• We arrived last night at the Houston airport. It was a smooth flight, although preparing my bike for it, and packing everything up (especially flying with Spirit airlines, notorious for frugality and hidden fees) I was very nervous. Not to mention how nervous I am about the bike journey itself! There is a lot that can go wrong -- my family is quite terrified! --, and I definitely wish I knew more people along the way. Especially people who might host us for a night -- both Laurel and I are going to have to be ridiculously tight on money, and the route unfortunately has way fewer campsites than I had hoped. I was also nervous for my bike, flying in a cardboard box and in the care of the airline. After landing, I made my way to the baggae claim and shortly thereafter my bike in its big cardboard box clunked heavily down the carousel with a handful of bags on top of it! Oh goodness. I think it caused the carousel to jam, though, because no more luggage came after that!! Well, let's hope it was just a coincidence. I cringed to see it, sure that the tires would be bent or there would be other damage. The box had taken some squishing en route. Texted Laurel, and she had also just landed. We both got in about 11:15PM. Luckily to the same terminal! Before I knew it, there was Laurel! And then her bike showed up as well. I had made sure to find a motel for the night with an airport shuttle and after calling it, and dragging our bike boxes through the airport, we found it. Quite embarrassing to load up our big boxes! I felt bad for the driver, and tried to help load it myself. I can carry it all well enough, so it is not too heavy just bulky. We reached the motel, then learned we were on the second floor with only stairs so lugged the bikes upstairs. Then we apprehensively started assembling our bikes, sure that they would be destroyed. So far so good! And I'm impressed to have been able to put everything back together smoothly. I am taking advantage of the motel wifi to update you all. Today we will hopefully bike to Lake Livingston state park. Our tentative route through Texas is Lake Livingston, Lufkin, rusk, Tyler, Cooper Lake, and the Caddo National grasslands before crossing into Oklahoma. So keep an eye out for us!

Laurel and I have made it to Houston. Tomorrow, we ride!

For more background on our ride following the Keystone pipeline and Keystone XL expansion, please see our title page located HERE. Meanwhile, this blog will serve as a way for those interested to follow us and keep track of our journey -- I will update as we ride when I am able to, depending on access to internet or computers (which will likely be very limited).

Laurel and I booked our tickets to Houston a couple weeks ago, and so it looks like we are going to be starting our journey! We will reach Houston airport the night of June 23rd, and begin our ride in the morning after assembling our bikes and gear. I will be honest when I say I am very nervous about it, but excited all the same. A mixture of nerves and energy. We are hoping to stay safe and stay strong over the miles.

I have been making our route, so far as far as Steele City (Nebraska). We are hoping to stay at campgrounds when possible, but it looks like we will have to rely on quite a few motels (if we can afford it...). Of course, if you know of someone near to the pipeline route in Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana or Alberta who might be willing to host us for a night -- we are pleasant guests, I promise! -- we would be very grateful. We are also always grateful for contacts in these states who might be willing to offer us aid in the case of an emergency.

In the past days, I have been dissembling and reassembling my bike, attempting to box it and pack up my gear, gluing myself to google maps, and generally feeling overwhelmed. But I will do my best!

On another note, last week I was so happy to receive a JOOS Orange portable solar charger. This was extremely generously donated to support our ride by Solar JOOS. I couldn't believe the incredible news after contacting them and receiving a response from Dan. He shipped a JOOS Orange to me, to help us charge our devices along the ride. It is so exciting to me that we will be able to utilize solar power on this trip -- I believe it sends an even more powerful message that we can move to more sustainable ways of living! Great companies really can make such a big difference, and I am so grateful to Solar JOOS. I charged it in the sunshine after unpacking it, and tested it out to charge an iPhone -- it worked beautifully and surprisingly quickly! It will be so helpful to be able to charge our devices wherever we are.