! I love it!

I got to meet a few of the other riders at a meeting on Sunday. Emma, Nicole, Isaac and Shawn (the leader of the organization). It was awesome to meet these people face to face! They're working hard these days to get their fundraising completed! But meeting them got me so excited for our journey!!

For the long weekend I've been staying at Adam's brother's house, which has a few people living here. All of them are very nice. Ben from Germany, Laurent from France, Paul from Toronto, Adam and James...

Tomorrow I'm heading out to Bowen Island. I will be staying with one of the riders: Bronwyn, for a couple days. The island is supposed to be beautiful, so I'm looking forward to cycling all around it!

My diet here has consisted of anything I can get my hands on. My grocery list while I am here is as follows:

bagels
cheese
peanut butter
Carrots
bananas
Oranges
Canned Beans

This seems to be help me get everything my body needs: Fibre, calcium, protein, Vitamin A, B, C, Protein, Iron.

I'd like to thank the anonymous donation made to my fundraiser! It pushed me right up to my goal of $3000. Thank you!!

Cheers!

Saturday, May 17, 2008

A Vancouver

In Vancouver, my friend Adam met me at the airport (he's also going to be cycling down to Mexico). We met during the Canada World Youth program where I'd gone to northern Quebec and West Africa. It was great to catch up! We went down to his place...dropped my bags off and took a couple bikes around the city. Grabbed a beer to celebrate then headed to this place! The next morning, I was getting everything together. Figuring out what I had yet to get for my trip. Working out donation issues. Looks like I might actually be $100 off the target. Although im still waiting on some money to come in from t-shirt sales.

Then headed out to get my new bike. It's a black Norco Kwest. Clipped pedals, (so your shoes clip into the pedal...this allows for you to get more effort into every pedal, because you can pull up too!) The bike is nice. Shifters on the bottom of the handle bars. The shifters and the clips took sometime to get used to...I also had to make some minor adjustments to the bike, and now its running very smoothly! I haven't named her yet...but I'm thinking of a name for the bike...the bike ran me a total of $1420. Which was about $200 more than I had expected...and it means that im on a VERY tight budget during my stay in Vancouver. Which is why I've found couches to sleep on. I'm not eating out, and travelling everywhere by bike!

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Itinerary

Leaving today to Vancouver!! Cheers! Here's the itinerary for anyone who'd like to follow our route!


Day # Day of Week Date City KM
1 Saturday 05/31/08 White Rock, BC 50
2 Sunday 06/01/08 South Bellingham 55
3 Monday 06/02/08 Stanwood 65
4 Tuesday 06/03/08 Seattle 80
5 Wednesday 06/04/08 Seattle Day Off
6 Thursday 06/05/08 Elma 88
7 Friday 06/06/08 Bay Centre 90
8 Saturday 06/07/08 Astoria (Oregon Border) 75
9 Sunday 06/08/08 Manzanita 70
10 Monday 06/09/08 Cape Lookout State Park 80
11 Tuesday 06/10/08 Oregon Beaches Day Off
12 Wednesday 06/11/08 Newport 100
13 Thursday 06/12/08 Florence 80
14 Friday 06/13/08 Coos Bay 80
15 Saturday 06/14/08 Port Orford 90
16 Sunday 06/15/08 Brookings 90
17 Monday 06/16/08 Brookings Day Off
18 Tuesday 06/17/08 Elk Prairie Campground/Orick/or Klamath 100
19 Wednesday 06/18/08 Arcata 65
20 Thursday 06/19/08 Marine Garden Grove Camping 90
21 Friday 06/20/08 Leggett 80
22 Saturday 06/21/08 Leggett Day Off
23 Sunday 06/22/08 Mendocino 85
24 Monday 06/23/08 Gualala 80
25 Tuesday 06/24/08 Bodega Bay (Flexible) 80
26 Wednesday 06/25/08 San Francisco 115
27 Thursday 06/26/08 San Francisco Day Off
28 Friday 06/27/08 San Francisco Day Off
29 Saturday 06/28/08 Half Moon Bay 50
30 Sunday 06/29/08 Santa Cruz 75
31 Monday 06/30/08 Monterey 75
32 Tuesday 07/01/08 Kirk Creek 95
33 Wednesday 07/02/08 Cambria 75
34 Thursday 07/03/08 San Luis Obispo 65
35 Friday 07/04/08 San Luis Obispo Day Off
36 Saturday 07/05/08 Lampoc 100
37 Sunday 07/06/08 Goleta 80
38 Monday 07/07/08 Oxnard 80
39 Tuesday 07/08/08 Santa Monica 90
40 Wednesday 07/09/08 Santa Monica Day Off
41 Thursday 07/10/08 Dana Point 110
42 Friday 07/11/08 San Diego 105
43 Saturday 07/12/08 Tijuana! 30
44 Sunday 07/13/08

45 Monday 07/14/08

Sunday, May 11, 2008

Thanks!

