Summer Adventure Tours: Across America, Across Europe

Twenty-nine year old Anne Jackson could barely walk up a flight of stairs before almost passing out. Living with an undiagnosed heart condition made everyday activities not only challenging, but at times frightening. Inspired by a conversation with Ride:Well 2009 cyclist, Cody Henderson, she began to pursue a diagnosis and cure, promising if her heart could be fixed, she would ride the cross-country cycling tour in 2010. In August, Anne was diagnosed with Superventricular Tachycardia and had a successful surgery to fix the condition. Following through with her promise, she signed up for the tour.

After months of training, Anne and her husband, Chris, departed yesterday with 16 other cyclists and will ride from San Diego to Myrtle Beach over the next two months. At the same time, another team of 14 will head north along the Pacific Coast to Seattle. They'll be sharing the heart of Blood:Water Mission with churches and communities across the country as they raise funds and awareness for the community of Marsabit, Kenya. Chris and Anne were already big fans and supporters of Blood:Water Mission, and after a successful surgery in August 2009, Anne signed up for the 2010 Ride:Well tour. Six months later, Chris quit his job to go on the tour as well.

The Ride:Well Tour, powered by Venture Expeditions, is a cycling campaign to raise money and awareness for clean water & HIV/AIDS support in Africa through the work of Blood:Water. In the past two years the Ride:Well Tour has raised over $300,000 to provide clean water projects, clinics, sanitation projects and hygiene education for communities in Africa while educating people in countless communities across America about the water & HIV/AIDS crises many Africans face everyday.

Bookmark www.ridwelltour.org to follow blogs, pictures and videos from the team throughout the summer. You can also keep up with the tour on Twitter by following @ridewelltour. For more info on author, Anne Jackson, visit flowerdust.net.

The Earth Expedition is a literal walk around the world. The story of the Earth Expedition and it's first steps started as Daren Wendell's dream. Daren realized he did not want to just keep living life like those around him and he also saw that there were needs all over the world. He thought how he could help those needs, what he could do, instead of just living his life here in the US. If he could do something big that gains peoples' attention, to make a platform for him to speak into their lives about a need, a cause, maybe this would empower them to help those in need and also he desired to inspire people to live their life to its full potential. So he began to walk. He walked from San Diego, California, to Georgia, and he didn't stop there but walked the entire Appalachian Trail and continued up to Canada. He thought maybe he could walk around the world, by himself, but realized this was a bit too much for him and so he broke up the expedition into seven teams that would continue what he started and walk around the world for people in Africa who need water. Bryan Schlackman took up the quest and continued the trek in Scotland and went to Spain. 

Today, 22-year-old, Daniel Frazier begins the 3rd leg of The Earth Expedition. Dan will walk across the continent of Europe, from Italy to Sweden almost 2,000 miles by foot for 88 days to continue this expedition of 18,000 miles around the world, to inspire people to live life to the fullest and raise awareness for the need of water in Africa. Visit www.theearthexpedition.com to follow Dan's adventure for Blood:Water.