Thank you to everyone who donated money, items, time, encouragement to this cause! The garage sale pulled in much more than I expected, $400. With the t-shirt sales coming in, as well as continued donations, we're just dollars away from $3000-the goal I was hoping to raise! However, it doesn't stop here! If you'd like to donate, and help out, please continue to do so!

at: micro.thon.givemeaning.com

Wednesday I'm heading out to Vancouver. My new bike is waiting for me there. After I get it, put in some upgrades, I'll be spending the next two and a half weeks training on this bike. I'll also be meeting the rest of the group that I'll be riding with. I have only met them online for now!

With little money to spend at Vancouver, I'll be buying from grocery stores, sleeping on floors, couches, and the occasional bed.

From Wednesday on, the adventure begins! I hope to keep this blog updated! But internet may not always be option!

Thursday, May 8, 2008

Check out online news article!

http://www.mississauga.com/article/13857

Garage Sale! Saturday May 10th!

Come one and all to the ultimate garage sale fundraiser!

There will be new and used items, donated from neighbors, friends, and even students from Silverthorne Public School.

Crafts and artwork, will be auctioned off!

T-shirts and posters supporting Global Agents For Change will be available!

And a lemonade stand courtesy of my little sister!

Come by, check out the items! Donate some items of your own!

Saturday May 10th, 7AM-2:00PM

See you there!

Thursday, May 1, 2008

Manhunt for Micro-credit! May 7th

1) Come out Wednesday May 7th for a couple fun games of Manhunt. It's not just for kids. Get up and run around like a kid again! Games are a minimum of $2.50 each. $5 min. to play both games.

2) It's a good excuse to take advantage of this good weather, to have some fun and to help out a good cause!

3) Game Starts at 9PM SHARP, meet up at 8:30PM (location TBA).

4) Games are 1 hour long, and the second will start at 10PM


BASIC MANHUNT RULES:

Manhunt is a hide-and-seek variant. The game starts out with one person, known as the MANHUNTER, who is "it". After the manhunter has been selected, the FUGITIVES have 120 seconds to hide.

If a FUGITIVE is tagged by a MANHUNTER, she or he is BRAINWASHED and forced to join the side of the MANHUNTERS. At the end of the designated time limit, all FUGITIVES who have not been arrested are declared the winners.

Play occurs within predetermined boundaries. If a FUGITIVE exits these boundaries for any reason, she/he joins the MANHUNTERS. Players are identified as being distinct from the general civilian population by means of a HIGHLY-VISIBLE ARMBAND.

T-shirts and Posters for sale!

Hey guys!

Interested in getting a poster or a t-shirt to support the cause?!

Posters are only $5, (see image below)


T-shirts are $25 and come in cream white and army green:


If you'd like a shirt/t-shirt, e-mail me at: phlink182@sympatico.ca

Cheers!

Philippe

Sunday, March 23, 2008

Yuk Yuk's Event!

Hey friends!

Sunday April 20th, come out for a night of laughs at Yuk Yuk's!

I'm trying to raise $3000 for micro-credit financing to help individuals, families and communities get out of poverty!

SO...here's your chance to have a great time AND to help out a good cause!

Tickets are $15 each!

Bring that special someone, or the soon-to-be special someone, or friends, or family, or just come and meet people there!

The only catch, is that you have to buy the tickets through me (in order for it to go towards the fundraiser). So call me or e-mail me and let me know how many tickets you'll like and I'll get them to you!

If worst comes to worse and you can't make it to the date, you can always use the ticket on another date, it's a win win situation!!

Introduction

Hey everyone! My name is Philippe, and on May 30th 2008, 25 cyclists including myself will be partaking on a 3000-km ride from Vancouver B.C. to Mexico! The ride is an effort to raise awareness about micro-credit financing and its ability to continuously reduce extreme poverty worldwide. I will be riding on behalf of Agents of Change a not-for-profit charitable organization (www.agentsofchange.ca). Each rider has been asked to raise $3000, of which 100% will go towards raising awareness and creating micro-credit funds. I am kindly asking for any donation you can make. Donating is simple and can even be done online! (You'll get a tax receipt for it)

You can look at it like one dollar for every kilometer we'll be riding! So whether you can support one kilometer or 100 km, every bit counts!

How to donate?

Visit http://micro.thon.givemeaning.com and follow click ‘donate now’ and follow the on-screen instructions (this completely confidential)

SO! Hold off on a Tim Horton's coffee for just one day! And donate $5, it's easy! If you don't feel comfortable donating online, let me know and we'll work something else out!

Cheers,

.murph.